Hello!
I have recently been writing up practice essays, and I have to say I hate that feeling when you
complete an essay, and feel that the structure and organisation is "all over the place"..
I guess only practice will rectify such problems :\
Anyway, I would be grateful if anyone passing by could take a read at my (poorly written) essay
and criticise it as 'harshfully' as they please? It would really help me if I could receive some points for
improving my essay writing skills.
Question two: As Australia moves into the new millennium, we find we are losing our language. Discuss the changes occurring to the Australian English and the forces of change acting on it.
As time goes on, English as a language will inevitably change, and Australian English is no exception to this naturally occurring phenomena. From the landing of the first fleet until now, there have been many factors which cause an impact on the unique features of Australian English- most of the major changes being a recent occurrence as we move into the new millennium. Forces such as Americanisation and the widespread availability of technology (also dubbed ‘the Global Village’) have brought English speakers from all over the world to mingle and interchange speech. Predominantly, the ‘Global Village’ has been started by America and hence the dominant English of this ‘Global Village’ is American English. It is factors such as these that eventually and ultimately change the face of Australian English.
Technology has only recently come to be conveniently available to all, in co-ordinance with the Internet. These mentioned events are a major step in not only mankind, but also the English language of mankind. Technology and the Internet have allowed all languages to be present in front of people from all over the world. The users of the Internet will eventually become accustomed to semantics which may not be a norm in Australian English, and eventually these differently used words will merge into Australian English. Such examples include the usage of the word ‘dog’: to betray or to not show any loyalty to someone, ‘fail’: an interjection used when one is not successful at an attempt at something, and ‘gay’: previously meaning “happy” and “joyful”, is now most commonly used as an insult or a word to show disapproval. These semantic movements in lexicon are often caused by the teenagers of the new millennium, accompanied by the use of Technology and the Internet, as the social beings they are (Differences in accent are more likely to be due to Social rather than Regional differences)-Cox. The usage of words can be picked up easily via social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, and spread throughout the net by these teenagers, which will eventually result in a dominant use in the very same word, but for a different function. Technology allows people from vast distances to communicate amongst each other without the need of actually being physically present next to the recipients of the given speech- a force of change which only the new millennium can provide.
Changes in the lexicon of Australian English due to Technology, the global preference of American English and the Internet are also becoming apparent, with natively speakers using “buddy” or “dude” instead of the traditional “mate”, using the word “momentarily” (which is an Americanism), the usage of “movie” instead of “film” and abbreviations which are used over the Internet: “rofl”, “lmao” and “wtv” are becoming very used in Australian English. Morphological changes such as the –ize ending instead of the Australian –ise ending are also becoming more widespread within Australian English. This is due to the fact that most of the media, entertainment and the Internet originates from America, so it is no surprise that we are becoming increasingly comfortable with American directors, singers/pop stars, celebrities and even online scripts used to design and construct websites are written in American English. Frequent usage of abbreviations also catch on for convenience, time and sometimes even for money when trying to limit the amount of letters/symbols used while text typing (or SMS as Australian English might know it as nowadays). Repeated exposure and usage of American terms will also eventually bring about change in Australian English via being mixed into the ‘what was once essentially homogeneous’, heterogeneous lexica of Australian English. Native speakers of Australian English may pick up these terms and trends as it comes to them, resulting in the eventual incorporation of new lexemes into Australian English.
The syntax of the Australian English is also changing, and at a quite rapid rate, due to factors such as technology, and the global preference of American English. Teenagers are also to blame for these changes, as they quite often use what is known as ‘Valley girl speak’ and ‘Gangsta speak’, which both originate from the United States. Technology has allowed contact between these types of speech styles and Australian English, and so the syntax of most teenagers may now include various American lexicon and syntactical features: “Like, totally”, “You go girl!”, “’Sup, my homie” and “Son of a bitch”. As Americanism invents these new speech styles and as technology brings about exposure of these speech styles to all with access to technology, native speakers of Australian English may begin using such speech styles alongside with Australian English. Users of this speech style may influence native speakers of Australian English through the Internet, through music, through literature and even through movies (or films). With time, these factors will unexpectedly change the way Australian English is used, contributing to the overall force that is changing Australian English.
As time moves into the new millennium, the invention and public introduction of technology allow people from all over the world, and speakers of different Englishes’ to be connected. New forces are continuously being introduced and simultaneously affecting the way Australian English is used. The semantics, lexicon, syntax and morphology of the Australian English continue to change and remain unstable: especially in the face of Technology, Americanisation, Media, Music and the Internet- which are the main forces in the action of change.
At this point, I thank you for taking your time to read it (if you did!)
Send some improvement points to me! I really need some at this time
(because my essays feel like they suck...)
Thanks!
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