Figures of Rhetoric in Advertising Language

According to Edward F. McQuarrie and David Glen Mick, "when persuasion is the overriding goal the manner in which a statement is expressed may be more important than its propositional content." (p. 424) In advertising, persuasion is almost always the overriding goal. McQuarrie and Mick's article provides a framework for interpreting the language of advertising through rhetoric which they describe as, "a system for identifying the most effective form of expression in any given case." (p. 424)

They explain that as the advertiser seeks to "deviate" from normal forms of expression, the intended consequence is to capture the attention of a consumer that does not have to read or view an ad. For example, "Say hello to your child's new bodyguard," was at one time a Band-

Aid advertisement. While McQuarrie and Mick admit that the same message could be articulated by, "Band-Aid's are strong," or "Your child is important," the language can be seen as more effective as it is a deviation which says to the consumer, "Look, I chose to violate a convention here- take note." (p. 426)

How can AAE become effective standard english writers

AAE Speakers Become Effective Standard English Writers because by speaking like AAE influences their ability to write standard English more effectively. By seeing and hearing how AAE sounds or looks on paper the writer might catch a mistake and be able to fix because the writer knows that's not how the word should be spelled or said outloud.

Also people who speak AAE have fewer problems developing proficiency in standard English. In the process of learning standard English people bring to the classroom expectations which makes put their language and comparing it to standard English making it easier to understand and write.AAE relies less on word endings to convey grammatical information, which gives AAE a wider range of sentence patterns. Also why AAE is effective for Standard English is because it also uses a lot of things the Standard English uses such as nouns, verbs, adjectives, pronouns, and etc. Making it the same concept of Standard English. AAE isn't the lazy way. AAE defys norm. AAE is its own language, it's just different from Standard English. There are many books and novels written in AAE.

Twins and Language Development

Jennifer Ganger’s article on twin language capabilities compared with singletons of the same age provides insight into the common belief amongst psychologist that twins are at a disadvantage in language development. Ganger summarizes several studies that are used in determining this assumption. She points out flaws in the experiments themselves. Although she points out that there is evidence to support twins are at greater risk of having language problems, there is nothing that is concrete about any of the experiments in her opinion.
Ganger produces several case studies on the subject of twin language.

Twin development versus singleton development has been studied since at least the early 20th century according to Ganger. She summarizes these early studies have problems with unintentional biases towards the twins. The first two studies analyzed were Day and Davis. The Day Study concentrated on early childhood development, while The Davis Study focused on children from age five to nine. The Day study concluded that twins are likely to be up two years behind children without a twin. The Davis study, which was essentially the same study with older children, concluded the language deficiencies were almost always corrected around the age of five to nine. However, twins in the five to nine age groups were still more likely to have articulation problems.

There were a few problems with these studies according to Ganger. One of the biggest problems was the twins studied were not always studied separately. This would skew the results, because the singleton children tested were alone. A few other problems were found and tested in other studies. Other issues that were not taken into account were birth weight, order of birth, time of gestation. These problems directly correlate to learning in all children.

Ganger shows more recent studies have concluded that there are a number of problem with the idea that twins will have language issues simple because they are twins. These more recent studies take into account the weight of the children at birth, the order of their birth, and the gestation period. Researchers took these problems into consideration and found evidence to support the theory that twins are more likely to lack their peers in language development. These studies found the cause of this problem is not simply because twins are born at the same time to the same mother, but the factors that causes slower development in children is usually present in a household with twins. For instance, twins have to share time speaking with adults. This gives the individual twin less time developing language skills. Twins also have a smaller birth rate than singleton children, which is a factor that causes slower development. The cause of a twin’s slower development is not by the presence of another, but the factors the other twin can bring.

The article concludes with a reminder that these tests are averages and do not doom people who are twins. There are many factors that can account for language delays. The language development of twins can be greatly influenced by the parents or guardians. Granger reminds her readers that nothing is concrete or exact in this type of study.

by: Josh Evans

Down's Syndrome and Grammar

In 1973, Rodger Brown and his colleagues conducted a study on the acquisition of grammar among twelve middle class children. Three of these twelve children were diagnosed with downs syndrome and was studied for two years. Brown studied the development of the children’s language and morphemes in their speech. He studied the development of fourteen different morphemes including using the present progressive affix on verbs, the prepositions on and in, plural and possessive “s”, the regular and irregular past tense of verbs, the articles “a” and “the”, third person singular “s”, irregular, third-person singular present tense, and various forms of “be”. The goal of Brown’s study was to investigate the acquisition of these morphemes as the children learned to speak.

The children Brown studied were similar in age and he studied children from ages 12 to 38 months (1 to 3 years) until the children were between the ages of 43 and 67 months (3.5 to 5.5 years). Each of the children lived at home and their primary care giver was their mother, who was asked to keep a diary of the child’s spoken language, in some cases children had used sign language. As the children’s language and developed the parents were asked to record only conversations during specific times in the day like meal times and they were asked to document words/signs/phrases that he child had developed within the month. Brown then drew his conclusions on his study.

In Brown’s conclusion he explained that most children, despite retardation learned the majority of the early morpheme rules. In Brown’s study he noted that the first six rules of the fourteen he had chosen were also the first six that had developed in the children with Down’s syndrome’s speech. He also noted that in the beginning, the children with Down’s syndrome learned these morpheme rules as well as producing their first ten words at a significantly later age than those who did not have the disorder. Although their language developed a litter later, once they had begun to speak, they children with Down’s syndrome acquired the rules at a similar rate to typically developing children. Brown’s study showed that the morphemes which included third person singular “s” and the uncontractable copula “be” form and uncontractable auxiliary “be” form were not developed by any of the children in the study. Also, the irregular third-person singular present tense developed in only one of the children’s language. Brown believed that the reason for this could be from the speech that the children’s caregivers direct at them. For example, the mothers might use a more directive style of speech.

Brown’s study allows us to get a greater understanding of the development of speech among children who have retardation. Although these children did not develop the morphemes as fast as the children who do not have retardation, due to their lack of development in speech, they still learned the morphemes at a pretty normal pace.

Teaching Standard English as a second language

Carrie Secret is a teacher in Oakland, California who teaches Standard English as a second language to her students who speak Ebonics as their home language. She teaches Standard English in a manner that brings Ebonics up to its own level. Her view is that Ebonics is not necessarily broken English, but a language all in its own. With Ebonics as the language that is spoken in their homes, the students are taught to translate their spoken language into Standard English. With this method she teaches that what her students know is not wrong, but a different language. She sees this as more of a positive reinforcement in that it does not negate what they know but instead encourages them to add to their repertoire. When the students speak in class they are 'encouraged' to speak in Standard English because she does not want them the believe that what they know is a bastardized form of the common language. By being encouraged the students are motivated to follow what is taught instead of required which Ms. Secret sees as important. The students are taught in a manner of 'cognitive flow'. This means that one lesson plan will lead to another and then move on to another. She also does not believe in teaching Ebonics to the students in that this will even more solidify the language in them and also impede their progress when outside of class. I do agree with her methods of teaching. A lot of teachers would say that their students are wrong but teaching as a different language would make a student more open to the ideas of another culture.

Survey Topics and Links

1. Latia Hayes: "Does Texting Affect One's Grammar?"
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/latiahayes
2. Blake Reeves: "Religious Identity and Grammar Comprehension"

3. Freddie Dickerson: "The Effects of Texting Lingo on Writing"

4. Alexandria Pearson: The Effects of Texting on Grammar

5. Sydney Shelton: "Relationship Between Gender and Grammar"

6. Katia Salomon: "Perception of Ebonics"

7. Broc Pachesa: "The effect of foreign languages on English grammar."

8. Kiara Poole: "Effects of Socio-Economic Factors on Language and Dialect"

9. Alexandria Snelius: "Grammar and Texting/Informal Emailing, or Instant Messaging"

10. John Bastian:Enlgish/Grammar prior to college

11. Brittany Richmond: "African American English and Its Perception"
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/AfricanAmericanEnglish

12. Steven Clair: "Does a Female have Better Grammar than a Male?"

13. Sarah Kessler: "Are Females Better Than Males at Grammar?"

14. Robert Miller: "Internet Lingo"http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/F5JK7DK

15. Morgan Williams: How Is Texting Interferring With Grammar?

16. James Jones:

17. Kristyn Looper:Effects of texting on writing

18. Nick Sellers: "Who is Better at Grammar--College Males or Females?"

19. Elliott Zito: "Are Younger Adults (age 18-24) Better at Grammar Than Older Adults (age 40-65)?

20. Daniel Albarran: "Which department has the best over-all knowledge of grammar?

21. Michelle Donegan:Does Social Networking affect grammar

The Order of Words, by Ken Macrorie

The Order of Words

When you think of word order - the way words come together in phrases or clauses - think of how you can control it to bring your writing alive. Good writers master grammar in order to control their words, and meaning is their target. In a given paragraph, they may use an expression that is technically a dangling construction but nevertheless communicate their meaning clearly. A dangling construction fails to make clear who is doing what.

For example, here's the masterful English writer William Hazlitt beginning the third paragraph of his essay on Sir James Mackintosh:

To consider him in the last point of view first. As a political partisan, he is rather the lecturer than the advocate.

The first sentence doesn't show who is clearly doing the considering.

The most common word-order change made by editors is to bring together subjects and verbs which have been seperated.

Original: Professor Rending, in approaching his subject, stumbled in circles, like a drunk.
Revision: In approaching his subject, Professor Rending stumbled in circles, like a drunk.

Placing words in a different order can make the sentence more clear to the reader.

(by: Morgan Williams)

What Is AAE?

AAE is African American English. It refers to the language that African Americans use such as ebonics. It is also known among most Americans as "broken" English. Most Americans believe that spekaing AAE means being "lazy" or "cussed" but in SAE also known as Standard American English there is no set defintion on how the language should be spoken. Some of the same mistakes made in AAE is also made in SAE, so there is no such thing as one being better than the other. It has more to do with heritage and tradition. AAE was developed by slaves who weren't allowed to attend school, as their form of communication. More than just African Americans use this form of language when speaking and writing, people from all different races and nationalities around the world use this form of language when expressing themselves. The reason it's consider to be a "lazy" language is because when speaking it, most people leave out the last consonant, as in "tes(t) or "han(d)." According to the article " if one were jsut being lazy or cussed, or both, why not also leave out the final consonant in a word like "pant"? These are just rules that were created that most people feel they have to follow in order to speak "correct" English, but language should be considered a form of expression not a rule.