Dr Robert Winston: How children produce and acquire language

• Words are the most important thing a child can learn.
• When babies first learn language, they use a different part of the brain to what adults use for learning a new language.
• The larynx is higher up in babies. The advantage of this is that they can’t choke, however the disadvantage is that they produce less language. Having said this, the larynx drops by three centimetres by the time they’re a year old.
• It can potentially take thirty different muscles to coordinate a sound, e.g. mummy. This is when a child is fifteen months old.
• The larynx adapts to how much language we can produce.
• Toddlers can learn up to ten new words a day and this is due to social interaction (Vygotsky.)
• Children can get grammar right almost immediately, with the exception being irregular grammar.
• Children have an instinctive map for grammar.
• Children can apply logical rules for plurals, but have to be taught the exceptions.
• When a child reaches eighteen months, they can use tantrums to get their own way. This is because they are developing self-awareness. Use of pronouns start to kick in here too.
• There are constant alterations in the developing brain.

Art of Cookery – Roasting and Boiling Text Analysis

The purpose of the text is to instruct, written using formal lexis. It’s in the mode of a recipe and due to it being written in 1747, the audience would be simply cooks and not those who are just into cooking as a pastime. It would only be aimed at females, because pragmatically males wouldn’thave been seen in the kitchen during this time.

The age of the text is emphasised through the use of graphology. The font is old-fashioned and basic, as at the time there wasn’t the technology around to produce eye-catching recipes. Standardisation is something that was coming into place during the time the text was written, however there are still clear examples of non-standard forms. For example, there is capitalisation of what we’d now consider to be concrete nouns, e.g. ‘Mutton’ and ‘Paper.’ Nowadays, these concrete nouns are not capitalised, showing a clear change in standardisation. In terms of graphemic symbols, there is consistent use of the extended ‘s’, which we no longer see in modern texts.

There is a clear semantic field of cooking, shown lexically by the words: ‘Gravy’ ‘Flour’ ‘Pepper’ and ‘Salt.’ This is referential language as the audience will be able to relate to what is being discussed in the text. There is reference to laying the meat to the ‘fire.’ Once again, the use of lexis ‘fire’ shows the age of the text as no one nowadays uses the fire to prepare a meal. Lexis ‘mutton’ and ‘lamb’ have undergone pejoration as today a woman can be described as ‘mutton dressed as lamb’ meaning a lady who dresses too young for her age.