Digital Discourse Database

Number of Posts: 6
Posts 1 - 6

Diese Wörter finden Sie jetzt im Duden

(You can now find these words in the Duden dictionary)

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Newspaper | Welt
Date | 7.8.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | Facebook, fake news, online dating, selfie, spelling, word/writing
Summary | The new Duden complete orthographic dictionary has grown by 5000 words. Many new entries are from the world of technology: selfie, tindering, to like (as in Facebook likes, ""liken" in German), Dropbox, cyber war, fake news, click number ("Klickzahl"), to facebook ("facebooken"), live stream, and many more.
Image Description | N/A

Why Kids Can't Write

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 2.8.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | grammar, punctuation, school, smartphone, social media, spelling, texting, threat, word/writing
Summary | Many students struggle with writing despite various pedagogical models that have been implemented in past years to tackle that perpetual issue. This is all the more suprising considering that today's students may do moret voluntary writing than any generation before it. They text and post on social media a lot but the writing register is different there. The format's main principle is shortness so grammar, spelling, and punctuation take a back seat.
Image Description | GIF of a hand writing and a group of teachers in a workshop.
Image Tags | female(s), gifs, text

'Ha' Isn't a Laugh. Seriously?

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 9.7.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | spelling, texting, word/writing
Summary | When the author of the article was dating a man and would text him jokes, she was surprised to see that he would always text her back with HAHAHAs (even if the jokes were not that funny). She then realized the HAHAHAs were not representative of his laugh, but it was the result of the autocorrect function. Even though textual representations of laughter go back to Chaucer and Shakespeare, the difference between HAHAHA or HA only exists nowadays. Michelle McSweeney, a researcher at Columbia University, says that laughter helps establish cohesion. There are many ways people can express laughter online: hahahahaha, haha, HAHAHA, haaaaaaa, hehe, lol, etc. In 2015, LOL was the most common way to express laughter online. Electronic laugh has been evolving like any other dialect.
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Erik Orsenna: «N'oublions jamais qu'une langue est un cadeau!»

(Erik Orsenna: "Let's never forget that a language is a gift!")

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Newspaper | Le Monde
Date | 9.3.2017
Language | French
Country | France
Topic Tags | language threat, spelling, texting, word/writing
Summary | Writer Erik Orsenna talks about language and why it shapes us. He talks about the new French spelling reforms, the French Academy, the relationship between language and people's identity, rap music, useless anglicisms, and texting.
Image Description | Photograph of interviewee Erik Orsenna
Image Tags | male(s)

«Nous n'avons jamais autant écrit à travers l'histoire de l'humanité»

("We have never written so much through the history of mankind")

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Newspaper | Le Figaro
Date | 27.7.2017
Language | French
Country | France
Topic Tags | emojis, grammar, language threat, social media, spelling, word/writing
Summary | Linguist Louise-Amélie Cougnon answers some questions related to digital language and language threat. She talks about social media language and emojis, and claims that we should not worry about the spread of digital language. Also, research does not show a link between digital language use and language impoverishment. However, it seems that pupils have lower spelling and grammar skills than before.
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How I Became Addicted to Online Word Games

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Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 18.3.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | addiction, game, language threat, spelling, word/writing
Summary | There are plenty of stories about the horrors of online game addiction. But being addicted to online word games mimicking Boggle or Scrabble does not only have the same addiction-related issues but also messes with your vocabulary. These games have no penalty for guessing a word that might not even be one, which is why one just begins to memorize all words that the app accepts without really knowing what they mean. This obsessive toying with words may have a negative impact on our linguistics abilities as well as spelling, and so on.
Image Description | Illustration of a man with Scrabble tiles on his tongue reminiscent of party pills.
Image Tags | game, male(s)

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