User:Klknight97/sandbox

Assignment #6: Final Draft

Education and Early Career

Bell received a PhD scholarship from the University of Auckland in 1970. Seeing as how Bell had wanted to study linguistics but lacked the sufficient background to do so, the scholarship allowed him to have the sufficient amount of funding to study abroad to do the coursework for the field. Bell ended up going to London, England and began attending and auditing courses that were being taught by well-known London linguistics, including Randolph Quirk, Ruth Kempson, Neil Smith, Dick Hudson, and Bill Downs.

With Bill Labov serving as the external examiner for his PhD dissertation, Bell modeled his research in a similar manner that Labov had done by looking at the similarities and differences of different radio stations through varying social class audiences. Bell alluded in his dissertation that he applied VSLX methods to the study of newspaper language: "And I remember writing you know from New Zealand such a distant star in the Linguistic universe.Transformational grammar said, "you can't do this kind of work" you know studying news language to see how style works. You know there's no way to do this. It varies. We don't do "vary." Well, I discovered that there were these people who had started to study variation and that made possible what I did."

Bell's dissertation took three radio stations in New Zealand, each one coming from the same studio, in order to tackle certain linguistic variables: consonant cluster simplification; the voicing of intervocalic t; negative contraction, auxiliary contraction, and specific determiner deletion. Through the use of VSLX techniques, Bell was able to uncover numerous difference amongst the radio stations. Bell led an audience survey, which uncovered that different sections and communities of the New Zealand population were being targeted in different manners by the radio stations. This led Bell to conclude that people will shift their styles based on who the audience they are targeting is. This idea led Bell to develop the theory of audience design, a theory that landed a prominent place within the field of sociolinguistics.

While also doing work within the field of sociolinguistics, Bell has worked as a journalist and editor for several news outlets, including daily news services, weekly newspapers, and monthly magazines. Bell was an Honorary Research Fellow at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand.

Journal of Sociolinguistics

Bell co-founded Journal of Sociolinguistics in 1996 with Nikolas Coupland. Having served as regular correspondents to each other's work since the mid-1980s, Bell and Coupland wanted to find a project or study that the two could work on together. The two decided to establish a new Sociolinguistics journal, especially during time when the field was beginning to grow and more publications were needed to be published: "But we had this idea that it would be nice to start a journal. We were both in awe of Language in Society and you know there were certainly other important journals around as well. But it simply occurred to me I think that there wasn't a journal called anything to do with Sociolinguistics and why not? And the [Sociolinguistics] Symposium was growing and there was lot of work around and we thought we could make it work. So, we approached Blackwell and they were utterly utterly wonderful from the very beginning. They saw the opportunity.

The journal was well supported by members of the Sociolinguistic community. Encompassing various areas of sociolinguistics, the journal sought to promote contributions that present thorough research in linguistic and social-scientific endeavors. Bell and Coupland served as co-editors until 2007, which was when Coupland retired and Bell became the primary editor.

Publications

New Zealand Ways of Speaking English (1990)

Co-edited with Janet Holmes, Bell discusses the attitudes, variations, and changes that are associated with New Zealand English. Also offers a pragmatic analysis of New Zealand discourse.

The Language of News Media (1991)

Discussing what media language is and how importance the process of producing it is, Bell emphasizes throughout the publication that journalists and editors don't produce articles, but rather stories that have viewpoints and values that are meant to be analyzed. Bell also stresses his concerns on how audiences can influence media language styles and reconfigure the news that comes along with it.

Approaches to Media Discourse (1998)

Co-edited with Peter Garrett, Bell covers the approaches that are most prominent within media discourse:

• Opinions and ideologies in the press
• Structure of stories in the news
• Television news discourse
• Political and economic news discourse
• Front page discourse

Languages of New Zealand (2006)

Co-edited with Ray Harlow and Donna Starks, Bell looks at New Zealand English, a more recent variety of English that younger New Zealanders have started to claim as part of their identities. Bell, Harlow, and Starks distinguish the use of New Zealand English through the "use of Maori words such as kia ora (hello) and grammatical features such as 'at the weekend'."

The Guidebook to Sociolinguistics (2013)

Serving as a comprehensive oversight to the field, Bell takes a gives an overview of the main terms and concepts of Sociolinguistics. He also discusses the goals and methods that come along with the field. Bell discusses the numerous areas that are associated with the study:

• Multilingualism
• Language shift and maintenance
• Language birth, death, and in time
• Variation in language and situated language
• Language theories and engagement

Klknight97 (talk) 01:09, 6 December 2017 (UTC)

Assignment #4: Working Rough Draft (Rough Outline/Notes)

• Background Information about Allan Bell
  • Received a PhD to study abroad in 1970
  • Didn't have a sufficient background to study linguistics, despite the fact that that was what he wanted to study
    • Scholarship allowed him to do coursework for a year outside of New Zealand
    • Went to London to learn more
  • Wrote about how he applied VSLX methods to the study of newspaper language and why
    • "And I remember writing you know from New Zealand such a distant star in the Linguistic universe. Transformational grammar said, "you can do this kind of work" you know studying new language to see how style works. You know there's no way to do this. It varies. We don't do "vary." Well, I discovered that there were these people who had started to study variation and that made possible what I did."
  • Worked as a journalist and editor in different media and news outlets
  • Honorary Research Fellow at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
• Discoveries Made by Allan Bell/What was said in his publications?
  • The Guidebook to Sociolinguistics
    • Comprehensive look on the main terms and concepts of Sociolinguistics, as well as the goals and methods that come along with its research
      • Topics discussed
        • Language shift and maintenance
        • Language birth, death, and in time
        • Variation in Language and situated language
  • New Zealand Language
    • New Zealand Ways of English
      • Topics touched upon in written work:
        • Attitudes of NZE
        • Variation and Change in NZE
        • Pragmatic Analysis of New Zealand Discourse
  • Media Language
    • The Language of News Media
      • Discusses media language and the importance of the process of it
        • Journalists and editors don't produce articles, but rather stories that have viewpoints and values that are meant to be analyzed
        • How audiences can influence media language styles and reconfiguring the news that comes along with it

Article Evaluation

Article: Language and gender

Is everything in the article relevant to the topic?

• Everything that is touched upon in the article is relevant to the topic of language and gender. There isn't anything that seems like it shouldn't belong in article that discusses the how language is similar and different between different genders.

Is the article neutral?

• The article appears to be neutral in some areas but fails to do so in other parts. In the "Dominance versus subjection" and "Self-disclosure" sections, there seem to be some statements made that appear to be a matter of opinion rather than fact. Some of the statements made also don't have citations to go with them.

Do the links works? Does the source support the claim of the article?

• Many of the sources that are used are scholarly articles that I have to pay for to get access to, so I can't confirm whether or not those sources support the claim of the article. There seems to only be one or two links to actual websites, which are used to properly support the claims made in certain sections of the article (Example: "Verbal Aggression" section).

Is each fact referenced with an appropriate, reliable reference? Where does the information come from?

• The facts that do are referenced are linked to scholarly articles. That being said, there are some facts and claims made in the article that are without a source at all. This was something that was touched upon on the "Talk" page of the article, with one editor saying the article could be improved if there were more reliable sources added into certain sections.

Is any information out of date? Is anything missing that could be added?

• Perhaps something regarding how different genders use language on social media? If there are substantial differences between men and women when they verbally talk, wouldn't there be some other differences in the way the communicate via social media?

Check out the Talk page of the article. What kinds of conversations, if any, are going on behind the scenes about how to represent this topic?

• The different conversations that are taking place on the Talk page mainly cover adding in reliable sources into the article, and adding subsections or merging different articles into this one. One editor proposed merging "Genderlect Theory" with this article, which was successfully done. Another person suggested adding in a "Computer Mediated Section" within the "Self Disclosure" section. Even though this did happen, this new subsection was only 5 sentences. While I can how it can be relevant to the topic, shouldn't it be expanded upon?

How is the article rated? Is it part of any WikiProjects?

• This article is apart of both WikiProject Linguistics and WikiProject Gender Studies. In both WikiProjects, the article is rated as "C-class." WikiProject Linguistics rated the article as "Mid-importance" on the project's importance scale, while WikiProject Gender Studies rated it as "High-importance."

How does the way Wikipedia discusses the topic differ from the way we've talked about it in class?

• While we have touched upon how gender is a social variable in everyday life in terms of language, and a fairly significant one at that, we haven't indulged into immense detail about it as much as this article has.

Assignment #3: Choosing My Article

Article: Allan Bell (sociolinguist)

This stub is currently a "meh" article. A lot more could be added to it to make it better than it already it is.

One thing that could be added is more background about Allan Bell. While there is already a little bit of information regarding his background and his start in the field, more could possibly be added.

The most important thing in this stub that can be improved upon is what exactly Allan Bell has talked about and discovered in the areas of sociolinguistics he has covered. What is his stance on language style? Media language? I feel that if actual information about his work was added to the stub would be more beneficial instead of just saying "this are the areas he has covered."

What exactly has he said in his publications? That might be something that could be added to this stub.

Sources:

Tagliamonte, Sali A. "Making Waves: The Story of Variationist Sociolinguistics." 2016. 34.

Bell, Allan and Janet Holmes. "New Zealand Ways of Speaking." Multilingual Matters Ltd. 1990.

Bell, Allan. "The Guidebook to Sociolinguistics." Wiley-Blackwell. 2013.

Bell, Allan. "Language Style as audience design." Cambridge University Press. 1984.

Klknight97 (talk) 06:31, 9 October 2017 (UTC)