Number of Posts: 9
Posts 1 - 9
Smartphone Era Politics
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 23.2.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | addiction, language threat, research/study, smartphone
Summary | Smartphones are changing everything: the news media, politics, and most fundamentally how humans communicate and connect with one another. A UK study claims that we check our phones over 200 times a day. All the app notifications are addictive. Despite this extensive use of a communication device, we most rarely use it to communicate with one another.
Image Description | N/A
Hieroglyphen von heute
(Hieroglyphs of today)
Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 30.3.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | emojis, language threat, research/study, translation
Summary | Emojis have permeated contemporary life in all aspects. Experts say it is the most quickly expanding language worldwide.Companies are being hired to Interpret emojis for adverising, and the police have to rely on emoji experts when text messages are part of the evidence. Whole books have been translated into emoji.
Image Description | Emoji riddles.
Image Tags | emojis
«Sprache verfällt nicht»
(«Language does not deteriorate»)
Newspaper | Appenzeller Zeitung
Date | 15.11.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | code-switching, language threat, research/study, social media, youth
Summary | German linguist Eva Gredel claims that language does not deteriorate because of its informal use online. Internet language is more differentiated and divided in subcultures the language itself is not at risk. Many people fear this when they visit social media and see how people disregard conventions. This is because many people want to be innovative with their language online. Parents do not need to be worried about their children's language online - it is good if they learn various codes/registers of speaking.
Image Description | N/A
Leserbriefe
(Letters to the editor)
Newspaper | Sonntagszeitung
Date | 18.12.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | language threat, research/study, school, texting, Twitter, word/writing
Summary | The Pisa study results show that the Swiss language education concept has failed. The reading skills of Swiss students are very poor. More time is being dedicated to foreign languages than to the native language - are children now supposed to learn German from Tweets and text messages in Swiss German?
Image Description | N/A
Junge schreiben - mehr als je zuvor
(Youths write - more than ever)
Newspaper | Appenzeller Zeitung
Date | 29.1.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | code-switching, language threat, research/study, school, smartphone, social media, spelling, texting, word/writing, youth
Summary | There is a public hysteria about how youths are no longer capable of spelling correctly or writing appropriately and skillfully. All this is seen to be caused by new media such as smartphones. BUt young people today write far more than previous generations did: they post on social media and text every day. The only difference is that this writing culture is very informal and colloquial. Researchers however assume that one cannot simply state that this spoils their writing skills generally, most students are easily capable of code-switching from informal registers to a formal register appropriate for school.
Image Description | N/A
That time when ‘that time when’ took over the Internet #InstantNostalgia
Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 15.9.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | hashtags, research/study, social media
Summary | It has become customary to frame anecdotal posts on social media with the phrase "that time when" or "that akward moment when". Sometimes it is even used to describe events that have just happened, even though it is a formulation that suggests an old memory. This linguistic strategy thereby creates an air of nostalgia around the memory and makes it iconic. Linguists suggest that the usage of the demonstrative "that" suggests that sender and receiver of the message have shared memories. This is why many celebrities use this construction to create a false sense of intimacy with their fans online.
Image Description | GIF of a woman taking a selfie and posting it to social media.
Image Tags | female(s), gifs, smartphone, social media
Les « emoji » constituent-ils un langage à part entière?
(Are emojis part of a fully-fledged language?)
Newspaper | Le Monde
Date | 15.3.2016
Language | French
Country | France
Topic Tags | emojis, language threat, research/study
Summary | In 2015, an emoji was chosen as the word of the year, and two years before that, the novel Moby Dick was translated in emojis. Emojis are everywhere; are they becoming a new universal language? Two linguists conducted a study and revealed that emojis are like a cultural mirror. They also investigated emoji use in different countries and revealed geographical differences in the type of emoji used. Emojis are not a language; they are a complement to language. Some people might think it’s a language because emojis look like hieroglyphics. Emojis are mostly used to transmit emotions.
Image Description | Photograph of a hand clicking on several emojis on a screen, and screenshot of Andy Murray's tweet composed of emojis.
Image Tags | emojis, hand(s), tablet, Twitter
How good is your grammar? Take the quiz
Newspaper | The Independent
Date | 16.2.2016
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | childhood, grammar, language threat, research/study, school, texting, threat, youth
Summary | According to a study, texting can have a bad impact on young people's use of grammar. The results show that the more people text, the lower their score on the test was. There is also a correlation between the use of adaptations (e.g. gr8 for great) and a lower score. If parents text their kids with a lot of adaptations, the kids will probably imitate their parents.
Image Description | Photograph of a page of a dictionary where the word "grammar" is in sharp focus.
Image Tags | dictionary
Les émojis, ces drôles de petites bêtes virtuelles
(Emojis, those funny little virtual creatures)
Newspaper | La Tribune de Genève
Date | 6.2.2016
Language | French
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | emojis, language threat, research/study, texting
Summary | Emojis are becoming a “global” phenomenon. For example, Facebook recently introduced a set of emojis, companies use them in their advertisement campaigns, and some people would like to create a “language” with emojis. Should we fear an impoverishment of “traditional languages”? Some linguists claim that emojis do not replace words but serve as complements in our communication. They can substitute a gesture or an intonation that we usually have in our oral exchanges. Another study concluded that text messages are not a threat to orthography, and that we have always used images to express ourselves.
Image Description | Digital image representing different emojis: sick emoji, cowboy emoji, tongue-out emoji, winking eye emoji etc.
Image Tags | emojis
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