scholarly journals Die internet as dinamiese taalomgewing: taalveranderingsverskynsels in Internetafrikaans

Literator ◽  
2001 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Verhoef

The internet as dynamic language environment: manifestations of language change in Internet Afrikaans It is generally accepted that the growing interest in the Internet has opened up new horizons for language research. Chenault (1997:1) asserts that the Internet is not about technology or information, but about communication. The aim with this article is to explore the Internet as a dynamic language environment in which emerging patterns of language change in modernday Afrikaans could be traced. Firstly, attention is paid to ways in which the internet speech community could be defined as a coherent speech community. A second aim with this article is to scrutinise the dichotomy between spoken and written language. This is done in order to indicate that linguistic innovations, which usually emerge from social interaction, find their way into written language in digital communication. The third aim is to take a close look at various forms or patterns of language change in Afrikaans as they are presently used in Afrikaans chat rooms on the Internet. The article concludes that Internet Afrikaans could be regarded as an aspect of virtual reality for Afrikaans because systematic patterns of language change which started long ago in Afrikaans are confirmed by the Internet language environment.

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 213-229
Author(s):  
Ewa Dąbrowska

AbstractWhile many linguists view language as either a cognitive or a social phenomenon, it is clearly both: a language can live only in individual minds, but it is learned from examples of utterances produced by speakers engaged in communicative interaction. In other words, language is what (Keller 1994. On language change: The invisible hand in language. London: Taylor & Francis) calls a “phenomenon of the third kind”, emerging from the interaction of a micro-level and a macro-level. Such a dual perspective helps us understand some otherwise puzzling phenomena, including “non-psychological” generalizations, or situations where a pattern which is arguably present in a language is not explicitly represented in most speakers’ minds. This paper discusses two very different examples of such generalizations, genitive marking on masculine nouns in Polish and some restrictions on questions with long-distance dependencies in English. It is argued that such situations are possible because speakers may represent “the same” knowledge at different levels of abstraction: while a few may have extracted an abstract generalization, others approximate their behaviour by relying on memorised exemplars or lexically specific patterns. Thus, a cognitively realistic usage-based construction grammar needs to distinguish between patterns in the usage of a particular speech community (a social phenomenon) and patterns in speakers’ minds (a cognitive phenomenon).


Author(s):  
Ben Epstein

This chapter shifts the focus to the third and final stabilization phase of the political communication cycle (PCC). During the stabilization phase, a new political communication order (PCO) takes shape through the building of norms, institutions, and regulations that serve to fix the newly established status quo in place. This status quo occurs when formerly innovative political communication activities become mundane, yet remain powerful. Much of the chapter details the pattern of communication regulation and institution construction over time. In particular, this chapter explores the instructive similarities and key differences between the regulation of radio and the internet, which offers important perspectives on the significance of our current place in the PCC and the consequences of choices that will be made over the next few years.


2021 ◽  
Vol 143 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-111
Author(s):  
Michail L. Kotin

Abstract The German dative case from genealogic and diachronic perspective. A language-change study about the third case. The dative case belongs to the so-called syncretistic cases, i. e., it encodes multiple functions inherited from the Indo-European cases locative, instrumental, ablative and dative. The paper aims to show the emergence of diverse case functions formally encoded by the dative case from a common base which is assumed to have the locative semantics. The decisive point was, according to the hypothesis, the development of the directional function towards the object or away from it. The addressee dative arose as a result of a specific reanalysis of movement semantics. The so-called dative of subject emerged from reanalysis of the subject-related experiencer function.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (s2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Schreier

Abstract The correlation between external factors such as age, gender, ethnic group membership and language variation is one of the stalwarts of sociolinguistic theory. The repertoire of individual members of speaker groups, vis-à-vis community-wide variation, represents a somewhat slippery ground for developing and testing models of variation and change and has been researched with reference to accommodation (Bell 1984), style shifting (Rickford, John R. & MacKenzie Price. 2013. Girlz II women: Age-grading, language change and stylistic variation. Journal of Sociolinguistics 17. 143–179) and language change generally (Labov, William. 2001. Principles of linguistic change, vol. 2: Social factors. Oxford: Blackwell). This paper presents and assesses some first quantitative evidence that non-mobile older speakers from Tristan da Cunha, an island in the South Atlantic Ocean, who grew up in an utterly isolated speech community, vary and shift according to external interview parameters (interviewer, topic, place of interview). However, while they respond to the formality of the context, they display variation (both regarding speakers and variables) that is not in line with the constraints attested elsewhere. These findings are assessed with focus on the acquisition of sociolinguistic competence in third-age speakers (particularly style-shifting, Labov, William. 1964. Stages in the acquisition of Standard English. In Roger Shuy, Alva Davis & Robert Hogan (eds.), Social Dialects and Language Learning, 77–104. Champaign: National Council of Teachers of English) and across the life-span generally.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jin Liu

This paper examines the emergence of the representation of dialect with Chinese characters (fangyan wenzihua) on the Internet. The online dialect writing is primarily identified as a subject of Internet language and youth language study. The CMC discourse as a hybrid register mixing spoken and written language features facilitates the written use of oral dialect on the Internet. Deviating from the standard Chinese writing system, the Internet-savvy youth transcribe their native dialects on an ad hoc basis, which celebrates multiplicity, creativity, individuality and resists uniformity, standardization, and institutionalization. Taking the SHN website (www.shanghaining.com) as a case study, the paper discusses how the written Shanghai Wu words are explored to mark a distinct visual style and to articulate a distinct local youth identity. Furthermore, this paper examines the dominant strategy of phonetic borrowing in dialect transcription on the Internet. It is argued that diachronically, the youth’s phonocentric obsession tapped into the May Fourth tradition of the baihua vernacular movement that was heavily influenced by the European logocentrism; and synchronically, the celebration of dialect sound on the Internet echoes the contemporary soundscape of local dialects formed in the mass media in recent years.


2017 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Cornejo ◽  
Roberto Musa

AbstractGoldin-Meadow & Brentari (G-M&B) are implicitly going against the dominant paradigm in language research, namely, the “speech as written language” metaphor that portrays vocal sounds and bodily signs as means of delivering stable word meanings. We argue that Heinz Werner's classical research on the physiognomic properties of language supports and complements their view of sign and gesture as a unified system.


2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 17-27
Author(s):  
Damir R. Salikhov

“Regulatory sandboxes” are regarded as a special mechanism for setting up experimental regulation in the area of digital innovation (especially in financial technologies), creating a special regime for a limited number of participants and for a limited time.Russiahas its own method of experimental regulation, which is not typical but may be helpful for other jurisdictions. There are three approaches to legal experiments (including digital innovations) inRussia. The first approach is accepting special regulation on different issues. There are recent examples of special laws (e.g. Federal Law on the experiment with artificial intelligence technologies inMoscow). An alternative to this option is establishing experimental regulation by an act of the Government if legislation does not prohibit it (e.g. labeling with means of identification). The second approach deals only with Fintech innovations and provides a special mechanism to pilot models of innovative financial technologies. The participants of such a “sandbox” may create a close-to-life model in order to estimate the effects and risks. If the model works fine, the regulation may be amended. The third approach works with creating a universal mechanism of real-life experiments in the sphere of digital innovations based on the special Federal Law and the specific decision of the Government of theRussian Federationor the Bank of Russia in the financial sphere. The author compares the three approaches and their implementation within the framework of Russian legislation and practice and concludes that this experience may be used by developing countries with inflexible regulation, in order to facilitate the development of digital innovations.


Comunicar ◽  
2005 ◽  
Vol 13 (25) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana-Luisa Fernandes-Gonçalves

The present article is about the presence of the tv in the society, in general, and its potential as an important agent, such as the family and the school, on the children’s and young people’s development and education. Nowadays we live in a complex world of images with sound, the most of them transmitted by the tv, the cinema and the internet. The infantile universe is full of those images. This way we structured this article in four parts, refering some of the contents related with this subject. The first part describes the presence of the television in the children's daylife and their relationship with the magic box, even the identification that they make with its favourites characters, in order to understand the space that the TV occupies in their lives. The second part presents the different messages transmitted by the television. It is important to analyze the main risks and advantages of television, that is to say, in spite of some programs show bad values, foment the excessive consumption, expose the children to an atmosphere of violence and pornography, also entertains, accompanies, educates, informs, favours the access to the culture and allows to unite the family around a program. At last the third part, this one outlines the necessity to put the tele as a curricular resource in the school, to teaches the students how to analyze, how to criticize and to think about the texts and the news of the world today. The television, considered a powerful tool, is decisive in the communication, such in the formation of values and ideas as in the culture transmission. The function of the school is not to remain far from this factor, but to try to meditate, to understand and to decide its impact, in a better way, on the development of the children and youngs. As conclusion we can add that we’ve tried to aim some strategies that educators and parents will be able to work, united to the children and the youngs, so they could have a new look of the Tv’s world and that they could know how to make their own selection and how to have a critical attitude before the watched product.La presente comunicación se refiere a la presencia de la tele en la sociedad en general y a su potencial como agente importante de formación y educación, junto con la escuela y la familia, en la vida de los niños y de los jóvenes. Actualmente vivimos inmersos en un mundo complejo de imágenes con sonido, que recibimos muy especialmente a través de la tele, del cine y de Internet, los cuales hacen parte del cotidiano del universo infantil. Así, a fin de organizar algunos de los contenidos desde los que es posible enfocar el tema, estructuramos este artículo en cuatro partes. La primera parte describe la presencia de la tele a diario de los niños y su relación con la caja mágica, incluso la identificación que hacen de sus personajes favoritos, a fin de comprender el espacio que ocupa la tele en su cotidianidad. La segunda parte presenta los distintos mensajes transmitidos por la tele. Es importante analizar las principales riesgos y ventajes de la televisión, o sea, a pesar de algunos programas muestran antivalores de la tele: fomentar excesivamente el consumo, exponer a los niños a un ambiente de violencia y pornografía también entretiene, acompaña, educa, informa, favorece el acceso a la cultura y permite unir a la familia en torno a un programa. Cuanto a la tercera parte, plantea la necesidad de incorporar la tele como recurso curricular en la escuela, para que enseñe a los alumnos a analizar crítica y reflexivamente los textos mediáticos. La televisión es considerada como una herramienta poderosa, determinante en la comunicación, tanto en la formación de valores e ideas, como en la transmisión de cultura; la función de la escuela no es permanecer ajena a este factor, pero procurar reflexionar para comprender y decidir mejor su impacto en el desarrollo de los niños y jóvenes. Como conclusión podemos añadir que hemos tratado de apuntar algunas estrategias que educadores y padres podrán trabajar junto con los niños y los jóvenes, para que éstes tengan una nueva mirada del mundo de la tele y para que sepan hacer su propia selección y tener una actitud crítica ante el producto visionado.


Author(s):  
Eric Fuß

The present chapter outlines a research program for historical linguistics based on the idea that the object of the formal study of language change should be defined as grammar change, that is, a set of discrete differences between the target grammar and the grammar acquired by the learner (Hale 2007). This approach is shown to offer new answers to some classical problems of historical linguistics (Weinreich et al. 1968), concerning, specifically, the actuation of changes and the observation that the transition from one historical state to another proceeds gradually. It is argued that learners are highly sensitive to small fluctuations in the linguistic input they receive, making change inevitable, while the impression of gradualness is linked to independent factors (diffusion in a speech community, and grammar competition). Special attention is paid to grammaticalization phenomena, which offer insights into the nature of functional categories, the building blocks of clause structure.


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