Conversation
- Face theory - Goffman (1955)
- We project a particular image of ourselves to others, the image we present is called face. We present a respectful face in the hope that they will respect ours in return. Face-work often has the aim of maintaining status of participants.
- Positive and Negative politeness - Brown and Levinson (1987)
- Having regard for another person's face is an important aspect of Face theory. One way we maintain face is through a politeness approach.
- Positive Politeness: is demonstrated when we show people that they are liked and admired, this can be done through complimenting and enticing a relationship or closeness.
- Negative Politeness: is shown when we avoid intruding on others' lives, taking care not to impose our presence on them or pry into their personal affairs. This is indirectness done through hedging questions or tags. Such language includes several modal verbs
- Cultural Variations: Particular societies and cultures may place greater emphasis on positive or negative politeness, for example Britain, which puts emphasis on Negative politeness.
- Grice's maxims
- Quantity will likely be the maxim held by most gamers, being efficient in the way they type and talk, especially in teamwork based games.
- Quality is determined by game genre. It will upheld in teamwork based games, and flouted in free-for-all games.
- Relation will likely be upheld, as talk will likely be related to the game in question.
- Manner, similarly to quality, will be determined by game genre or context, It will upheld in teamwork based games, and flouted in free-for-all games.
- Politeness Principle - Robin Lakoff (1973)
- Don't Impose
- "Avoid intruding on others' lives"
- This will likely be flouted, as to follow it could involve hedging questions
- Give options
- "Avoid making the listener feel obliged to do something"
- I think the options provided will be 'fight' or 'flight'
- Make your receiver feel good
- "Make others feel appreciated"
- I'm not sure many gamers know what these words mean.
Language And Gender
Deficit
In 1975, Robin Lakoff conducted a study comparing men and women's speech. She concluded that women are more polite, and use more specific linguistic techniques (such as; hedges, empty adjectives, and tag questions), but that men have a better sense of humour, and that their language was superior and more desirable. Her theory was published as "The Deficit Model", since women's speech was deficient to men's. Considering the context of 1975, this is understandable, where ladies were meant to be lady-like, and submit to what men told them. However, this theory can be argued obsolete, since times have changed in the 43 years since this study.
Dominance
Zimmerman and West conducted a similar study, comparing the amount of times men and women interrupt each other, studying both same-sex and mixed-sex conversations. They concluded that men interrupt more often than women. However, the validity of this theory is questionable, since the theory was published in 1975 and it was never specified what, exactly, an interruption was, since an interruption could be polite, a sign of interest in the subject. The theory was christened "The Dominance Model", since it claimed men dominate a conversation. A study by Beattie countered this model, describing men and women to interrupt equally in conversation.
Difference
More recently (and thus arguably the more reliable of the three) "The Difference Model" was published in by Deborah Tannen 1989, she is credited for her book "You just don't understand". This model simply suggests that men and women belong to different sub-cultures and preferences. Tannen believes that men see a complaint as a challenge, and talking as information with a practical purpose; And that women hedge their orders (to slyly manipulate men), and are reluctant to openly oppose others. Her model has been expanded by several throughout the years; Jenifer Coates in 1989 stated how all female-talk is co-operative; Koenraad Kuiper in 1991 put forward his study of a rugby team, concluding that men see 'saving face' with less importance; Jane Pilkington in 1992 built on this further, suggesting men are less supportive to each other.
Child Language Acquisition
- Behaviorism
- Behaviorism is a view that assumes a learners passive response to an exterernal stimuli. Starting off as a clean slate and through positive and negative reinforcement and punishment, builds and denies antecedent behavior
- Theory by B.F. Skinner (1957)
- Nativism
- Nativism (or Innateness) suggests that children are born with an inborn or innate ability for acquiring language that is biologically determined. There is belief of children having a Language Acquisition Device and understanding tenses early due to a Universal Grammar
- Theory by Noam Chomsky (1991)
- Interactionism
- The social Interationist Theory (or Interactionism) incorporates nature into CLA, suggesting children can be influenced by their environment as well as that language input from care-givers. It considers the effect of isolation, and the zone of proximal development.
- Theory by Lev Vygotsky (????)
- Congnitivism
- The Cognitive Theory includes four stages of cognitive development
- Sensory-Motor Period (0-2) Children are born with Action Schema, sucking or grasping, Children's language is egocentric, and they talk either for themselves, or for association
- Pre-Operational Period (2-7) Children's language rapidly grows due to Mental Schema, Children's language becomes symbolic, allowing them to talk in tenses.
- Egocentrism- Language is egocentric as they see things from their own perspective. Includes animism referring to children seeing things as alive.
- Operational Period- (7-11+) The period of concrete operations and formal operations. Language becomes mature and logical, ability to see from new perspectives.
- Theory by Jean Piaget (????)
For further reading
https://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Psycholinguistics/Theories_and_Models_of_Language_Acquisition
FoxP2
The missing link between those who can speak and those who have difficulties. FoxP2 is the latest scientific discovery which fully supports the nature argument, having a gene with such power as to open the ability to speak to us. It goes well with theorists such as Chomsky and can back up any argument due to its recency.
Genie, A case study:
Howard Gyles, A theorist
FoxP2
The missing link between those who can speak and those who have difficulties. FoxP2 is the latest scientific discovery which fully supports the nature argument, having a gene with such power as to open the ability to speak to us. It goes well with theorists such as Chomsky and can back up any argument due to its recency.
Genie, A case study:
Howard Gyles, A theorist
