LING 15 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Reddit, Redone, Sms Language
Spoken vs Written Language
Spoken language
➔Immediate presence
➔Acoustic & auditory info
➔Visual enhancement
◆Facial expressions, hand gestures → combined in basic string of segments
● Enhances primary spoken code of language
➔Underexpresses → abstractness
◆Words that refer to things → represent greater ideas / categories
◆Pragmatic meaning
● Amount of detail that is exchanged is greater than what is physically
exchanged
Written language
➔Physical displacement → fade at a slower rate
◆Encoded in visual representation → on paper, wall, rock, etc.
◆Written messages can fade over time but at a very slow rate unless destroyed
➔Glyphic
◆Limited symbolism: lack of gestures, intonation, enhancements
● Reliance on punctuation
◆Even more under expressive
● Extent to which written language underexpresses what people are trying
to change is even greater → doesn't show emotion, sarcasm, etc.
◆Editable
● Long texts, slow delivery
◆Lags spoken language in innovation / change of conventions
● Rules that apply to writing that are different to the rules when we speak
○“Zombie” rules → rules of grammar that we are expected to follow
in writing that sound odd in spoken language
◆Mark privilege as opposed to actual intelligence
◆Rules that sound very unnatural, but wont die if we stop
using them:
●‘Whom’ instead of ‘who’, or ending a sentence with
a preposition
Style: a collection of structures (words, phrases) that is appropriate to a particular social setting
➔Speakers have multiple styles that are adjusted per environment or people
◆Ex: formal vs informal, genre of letters
➔Spoken or written
Language and Electronic Media
➔Modern technology allows language to transmit in new ways
◆Analog electronic communication
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● Telegraphy, telephony, radio, TV
◆Digital electronic communication
➔Consider effects on language form
◆Conventions to adhere to in electronic communication
● Not necessarily a new way of speaking, but new conventions
●Ex: emojis
Timeline
➔Writing
◆Tablets and inscriptions
● Words, later sounds encoded as glyphs
◆Paper and ink
◆Printing and mass production
◆Effects
● Abbreviations
● Standards
➔Telegraphy
◆Glyphs encoded as signal pulses
◆Abbreviations
◆“Telegraphic” grammar → lacks certain words
●Ex: headline conventions → leaves out words and leaves the main point
○ You know something is clickbait when it isn't written this way
➔Telephones
◆Distant transmission of actual voices
◆Interaction between electronic technology and linguistic communication
➔Radio, TV
◆Wireless transmission of voices, later faces too
◆Developed a different way to talk about letters of the alphabet
◆2-way (radio) vs 1-way (TV)
◆Broadcast standards
○Roger that = less ambiguous than yes
Digital communication
➔Same sequence of emergence
Symbols
➔Style = meaningful
◆Acknowledgement of how familiar the speaker is with the person they are
speaking to
● Formality / familiarity
● Linked to indexical meaning
◆Choice of forms carries info relevant to the message
● Style is symbolic
◆Electronic style
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Facial expressions, hand gestures combined in basic string of segments. Words that refer to things represent greater ideas / categories. Amount of detail that is exchanged is greater than what is physically exchanged. Physical displacement fade at a slower rate. Encoded in visual representation on paper, wall, rock, etc. Written messages can fade over time but at a very slow rate unless destroyed. Limited symbolism: lack of gestures, intonation, enhancements. Extent to which written language underexpresses what people are trying to change is even greater doesn"t show emotion, sarcasm, etc. Lags spoken language in innovation / change of conventions. Rules that apply to writing that are different to the rules when we speak. Zombie rules rules of grammar that we are expected to follow in writing that sound odd in spoken language. Mark privilege as opposed to actual intelligence. Rules that sound very unnatural, but wont die if we stop using them:
