Methodology (improved)

   First of all, I transcribed my data by recording the conversations on my phone, listening to it again, writing it out on paper and then typing it up on Word. Each piece of data is about three minutes long and took about two hours to fully transcribe and type up. The transcript of children speaking, I've recorded from YouTube because now that all the children are in school I did not have time to sit down with my nieces because their parents were always too busy. The teenager’s conversation I have transcribed my friends and I talking in McDonald’s before college and the third transcript is of my dad and grandparents and myself talking about one of my dad’s cycling trips. The contexts aren't based on anything in particular because it decided that I would want to focus on some elements of spontaneous speech, therefore I didn't ask any of the conversational participants to talk about any one subject but let the conversation flow naturally.

Lexical and grammatical analysis

Lexical analysis

   Looking at adjacency pairs in the conversation between the teenagers there is a lack of turn taking in the conversation, this could be for many reasons such as the fact that the conversational participants are comfortable talking to each other or the fact that when Frazer, the only male participant, is taking part in the conversation he tends to break the adjacency pairs by using a string of declarative utterances. This could possibly be because h is male and partaking in conversation with two females and therefore might feel the need to assert his masculinity by saying what he thinks should be the topic of conversation. The string of declaratives he uses is as follows: "but it actually makes sense", "I'm kinda hungry", "it's a good job we're here", I probably missed breakfast (.) oh (.) I did miss breakfast" and the list continues until he leaves the conversation. He doesn't reply directly to either of the other's responses to his declaratives, this could be said to be because of the colloquial nature of the conversation or it could be directly relating to his relationship with the female participants. The misuse of the adjacency pairs could link to Zimmerman and West's theory that in mixed sex conversations men tend to interrupt more than women do, or to Fishman's theory that mixed sex conversation doesn't seem to work as well as single sex conversations because of how men respond or don't respond, and in this case it would be the not responding that is most important to my analysis.
  The second transcript that I've got is of myself, my dad and my grandparents; my dad and grandma are the two main conversational participants in the transcript and because the context is that they were looking at photos from a cycling trip, my dad is the one who speaks the most. My grandma uses quite a lot of back channel agreement to indicate to him that she is paying attention while he is talking, though without the context it could be seen as that she wasn't interested in what he was talking about. In total my dad's word count was two hundred and thirty two words and my grandma's was only seventy two; this is a clear indication that, again, if the context wasn't clear originally you would be able to tell that he is the main participant holding the most conversational power - which in a sense goes against the assumption that because it is a mother and her child conversing that she would have more conversational power. The topic that is being spoken about is something that my dad is more of an expert on, so those power roles are reversed.

Grammatical analysis

   Again relating back to language and gender, Frazer as the only male conversational participant, uses emphasis on his words to try and further explain them without talking more than necessary. His play on words "conversation hay" is meant to be a pun, but as the other two participants do not understand or find this funny, he uses emphasis on the word "hay" i hi third repetition of the utterance. This could be said to be typically male of him to assume that the other two female participants do not understand or are intellectually inept, which is untrue, as after he has left the conversation Laura and Robyn have a more in-depth conversation. When the topic changes after Frazer leaves the conversation, there is a high frequency of personal pronouns used by Laura and Robyn; because Laura is holding the conversation more than Robyn she uses about a third more personal pronouns than Robyn does. This is because she is talking about something that she had done as well as the fact that she was talking about another person using 'she' and 'her' a few times, though the most frequent one used by both of the participants is 'I' because they are talking to each other about past experiences that they themselves have had. Another thing to point out is that use of pauses rises after Frazer leaves the conversation, possibly because Laura and Robyn are comfortable with each other and don't feel the need to fill in the gaps, or it could even be a small case of the observer's paradox, where for instance Laura changes the  subject after a two second pause nearer to the end of the conversation, because she is aware that she is being recorded and might think that she needs to keep the conversation going for it to seem natural.

Adults talking transcript

M – and then you came all the way |along |

D -                                                 |all the| way along (.) until monkton coombe

M – yeah

D – and went through the two tunnels (3) and you go from monkton coombe (.) along a bit (.) off the (.) off the canal

M – right

D – and (.) then you join the (.) railway path (.) which is a new cycle path they’ve opened up through these two tunnels (.) you go un (.) onto the flat really

M – oh right (1) because there’s a (.) there’s a hill that goes up from monkton coombe from the A38 (.) that go (.) the A36 (.) that goes up like this

D – yeah (.) no we didn’t go up that (1) there (.) along the cycle path saw a (.) I think it was a gras snake

R – really

D – yeah (.) I was (.) |ahead|

R -                            |yeah  |

D – I was sort of lead by most of this grindy stuff (.) and he heard me coming and slithered off (.) into the grass

R – oh cool

D – see there’s the gorilla pod up there (.) look

M – oh yes (.) yes

R – [laughs] it |looks like it’s posing for the pic|ture with you

M -                |did it take a long time (.) time   |                          who took that one then

D – either paul or james

R – |pardon   |

G – |what did| you say Michael (.) lovely meal

D – yeah

G – was it in the pub

D – yeah (.) we had (.) um (.) steak ale (.) mushroom and ale pie (.) chips (.) cauliflower broccoli  carrots (.) it was really nice

G – and pud

D – don’t think we had a pud

M – your coffee’s over there mike

D – ah (.) thanks (2) so (.) that’s dundus aquaduct

M – mhm

D – (6) back along the cycle path or one of the lanes there

R – (4) did you have someone waiting to take the pictures (2) for you

D – no we (.) just sort of (.) |sometimes I’d put|

M -                                     |where’s that then |

D – this is in (.) um (.) the park in nailsea

M – oh (.) |right|

D –           |now| |that’s|

R -                     |is it    |

D – Adge Cutler (1) |who’s one of the Wurzles      |

R -                           |I didn’t know we had statues | [laughs] |is he from| Nailsea

D -                                                                                       |that is the|              yeah I think so (2) Hannah moore (.) who was a philanthropist in the seventeenth or eighteenth century

M – mhm

D – who built schools

M – right

D – around Bristol and (.) uh (.) nailsea (1) and that is a fella called Coate (.) of Coate’s cider (.) cause Coate’s cider (.) used to be made in Nailsea

M – that’s quite cool

D – yeah

R – we like cider (.) yes yes yes [laughs]

D – (1) yeah so (.) it was really good

R – (4) forty one pictures (.) is that all like final ones |so you have mo|re than those

D -                                                                          |yeah final ones  |

M – yeah (.) great

D – yeah (.) |we had|

R -              |loads   |

D – loads

G – what (1) what happened today then (.) did dad come and get you

R – yeah (.) he did

D – (1) and (.) Robyn’s got work

R – (1) yeah I’ve got a staff meeting (.) for a couple of hours

G – say again

R – I’ve got a staff meeting for a couple of hours

G – (3) you’ve got a staff meeting

R – yeah (.) af (.) after the store closes so it’s Sunday (.) so it’s from |five| til seven

G -                                                                                                   |oh  |

M – so what are you (.) doing (.) um

Types of sentence graph for Teenager's transcript

Graphs showing data collected from transcription of teengers talking

Created on http://www.onlinecharttool.com

Analysis of children talking together transcript

   In my previous post you can see that Emily and Ollie are picking up words from their mum and the other conversational participant, Lucy, really easily. Both of these children are clearly from the telegraphic stage judging by their lack of using determiners, pronouns, negatives and interrogatives. Even by looking at solely the language used by these two children in conversation with adults you can tell that Emily and Ollie are about two and a half to three years old. For instance the abundance of repetition that is involved in the whole conversation is huge; Emily seems to be copying almost everything that her mum or Lucy say to try and either grasp the meaning of it or to just continue the adjacency pairs, which are practically all imperatives used by the adults and empty repetition from the children, so that the conversation flows (as she must have previously learnt that it needs to). This can relate to Wolfgang Enard's research which was conducted which shows how children's brains are hardwired for understanding and learning language as they are encouraged by their carers and the people around them that they interact with. Something to back up Enard's research is the FOX P2 gene, which is the gene that has been discovered that supports Chomsky's nature over nurture theory, wherein the human brain is ready for language but just needs to be continually stimulated so that the child can gain the ability to speak whatever language they are taught by their carer or from the environment that they are living in.

   Emily can be clearly identified as the younger sibling as she repeats certain nouns, for example when she wants her mum to go away she says, "mummy go away" a couple of times and then moves on to "outside (.) go outside". Then further on in the conversation she seems to just say "side" instead of "outside" which indicates that she has omitted the prefix "out", which shows that she clearly doesn't understand the syntactical development and of words in a sentence. The first utterance that she repeats is "fire hot (.) fire hot" which is completely out of context, but is forgiven because she is probably only three years old. She's missed out the third person verb "is" from this utterance; therefore it can't be classed as a sentence because it is incomplete. As the conversation progresses you can see that in all the times that she repeats something that an adult has said, she doesn't said "is" once, proving that she must be in the telegraphic stage of language development and lacks the syntactical development to construct proper sentences.
   Their mum, Lucy and their dad together all use a lot of imperatives to instruct the children with what to do, but more towards the end of the conversation the mum is scaffolding Emily's language to encourage her to talk and respond correctly. At the beginning of the transcript the adults are correcting the children, then they move to telling them what to do and gradually move from that to the scaffolding of the children's language in an attempt to encourage Emily to keep on track with the conversation as she kept getting distracted and going completely off topic, and to also lead by example and use standard correct English to hopefully be copied by her as she had done previously.

Transcription of children talking to eachother

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I-cevAJVPcU

0:00 – 2:48 minutes

L = Lucy; M = Mum; O = Ollie; E = Emily

L – the phone

E – backwards

M - no no (.) talk to him

O – hello

L – [laughs] back to Ollie

O – hello

L- we don’t mean talk whilst walking backwards

M – we mean talk back |to each other|

L -                                |we mean repl|y can you talk

O – hello

E – fire hot (.) fire hot

L – yeah (.) fire is hot (.) talk in the phone to Ollie (.)Ollie talk to Emily

O – hello (.) o ye (.) Ollie Ollie

L - can you (.) can you hear your voice

O – hello

E – mummy go way (.) mummy go way

L – mummy doesn’t have to go away

E – outside (.) outside (.) go outside

M – [laughs]

O – nanny (.) am yey (.) in my phone

L – Emily’s in that phone isn’t she

E – cold (.) cold |outsi|de

O -                    |hello |[waves]

E – cold (.) cold (.) outside

M – [laughs]

L – yes it is cold outside (.) you have to have |your coat|

M -                                                              | say hello| again Ollie

E – coat on coat on (1) coat on

L – yeah

E – coats on (.) coats on

O – |Emily|

E – |coats |on

O – ins phone

L – yeah

E – coats on (.) coats

D – that’s a lot of echo

L – yeah

E – ollie (.) |ollie phone|

O –            |emily (.) em|ily

M – em (.) emily’s on the phone yeah

D – are you talking to Ollie (.) say hello to Ollie

O – [waving]

E – nanny (.) nanny (.) nanny

D – say hello to Ollie (.) he’s on the phone

L – talk to (.) talk to him on the phone

[both children waving at phones]

D – you waving to him

L – [laughs]

D – are you waving to each other (.) wave again (.) now say hello to him (.) on the phone (.) say hello

[L & M laugh]

L – talk on the phone (.) Emily (.) talk on the phone

E – hello

M – ahhhh

L – Ollie(.)say hello to Emily

O – [waves at phone]

M – use |you|r

L –        |talk| (.) talk

E – side (.) side (.) side

M – you went outside (.) you fell over

E – yeah

M – hurt your knee

E – hurt ne knee

M – yeah (.) bear

E – yeah

M – you had to get bear

E – yeah

M – be (.) all better now

E – all better

M – yeah all be

O – na (.) Emily phone

M – I know

[M & L laugh]

M – it’s amazing isn’t it

E – oliba (.) oliba (.) ba (.) oliba

M – oliba on the phone

E – yeah

M – is he

E - yeah

M – what’s he doing

O – climbing

E – oh no

M – climbing

E – oh no

M – don’t worry it‘s still working (.) I think

E – til working

M – I think it’s still work

E – button (.) ns

L – push the button on the top (.) oh no (.) oh no she’s done it (1) oh no

M – what’s she doing (.) texting

L – mm (.) texting at the same time

O – hello

M – [laughs] [coughs] Emily are you texting

R – oh no (.) oh no

L – look (.) I’ll fix it

E - yeah

Certain phrase origins article

   As recommended by my A2 Language teacher, I looked up this article from The Mirror, published on the 7th September 2013. I always find it very interesting learning about the origins of language and I hope it will be useful for future reference.

First fortnight of A2

   So far in the first couple of weeks of A2 English Language I've come up with a much more achievable investigation plan: Comparing the language and linguistic choices between three generations. I've written up the Introduction/Methodology draft and handed it in, now I just need to finish transcribing my recorded data and I will be ready to start analysing.

Couple of transcripts (collected sample data)

(Both of these transcripts are from episodes found on BBC iPlayer)

Mock the Week transcript #1 (S12E02)

Dara: the (.) first subject is (1) unlikely things to hear on radio

Andy: you’re listening to radio you tree (.) the cream of the 1970’s (.) broadcasting live (.) from pentonville

Hugh: this is jazz FM (.) you’re listening (.) by mistake

Chris: this is the breakfast news (.) the prime minister had porridge (.) the home secretary had muesli

Miles: my piles are giving me so much bloody gri (.) ra no (.) you are listening to (.) smooth FM

Andy: this is the Somali shipping forecast [shouts] don’t go out there

Hugh: this is magic FM pick a frequency any frequency

Chris: hahahahaha (2) hahaha

Nathan: f9 (.) hit (.) a2 (.) miss (.) c3 (.) hit (.) that (.) was the battleshipping forecast

Gary: you’re listening to radio three (1) anyone (.) anyone (.) anyone (.) bueler (.) bueler

Andy: on talk radio today (.) we’ve been discussing what a tosser nick clegg is (1) and now on the line we’ve got david (.) from central London

Hugh: that was god is dead by black Sabbath you’re listening (.) to Vatican radio

Nathan: and at number one this week (.) jedward (.) proving that teenage girls (.) cannot be trusted with money

Chris: well I’m with the eye in the sky (.) with the travel report (.) I’ve waited twenty years (.) to file this particular report (.) if I look down I can see (.) red lorry yellow lorry red lorry yellow

Hugh: don’t touch that dial (.) I’m defrosting a pie

Gary: next up on radio one (.) nick rimshaw (.) he’s not very good but he’s only twenty eight so he definitely didn’t get up to anything in the 1970’s

Chris: next (.) ed miliband lays down his policies in (.) I’m sorry I haven’t a clue

Andy: and now 9.) ten PM on radio four (.) and before the news (.) here’s five minutes of free porn

Mock the Week transcript #2 (S12E03)

Dara: now (.) we come to scene’s we’d like to see (.) so if everybody could make their way (.) over to the performance area (1) I’ll read out this week’s topics (.) and then we’ll see what our panellists can come up with (1) ok here we go (1) the first subject is (1) things you wouldn’t here on a fitness DVD

Hugh: ok (.) let’s get you sweating in your own living room (.) I know (.) you’re an illegal immigrant

Gary: today we’re going to work on our three problem areas (.) that’s bums (.) tums (.) and Afghanistan

Andy: do you want rock hard buns (1) then you need to get to greggs about five o’clock in the afternoon

Chris: really stretch it out (.) come on really stretch it out you’re nearly there (.) can you feel the burn (.) can you (.) good (.) okay (.) now you’ve got your leotard on we can do the exercises

Josh: so that’s three minutes in (.) and it’s time to wave good bye (.) to our American viewers

Hugh: hi (.) I’m niel mcferson (.) and welcome (.) to wankercise

Holly: hello and welcome to get thin on heroin

Chris: I got rid (.) of all the extra weight I had when I was pregnant (.) just by (.) leaving him on a stranger’s door step

Hugh: if you find weights (.) really boring (.) do what I do (1) don’t wait

Josh: now I find squats very important (.) because I can’t afford to pay my own rent

Andy: are you still too big to fit into that dress (.) don’t worry about it (.) just go to leeds (.) the women there don’t seem to give a shit

Chris: now I can completely fit in to the bikini (.) course sometimes my cock flops out

Holly: hello (.) and welcome to pilates at home (.) all the fun of pilates (.) without the embarrassment of farting in a church hall

Andy: hello (.) and welcome to dara o’briain’s bunga bunga work out

Chris: what is it (.) what is it

Investigation Ideas

1. How different comedians manipulate language

   From a list of about 5 comedians I would find a typical example of how each person manipulates language and their speech patterns to their own advantage to entertain an audience. How these people's career language is altered to become humorous to an audience and the differences and similarities they hold between each other.

2. Comedians with different accents and dialects and how they use them to their advantage

   In Britain there are such a wide range of accents and variations of language, comedians very often make jokes about people with different accents and also of them selves and their accent. Being able to imitate different accents can be a great skill in the world of comedy and I think that delving into this would make for a very interesting investigation

3. Comparison of language between different comedy programmes

   There are a lot of comedy programmes on TV now and they all have different themes; I think it would be interesting for an investigation if I took fair data from a range of them and compare them to collect the differences and similarities they have and how different techniques are used and why.

Ethicality Task

   If I was to make sure that the data that I want to collect is comparable then I would make sure that I would have un-biased data by using one of the ideas on the previous post about comparability. I would make sure that I don't choose anything that is from a certain holiday time so that the data will all be similar. I'd also try to narrow down the variables to make sure that the different data collected is only comparable by the way the comedians manipulate language to their advantage.
   To make sure that the data I collect would be ethical, I would use videos/DVDs that have been published and are legally allowed to be viewed by the public.
   I don't think there are any problems I might encounter while doing this investigation, because as long as I follow the comparability, reliability and ethicality guidelines then it should be fine.

Comparibility Task

Classroom Activity 1

1.    The language of advertising varies incredibly between adverts directed at men and those directed at women. An example of a women's advert that is very feminine would probably be a Venus razor. The first words spoken in the advert (by Jennifer Lopez, a well known icon for women to aspire to) are "Every woman has an inner goddess", another quote to emphasize how feminine this advert is "A feeling of confidence, and strength, an inner sparkle and an outer fabulous." The lexical choices that are used are all very positively emotive and encourage women to want to be all of the things listed. Men's adverts are extremely different, mainly focusing on how tough and strong the product will make them and the language that is used in adverts is crucial. The example I'm going to use is a Gillette Fusion advert, the narrator says "until you discover" to introduce the product, by saying that it is made to seem inevitable that the buyer will use it at one point. Also the use of "power" in the name of the product is one of the key words used in adverts directed primarily at men, because of of the stereotypical male features is that men want to be masculine and powerful to become attractive to women. Both of these adverts, although practically the same product and from the same company, are vastly different. The women's razor ad is aimed at women to make them happy with themselves, to be attractive but to also feel "confident", "strong" and "fabulous". The men's razor ad is full of visual sports references and "manly" language, these are both very typical views that male audiences are all looking to attract women and all female audiences want to feel "fabulous".
2.    The difference between radio and television commentaries is that the radio will have to be constantly talking. If you watch live sports on TV then you are able to sit and watch what is happening on the screen in front of you, but with a radio you can't see what is happening so you will essentially need it audio-visual description. The radio commentary will have the commentator constantly talking and describing what is happening, the current scores and adding their own comments as well. However, a commentator on television won't have to describe exactly what is happening because the audience can already see what's going on, the scores will be occasionally repeated so the audience stays up to date but the main thing that a commentator on TV will be doing is adding their own comments and talking about the people that are participating and what they know about them.

Reliability Task

1.    To collect reliable data of editor's letters in women's and men's magazines, an idea would be to select three women's and three men's magazines and open them up to the page where the editor's letter will be. I Would compare the three men's to each other and then the three women's; picking out linguistic features that are similar in all and the things that all three of the male/female directed magazines have in common. If you were to make a list for men's and women's separately, you would then be able to compare the lists of gathered information and what is similar or different to gather an array of un-biased information.
2.    To collect reliable data of Brian Cox's tweets I would use an idea that was previously stated in the booklet we have been given: selecting every third tweet starting from the most recent. By doing this you would be able to collect un-biased data because by not having a choice of the tweets you would be selecting you are able to identify the lingustic features that are out of your own control so you can analyse whatever you need to.
3.    To collect reliable data of Micheal Gove's comments on education I would watch about five interviews of him on the news, transcribe what is said between him and the anchors in the studio, then try and compare the linguistic features found and apply any theory that would be relevant to the topic I would be researching.

Analysis of the language that Bill Bailey used in his Geoferry Chaucer joke

   I've chosen to analyse the language used by Bill Bailey because I find great interest in the way that different comedians are able to manipulate language in a way that suits them and their personality to entertain an audience. In my investigation I'm looking forward to comparing the differences and similarities between male comedians talking about the same subject, reviewing the linguistic ways in which they choose to manipulate language keeping it standard or non-standard and looking into the dialects or sociolects that they hold.
   Bill Bailey is a very well known comedian and has a wide spread audience that appreciate his brand of humor. He plays with language quite a lot when he is on stage, quite often putting on different accents and making fun of different dialects and sociolects. An example of this is from his Tinselworm show, at the beginning of the performance he makes fun of an American's accent by relating the sound of the words to other cultures and making the character sound unintelligent. "He said 'Do you like soccer?' and I said, 'What do you mean? The Caribbean music sensation, Soca?' By doing this he is taking account of the phonology of language in different parts of the world and creating a comedic way of presenting it to an audience. To do this though, he needs a very wide understanding of different ways of living and how to derive humor from these situations. Comedy like this needs to be quite spontaneous and witty for him to be able to respond quickly and humorously to hecklers, to be able to to keep the audience's attention and also to gain the size of fan base that he has. To be able to respond quickly and humorously to hecklers. For Bill Bailey to imitate the Chaucer dialect and to alter language to become non-standard English, he must have a good understanding of the English language.

Looking into the language used in the Geordie Shore interview

   What I found that was interesting about the language that the two people being interviewed used, is that because of their dialect being northern and with a strong Newcastle accent they use a fair amount of non-standard English. For instance "I can't believer this like" and "tryna". Dialect and sociolect play a large part of language in reality TV shows so it could be compared to other dialects, for instance The Only Way Is Essex and the southern accent that would apply in that circumstance.

   I'm not quite sure what theory could be applies yet though, possibly Tannen's difference theory or a male vs. female theory of sorts.

   More data could be collected by doing an internet search of typical phrases from different regions and studying the difference that accent and dialect can have on a conversation, this could be done by speaking to people with regional accents or watching more videos or shows where accent is something that is easily noticed.

Geordie Shore Transcription

I: are we gunna see (.) a geordie wedding this season? (0.5) coming up?

V: no (.) we're not (.) erm I think (.) well (1) in aug- (1) hm

R: are you lost for words babe?

V: [laughs]

R: is (.) is she feelin alright? are you feelin alright?

V: I'm not lost for words (.) I'm just strugglin (.) you know /how like

R: /yeah (.) okay

V: shut up (1)

R: I can't believe this like (1) that was just on camera/

V: we don't have a wedding

R: that's never happened/

V: shut up/ (1) we have (.) sort of (.) like (.) erm (.) an engagement party (1) so it's kind of like (.) in the right direction for a wedding (.) but its not a wedding (.) so so we're moving (.) towards (.) a wedding

R: [laughs]

V: but we're still very far away from a wedding (.) don't put so much pressure on me (2)

I: I thin the worst part of planning a wedding (.) it must be a lot of hassle

V: I (.) can't (.) literally (.) I'm so dreadin (.) the point where I have to do something like that (.) you realize we've just had our engagement party (.) for like (.) for all out friends and our family (.)

R: the family obviously couldn't get the (.) couldn't come on the (.) /show though/

V: /and err/ (.) it was (.) the most stressful time (.) tryna plan it (.) and

R: so much planning (.) and so /much organizing/

V: /oh/ yeah Ricci (.) I bet you're knackered (.) after all that planning are you? (1) yeah (.) all those decisions you had to make (.) all those emails you had to send (.) meetings with the cake baker (.) yeah (1)  he did nothing (.) until about a week before (.) where he suddenly got interested and started demanding all sorts of ridiculous things (.) which were just not possible (.) like monkeys carrying trays of drinks (1) so (.) Ricci is not gunna be part of planning the wedding (.) as he didn't plan the engagement party (.) and I'm not planning the wedding (.) until I get a team of people to help us (1) so nobody hold their breath for that

I: what (.) what would your top request for the wedding be? (.) like an elephant carrying drinks? (.) or?

R: /ju-/

V: /probably wants a water running elephant like all day/

R: /do/ you know is I don't mind about the wedding (.) but (.) I'm looking forward to the stag do (.) massively looking forward to the stag do (.) definitely vegas (.) /can't wait for it/

V: /he/ knows all the right things to say doesn't he? (.) he's just such a smooth talker (.) I'm so looking forward to being your wife (.) forever

Looking into the language that Bill Bailey used in his comedic poem

   Linking back to my previous post of the Bill Bailey transcription, what I found most interesting about it was that Bill Bailey has been well known for using non-standard English for comedy and he does it well. He is able to change quite a few of the words and some grammar in the video that the transcript is of, to produce a comedic effect for the audience's pleasure and to create a better experience for himself and the audience that had payed to see him live.
   Some theory that is possible to be linked to how Bill Bailey used language could be a few gender theories that would be to do with the content of the poem that he was reciting, although language and power theory could be helpful as well (due to the fact that one person is conducting the emotions of a large audience).
   Other data that the comedy poem could be compared with would definitely be other performances by Bill Bailey, also other comedians might be a good place to look because some performers tend to have similar ways of conducting the audience and similar styles of comedy, wile still having their own personal style.
   Another form of data that would be possible to collect is watching stand up comedy on TV, on DVD, live (although this can prove to be very expensive) and researching through books and online searches.

Bill Bailey transcription

BB: this is where the joke enters the realm (.) of Jeffery Chaucer. (.) thank you (0.5) three fellows wenten into a pub. (1) and (.) gleefully their hands did rub (.) in expectation of revelry? (.) for it is the hour that is happy? (1) great bottels of wine did they quaff and had a really good laugh (0.5) til drunkenness held full dominion (.) for it was two for the price of one? (3) yet after wine and mead and sack (.) man must have a massive snack (1) great pasties from cornwall (.) scottish eggs round like a ball (1) great hams (.) duck and geese (.) they sucked the bones and drank the grease (.) one fellow stood all pale and wan (.) for he was a vegetarian (3) yet man knoweth that gluttony stoketh the fire of letury (.) upon three young wenches round and sly (.) the fellows cast a wanten eye (.) one did approach with a drunken wink (.) [changes voice tone] elo darlin do ya fancy a drink? (.) [back to voice] soon they caught them on their knee? (.) twas like some grisly puppetry? (.) such was the ludeness and debauchery (.) twas like a sketch by dick emery (2.5) except that dick emery is not yet born so such comparison (.) may not be drawn (5) then (.) the fellows began to pale (.) for quail are not the friend of ale (.) and in their bellies much confusion (.) fro their throats vile extrusion [repeats hand gesture of throwing up] (1) stinking foul corruption came spewing forth (.) from drooling lips that feted stench did fill the pub (.) twas the very arse of Beelzebub (2) thrown they were from horn and trumpet (.) in the street no coin no strumpet (.) homeward bound they must quickly go (.) to that then the donkey stole (.) their hands all with vomit greased (.) the donkey (.) was not pleased (2) and threw them into a ditch of shite (.) they all agreed [changes voice] what a brilliant night.