Adolescent Decision Making

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Dawn Spain

Doctor B

Course English Literature

Date 6/24/2018

English Literature

Introduction

I will look at an excerpt from “The Cuckoo's Calling”, and Harry Potter and The Chamber

of Secret. Both works are authored by J.K. Rowlings. I chose the two pieces because the same

person that is J.K Rowlings a famous writer wrote them. Since they share a writer who wrote them

at different times, it means that over the duration her language grew. I can also compare the usage

of different styles of language in the two pieces. The author is a woman pseudonym a male

character because she explores the detective genre.

In particular, the current paper looks at the application of morphology, phonology, and

semantics in the two works. In addition, the paper considers how cultural, history and

environmental factors influence the oral and written form of English as well as how it hinders or

facilitate delivery of the message in a piece.

Morphology

In the first piece from Robert Galbraith, the phrase “massed behind barriers” is used. The

word massed is the past tense of the mass, which means many people. A barrier is a boundary. In

the context, the phrase is used to mean that the photographers were many and they stood behind

the boundary that was set by the police officers.

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There is also the sentence, "the watchers filled the waiting time by snapping the white

canvas tent in the middle of the road." There is no way a person can fill time. To fill means to add

contents or take it up all. In this sentence, the author meant that the people on the road used the

time they had to snap the tent on the road.

The author also used the word soundmen whereby he has prefixed the word men with

sound. From the word, we get to know that male individuals must have something to do with

sound. The statements explain that they have headphones on their heads hence they may be

recording the sound at the scene. Instead of the author using all words he uses one word to explain.

In the second piece, there are various concepts of morphology used. The suffix ‘–ed' is

added on several words to indicate the past tense of the word. For instance, thundered and intended.

Another sentence is "stormy Saturday afternoon" where the author infixes the word Saturday to

indicate the day the event took place. He could as well have said on a stormy afternoon. When the

author writes ‘smoking at the ears' literally he prefixes the word smoking before the ears to bring

out the effect the drug had on the students and staff years.

Phonology

I can relate the language used in the two excerpts to phonology in various ways.

Like in the first piece there is the use of sounds such as buzz, which utilizes the sound /z/

and hum which is the sound produced by a fly. If we interpret the above statement mentally, what

comes to our mind is the sound bees produce, which is usually noisy meaning there was a lot of

noise.

The word in the teeming café from where the journalists got their coffee. The sound /t/

used relating to coffee is an indication that it is giving the café meaning of production of tea. In

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the statement, tightly packed paparazzi, the author brought out the rhyming /p/ consonant to bring

out emphasis that the paparazzi were close to each other.

In the second piece, the author uses the word stormy to mean there was a strong storm. The

sound /y/ brings out the deeper meaning of the word. In addition, the word muddy brings out the

same effect. It is clear that when we compare the two pieces, the first article uses more

morphological and phonological concepts than the second piece.

Semantics

Semantics is the study of meaning extracted from words, phrases or sentences. When a

person writes a particular phrase or sentence (Trofimova, 1), he may not be referring to the literal

meaning, but sometimes he may mean something more profound. For instance, when a person

uses irony or metaphor in a sentence, there is always a deeper meaning. In this paper, I will

analyses the two pieces of work by Rowling J.K. from the semantic perspective.

Connotation and denotation

Denotation is the literal meaning of the word while connotation is the meaning the word

has depending on the context (Giannini, 106). In the first piece, there are words various words

and phrases which denote something else, but are used to mean another thing. For instance, the

author writes, "snow fell steadily on their hats and shoulders." We can interpret that the snow fell

only on people who were wearing hats n on their shoulders. It is what the phrase denotes.

However, it connotes that the snow fell on everyone's body that was standing outside.

The word paparazzi denotes the photographers, but in this case, it is used to connate the

people who were shooting videos, those who were taking pictures together with the passerby

who had nothing to do with journalism but were at the scene. The writer also uses a phrase, "the

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hot beakers of coffee" literally denotes hot mugs full of coffee but not everyone in the crowd

drank coffee. Therefore, the phrase connotes a large population of that the people were drinking

a variety of hot drinks, including tea and coffee.

In the second piece, the phrase, "smoking at the ears for several hours" denotes that

smoke was coming from the victims' ears, but it connotes that the victim was feeling pain in the

ears for various hours after receiving the treatment. The Raindrops in the passage denote a rainy

season but implies the growth of plants and the effects of a rainy season, including colds on

people living in that area.

Other semantic ideas and Concepts

The choice of words in the pieces reflects other semantic concepts such as metaphors,

synonyms, and homonyms.

Metaphor

In the first piece, the use of metaphor comes up when he talks of "the buzz in the streets"

buzz is a sound produced by flies, and it is always noisy. The author meant that the streets were

noisy due to the various events that were going on. Also in the second sentence, he talks about

“photographers were massed" literally relating to the masses. The masses are a large group of

people at one pace. The author meant that the majority of the population at the scene was

photographers.

In the second piece, there are different instances where the author uses metaphor to bring out a

deeper meaning of words. When she says, “her vivid hair gave the impression that her whole

head was on fire. When the fire burns or injures someone, it is always painful, and the person

may use facial expression to show that. The pain she felt is compared to the burn a person gets

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from fire. In addition, when the author writes, "raindrops the size of bullets thundered on the

castle windows," she associates the sound of bullets with the sound the raindrops produced.

Bullets are small objects, but when they are fired, a loud sound is produced. In the same case, the

raindrops hit on the windows and produced massive sounds as a result.

Hyponymy

The author also uses the concept of hyponymy in these two pieces. Hyponymy means

inclusion of deep meaning in a word (Sikos, Leslie, 1). For instance, in the first piece when the

author talks about snow falling on their hats and shoulders, she meant that the people were

standing outside and snow was falling on them.

In the second piece when the author talks of the pumpkins are swelling to the size of the

garden sheds, he used the pumpkin to mean plants were growing at a faster rate because of the

rainy season.

The stylistic devices used by the author inform the leader of the meaning behind the

chosen words. When the author uses metaphor to describe an event or someone, the metaphor

brings out the behavior of a given character. The stylistic also inform us of a better

understanding of the plot of a story since the readers get to form images in their head as they

read. The setting of the story, time and place usually depend on the words used by the author.

The two pieces discussed above use language effectively and they follow the principles

discussed in class earlier. The words denoted make sense even when applying the connoted

meaning. When reading the text, it is easier to find meaning in the meaning available. Like for

instance, the author, J.K Rowling uses Robert Galbraith pseudonym to hide the intended

meaning in what people read.

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The author males use of a word such as “nurse” to mean specialists who works in a hospital.

Denotation is the literal meaning of a word, denoted in a dictionary. For example, when the

author makes use of the word “raindrops” she actually meant a single drop of rainwater. In

general, the standard use of language by the author is effective. The stylistic elements that the

author makes use of include metaphors and hyponymy. She not only passes her message across

to the audience but immerses the audience and enables them “experience” what she narrates.

Influence of the Cultural and Environmental Factors on Use of Language

Language is an essential aspect of communication around the globe. There are numerous

languages in the word, which are used to transmit messages to diverse people. The predominant

language in the world is English, which has tremendously changed over many decades. Many

factors have influenced language evolution over the many decades to the contemporary world. To

understand the use of English language from historical perceptive, it is essential to discuss the

cultural, history and environmental factors that influence it in oral and written form as well as how

it hinders or facilitate delivery of the message in a piece.

Cultural Factors

Cultural factors have significant impacts on the use of language in the world. The cultural

background of individuals influences how persons utilize words to create ideas. Language reflects

the culture of people of a certain region (Evans 255). Every language depicts candid understanding

and meaning in the area of the culture, where it was derived. The words and sound covey message

of the language concisely in the cultural atmosphere. Additionally, the culture of people influences

the individuals’ thinking and selection of words in the process of conveying messages to an

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audience. Some tribes have names for "one" "two" and others. However, they categories three and

four with a similar name. Another example on culture influencing use of language includes the

disparity of use of phrases in different countries. Canada USA both countries primary use English

language in their communication. However, due to their cultural variation, there is a profound

different usage of words and phrases. For instance, athletic shoes in the USA are referred to as

running or tennis shoes whereas Canada refers to them as runners. Additionally, Canadians college

means community colleges. However, in USA college and university both refer to an institution

that awards a degree.

Environment Factors

Environmental factors have a vital role in the use of language. The factors include physical

and social environmental elements. The physical and environmental factors influence subject

matter of the is under discussion conveyed in communication. The content discussion varies on

the vocabulary utilized in the language, which has been utilized to transmit a message to recipients

according to the social and physical environment. The vocabularies are mostly products of a

society's physical environment. For instance, the culture the of England and French intermingled

and led to sharing of common words, which facilitated the use of English derived from France.

The social environment also impacts on the phonetic system of languages. The phonetic of

language varies according to the physical and social context because they differ in the building of

sounds of the words in the language in different areas. The phonetics of language influence the

sound produced when communicating (Hoff 130). For instance, the language that contains pitch

accent are mostly the people living in the southeastern Asian countries such as China. Other

regions that use pitch accent include western nations Swedish and Mexico. Additionally, Nasalized

vowels are found in French and Portugal. Thus, sound building in language differs due to the social

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environment of regions in the world. Moreover, the physical and social environment influences

grammatically standard of the language of communication.

How History Factors Influence Use of Language

History has significant impacts on the use of language in the society. The history of a region

has high had implications on the words that are born in the language. The English language has

borrowed words from Latin, German and Spanish, which contributed to evolution from the old,

middle and modern English. The past events of an area such as trade may have resulted in the

formation of new words. The introduced words form vocabularies and enrich the language in the

region. Therefore, different regions have different history make them use disparity of word in their

oral and written communication. For instance, Normans introduce numerous words in the English

system (Denham & Lobeck 387). There was the introduction of words that begin in "con",” de”

and “dis”. There was a lot of changes in the spelling of words, which were influence from the

French empire.

The work of Shakespeare had a significant influence on the use of language in the world.

Shakespeare used many Latin words in poetry and plays. The people started using the Latin words

and adopted them to the English language. There was the formation of inkhorn word, which was

inserted in the English literature. Additionally, their development of new expressions, idioms, and

phrases. Therefore, areas that used the work of Shakespeare developed their language and used the

words that were derived from Latin and Greek words.

How Language Helps or Hinders the Pieces’ Ability to Convey their Message Properly

The use of improper language in the spoken piece has significantly impact message

conveyed by the speaker. The use of language with jargons that are unfamiliar with the recipient

will hinder the inefficiency of passing information to the audience. Additionally, a speaker using

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unfamiliar expressions to an audience will be interpreted differently from the intended meaning

required to be transmitted to the receiver.

The mode of message transmission may also facilitate the level of language effectiveness

communication. The use of right intonation in a spoken piece will induce proper understanding of

the message transmitted in the language utilized in a region. An individual speaking softly at

context requiring a loud voice to emphasize certain issues may mislead the audience. Additionally,

garbled transmission of messages may hinder the transmission of messages in a particular

language. For instance, a speaker using words of a certain language in illogical order facilitate the

misunderstanding of the meaning of the message being transmitted to the audience.

Changes in the Written Piece and its Impact on Spoken Language

The language changes in vocabulary in the writing way of communication has a significant

impact on the oral speaking in the world. The English vocabulary was used in creative writing

whereby it provides different meanings according to the context (Goodman & Goodman 101).

Therefore, numerous people could not use certain words used in creative writing into the oral

language of delivering messages to the audience. The vocabularies had a different meaning in

written form, which was not applicable in the speaking form of similar words.

Additionally, the written language experience changes in the shift of vowels in writing

words. The writing vowels derive to categories of novel, which consisted of long and short vowels.

The changes in vowel significantly affected the speaking of English language. Therefore, the

application of vowel in the written language created disparity in oral English. It also made English

different from other languages in the world.

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Recommendations

The written and spoken pieces should have meaning in the expression of their message to

an audience. Language is fundamentally used for speaking, which makes it essential to be vocally

expressed. The written language should be well articulated to convey the intended meaning to the

recipient. For instance, a speech is founded on language.

Language serves the purpose of communication. Therefore, the contemporary emphasis on

written language should be applied in spoken communication. Thus, it is essential for experts to

motivate the use of language to promote oral communication.

Language is unique in every community in the world. The written and spoken language

should adhere to the fundamental principles that promote transmission of messages in the society.

The transmitter should stick to the unique structure articulation and words of the langue to ensure

that spoken and written piece deliver meaning.

Language is generally dynamic. The user of languages should provide a gap that will enable

it to be accommodated in the society. The people should be able to embrace the new words with

their sounds and proper pronunciation.

In conclusion, the evolution of language has been influenced by many factors, which

include the cultural, history and environment. The factors make languages differ around the world.

However, the primary function the of language is to communicate and deliver the intended

message to the audience. The communication may be in written form or spoken form.

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Works Cited

Carr, Philip. English Phonetics and Phonology: An Introduction. Massachusetts, USA; Oxford,

UK; Victoria, Australia; Berlin, Germany: Blackwell Publishing. 2003.

De Lacy, Paul, Ed. The Cambridge Handbook of Phonology. Cambridge University Press. 2007

Denham, Kristin, and Anne Lobeck. Linguistics for everyone: An introduction. Cengage Learning,

2012.

Evans, Vyvyan. The language myth: Why language is not an instinct. Cambridge University Press,

2014.

Galbraith, Robert. The Cuckoo's Calling. Bestseller Books, 2013.

Giannini, A. J.; Semiotic and Semantic Implications of "Authenticity", Psychological Reports,

106(2)

Goodman, Yetta M., and Kenneth S. Goodman. "Vygotsky in a whole language

perspective." Making Sense of Learners Making Sense of Written Language. Routledge,

2014. 98-114.

Hoff, Erika. Language development. Cengage Learning, 2013.

Rowling, Joanne K. Harry Potter Chamber of Secrets. Scholastic Press, 1999.

Sikos, Leslie F. (2017). Description Logics in Multimedia Reasoning. Cham: Springer

International Publishing. (1)

Trofimova, I (2014). "Observer bias: how temperament matters in semantic perception of lexical

material". PLoS ONE. 9 (1)

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