Turn-Taking

Good source on turn-taking here, with some practice and testing. Interesting framing too, though a little incomplete in some of the sections elsewhere.


https://www.sedit.org.uk/learn/styled/styled-3/styled-11/index.html

Joos' Five Clocks

We looked today at Martin Joos' five-part system for analysing the register of a text, beyond just formal/informal, but instead classifying texts (or elements of texts, as we saw), along a five-position scale.


this article gives some further discussion of Joos' system., and lays out a helpful table of the five clocks against four features of texts. it includes some more examples and features that help identify the five clocks at work.


http://ww2.odu.edu/al/jpbroder/jpb_on_joos_1976.pdf

A Neat Summary of Linguistics

Useful summary, at undergraduate level, of issues and descriptions addressed in the study of language. Pretty good revision reading, perhaps especially for A2s…

https://www.uni-due.de/ELE/NeatSummaryOfLinguistics.pdf

The cyberpragmatics of bounding asterisks

Don't let 'cyberpragmatics' panic you, they're just playing around. Interesting article researching the roots of Internet asterisk use in comic strips. *chuckles*

The cyberpragmatics of bounding asterisks
http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=4466

Sarcasm

Students often want to write about sarcasm in exams. But it's hard to put your finger on what makes something sarcastic, linguistically speaking. Here's an attempt.

Note: suprasegmental features refer to intonation, which we've breezed over since it's hard to show in an examination.

http://www.linguistics.ucsb.edu/faculty/cumming/ling50/sarcasm.htm

Language and Facebook

After the world's most unsurprising headline, there's some interesting research about language trends in Facebook correlated to social identity.

http://mashable.com/2012/01/06/facebook-emotions//

The 50 Most Brilliant, Obnoxious, Or Delightfully Sociopathic Facebook Posts Of 2011

I don't know quite how they decided on or classified these particular 50 as the post title claims - but this is a treasure trove of a) LOLs, b) pragmatics, c) rudeness.

http://www.happyplace.com/13075/the-50-most-brilliant-obnoxious-or-delightfully-sociopathic-facebook-posts-of-2011

Archie Out of Context

Archie is a classic, clean-cut, 50s American comic strip.  But with a bit of language change, and divorced from context, one's innuendo-fuelled imagination can run wild.

http://archieoutofcontext.tumblr.com/

An Uh, Er, Um Essay

Looks like it's not so great to be umless... Sometimes filled pauses are useful for more than just buying you thinking time.

http://www.slate.com/id/2299739

Top 12 Internet Acronyms?

Here's an interesting, and I dare say typical, collection of 'Internet acronyms'. 

For a starter they're not all strictly acronyms, but we'll let that pass. The context given is a teenager communicating with a parent - but as the article dimly concedes, not all these terms are appropriate for a teenager to use. 

Whilst BFF is young-girl talk, several of these are from online PC games played predominantly by young boys (and not-so-young men). Many are from rather older discussion boards used by significantly older engineers, techies and computer scientists. 

There's a tendency to treat 'internet' language as if it's one thing. But just like 'I found it on the internet' is about as specific as 'I found it in the world', so 'internet language' is increasingly as unhelpful a term as 'people language'. 

Top 12 Useful Internet Acronyms
http://www.grammar.net/acronyms

Video: Typography about language

Wise words by Taylor Mali. 

Typography about language by Ronnie Bruce
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kdrsPRZnK8

11 Secret Meanings Behind Punctuation in Text Messages

Remember kids: Punctuation is not Grammar. But it can be telling bit of graphology, as in the following - not entirely serious - article. 

11 Secret Meanings Behind Punctuation in Text Messages | Underwire | Wired.com
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2011/06/secret-meanings-text-message-punctuation/all/1

This may interest you: British 'Euphemisms'

Pop quiz: according to politeness theory, what are 'The British' doing here?

This may interest you*
http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2011/05/euphemistically_speaking?fsrc=scn%2Ftw%2Fte%2Fbl%2Fthismayinterestyou