AS Language work for Mon 25 and Tue 26

Wonderfulls,

I hope to be back with you on Friday, when we can re-work the assessment essay so you MUST do the gender work that will get you ready for that.

With that in mind, please post the gender research you have done from the bullet points on this post:

http://hallaslanguageblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/as-language-work-in-my-absence.html


and please make sure you have done the work I set before, so make sure you have read this:

http://hallaslanguageblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/warning-about-work-set-in-my-absence.html

and this:

 http://hallaslanguageblog.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/as-language-work-in-my-absence-fri-22nd.html

Once that is done, we need to think more about 'language and representation', which means how writers and speakers create impressions about themselves or others. Please find and print out an article, blog post, transcription of a speech, a poem or song lyrics where someone is explaining themselves and annotate how the language they are using gives the reader/listener certain messages about who they are e.g.

In one of my favourite song lyrics, the speaker creates a romantic impression of himself by talking about the strength of his love in particular ways:

A stone's throw from Jerusalem
I walked a lonely mile in the moonlight
And though a million stars were shining
My heart was lost on a distant planet
That whirls around the April moon
Whirling in an arc of sadness
I'm lost without you
Lost without you
Though all my kingdoms turn to sand
And fall into the sea
I'm mad about you
Mad about you

The key adjectives and nouns are chosen for their connotations when they are considered in the lexical field of love. The adjectives "lonely", "distant", "lost" and "mad" convey the totrture of being without the obect of his love (identified only by the second person pronoun "you"); although the "mile" is described as lonely, it is the implied speaker who feels this rather than giving a sense of personification and the adjective fits as part of a moonlit scene where a lover reflects on his love. Also linking with the noun "mile", the adjective "distant" to pre-modify "planet" gives the sense of how alien and dislocated he feels so far away from his lover. He further elaborates on this feeling by multiple repetitions of the adjectives "lost" (x3) and "mad" (x2); "lost" may be used to create a feeling of helplessness, of the speaker's dependence on the lover, or the sense of pining, the feeling of distance that drives him to use such strong language as "mad" - the connotations of madness in love suggest that he might act violently or unpredictably and he shows that he would be willing to lose much - "all [his] kingdoms" to be with his love, or that, whatever happens, his love will endure, even longer than "kingdoms" will stand - a highly romantic proposition. By using this lanugage, he presents a picture of himself as a true lover, a desirable prospect and one whom the absent lover should come back to: not only because he is a desirable prospect but also if the lover cares for him, to preserve him from madness and a life of loneliness forever.

Annotate your chosen text to show how language is used to present a picture of the text producer in influential ways - you should try and explore the subtext (what can be understood even though it is not said directly).

You could do this with more than one text if you have time - try and pick two texts linked by content or theme and contrast them.

I will want to see this work on paper or on your blog by Friday.