Informalisation

Question 1

What is Informalisation/Conversationalisation/Demotization?

Answer 1

It is the incorporation of aspects of intimate, personal discourse into public forms of spoken and written communication.

Question 2

What does Informalisation give a sense of and the appropriate example?

Answer 2

There’s a sense of “border crossing” in this process, a barrier that can now be crossed. To see the new possibilities and opportunities that are available as opposed to the regular.

An example would a teacher using terms of endearment such as chick, duck, sweetheart with children in a professional context.

Question 3

Give an example of Informalisation?

Answer 3

Email discourse is a ‘paradigmatic example of the informalisation process’

Email discourse is a CMC, it is synchronous as opposed to letters that are asynchronous.

Email can incorporate emoticons, acronyms and initialisms.

Omissions in email are typical especially when replying to one.

Question 4

What stays the same in Informalisation and give an example of how it can be evidenced?

Answer 4

The relationship remains intact (between the intimate and the professional) but rather the language is changing.

Informalisation comes in all level of societies…

Camilla Parker Bowles responded with “It’s wicked” when asked her reaction to the news of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s engagement

Question 5

Give me 5 features of Informalisation

Answer 5

• Shortened terms of address
• Contractions of negative & auxiliary verbs – ain’t, init
• Using active rather than passive – ‘Girl chased by a dog’
• Colloquial e.g. ta
• Slang e.g. ‘cheers’

Question 6

Give me an observation

Answer 6

• George Osbourne converged with the mockney accent to Morrisons workers in Kent.
• “The engineering of formality, friendship and intimacy”

Question 7

How is Informalisation & Marketization connected?

Answer 7

• Private is being blended into public speech for example public speaking with Camilia who hadn’t had the chance to plan it so incorporated elements. This needs to be appropriate like ‘wicked’ in response to Kate and Will’s marriage.

Question 8

What is a an example of how Marketization and Informalisation are being connected?

Answer 8

• Social Media is a great catalyst for informalisation for example Ed Miliband in response to birthday of his second son said on twitter “Mum and baby are doing great.” Especially for political figures whom we expect to speak in Standard English. Informalisation gives them the chance to have a break.

Question 9

What is Marketisation and why is it important in terms of Informalisation?

Answer 9

• Marketisation, the ability to use informalisation to sell themselves to the people. This is important especially for political figures like George Osbourne. Not only to sell themselves but for other means such as gaining employment as we have seen with elocution. Marketisation influences other people to do the same, as it develops a trend of being normal.

Question 10

What is Conversationalisation?

Answer 10

Conversationalisation: Involves the spread into public domain of linguistic features generally associated with conversation.

Question 11

What is Personalisation?

Answer 11

Personalisation: The construction of personal relationship between producers and receivers of public discourse.

Question 12

What does Fairclough (give date) argue about “the engineering of informality” in terms of Conversationlisation and Personalisation?

Answer 12

Fairclough (1996) argues that the engineering of informality is interwoven with conversationalisation and personalisation.

Power plays an important role behind this, there is a trend of elite adopting covert prestige forms, in other words speaking like everybody else such as George Osbourne.

Question 13

What are the advantages & disavtanges of elites such as George Osbourne using such stragedies?

Answer 13

However, the disadvantage is that this sounds artificial. In the words of Fairclough, ‘synthetic personalisation only stimulates solidarity, and is a strategy of containment hiding coercion and manipulation under a veneer of equality.’ What Fairclough is also implying here, is that equality cannot be created by just using informalisation. More needs to be done.

Question 14

What are the 3 things that the media is able to do with informalisation?

Answer 14

• The media has able to document the usage of Informalisation and Conversationalisation.
• In the media there has been a trend towards replicating and pretending “spontaneous directness” & “immediacy of oral communication”
• This means that news are now spoken reports more than written, which means a decrease in solid facts and now more discursive in being informed.

Question 15

What is the first study to confirm this and what does this say about Informalisation?

Answer 15

Sanders and Redeker (1993) readers appreciated the insertion of ‘free’ and ‘indirect’ thoughts, although this was evaluated as being ‘less suitable for the news text genre.’

Question 16

What is the second study to confirm this and what does this say about informalisation?

Answer 16

Pearce (2005) points out that public discourse i.e. news texts and political texts, is influenced by a general trend towards informalisation.

Question 17

How are the 3 ways Informalisation can link with Language Change?

Answer 17

• Social group language as well as Language and Power: How some elite social groups who use non-standard language are, why are doing this?
• Language and Occupation. How in occupational contexts, workers may decide to informalize to gain friendships etc.
• Functional Theory – Change comes with Need (now there’s a need for more people to start using informalisation because of…)