Internet language

Not a bad article, here, though it's not watertight -- no mention of creative emoticons of the type used in the headline, for instance -- and could do with a clearer model of language functions: it tantalisingly refers to 'interpersonal' communication, but this is just an empty premodifier, I think -- rather than, accurately, noting that most of the forms mentioned really do focus on managing the tenor of Internet discourse, showing feelings and managing human speech roles in the absence of tone, expression and gesture. 

http://gizmodo.com/is-the-innanet-ruining-teh-english-language-_o-1680686542

Twitter search and analytics

Great find from A2 student Jess: this site enables you to search Tweets and other social media posts, and gives automated graphs of changes in usage over time. Great tool to gather language data, though remember that you need to do the thinking and choose your searches very carefully -- and this stream of data is always-changing.


http://topsy.com/

Article: On Internet Slang, IMHO

Interesting article on the grammar and usage of Internet 'slang'. 

On Internet Slang, IMHO
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/30/fashion/on-internet-slang-imho.html

Texting has changed the meaning of the full stop.

This does seem to be true...

http://mashable.com/2013/11/25/texting-transformed-period/

Twitter Users Can Be Grouped Into Tribes Based on Word Choice

Larger-scale version of a project idea similar to those a couple of A2 students are pursuing...

Twitter Users Can Be Grouped Into Tribes Based on Word Choice
http://laughingsquid.com/twitter-users-can-be-grouped-into-tribes-based-on-word-choice/

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

Reinventing the book with Shakespeare

Ebooks can become rich collections of resources incorporating text-crunching computation. Here's an example using Shakespeare texts. 

Why a 17th-Century Text Is the Perfect Starting Point for Reinventing the Book
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/09/why-a-17th-century-text-is-the-perfect-starting-point-for-reinventing-the-book/263034/

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

A Literary History of Word Processing

The conditions of production of a text can affect that text, and changes in the technology of writing have changed the styles in which things are written. The actual book under discussion here isn't due out till 2013, but there's food for thought in the article.

A Literary History of Word Processing
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/26/books/a-literary-history-of-word-processing.html?_r=1

TAPoR text analysis tool

For A2s to consider: got loads of text you'd like to analyse?

The awesome TAPoR website has tools that will give you word counts, frequencies, charts and more to enable you to manage very large amounts of data, like many magazine articles or speeches, or entire movie scripts.

It doesn't do the thinking for you, but it helps expose interesting patterns by showing you them in a pretty way.  More on this to come in class, but have a play - try putting the PLB address into the Your Web Page text box and choose Explore with Voyeur.

Happy Birthday Smiley!

September 19th is not only famous for being international Talk Like A Pirate day. :-)

Sept. 19, 1982: Can't You Take a Joke? :-)
http://www.wired.com/thisdayintech/2011/09/0919fahlman-proposes-emoticons/

Poems are a form of texting

Okay, she's pushing it a bit; but both are forms of communication within strict limits which require conciseness. She'd be on firmer ground with tweeting, I think. And it's certainly so that lyrics and rap have connections with poetry - though a skilled lyric is less requirement for success than a musical hook or two.

Carol Ann Duffy: 'Poems are a form of texting'
http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2011/sep/05/carol-ann-duffy-poetry-texting-competition

Decoding Your E-Mail Personality

Cool piece on forensic linguistics. 

Decoding Your E-Mail Personality - NYTimes.com
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/24/opinion/sunday/24gray.html?_r=1

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

What does your email say about you?

Overpunctuated, or underpunctuated? First person or third? Each suggests attitude, gender and more...

What do we infer about people from the style of their e-mail messages?
http://www.bakadesuyo.com/what-do-we-infer-about-people-from-the-style

How to spell +1ed

I wish Google hadn't made the decision they have: the apostrophes are just going to encourage more people to use them where you don't need them, and confuse everybody. 

How to spell +1′d (or is it +1ed?)
http://motivatedgrammar.wordpress.com/2011/07/08/how-to-spell-1d-or-is-it-1ed/

People Read Web Pages in an F-Shaped Pattern

So you'll read this first paragraph more or less in full. 

And only so much of this one. 

And then

Just the

First

Words. 

People Read Web Pages in an F-Shaped Pattern
http://thenextweb.com/dd/2011/07/10/people-read-web-pages-in-an-f-shaped-pattern/

What A Beautiful Shade of #EB5248

Cool article on the names people give to colours - and a website that gathers them. 

Eglantine by any other name
http://www.economist.com/blogs/johnson/2011/07/colour-naming

OMG, xprts r all cybr tok is koo

Good article on language change and attitudes - prescriptivism vs descriptivism. 

Gibberish or evolution? OMG, xprts r all cybr tok is koo
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1018600--gibberish-or-evolution-omg-xprts-r-all-cybr-tok-is-koo?bn=1