Analysis of Corpus on Blog
- 1. ASSIGNMENT 2 ANALYSIS OF CORPUS ON BLOG Group Members : Siti Nur Diyana Mohd Ghazali (0727706) : Nurul Liyana Binti Janah@Zainal (0723990) : Noor Arina Binti Muhamad (0726896) : Melisa Nurjustina Elwiana Muhd Alwin Liew (0719306) Course Code : ENGL 4740 Course Title : Computer Application in Language Studies Section :1 Instructor : Dr. Rozina Abd. Ghani Semester : 2, 2010/2011
- 2. 2 Introduction One of the modes of Computer Application Communication is blog. A blog is a type of website or part of a website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. Blog can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog. Most blogs are interactive, allowing visitors to leave comments and even message each other via widgets on the blogs and it is this interactivity that distinguishes them from other static websites (Wikipedia). Therefore, we have chosen a blog by Nasree Najmi (www.reethekick.blogspot.com) who is currently pursuing his master degree in Sports Science at UiTM, Shah Alam to be analysed. He is an ex-ICT graduate of IIUM. He actively involved in Taekwondo and Karate (martial arts) and has his own training classes. Using this sample of corpus from the blog, we have analysed important aspects of language of the corpus which are the intention of writings, information contained in the blog, language used and symbolism. Not forgetting the two linguistics aspects that we also focus on; The Cooperative Principles and Politeness. We studied his blog and have done a personal interview with him to get a better understanding of his blog. Intention His main intention creating a blog was at first, to reply to an argument posted by a coach. He wants to make clear of some issues pertaining to Taekwondo tournament which somehow dissatisfy a coach. Since that incident, he keeps on using his blog mainly to share his ideas and experiences and to exchange thoughts with the readers. However, he seldom updates his blog. In his blog, he likes to touch on issues which can capture his readers‟
- 3. 3 attention. Issues like health, Islamic thoughts and personal life are very much fond by people. Each topic has its own messages and values. For example, when he talks about Dajjal, he mainly wants to share his readings with his readers, when he talks about his Convocation Day and his family visit to India, he merely shares his own experiences and when he touches on health topic, it is just to add some general knowledge and facts to his readers. When he writes, he loves to leave a punch-line in every post to emphasize the message of his posts. Information When we view his blog, the first sight that captures our attention is some pictures which are displayed on the top of his blog. The pictures resemble his personalities and his hobbies. Then he describes that he would love to share his experiences and knowledge through his blog with the readers. There is a lot of information from his blog archive that can benefit us. It is because he shares everything from his experiences that he has gone through in his life and there is also some knowledge about Islam that has been shared such as „Dajjal‟. Other various information such as his Convocation Day which gives meaning to his life, “Syawal in India”, Back to the Root, “Marhaban Ya Ramadhan”, “Health is Wealth”, and “Tanggungjawab Black Belt yang Tak Gentleman are shared in his blog. We found out something interesting from the interview done. His topics of writings are very much influenced by the way how he was brought up. His father has taught him to be disciplined and how to be a good leader. They always talk about issues about life, discipline and Islamic issues. That is why, the topic of “Dajjal”, is there on his post. In every post, he will leave the moral of the story to give a reflection to his readers. Furthermore, his post on “Health is Wealth” the information gives benefits to his readers.
- 4. 4 Alongside these posts, we have noticed that he put his complete profile and his own picture to let the readers know his background. From that information, we have the prediction that perhaps he is a simple and a low profile person. In overall, each post that he has shared has a valuable moral value in it and it is very useful to the readers who view his blog to get some general insight. Language We analyzed Nasree‟s blog and found out that the language used in his blog is more informal and thus makes the blog quite democratic form of expression. His communication to readers is usually direct and casual. Some posts, however, are formally written. His blog posts do not go through editors or spellcheckers necessarily and hence he takes the liberty to freely use language as he wishes. Sociolinguistics is a study of the speaker‟s age, sex and social class. A bilingual blogger like Nasree, is faced with the choice of two languages for his posts. While some bloggers prefer to keep them separate, others choose to write in both languages. In the case of Nasree, he prefers to share his thoughts, express his emotions and ideas mostly in Bahasa Melayu as he uses mostly Bahasa Melayu in his daily conversations. However, when it comes to facts, he prefers to write them in English. In terms of stylistics and semantics, Nasree‟s way of writing his blog posts differs from one another. When he talks about his emotions or whenever he wants to give a critique, his message is much more direct to the readers, uses informal style of writing and certain punctuation marks to connote his state of mind. On the other hand, when he talks about health and life experiences, his way of writing is much more rule-based.
- 5. 5 Symbolism Symbols and pictures are frequently use in the blog to make the blog looks interesting. Some bloggers use more pictures in the blog than words. Sometimes pictures speak to the world as the famous quotation sings that “A picture worth a thousand words”. Colours of the background and colours of the pictures can attract readers. Symbols and pictures are important to invite as many followers as they could. Nasree does not use the emoticons constantly. He only uses emoticons four times throughout his blog and prefers simple emoticons. Most of his post uses a normal writing manner. He uses the question mark in a normal way and at the right spot. There are posts in his blog which use question mark twice to show his seriousness in getting the answer for his questions. The background picture of his blog also gives a simple connotation. He has chosen that background because he likes it and of its simple design. Therefore, it connotes him as a simple person and someone who likes art. One thing that captures of eyesight is when he uses numbers as his username which is 511sidekick. 511 is the trademark number of his family. That number also has been used as his personal cell phone number and his car plat number. The word sidekick resembles his involvement in Taekwondo and sidekick is one of the basic kicks in Taekwondo. The pictures that are used in this blog are relevant to every story that he writes. The writers put his own pictures and this show his guts in exposing himself to the public. He does not afraid of being responsible of his own writing when he chooses to put his own picture in his blog. The pictures that are used suit his writings.
- 6. 6 Cooperative Principles People who obey the Cooperative Principles or known as Gricean Maxims in their language used will make sure that what they say in a conversation furthers the purpose of that conversation (Wikipedia). The four sub-principles, called maxims are being discussed further under The Cooperative Principles. The four maxims are Quantity, Quality, Relation and Manner. His writings fit all the maxims mentioned and can be seen throughout his posts in his blog. Politeness Politeness in an interaction can then be defined as the means employed to show awareness of another person‟s face. In this sense, Politeness can be accomplished in situations of social distance or closeness. Showing awareness for another person‟s face when that other seems socially distant is often described in terms of respect or deference. Showing the equivalent awareness when the other is socially close is often described in terms of friendliness, camaraderie, or solidarity. When we tend to save another‟s face, we can pay attention to their negative face wants or their positive face wants (Yule, 2011). Thus, under Politeness, we have analysed his positive and negative face wants. In this case, he has his own freedom to write anything he fond of. Not only that, his writings is meant to be shared and to be liked by others without hurting their feelings. Literature Review The first article entitled Using Blogs to Enhance Critical Reflection and Community of Practice written by Shih-Hsien Yang from the Department of Applied Foreign Languages, National Formosa University, YunLin, Taiwan has been reviewed and this paper seeks the use of blogs as a reflective platform in the schooling processes of English as Foreign
- 7. 7 Language (EFL) student teachers, who learnt to teach English for future employment in Taiwan. They made use of blogs as a platform to critically reflect on their learning processes as well as to test the impact of blogs for their own professional growth (Yang, 2009). According to Yang (2009) two instructors created a blog as a discussion forum so that the student teachers could participate in and examine their own reflection process. The data collected was qualitative in nature, consisting of student teachers‟ posting messages and comments on the blog, surveys on the student teachers‟ reflective experiences using blogs as reflection tools, and group reflective dialogues recorded by instructors in class meetings over the implementation of blogs during the course. The results showed that the student teachers energetically discussed teaching theories and their implications through blogs (Yang, 2009). Based on Yang, (2009) all of the 43 teachers who took part in this study were reflective, and some critically reflected on their thoughts and made significant comments; and the participants considered technology a useful platform for reflecting and communicating with each other. The positive implications for the use of blogs as a medium to provide and promote critical reflection for EFL teachers are discussed. Yang quoted Efimova and Fiedler (2003) that blogs is characterized as “personal diary-like-format websites enabled by easy to use tools and open for everyone to read”. Godwin-Jones (2003) in Yang (2009) article also indicates that through blogging, people are able to document their reflections about things relevant to their daily life experiences, sharing such things with their friends, families, and/or group members. He further points out that blogs and other social networking sites provide new opportunities and incentives for personal writing. According to the second article entitled “Gender differences in usage, satisfaction, self-efficacy and performance of blogging” by Eric Zhi Feng Liu and Yu Fang Chang, female users update blogs more than male users. Female users love to talk about gossip and that is the reason they use blogs more than male users (Zhi & Yu, 2010). According to Zhi & Yu
- 8. 8 (2010) “Students have high self-efficacy in using the blog because the instructor can answer or solve their problem immediately in the class or provide them with practice time in class”. There were no gender differences in both satisfaction and self-efficacy. This implies that both men and women in the class were satisfied with the teaching of blogging, and that they confidently used blogs after the class (Zhi & Yu, 2010). In the third article entitled “Blogging in teacher professional development: Its role in building computer-assisted language teaching skills, Puvaneswary Murugaiah et al (2010) cited McLaughlin and Oberman (1996) that a teacher who learns, gains an understanding of new concepts of content and pedagogy as well as the new role of educator that he plays. The researchers also cited Yang (2009) blogs present a platform for teachers to improve themselves through interaction with others. Moreover, from Efimova & Fiedler (2003), blogs promote community building as they are constructed by people who share mutual interests to discuss common issues. Puvaneswary Murugaiah et al (2010) quoted Barlett-Bragg (cited in Muwanga-Zake et al, 2010), blogs provide an opportunity to engage in and scaffold knowledge construction and blogging has the potential to boost constructivist cognition and meta-cognition (higher order thinking skills). Analysis The two aspects that are discussed in this analysis are The Cooperative Principles and Politeness. The four sub-principles, called maxims are being discussed further under The Cooperative Principles. The four maxims are Quantity, Quality, Relation and Manner. Besides that, Politeness is very much put into focus of this discussion. The reason these two linguistic aspects are taken is because they occurred much throughout his blog. The Maxim of Quantity (Quantity of Information) talks about how to make our contribution as informative as is required (for the current purposes of the exchange) or how
- 9. 9 not to make our contribution more informative than is required (Yule, 2011). His writings fit the two descriptions. He writes little to avoid his readers get bored and he writes much to give his readers full information and a clear picture of what he wants to say. For example, when he talks about „Dajjal‟ and „Health is Wealth‟, he provides as much information as he could to create the awareness to his readers on these issues. At the same time, he wants to make clear of the issue that he critiques on like „Tanggungjawab Black Belt yang Tak Gentleman‟. On the other hand, when he posted „Back to the Root‟ and „Marhaban Ya Ramadhan‟, he simply wants to greet his readers and to welcome the month of Ramadhan and to give moral values of the importance of being a good servant of Allah. The Maxim of Quality (Be Truthful) talks about how we should not say what we believe to be false and which we lack of adequate evidence (Yule, 2011). In this case, Nasree‟s blog is reliable as 80% of his posts are from his own experiences for instance; the posts on „Syawal di India‟ and when he shares his experience on his Convocation Day. Furthermore, he knows what to say and is an expert of the topics he shares. There are some issues posted by him are based on his readings and taken from reliable sources like the topics of dajjal and health. He does not violate the Maxim of Quality by exaggerating his creative writing to look good in the eye of his readers. The Maxim of Relation (Relevance) talks about the relevancy of what we uttered and to always be relevant (Yule, 2011). He often compares his experiences with his friends and analyse those experiences and see the relevancy of the information before posted the information to his blog. He has his own arguments and interpretations of certain issues and always looks for reliable and relevant sources. As in the issues of ‘Dajjal, he gets the information from prominent and knowledgeable Ustaz. From the interview done, we found out that the health topic is taken from a Professor‟s blog in India. In addition, we have noticed that all his posts‟ titles are relevant with the content of the message that he wants to
- 10. 10 deliver. This method plays an important role because it can easily capture the attention of his readers. The Maxim of Manner (Be Clear) talks about how to avoid obscurity of expression, to avoid ambiguity, to be brief (avoid unnecessary prolixity) and to be orderly (Yule, 2011) when we conversing. He always speaks directly and does not have any hidden meanings. He avoids being ambiguity in his writings and shows his real expression. For instance, „Tanggungjawab Black Belt yang Tak Gentleman‟ shows his dissatisfaction while when we read on his Convocation story, we can sense his happiness. The wordiness of his posts is depending on the issues that he wants to focus on. If it is wordiness, it is because of the tendency to give full information of the issues such as in the issue of “Dajjal” where he is giving the accurate and useful information. If it is brief, it is merely to let his readers to get the gist of his information and to avoid his readers get bored. For the Positive Politeness Strategy, it means being complimentary and gracious to the addressee but if this is overused the speaker may alienate the other party. Thus, under Politeness, we have analysed his positive and negative face wants. In this case, he has his own freedom to write anything he fond of. Not only that, his writings is meant to be shared and to be liked by others without hurting their feelings. He starts his blog posts with “Salam” and ends with “have a nice day, Wassalam”. These greetings make readers feel welcomed and give them a pleasant feeling while reading. Most of the issues that are brought up in his blog posts are positive. Even if it sounds negative, it is just merely a critique. Therefore, it gives impact or tends to influence people to respond in a positive manner as well, particularly when there are different opinions between the blogger and the readers. In addition, when the relationship is socially close between the blogger and the reader, the comments are more polite even if they disagree with the writer‟s ideas.
- 11. 11 His writings are seen as positive and were written in a polite manner. He does not like to critique in a negative way as he considers the feelings of his readers. He critiques directly to his target person but in a good manner as in “Tanggungjawab Black Belt yang Tak Gentlemen”. He knows to whom he wants to give his message to regardless of the relationship that he has with any particular person. Most of his messages are for his general readers and are meant to capture their attentions. Among the benefits of using blog is to influence others and to be influenced by others. By reading others‟ blogs, Nasree could gain new knowledge and insights on certain issues which of his interests. For that reason, it is important not to be irrational and be too emotional in writing something and when want to criticize someone. That is why he uses this politeness strategy when addressing his readers which is very much effective in delivering messages and at the same time respecting readers‟ feelings and faces.
- 12. 12 References Liu, Z. F. E. & Yu, F. C. (2010). Gender differences in usage, satisfaction, self-efficacy and performance of blogging. British Journal of Educational Technology, Vol. 41( 3). Puvaneswary Murugaiah et al (2010). Blogging in teacher professional development: Its role in building computer-assisted language teaching skills. International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT), Vol. 6 ( 3), 73-87. Yang, S. H. (2009). Using blogs to enhance critical reflection and community of practice. Educational Technology & Society, Vol.12 (2), 11–21. Yule, George (2011). Pragmatics. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press. Blog. Retrieved on 15th February 2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog Cooperative Principle. Retrieved on 11th February 2011 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cooperative_principle www.reethekick.blogspot.com