#socialcontext

I have chosen to study text H,  a transcript between two participants: Andrea and Barbara, and there are several linguistic devices to support certain ideas through language and gender. 

Firstly, the usage of intensifiers like ‘very’ and ‘quite’ is vast throughout the text. Andrea is the participant in particular who uses intensifiers which can justify that language difference comes down to personality as opposed to biological differences between male and female. When the intensifiers are used in this text, they are for emphasising the seriousness of Andrea’s situation. Females in particular, a lot of the time, are stereotyped by men and society as being dramatic and likely to exaggerate which goes against the idea of personality being the dominance, rather than biological differences. 

 Secondly, repetition has been demonstrated. Barbara uses ‘yeah’ approximately eight times, agreeing with Andrea and even though they both an equal amount of utterances, Barbara is the dominant speaker holding the floor, with the majority of linguistic space as it is her story and Barbara is demonstrating cooperation, ‘yeah (1.0) I’ve never had...’ This reinforces Lakoff’s theory that female dominant conversation is more cooperative rather than competitive, of which is typical of male conversation. In addition, when Andrea mentions her medical cream, ‘Benadryl’, Barbara responds with ‘cream’, where Andrea also replies with ‘cream’. This implied Barbara’s lack of confidence yet willingness to respond and feed back. 

There is a rather vast usage of qualifiers throughout the transcript, namely, ‘I think’ and ‘I thought’. This evidence also supports Lakoff’s list of female linguistic terms and that women opt for the scenic route of discussion: being polite and collaborative, avoiding rudeness and heated, bland discussion. 

I have also noticed that no coarse language or expletives have been used. This is most likely because the two participants are of the older generation as Andrea states, ‘then in my late twenties...’ This would have yet again reinforced Robin Lakoff’s ideas at the time of her research, however now, the social changes have enabled women to put forward their own opinion and use coarse language if they wished to. 

Lastly, there is a lot of topic shifting, especially by Andrea as she is the dominant speaker, ‘well when you have hay fever as a child...’ The effect that this has on the audience, being Barbara, is that she may feel quite inferior and that she cannot say what she wants, in fear of being interrupted or having her topic shifted by Andrea. Additionally, Andrea’s utterances are hugely longer than Barbara’s, again supporting the fact that Andrea is holding the vocal floor. 

-Ensure you are using examples

-Analyse fully

-Support and challenge theories

-There is no right or wrong answer

The Wada Test, developed in the mid 20th century, is a stunning testament to the phrase, “neuroscience is cool.” 

Barbituates are injected unilaterally into the carotid artery in order to shut down the function – memory, language, cognition – of one lobe. The test is often utilized prior to brain surgery in order to test the viable function of each lobe, and to ascertain risk of post-operative cognitive change in situations of tumor resection or ablative surgery. 

What is lost when you lose half your brain? 

In lecture, a student raised his hand to ask, “How do patients usually feel?” 

It’s a fair question. On a scale of “didn’t even notice,” to “holyshitfuck what is going on,” what does it feel like to have half your brain paralyzed? 

Our professor, brilliant neuroscientist, shrugs. He had no idea. He has never seen it administered. 

What does it mean to be taught a clinical procedure by someone who has never seen it in action? 

As I sit here, with the narration of Bob’s Burgers bubbling in the background (Erotic FriendFiction FTW), I’m struck by a comparison to television. It is as if we learn the mechanisms of electrodes, capacitance, flow, charge, voltage, but never situate it into a real life context - TV. Never talk about how this machine, by contributing to mass media, by connecting communication, by allowing broadcast, has irrevocably changed our entire culture and understanding and concept of sociality and society. 

What is the use of studying a mechanism but not its broader repercussions? 

It is as if we look at the mechanism of moving pictures, yet ignore the dramatic influence modern culture and media has exerted on our society. We need to recognize that both are indelibly important to our understanding of television. 

It’s no secret that Facebook are preparing to launch video ads. Brands are increasingly moving their TV budgets online and Facebook want a bigger chunk of this money. Twitter has positioned itself as the social platform to use alongside TV campaigns but Facebook, with hashtags and now video ads, is muscling in.