project #1

Due 9/29

“A man with whom, in private conversation, I am on the friendliest terms sometimes becomes a stranger to me when I hear him speak in public.”

Analects ----PAUL VALERY

Get To Know Your Idiolect

We are all able communicators, possessing a complex “repertoire of codes” (varieties of speech) which we choose from as different circumstances arise. To convince yourself that there are no single code speakers, try for an entire day not to vary your own speech style as circumstances change. For example, try to speak to your pet, children, professors, boss, parents, clerk at the supermarket, frat pals, and complete strangers in exactly the same way. (Be sure to consider all the structural levels of language which you may be varying---pronunciation, word choice, grammar, precision of articulation, formality, tone, pitch, methods of address; “sir” versus “yo man,” etc.).

--Then, report in detail on the following:

1.     Were you successful? If not, please explain how and why you failed.

2.     How did you feel about what you were doing as your communicative circumstances changed?

3.     How did others react to you?

--Supply at least two brief specific accounts of your linguistic trials. (Highlights of your day)

--Describe your “idiolect”? (List the “codes” in your “linguistic repertoire” that you can identify from this exercise).