The first soap opera broadcast was a radio soap produced in America in the 1930’s. The first soap opera was called ‘Painted Dreams’ which premiered in October 1930. ‘Painted Dreams’ was targeted mainly at a female audience. The word ‘Soap opera’ came from the advertisements of soaps (washing soaps), this appealed to women in particular because they were left at home to do housework, and not long after soaps became more popular more women were listening to Soap operas whilst doing housework. The popularity of soaps has increased since they first broadcast.
TV soaps mimic spontaneous speech by using their dialect form the specific region that the soap is aimed at for example: Eastenders is from the East end of England . The actors in Eastenders use a ‘cockney’ dialect; the audience recognise the cockney accent because it is made familiar in films and soap operas including Eastenders.
Different soaps use different dialects such as: Coronation Street use a very strong Northern accent Women believed that listening to these soap operas allowed them to escape from their everyday problems by immersing themselves in a more dramatic scene presented in the soap operas. Soap operas emphasised on how other people and cultures lived. Dallas was a famous soap opera in the seventies, the British audience were amazed by the extent of exaggeration that was presented in this soap, and the houses were a particular object that stood out because of their size, at this time Britain was not used to seeing houses of this size. Soap operas also shown how others lived for example some presented how the lower class (even poverty) lived, some show the middle or working class lived and what interested most was how the higher class lived. Soaps were made not only to entertain but also to portray political issues to the public. Eastenders is a soap that uses many political and everyday ‘real life’ issues that the audience can relate to. Eastenders was first broadcast in 1985, approximately a third of the British public tuned in to watch at first and the majority if the audience were women. Mostly lower-working class people watched Eastenders because it is how they lived themselves. A wide range of diversity was presented in Eastenders; there were women, men and younger characters to appeal to a wider audience. Eastenders emphasises real life situations and political issues for example: homosexuality, unemployment/poverty, racism, sexism, exams, teenage pregnancy (aimed at the teenage audience), affairs and disappearances. All of these issues have appeared in the news sometimes more than once which is why Eastenders raises awareness and informs the public about issues that do affect real people. Eastenders has a more informative and educational function to it even though the audience may not realise. The benefits of using these reality storylines is that it leaves the viewers with questions and discussions particularly if the episode is left on a cliff-hanger.
Eastenders features spontaneous speech for example fillers are used in their dialect as any other dialect. Non-standard grammar can be used in Eastenders because they sometimes abbreviate words and use slang “me ‘n’ Eddie are just mates” the word ‘and’ is abbreviated to ‘n’ to shorten the sentence , this suggests that the speaker is possibly speaking fast because she is angry. This represents to actual speech because most people do use many types of fillers throughout conversations to break up the flow of speech. On the other hand Eastenders speech is ‘scripted speech’ and therefore not use as many spontaneous speech features as actual speech for example; actual speech consists of more speaker support and back channel features however soap opera speech does not use many at all.

Data set 1 is a phone call conversation between my Mum and I. The phone call was in the afternoon whilst I was at my Grandads house, my Mum wanted to check that I was at my granddads and that I would leave at the correct time.
The interaction between my Mum and I suggests that we have a good relationship and the language appears to be relaxed and informal. My Mum’s use of linguistic features certainly determines that she is dominant and has the most power in the conversation. You can distinguish this by her frequent use of imperatives “right (.) Make sure you get that done then”. After my Mum says the word ‘right’ she pauses to immediately grasp my attention and ensure that I was listening to her. Throughout the conversation my Mum asks the most questions “have you had a nice day at school?”. The conversation consists of equal turn-taking which therefore proves that the relationship between us is close. The turn-taking also shows that we were both being polite and allowing each other to speak without interruptions or overlaps. However because my Mum has proven to be the more dominant person in the conversation she takes a few more turns than myself. My mum takes two turns approximately halfway through the conversation; “ has he ha-ha (laughter) is the first turn , Mum then goes on to say “well make sure that you leave for Craig’s at half-five won’t you?. My Mum immediately changes her tone of voice between these two turns; she alters from using a friendly tone of voice to a very serious tone again used to grab my attention. Once again my Mum is showing power by asking a strong question at the end of her sentence “won’t you?” saying this leaves me no choice but to answer , which suggests that she is in control.
At the start of the conversation my Mum asks me if I have any homework. The way in which I spoke after this question suggests that I was slightly uncomfortable talking about this particular subject mainly because I expected her to say that I had to do it that night. I quickly changed the way I spoke from being polite and using phatic talk to reduce the length of my sentences. I also used more ellipsis than previously “yeah t’was alright” and “yeah sort of I gotta finish some coursework off in childcare” The elision showed that I did not want to go into detail about my homework and wanted to change the topic of the conversation.
I used many back channel features when responding to my Mum to show that I was listening carefully to what she was telling me “right make sure you get that done then” my reply was “yeah I will” At this point in the conversation my speech overlaps with my Mum’s which is another example of me trying to change the direction of the conversation and move away from the ‘homework’ subject and a typical example of spontaneous speech. This example of real talk also provides me with insight into my use of dialect words.
My dialect is shown towards the end of the conversation “yes I will, I won’t cross the road though I will go down the jitty cos it’s quicker”, this shows a lot of my regional dialect because the word jitty means alleyway or a narrow pathway between two terraced houses. I also used elision “cos”. The word ‘jitty’ would also be a form of slang because it is a more simple and effortless word to pronounce. In this quotation I have used a much more informal way of speech. I used abbreviation in this sentence, I abbreviated the word because to “cos”. I did this because it is a much quicker and easier word to say also it is slang which is part of my dialect.
I noticed that in this conversation there were not many fillers used to break up the flow of speech which shows that we could both talk comfortably and fluently. I used one filler in the entire conversation when nobody was speaking to help the conversation flow more efficiently.
Overall my Mum’s idiolect portrays her as dominant , in-control yet caring at the same time she says “I’ve left your things at granddads has he told you?” which shows she is asking a question whilst being caring because of her tone of voice showing the importance of prosodic features in identifying her idiolect.
My idiolect shows that I am polite and listen to my Mum by using back channel features after my Mum has spoken.

In data set 2 the conversation is set in ‘The Queen Vic’ their local pub in Albert Square. The conversation is between Janine and Vanessa; Janine has recently inherited a large sum of money which has left her portraying herself as very arrogant and selfish. Vanessa was previously very wealthy due to her ex-husband however since she has left her husband for Max, and now Max has walked away from her Vanessa is very vulnerable but acts confident and strong.
Janine’s character is manipulative and at times evil. She shows this in parts of the conversation. The context of the conversation affects how they speak to one another. Vanessa and Janine are not often seen communicating together this suggests that they are not close. However neither of them realise that they are in fact very similar, they both have had relationship troubles and Vanessa has a more manipulative side to her. At the start of the conversation Janine enters and uses phatic talk and appears approachable and neighbourly which Vanessa is clearly shocked by “can I get you a drink?” Vanessa replies “oh (.) Yeah great (.) err Vodka and tonic please”, the way that Vanessa starts with “oh” suggests that she is shocked by Janine’s kind offer. This represents actual speech because it is very common to see neighbours in a local pub and some will offer others a drink to be friendly and to progress onto a conversation. Also Vanessa took a short pause almost to think that Janine is joking. This example of speech however soon changes as she becomes more arrogant , she gives the impression to the audience that they know that she is up to something and that there is something behind this friendly language. Janine says: “must be a really hard time for you?” this is not the usual sentence that you would hear from Janine, she then changes to being more arrogant after Vanessa speaks “well I’ve had better(.) and worse”, Janine then interrupts and overlaps Vanessa’s speech by saying “I might be able to help” this is the point when the audience know that she is trying to manipulate Vanessa into something that Janine wants. Vanessa also has some understanding of Janine’s manipulative lexis. Janine’s body language tells a lot about her, she uses very smug and arrogant facial expressions to inform the audience that she has a plan or wants something from Vanessa. Janine’s facial expressions almost annoy and irritate the audience because they know what she is about to do and Vanessa is completely oblivious to it. In soaps body language plays a significant part of how viewers react to the characters as it tells a lot about their personality before they even speak.
Janine wants to make Vanessa jealous; she wants to do this because Vanessa portrays herself as a superior individual comparing herself to her neighbours. Vanessa is losing her ‘reputation’ rapidly which is affecting her and making her more vulnerable, which is the perfect opportunity for Janine to manipulate and offend her.
Janine starts of by saying that she can help Vanessa, Vanessa replies; “really” this shows that Vanessa cannot entirely believe that Janine is being genuine with her. Janine goes on to tell Vanessa that she has started up her own cleaning business and offers Vanessa a job , this deeply offends Vanessa because she considers herself to be superior and cannot see herself as a cleaner “ what as a cleaner!” Vanessa replies to Janine’s ‘almost’ kind offer. The pragmatics behind this sentence is that Janine is hinting to Vanessa that she should take the cleaning job, because she wants her to make a mockery of herself. This represents actual speech because she is offended by it as many would be that class themselves as superior or higher class, this shows that different class people believe in different things, for example; higher class people tend to use overt- prestige and formality in their dialect to impress others, however lower class people would use more covert-prestige because they are more down-to-earth and are not interested in money and exaggerated appearances.
Janine has the intention to offend Vanessa because of her decline in popularity and reputation. After Vanessa says “what as a cleaner!” Janine replies “oh you’d be in very good company (.) I mean Heather’s on board already”, again the short pause suggests that she is deliberately trying to annoy Vanessa, also Heather is considered lower class to Vanessa. Heather is a single parent who will take any job to look after her son. Vanessa strongly disagrees with Janine’s offer “errr (.) I don’t think I’ve sunk quite that low yet” clarifies that Vanessa believes that she is superior and understands that her reputation has decreased. Vanessa uses filler in a form of sarcasm at the start of this quotation.
Janine is certainly more dominant in this conversation as she takes more turns and overlaps Vanessa’s speech frequently; this suggests that Janine is deliberately interrupting Vanessa to get her point across and to irritate Vanessa. Janine demands to be more dominant by overlapping Vanessa; “me and Eddie are just mates” Janine overlaps Vanessa by saying “ohh right yeah that’ll be why you were ree: ling him in with that sob story earlier then” Janine emphasises and elongates the word ‘reeling’ to put emphasis on the fact that she knows what Vanessa wants from Eddie.
Vanessa’s tone of voice changes to being polite to now being very stubborn “I think your imaginations working overtime” she says this to cover what is happening between herself and Eddie.
This is an argumentative conversation because Janine is purposely attempting to irritate Vanessa in a manipulative way “well you ‘n’ Eddie looked very cosy in the café earlier”. Janine uses abbreviation of the word ‘and’ to ‘n’ which is part of the cockney dialect, they tend to use more abbreviated words and pronounce and exaggerate their words with an ‘a’ sound (Peggy Mitchell’s typical saying “faaamily”).
Vanessa’s idiolect proves that she considers herself superior because she does not use the typical east-end dialect and uses more formality in her speech and slight overt-prestige “errr I don’t think I’ve sunk quite that low just yet” even though Vanessa uses elision and abbreviations she knows and presents herself as better than Janine. Vanessa likes to portray herself as higher class , this shows in the quotation because she knows that she has not declined in reputation and ‘class’ as much as Janine wants her to.
Part of the Eastenders sociolect is The Queen Victoria Pub’ which is always shortened to ‘The Queen Vic’ or just ‘The Vic’, every character in Eastenders refers to their local pub as ‘The Vic’. This represents actual speech because locals in any area will have a name or nickname for their local pub, shops etc.
In scripted speech in soap operas it is obvious that sometimes the speech does not represent actual speech because they very rarely use non-fluency features, they have to say words correctly without stammering, stuttering or using false starts unless told to do so.

There are many different views on language in soaps. Some enjoy listening to certain regional dialects and others do not. Anthony Nichols, university lecturer of media studies states accent and dialect help characters to sound authentic. Some complaints have been made about individual’s inauthentic accents, public feel that their accent is not traditional and sounds ‘fake’. Viewers can find actors that cannot master an accent that is not their own very distracting and irritating. Many people struggle to understand certain accents in particular Scottish (Glaswegian), Welsh Jamaican and Indian are the most common accents that viewers cannot understand.
Swearing in soap operas is very distracting and disturbing for some viewers. Children from a very young age watch soap operas therefore use of bad language should not be present. Soap operas have been proven to encourage speech in children; they pick up on words, phrases and sometimes accents. Watching an excessive amount of foreign TV or programs with a regional accent can also determine the child’s own idiolect and accent. Some words that parents find unacceptable for their children to hear are sometimes allowed to be said before the nine’ o clock watershed. Other uses of language can scare children in particular for example; actors talking about medical conditions may frighten children, excessive amount of aggression shown in soap operas could also scare the child and make them aggressive in some cases.
Some find actors that mispronounce words from their idiolect offensive.
From this investigation I have learnt more about my idiolect. I have found out that I pronounce some words correctly and some I abbreviate. I use slang and informal language more around my friends and family. I have recognised that I use regional dialect and have picked up on words that my parents use for example “jitty”. I have also found that the linguistics I use around my friends are more informal and I defiantly use more slang, at times I also use covert-prestige and use a more rebellious tone of voice , especially if someone is being hurtful towards my friends. I have found that I am polite and have a friendly tone of voice. The sociolect I use consists of slang and abbreviations, elision, phatic talk, back channel features, speaker support, fillers, and vague language. When conversing with my parents I use more back-channel features to show that I am listening, as shown in Data set 1 my Mum is dominant and I use more back-channel features than she does. I use elision frequently because it shortens sentences and allows the conversation to flow easier. I often use words such as ‘dunno’ around my friends and use phatic talk a lot to everybody. I like to remain loyal and trustworthy to my friends and I have realised that using back-channel features informs them that I am listening to them.
I have recognised that I use a more formal tone of voice and formal language when talking to strangers and use polite words.

I have noticed that the spoken language in soaps is very ‘scripted’ they do not use many non-fluency features because they are reading off of a script however I have found out that they do relate to actual speech in many ways, one of these ways is down to class, higher class people use different language and pronunciations than lower/working class people do. Lower class people appear to be more down to earth and informal than higher class people.
I have found that in soap operas many overlaps in speech are used depending on the characters, each character seems to have their individual lexis based on their personality for example Janine from Eastenders uses very arrogant and selfish language features to show her true personality whereas Vanessa uses a more formal way of speech.
Both girls and boys use slang, it is part of sociolect.
My opinion is that boys use more slang than girls, however not by much. Boys do not pronounce words correctly they mostly abbreviate them. Boys seem to use bad language frequently, usually more than once in one sentence. The word ‘chav’ is slang and abbreviated but ‘chavs’ are portrayed as using words and phrases such as “init” , “init man” , “blud” these words are slang and part of their sociolect.

Girl use more terms of address because most girls call their friends ‘babe’ however boys are more frequently addressing their friends with both ‘mate’ and ‘babe’.
Girls are defiantly more polite and supportive during conversations especially if someone is upset they will use polite , cheerful words to make them feel better about themselves and to cheer them up. Boys do not seem to be as supportive; they appear to feel embarrassed and uncomfortable if someone is upset because they do not know how to deal with it effectively.
Multi-modal talk has progressed now there are more text abbreviations being used today. These abbreviations such as “LOL” (laugh out loud) are even been used in conversations. Text speech has had a huge impact on teenagers and children’s speech development; some children use them as words “OMG!” (Abbreviated for oh my gosh) is commonly used in girls.