Говорящие футболки

Муниципальное общеобразовательное учреждение

Средняя общеобразовательная школа № 6

г. Кондопоги Республики Карелия

Секция «Английский язык»

ГОВОРЯЩИЕ ФУТБОЛКИ

научно-исследовательская работа

Работы выполнила:

Широкая Алена Алексеевна,

ученица 7Г класса

 Муниципального общеобразовательного учреждения

Средняя общеобразовательная школа № 6

г. Кондопоги Республики Карелия

Руководитель:

Овечкина Надежда Леонидовна,

учитель английского языка

г. Кондопога

2017

School № 6

SPEAKING T-SHIRTS

Student of the 7th form:

Shirokaya Alyona

Teacher:

Ovechkina N.L.

Kondopoga

2017

Content

1. Introduction                                                                                                    4
2. Historical and semantic characteristics of inscriptions on clothes                5
3. Practical part                                                                                                   7
4. Conclusion                                                                                                      8
5. References                                                                                                      9

Introduction

The way we dress often says a lot about who we are, what we believe, and where we come from.  Clothing is important because it reflects  our culture, personality and preferences. People can use clothing to enhance personal appearance and protect the body from extreme temperatures and elements in various climates. People often form first impressions based on what a person wears.

The world’s favourite piece of clothing is a t-shirt. People wear a t-shirt to any occasion from going to concerts, working, sleeping, visiting family, vacationing, sports, and self expression. There are night t-shirts, work t-shirts and workout tees.

The t-shirt is the unique item of clothing that can be used as a walking billboard and present  such emotions as humor, happiness, sadness and even anger.

People who study languages especially English pay a lot of attention to any foreign words around them. T-shirts with messages also attract them.

The importance of this topic is the following: Tees with inscriptions or messages are an integral part of human’s wardrobe. In addition, it is a great way for people to express their views on everything from political races to social issues.

The problem is that some people don’t know what the inscriptions on their t-shirts exactly mean.

The aim of my research is to find logical connection between the t-shirts’ choice and the knowledge of the English language. To achieve this goal the following objectives have been identified:

• to find information about the history of a t-shirt;
• to investigate different sources of getting information;
• to investigate the labels on the modern T-shirts;
• to get to know why tees are so popular;
• to interrogate a survey and analyze its results;
• to share experience.

The object of the study is  the inscriptions on t-shirts in English.

For research I used following methods: analysis and synthesis, the method of observation and comparison, the statistical method.      

The work consists of the following sections: contents, introduction, theoretical part, practical part, conclusion, references.

Historical and semantic characteristics of inscriptions on clothes

T-shirt (also "tee shirt") is a casual shirt without a collar or buttons, made of a stretchy, finely knit fabric, usually cotton, and usually short-sleeved. Originally it is worn under other shirts, it is now a common shirt for everyday wear in some countries.

The dubbed "T-shirt" surfaced  in the United States when they were issued by the U.S. Navy sometime around the Spanish American War. They featured crew-necks and short sleeves and were meant to be worn as underwear beneath the uniform.  Soon it was adopted by the Army as part of the standard issue ensemble given to recruits. It got its iconic name from its shape resembling the letter "T". Dockworkers, farmers, miners, and construction type workers also adopted the T-shirt preferring the lightweight fabric in hotter weather conditions.

By the 1920's "T-shirt" became an official American-English word in the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary. There are still regional varieties of the term, in Russian it’s known as “footbolka”, in Berlin people call it “Nicki”.

In the late 1960's, the t-shirt became a means of self expression as wearable art as well as to convey commercial advertising, souvenir messages, and protests.

In 2014, Glamour magazine recognised slogan t-shirts as the coolest way of making fashion statements. The slogan tees stand out and express a highly personalised degree of uniqueness. Stars love printing messages on their tees, and we at Spreadshirt towers fondly remember Drew Barrymore wearing a T-shirt saying Mother of dragons. Standing next to her daughters, she brilliantly demonstrated maternal pride whilst playing on the fame of ”Game of Thrones“ at the same time.

Politicians wear T-shirts with their campaign slogans, and everybody can use a tee as their own custom billboard to express political opinion.

English is one of the most spoken languages in the world and it is the primary language of the inscriptions on the clothes.

The inscription on the clothes is not just a decorative element, it is the means of communication, which has a variety of semantic content. All labels on clothing (shirts), we divide into several  groups:

     1. The name of brand such as «Nike», «Adidas», «Puma», «Reebok» etc. Young people like wearing  t-shirts with the popular brands because it shows that they are  wealthy.

       2. Title bands or just directions in music, the names of sports teams.

Often you can find t-shirts with slogans: «Metallica», «Linkin Park», «Green Day», «Punk you», «Madonna for you», «punk not dead», «All you need is rock-n-roll», «Manchester United». If you see the man with such inscriptions on the clothes, we can immediately conclude that he's a fan of a band, or a fan, that is, we get some information about him, about his tastes and preferences. This is one of the easiest ways to meet people, or, on the contrary, people with opposing views.

       3. Words or phrases.

The people with funny words seem positive and sociable. It's a way to cheer up themselves and others. On the contrary, people with negative phrases shock others, express their negative feelings and emotions.

People who want to express their opinion about the surrounding reality, prefer shirts with calls: «Stop pollution», «Save the earth!», «Stop and think», «Peace and love», «Don` t worry! Be happy!».

Also there are phrases or words which bring no concrete information. E.g. «Sunday», «Space», «Summer time», «Butterfly».

Often labels on clothes reflect some short-term problems, which after some time become irrelevant, they are replaced by new trends in society that immediately reflected in the inscription on his clothes.

In general, people should be responsible for what is written on their clothes.

Practical part

I have asked 51 people aged from 10 to 18 about their t-shirts and got the following information.

I have learnt that 24 students usually buy their t-shirts with labels without any ideas what they mean. Their parents usually buy them t-shirts. Although these children study English at school, they do not know the translation of the messages the tees have. They can translate only separate words. They are not interested in understanding these messages. 16 teenagers buy t-shirts which are unusual and bright. If they see English words, they think that it will be cool to wear it.  However, they do not care about the translation.

4 teenagers are keen on English so they know the meaning of their talking t-shirts. They buy tees with slogans only if they find them interesting. They choose what to buy consciously because it is their way to express feelings, personality and wishes.

7 teens want to be fashionable so they buy t-shirts with the famous brands like Puma, Adidas, Nike and so on. They can translate the names of these brands.

Wearing a t-shirt with a slogan doesn’t depend on English knowledge. Most children wear these t-shirts because their parents have bought them.

Conclusion

During the research, I tried to consider the inscriptions on the t-shirts. There are lots of t-shirts which contain the messages on them. People can express themselves by these messages. However, many t-shirts have English words on them. English is a foreign language in Russia, but the children study it since the second form.

There is no strong logical connection between the choice of the t-shirts and the knowledge of the English language. The most teens I have asked do not know English very well and they do not care about the translation. For them a t-shirt with an English message is a way to look stylish and cool without understanding.  

A few teenagers know the translation of the inscriptions. They also show good English knowledge.

It is very important to understand the information that you bear on yourself, because we carry it to the masses, and it is silly to hope that people do not speak English and do not understand what is written on your clothes.

        References

1. http://www.teefetch.com/history-of-the-t-shirt/
2. http://iamthetrend.com/2010/05/11/why-t-shirts-are-so-awesome/
3. http://www.t-shirtday.com/5-top-reasons-that-make-t-shirts-indispensable/
4. https://www.reference.com/beauty-fashion/explore/shirts?qo=leafPageExploreTaxonomy
5. http://www.phrasemix.com/collections/english-for-talking-about-clothing-shirts
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T-shirt

Examples of the t-shirts