Number of Posts: 44
Posts 21 - 30
Punkt: Am Ende
(Period: the end)
Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 31.3.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | diversity, emojis, language threat, punctuation, research/study, texting
Summary | The neutral punctuation mark "." is disappearing from our written language. The most likely reason is that with text messages we no longer need a period to tell us when a sentence is finished. Linguists are not worried about the extinction of the period. Language is ever-changing, they say. It is quite sad though, that the period is being omitted more and more and hardly anyone cares. All debates now center around emojis: can Apple just replace the gun emoji with a water pistol one? Is it racist to use a black emoji as a White person?
Image Description | The sunset over the ocean.
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
iPhone-Nutzer sehen lachendes Emoji oft als Grimasse
(iPhone users oftentimes see laughing emoji as grimace)
Newspaper | Welt
Date | 13.4.2016
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | emojis, misunderstanding, research/study
Summary | Different smartphone operational systems display the same emojis differently. This can cause quite some misunderstandings, as researchers have found out. One emoji is being interpreted much differently when displayed within Android versus when displayed within Apple OS. So a positive smiling emoji appears as a grimace to iPhone users.
Image Description | Emojis and Tweets with compilations of emojis displayed on different platforms.
Image Tags | emojis, Twitter
«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
Die Maschine erziehen und trainieren
(Raising and training the machine)
Newspaper | Sonntagszeitung
Date | 20.11.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | artificial intelligence, computer programming, research/study, threat
Summary | Some researchers say that artificial intelligence may eliminate the need for human programmers. Modern programs are becoming more similar to human brains in that it is no longer just the programmer who creates every step of the program but the program itself is capable of learning from experience (technically: exposure to large amounts of data). Some find this idea that computers will become intellectual equals of humans frightening.
Image Description | N/A
Das Uni-Facebook-Ranking 2016
(The uni Facebook ranking 2016)
Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 12.12.2017
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | Facebook, research/study, school
Summary | University rankings are usually based on prizes and citations accumulated by the researchers of the institution. An alternative approach is to look at the Facebook reach universities have: the most influential Swiss university on Facebook is ETH Lausanne with over 60'000 likes followed by ETH Zurich with some 40'000 likes. This is all peanuts compared to Harvard University with 4.8 mio likes and Cambridge University with 1.8 mio likes.
Image Description | N/A
«Jemandem zu sagen, er solle sich ficken, ist ziemlich schlimm»
(«Telling soeone to go fuck himself is pretty bad»)
Newspaper | Tages-Anzeiger
Date | 5.4.2017
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | anglicisms, language threat, research/study, texting, word/writing
Summary | Linguist Elisabeth Stark is research texting communication with a corpus of 18000 text messages and even more WhatsApp messages. She says that about 2-3% of the words are anglicisms and that their amount does not seem to be rising rapidly - the word "fuck" for instance is still too strong for most German speakers. In German, sex is too taboo for taboo language. Her data also shows that Swiss people choose the local dialect rather than the standard variety when texting. Most people's langugage competencies are not compromised by this informal communication, most can adhere to conventions when a formal register is appropriate.
Image Description | Portrait of the interviewee and a Keystone image of a protest with a sign reading "fuck".
Image Tags | female(s), text
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
Logisches Pisa-Ergebnis
(Logical Pisa result)
Newspaper | Appenzeller Zeitung
Date | 15.12.2016
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | childhood, research/study, school, social media, texting, word/writing, youth
Summary | The Pisa study shows that Swiss students have decreasing writing and reading skills. This is not suprising considering the high percentage of foreign heritage children in Switzerland, the many national languages and distinct dialects, and the fact that children learn two foreign languages while still in primary school - let alone the dubious influence of new media, texting, social media, and so on.
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
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