John McWhorter: texting is killing language
- ‘If humans existed for 24 hours, writing would come along at 11 hours’
- Writing is a conscious effort
- Casual speech- speak in word packets of 10 words, telegraphic, less reflective, different to writing
- Talking like you write
- Have to type as quickly as you can receive speech, you have to have someone who can read and understand
- Why would you consider punctuation and capital letters when you text if you don’t consider it when you talk
- You see lack of concerns with rules, you see a bagginess of the structure
- New language and therefore new structure emerging
- ‘lol’, laughing out loud, theoretically means that. If you text now, it doesn’t mean that now, not physically laughing anymore, marking of empathy, pragmatic particles
- ‘slash’, changing topic, new information marking
- Texting alongside normal writing skills – biadialetual
- Expansion of their linguistic ability
- Linguistic miracle
Erin McKean-
- Go ahead make up new words
- Every language is a group of people who agree to understand each other
- Unconscious rules that you follow when you speak
- Jean Berko-Gleason- Wug test, natural rules, rules of natural, don’t have to be reminded of these rules, some are about manners
- Don’t be creative when it comes to words
- 6 ways to make new words:
- Steal them from other languages
- Compounding, combining words together, forcefully
- Blend words, brunch, motel
- Change how they operate, friend made a verb
- Backformation, shortening it
- First letter of each wordMark Pagel, how language has transformed humanity
- Nero-audio technology, re-wiring peoples mind
- Alter the internal settings to suit your mood and interests
- Genes talking
- Why did it evolve only in our species?
- Chimps lack social learning, they can’t improve on others ideas, benefits from others mistakes and use others wisdom
- Copy and imitate what people can do
- Social learning is visual theft
- ‘small family groups’, so language is enclosed in small groups, fewer ideas and innovation
- Language is a piece of social technology
- Language evolved to solve the crisis of visual theft, coordinating activities
- Take it for granted
- Even small acts are utterly dependent on language
- Island where you can encounter a new language ever mile
- Natural tendency to be isolated
- Translation costa, over 2 billion a year
- March towards standardisation
- Time is universal
Steven Pinker- language habits
- By the time you finish a dictionary, it will be out of date
- Language is a window to human nature
- Which verbs go in which constructions?
- Structure than we unconsciously use
- Fixed set of concept, In all language
- Indirect speech acts, why are polite requests? Underlying meanings
- Mismatch, when one person understands a relationship as something and the other individual understands it as something else
- Conditional requests soften the imperative. No relationship of dominance
- Language Is a collective human creation reflecting human nature
Suzzane Talhouk- don’t kill your language
- Different meanings of words
- Denied the right to speak language in her own country
- Should you forget everything you know in language just to conform?
- Creative expression for other languagesAnne Curzan- what makes a word real?
- Collection of new words- research
- Human hands behind all dictionaries
- Even critical people, don’t analyse dictionaries and don’t criticise them
- Categories of words and they vote
- Words are temporary and won’t stick
- Banished words and words of the year, often a cross over because it is interesting and part of a living language. In addition to this, they are very creative
- Concerns about words such as 'balcony'
