Prescriptivism
Prescriptivism is how language should be used instead of how it is commonly used. Writers, Journalists who use language more powerfully, emotionally and clearly tend to stick to prescriptive rules. They believe that by doing this that they are easily understood. Prescriptive rules are;
- Don’t end a sentence with a preposition
- Don’t use the passive voice
- Don’t use the pronoun ‘I’ in object position
Prescriptivists believe that language should be used in its most standard form. They believe that the correct syntax, phonology and semantics should be used.
Prescriptivists
Geoffrey Pullum
Descriptivism
This is a non judgemental approach to language, it concentrates on how language is commonly written and spoken. This is a linguistic approach to language where it is based on what people do with the language rather than keeping to how correct it is.
"Descriptivists ask, “What is English? “ …prescriptivists ask, “What should English be like?"
- Edward Finegan
Descriptivists
- Steven Pinker
- Noam Chomsky
I have chosen an article from Mirror.co.uk. Article <---
This article shows that there are many celebrities that are fans of the show such as Lily Allen and Adrian Chiles. The problem is that many parents thought that the show was racist. Hundreds complained feeling it promoted Slang and Racism. Parents were worried that their children would use the language and offend others at the children's schools. Another person who was appalled by the show was Levi Roots, the creator of Reggae Reggae sauce. He believed that a mouse was a a bad symbol for Rastafarians and thought that a Lion would be more appropriate. Physiologist Delroy Constantine- Simms believes that no country wants to be represented as a rodent. Its a like a Muslim being represented by a pig.
There are others that think that Rastamouse should be applauded for the messages and its positive attitude. They think that the BBC should create more programmes with elements of black culture included in them. The voice of Rastamouse himself Reggie Yates has said that when he was a child there was no TV shows that felt relevant to him.
This article was published in 2011 and since then Rastamouse has been very successful. It appeals to all audiences older and younger. It teaches to think positively with its motto 'make a bad ting good'. I would say the article isn't completely reliable as it is a Tabloid newspaper. This is shown by the article being slightly bias towards the disliking of Rastamouse, with Rastafarians and Parents both pushing negative views about the show. This can shape the readers opinion of the show without even watching it. Although some people don't like the show I feel that it is for reasons other than the slang in which they speak. Parents don't want to be seen as racist or see their children being seen as racist. Where as Rastafarians want to represented in a different way. My favourite part of the article is when it states;
'The fact that he’s a mouse isn’t great. If you asked the community 99% would want a lion, but so would English football fans'.
I feel that this is a great part of the article because it shows that everyone just wants to be seen in the best way possible. That people want to see something on TV and feel proud to be represented as brave or courageous. I feel that if Rasatamouse was a different animal then there would not be as many complaints.
Overall I think that the article is very bias and does not give an even argument towards the subject. I also believe that some peoples reasoning for not liking the show is flawed. I think that people should see the show for its messages and not for fear of being seen as racist.
Aims
To find out what people think of different accents across the United Kingdom.
Methodology
An online poll that was was conducted in 2004 in which 5,000 participants were asked to rank celebrities on how pleasant and how appealing their accents were.
Findings
Sean Connery was popular in the poll with his Edinburgh accent he was followed by Sir Trevor McDonald because of his RP accent. Followed by Radio 2 news reader Moira Stewart and Actor Pierce Brosnan. Participants were favourable to accents which are very similar to their own, for example; English people rated Hugh Grant's RP accent very highly whereas Scottish people were more favourable to Ewan McGregor's accent. This theme continued throughout the poll with people voting for accents that were from their own country such as Ian Paisly from Northern Ireland which was last favourable everywhere other than his home country.
Conclusion
Overall people favoured accents from their own country and disliked accents from other countries with the exception of Sean Connery who was favoured in all countries. Other accents which were favoured everywhere were Moira Stewart's and Sir Trevor McDonald's.
Evaluation
The polls results could be seen as affected by the celebrities personal appeal rather than their accent. This could prove why Sir Trevor McDonald and Moira Stewart were favourable in the poll. Factors that could have affected the results of the poll could be; social class, cultural background and maybe the country in which they are from.
