Garry Plappert
I am a Lecturer in Applied Linguistics at the University of Birmingham and am Assessment and Progress Lead for Postgraduate programmes in the Department of English Language and Linguistics.
Location United Kingdom
Activity
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@LuisRobertoRibeiro A fascinating example of discourses clashing, in my view! So, actually, Rousseff was showing her familiarity with what we might think of as 'insider' discourse patterns (ways of talking about things) in the area of renewable energies, but people *not* familiar with that discourse (or, possibly more likely, people disingenuously *pretending*...
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Hi Mallika, Yes indeed- this is often referred to as the 'productiveness' of grammar and is one of the arguments put forward for teaching grammar explicitly to learners.
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@JillRogoff Hi Jill, I'm really sorry that this wasn't clearer- this is really just the title for the week. No one commented on this in last year's run so I didn't really notice this issue. Thanks for your comment and I'll alter this for future versions.
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@PaulineAuger Sorry about this- but yes- an 'article' in this nomenclature really just means 'a thing' ;-) Sorry you felt that it was redundant. We had *far too much material* for this course, so definitely not padding ;-)
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Hi June, Yes, I'm sure this is right- the difficulties with grammar then come when the details are so subtle that they are hard to internalise, or perhaps when we do not receive sufficient input to allow us to internalise them, or (all to often) when there is an attempt to 'prescribe' a specific grammatical pattern on others.
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Hi Rute, Yes- and again this is the distinction between being able to produce grammar and knowing the metalanguage (language about language) that we use to discuss it, and thereby developing more systematic understanding.
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Garry Plappert replied to Shahram Salehizadeh
@AngelaDraper Sure, and this is a good point. Employing regression is not 'wrong', but it is a sign for us to consider what the cause of the regression is. As a reading strategy it is entirely sound.
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Garry Plappert replied to Chloe G
Hi Chloe,
This is a very good point about diversity and it is unfortunate that we have started the course with an all male week. The whole course, though, will reflect (at least) the diversity within our department, and you will hear from a number of female academics in the coming weeks.
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Garry Plappert replied to Elizaveta Bruchikova
Hi Elizaveta,
Again, we tried to design this course to be of interest to everyone and especially to be of use to the complete beginner, but (so?) it is especially gratifying to hear that those who already have some experience of linguistics at University level are enjoying it and finding it useful and informative. Thanks!
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Garry Plappert replied to Iwona Filip
Hi Iwona,
Thank you so much for your comments and, as I think Adam says in the video, he very often has to tell this to *professional linguists*, who also don't know this! So this is a very commonly held view.
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Garry Plappert replied to Jessica Hyde
Hi Jessica- absolutely, and I think that the revelation that gesture can influence meaning so profoundly is a very surprising one to most people. A number of people on the course have commented about politicians' use of gesture (which is generally quite odd) and their guardedness and care in this area is another sign of its key importance, I would say. Anyway,...
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Garry Plappert replied to LEE KEAN NG
@LEEKEANNG Hi, thanks for the comments and I am very proud to have helped to create something as interesting as a Korean drama ;-) Thanks also for the information that you have studied linguistics at PG level and yet are still really enjoying this! Of course I'm very happy about this because, as I promised at the start, we really aimed to make this course...
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Garry Plappert replied to richard laubly
Great. We expected that this would be a little surprising, but (I assume this is what you 'got') these aspects really help us to move beyond the obvious to what is really fundamental about language- what does it do, what are its limits, and even, what *isn't* language.
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Garry Plappert replied to Jessica Hyde
Continuation- From Bodo Winter:
'2. I am not aware of any work on spoken creole languages and gesture. It seems likely, however, that there would be higher gesture rates in any language contact situation since iconic gestures are more transparent, and thus perhaps more likely understood across cultures.
3. There is some work which shows that autism... -
Garry Plappert replied to Jessica Hyde
Hi Jessica,
Thanks very much for your comment and questions. I liked them so much that I contacted Dr. Winter and he has provided the following for you- I will have to send it over a couple of comments as there is a 'maximum comment length' here on Futurelearn. Best, Garry.
From Dr. Bodo Winter:
'These are *excellent* questions!
1. I am not aware...
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Garry Plappert replied to Safa Azzam
Sure, and this is often the case in linguistics- can you give us some examples that you think are hard to classify?
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Garry Plappert replied to Pieter Luthi
Hi Pieter,
I really like this post because most linguists would agree with you that as individuals we have quite a (surprisingly?) poor handle on our own language use in all respects, and this would certainly be the case with gesture. You're right about the role in teaching, and actually Bodo has also done work looking at the gestures used by teachers of...
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Garry Plappert replied to Margaret Tong
A great post! I suspect (but have no evidence) that Trump does this because his advisors have ordered him (if that is actually possible. Just advised him, maybe) to 'quieten' his hands down to avoid offence and indeed to avoid 'giving away' hidden thoughts. This is one of the 'downsides' (or upsides, depending on how you think of it!) of the link between...
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Garry Plappert replied to Margaret Tong
Hi Margaret,
My son is just learning to do this! These would mostly be iconic gestures, I would say.
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Garry Plappert replied to Margaret Tong
Hello again Margaret,
Yes I think this fits in with a number of comments here about cultural specificity. Bodo has told me many times that he finds it extremely frustrating that anyone is discouraged from gesturing! This is because the gesturing is thought to aid cognition.
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Garry Plappert replied to Margaret Tong
Hi Magaret, sorry about that! I'll have a look at the 'student view' and try to let you know. But anyway, no problem!
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Garry Plappert replied to Gail T
Indeed! I have always felt uncomfortable using this kind of gesture in this context, and especially the 'check signing' or 'bill' gesture, and I wonder if this is, as has been suggested to me, an 'English' thing.
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Garry Plappert replied to Thuy Ngoc Tran
Hi,
Thanks for this very detailed and interesting post! I was particularly struck by what you say about the Yoga 'mudras'- can you say a little bit more about this? What are they trying to convey and why do they gesture, do you think?
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Garry Plappert replied to richard laubly
Hi Richard- interesting- are you sure!? Keep an eye on yourself! Usually when I'm teaching this I suddenly become aware that I gesture a lot more than I *thought* I did...
Thanks for the post!
Garry
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Garry Plappert replied to Sheila Clarke
Hi Sheila,
Fair enough, and thanks for the feedback! Linguistics has been applied to such a wide range of things that there is almost certain to be areas in which one has no interest (my own research into scientific discourse often has this effect on people ;-) ). Really glad, though, that you loved the rest!
Garry
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Hi,
Sure and thanks for the feedback. Did you have a look at the CLiC tool online?
Garry
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Ian,
Thanks for pointing this out! We will indeed get this edited.
Garry
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Hi Vera,
Yes I have a lot of sympathy for that perspective, but we are all starting to realise the potential and also the importance of social media. If you look back at Jack Grieve's research, you will remember that he is able to study linguistic trends through very large collections of data (billions of words) with very fine-grained geographical...
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Hi Devon,
Yes that's exactly right, he was- so the idea was that oral narratives effectively underpin such later practices, but also that (as Ruth says in the video), you can't fully appreciate what is being done in, for example, a poststructuralist approach, unless you understand what these practices are. To get a bit metaphorical, if creative artists are...
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Hi,
Yes- that's exactly right- so Ruth and others are trying to develop, as you say, more flexible (perhaps also more complex and more detailed) models in order to accurately describe and account for more complex types of story telling- Ruth's work on networked narratives- stories being told by large numbers of people via social media- is a really interesting...
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Garry Plappert replied to Rebecca Burton
Thanks for pointing this one out! We will fix it imminently.
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Garry Plappert replied to Toni Glasson
Hi Toni- so chuffed that it is the complexity that you enjoyed! Your comment is much appreciated :-)
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Garry Plappert replied to Kathryn Miller
Hi Kathryn- Indeed, the 'myth' of there being a 'universal' sign language does seem to be very common... In fact, Adam often has to explain this to professional linguists, since they often aren't aware of it either!
