“Thaz how u kno ur dum”

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-201
Author(s):  
Eric Chambers
Keyword(s):  
Gay Men ◽  
Language Use ◽  
American English ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Standard American English ◽  
English Spelling ◽  
Integral Quality ◽  
Positive Quality ◽  
Erotic Desire

Abstract This study analyzes language use among a group of gay men who participate on an online messageboard (OnYourKnees), focused on the attainment of a ‘dumb jock’ identity. Posters align with a series of qualities that largely conform to ideologies of American jock masculinity, but at the same time satirize those ideologies: in particular, many posters view as an integral quality of dumb-jock identity ‘dumbness:’ an unwillingness/inability to engage in scholarly/academic pursuits. The repeated citationality of dumbness as a positive quality creates a distinct identity-type that posters link with erotic desire. Orthographic variation contributes to the attainment and recognition of a jock identity: posters who identify as jocks are more likely to display non-standard American English spelling than those who do not. This study thus highlights the importance of orthographic variation in maintaining distinct identities among local communities, especially in a space where traditional ideologies of masculinity are recontextualized.

scholarly journals The impact of the quality of maternal speech on infants’ segmentation abilities

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie Steffi Schreiner ◽  
Nivedita Mani
Keyword(s):  
American English ◽  
Speech Segmentation ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Linguistic Differences ◽  
Standard American English ◽  
Long Term Consequences ◽  
Maternal Speech ◽  
The Impact

Across cultures, infants are typically addressed using a special speech register, called infant-directed speech (IDS). Infants appear to benefit from being addressed in this register, although there seem to be some cross-linguistic differences in their learning from IDS. One possible explanation for these differences is that children from different backgrounds are addressed in a less exaggerated register than standard American English IDS. Against this background, we examined whether German 7.5-month-olds are able to segment words from exaggerated IDS and standard German IDS. Furthermore, in order to evaluate the potential long-term consequences of continued exposure to less or more exaggerated IDS, we also examined the impact of individual differences in maternal IDS on early speech segmentation. We found that 7.5-month-old infants were able to segment words from exaggerated, but not from standard German IDS. A potential explanation for this result comes from our finding that infants whose mothers used more exaggerated IDS were able to also segment words from standard German IDS. Taken together, the current study a) underlines the importance of IDS in early language acquisition, b) demonstrates successful exaggerated IDS segmentation abilities, and c) presents a possible explanation for cross-linguistic differences in infants’ segmentation abilities reported in the literature.

The Rise and Fall of the Northern Cities Shift

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-39
Author(s):  
Monica Nesbitt
Keyword(s):  
20Th Century ◽  
North American ◽  
American English ◽  
Standard American English ◽  
Northern Cities Shift ◽  
The North ◽  
Northern Cities ◽  
Regional Dialect ◽  
Generational Transition

Recent acoustic analyses examining English in the North American great lakes region show that the area’s characteristic vowel chain shift, the Northern Cities Shift (NCS), is waning. Attitudinal analyses suggest that the NCS has lost prestige in some NCS cities, such that it is no longer regarded as ‘standard American English’. Socio-cultural and temporal accounts of capital loss and dialect decline remain unexplored, however. This paper examines F1, F2, and diphthongal quality of TRAP produced by 36 White speakers (18 women) in one NCS city—Lansing, Michigan—over the course of the 20th century. I show that TRAP realization is conditioned by gender and birth year, such that women led the change towards NCS realizations into the middle of the 20th century and then away from them thereafter. I discuss these findings against the backdrop of deindustrialization during this time of linguistic reorganization in Lansing. I show that as the regional industry—(auto) manufacturing—loses prestige, so does the regional variant—raised TRAP. This paper adds to our understanding of North American dialectology the importance of deindustrialization and the Baby Boomers to Generation Xer generational transition to our discussion of regional dialect maintenance.

An historical analysis of species references in American English

Corpora ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-349
Author(s):  
Craig Frayne
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Sentiment Analysis ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
American English ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
The Past ◽  
Corpus Studies ◽  
Google Books

This study uses the two largest available American English language corpora, Google Books and the Corpus of Historical American English (coha), to investigate relations between ecology and language. The paper introduces ecolinguistics as a promising theme for corpus research. While some previous ecolinguistic research has used corpus approaches, there is a case to be made for quantitative methods that draw on larger datasets. Building on other corpus studies that have made connections between language use and environmental change, this paper investigates whether linguistic references to other species have changed in the past two centuries and, if so, how. The methodology consists of two main parts: an examination of the frequency of common names of species followed by aspect-level sentiment analysis of concordance lines. Results point to both opportunities and challenges associated with applying corpus methods to ecolinguistc research.

Investigating Quality of Life from the Perspectives of Older Adults in Local Communities

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-19
Author(s):  
Kaitlin Snell ◽  
Alexis Fabricius ◽  
Karla Stroud ◽  
Kieran C. O’Doherty
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Older Adults ◽  
Local Communities

scholarly journals Anxiety in autistic individuals who speak few or no words: A qualitative study of parental experience and anxiety management

Autism ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 136236132096236
Author(s):  
Joanne Tarver ◽  
Effie Pearson ◽  
Georgina Edwards ◽  
Aryana Shirazi ◽  
Liana Potter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Intellectual Disability ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Assessment Tools ◽  
Evidence Based ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Verbal Language ◽  
Parental Recognition

Anxiety is a common co-occurring condition in autism and impacts quality of life of autistic individuals and their families; autistic individuals who speak few or no words represent an under-researched group. This qualitative study aimed to understand more about parental recognition and management of anxiety in autistic individuals who speak few or no words. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with parents/carers of 17 autistic individuals (mage = 14.29) recruited from an existing participant database and social media adverts. Using thematic analysis, 15 themes were placed under three a-priori grand themes: parental recognition of anxiety; parental management of anxiety; and anxiety impact on the autistic individual and their family. Due to reduced verbal language use and overlap with other behaviours, parents described difficulties recognising anxiety in their child. However, they also described use of a number of management strategies, including some which overlap with components of evidence-based interventions for emotional and behavioural problems in autistic individuals (e.g. exposure/sensory calming). Despite this, parents reported that anxiety continues to have significant impact on quality of life. The findings of this study can help to inform the development of targeted intervention and assessment measures for anxiety in autistic individuals who speak few or no words. Lay abstract Anxiety is a common condition in autistic individuals, including those who also have an intellectual disability. Despite this, autistic individuals who have severe to profound intellectual disability, or use few or no words, are often excluded from autism research. There are also very few assessment tools and interventions with known effectiveness for autistic individuals with intellectual disability. In this study, we aimed to learn more about parent/carers experiences of recognising and managing anxiety in autistic individuals who use few or no words. We conducted semi-structured interviews with parents and carers to address three research questions: (1) what techniques and management strategies do parents describe for anxiety-related behaviour in their child; (2) how do communication difficulties impact parental understanding and management of anxiety provoking situations and behaviours; (3) what is the impact of anxiety-related behaviours on the quality of life of autistic individuals and their families? During the interviews, parents described difficulties recognising anxiety in their child, mostly due to reduced verbal language use and anxiety behaviours overlapping with other behaviours (e.g. autism characteristics). However, parents also described use of a number of management strategies, including some which overlap with components of evidence-based interventions for emotional and behavioural problems in autistic individuals (e.g. exposure/sensory calming). Despite this, parents reported that anxiety continues to have significant impact on quality of life. We will use the findings of this study to inform future research to develop assessment tools and interventions for anxiety in autistic individuals who use few or no words.

Backward mimicry and forward influence in prosodic contour choice in standard American English

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Agustín Gravano ◽  
Štefan Beňuš ◽  
Rivka Levitan ◽  
Julia Hirschberg
Keyword(s):  
American English ◽  
Standard American English

scholarly journals Contrastive Pragmatics: Apologies & Thanks in English and Italian

2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 73
Author(s):  
Cuneyt Demir ◽  
Mehmet Takkac
Keyword(s):  
Social Action ◽  
Speech Acts ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Speech Act ◽  
American English ◽  
The Status ◽  
Language Competency ◽  
Different Cultures ◽  
Remedial Strategies

<p>Awareness of language or language competency has greatly changed from the focus of language itself as form and structure to language use as pragmatics. Accordingly, it is widely accepted that different cultures structure discourse in different ways. Moreover, studies have shown that this holds for discourse genres traditionally considered as highly standardized in their rituals and formulas. Taking inspiration from such studies, this paper employs a corpus-based approach to examine variations of the apology and thanking strategies used in English and Italian. First the apology itself as a form of social action is closely analyzed and then thanking. This study also pays special attention on analyzing and contrasting apology and thanking strategies in American English and in Italian in terms of Marion Owen’s remedial strategies (Owen, 1983), and Olshtain &amp; Cohen’s semantic formulas in the apology speech act set (Olshtain &amp; Cohen, 1983). The purpose of the study is not only to compare apology and thanking speech acts but to also learn their contextual use. The findings suggest that the status and role of the situation affect the speakers’ choice of apology and thanking strategies, and semantic formulas are of great importance.</p>

scholarly journals Evaluation of the American-English Quality of Life in Short Stature Youth (QoLISSY) questionnaire in the United States

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Monika Bullinger ◽  
Rachel Sommer ◽  
Andreas Pleil ◽  
Nelly Mauras ◽  
Judith Ross ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
United States ◽  
Short Stature ◽  
American English ◽  
The United States
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