Texts A, B, E and F all have an informal register. In text
A, the informal register and the deictic referencing, “hello it’s just me.” “that thing,” “that book”,
suggests that the people calling all have a good relationship with Katie, there
is no need for them to explain themselves too deeply because they know she will
understand. However the language used suggests that each person has a different
relationship with Katie, which in turn affects the level of formality. For
example, the lack of non-fluency features in message 4 implies that their
relationship is much more serious or perhaps that the speaker is much more
confident, compared to message 3 for example. Her ability to use the idiom,
“I’m losing my marbles…” which would probably only be used in an informal
situation, suggests that their relationship is friendly or that this speaker
uses a lot of ‘sayings’ in their idiolect. Text B’s use of informal language is
not surprising given the context, high frequency lexis is used as 3 year old
“Sam” would not understand/have started learning much more difficult words. In
fact only words with one or two syllables have been used in all of the
dialogue, Sam uses “’cos” an abbreviation of ‘because’ perhaps as it would be
easier to say/pronounce. The lexical choice is very ‘child-friendly’, words
associated with the learning of a language such as family names “granddad,”
“mummy,” “grandma” and day to day things like “house.” Again suggesting that
the reason for the informal style of conversation is because simple words are
easier to learn and pronounce and the mother has to accommodate her language to
her child in order to communicate effectively without alienating Sam. Text E’s
use of informal language could be due to the fact that they are an x-student,
there is no longer any need to use hyper correct grammar since they are not in
school. It may also suggest that the relationship between the student and
teacher is relaxed, like the use of a nickname “bolivian ben.” The student was
happy to use this “nickname” as they knew their teacher has a pragmatic
understanding of when it was coined. However it is also possible that since
they are “gap-yearing” they do not have enough time to re-read their email, for
example the lack of capital letters, especially for their first person singular
pronouns(i). Text F is an advertisement in a national newspaper, the use of
bold yet scruffy graphology could be a means of standing out. Since it is a
national newspaper it is possible that this advert would be situated between a
formal article and perhaps an advertisement for a business or a beauty product.
This juxtaposition would catch the reader’s eye. However the organisation, “The
Samaritans” would not know this for sure and so their graphology and informal
style has other purposes as well. One of these could tie in with the aim of the
poster which is to find “…someone who’s patient + understanding…” The advert
itself is almost the first test, the use of fillers such as “like” and “erm”
make it difficult to read quickly so only people who got to the end can find
out the job opportunity they are offering.
Texts A, D and G all use imperatives. Text A, messages on an
answerphone, could use a direct way of stating something because of the context
of the messages, for example there is not enough time to politely ask for
something as answerphone messages should be short and concise. The imperative
in message one, “get the drinks in while…” suggests that this person has a good
relationship with ‘Katie’, the determiner before the noun (drinks) indicates
that they probably had plans, “the drinks,” and so Katie will know which drinks
to buy etc… There is no need to ask politely here or mitigate the imperative as
it is highly likely that this friendship is a good one. However the use of
imperative in message four seems to have a different meaning, the formality of
the message and the lack of non-fluency features suggests that this message was
said quickly and confidently. The imperative used, perhaps to assert power,
“…put that book in your bag the minute you walk through the door.” Could suggest that Katie has one of “Caio’s” books
and needs to give it back, but we cannot be sure. Katie’s ‘mum’ uses an
imperative, “give me a ring” an idiom which is a generic way of asking for
someone to call you back, however it could be tied in with her own idiolect.
Since text D is an advert the use of an imperative “Prove it.” seems to be a
much more thought out use, whereas in text A it’s possible that these
imperatives, especially that they were in natural speech, were not thought
about. The imperative in this advert could be mimicking a possibly frequent
conversation between a girlfriend/partner “her”, and boyfriend. Perhaps in
their market research before the advert they found that many people’s
girlfriends use this imperative “Prove it.” In a straight forward slightly
aggressive way of asserting power. This imperative then seems to tie in with
the intended audience which is probably men as it is about football, (a sport
highly dominated by men- interest and playing.) It could also tie in with a
language theory which states that men prefer to here imperatives as they are
much clearer. However the fact that many of us would subconsciously make the
assumption that “her” is a girlfriend and that this is an advert only for men
could make this advert quite gender biased. Assuming that women will not watch
football for example and that men must use “BT” to come up with a lie to tell
their girlfriend does not give BT a good reputation. Text G could be classed as
a weak inclusion since it uses mitigated imperatives, (perhaps to tie in with
the intended audience which may be more sophisticated women) whereas the other
texts in this group use much more straight forward imperatives. The imperatives
are in the instructions on the packet which is not surprising, however the word
choice is interesting for example “Draw the tights up…” The word choice softens
the imperative and fits in with the luxury of the product, replacing it with a
synonym; perhaps ‘pull’ stops the feeling of serenity which “Lite legs” has
created.
Texts D,
C, F and G all share a purpose which is to persuade. Text D uses humour to persuade
the reader. The ambiguity in the pronoun “her” means that the audience has to
engage in the advert to work out who “her” is. The intended audience, which would
probably be men, means that when they work out that “her” is girlfriend/partner;
familiar situations which they may have had would come to mind. Feelings of
familiarity can make the audience feel like this advert is tailored for only
them. Women may also find this advert entertaining, playing into gender stereotypes
can be amusing as a vast majority would understand the message it is saying.
Perhaps that men ‘cant’ talk to their partners whilst watching television for
example. An interesting way in which Text F persuades the audience is by
giving the ‘people in need’ a voice. The use of the intensifier “really” in the
sentence: “If you can we really need you,” gives a strong sense of hopelessness
and desperateness. They are ‘really’ asking for help. The capitol letters in
the sentence, “IMAGINE HOW THEY FEEL,” targets your subconscious, the larger
and bolder font means many people will absorb this information as ‘important’. The
statement: “If you can we really need you.” directly addresses the reader and
the third person pronoun could make the reader feel as though ‘we’ are the
people who need help, which could make the audience feel guilty if they are
declined to donate/apply for a position. Text G’s formal language suggests that this product is for older women. The salient feature for persuading could be
the lexical field of perhaps invention, which is used, it gives the product
much more prestige, for example, “new concept,” “modern,” “technology,”
“revolutionary,” They have managed to make “hosiery” different from the other
products on the shelf which is a brilliant way of standing out and thus selling
more products. The adjective “modern” could enable the seller to create trust
between their product and the buyer, since the word modern is associated with
science and money etc…
