Sociolinguistics: Amina Anekwe :) by Amina Anekwe https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics en-us 2022-09-01 14:27:33 UTC 2022-11-10 18:30:48 UTC hello@padlet.com Entry 1: Merriam Webster: Beginning sentences with 'And' apa9887 https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2288245827 2022-09-08 13:59:58 UTC https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2288245827 Entry 1: Pro Writing Aid: Beginning sentences with 'And' apa9887 https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2288255021 2022-09-08 14:05:12 UTC https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2288255021 Entry 1: Grammarly: Is it appropriate to start a sentence with a conjunction apa9887 https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2288259245 2022-09-08 14:07:30 UTC https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2288259245 Entry #1: Language Pet Peeve- Conjunctions Comment apa9887 https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2288737931 For my example of prescriptivism language, I thought back to when we were learning grammar and sentence structure in elementary schools. I remembered how my teachers always used to always warn me to never to begin a sentence with 'And' or 'But.'  I always heeded their advice and to this day whenever I start a sentence with 'and' I will always revise it. For this Padlet, I decided to investigate whether or not it truly was grammatically incorrect to begin my sentences with a conjunction or whether it was just prescriptivism and the instilling of the standard language ideology. 

I began my research with Merriam Webster, a notable publishing company well known for their dictionaries. Similar to what we learned in class, Merriam Webster explains that around the 9th century as can be seen in "Many translations of the Bible" the standard language used to regularly start sentences with conjunctions like "ands and buts." It wasn't until society arbitrarily (not linguistically) decided to prohibit sentences beginning with 'and'  to "prevent children from stringing together interminable lists of clauses or sentences." Overall Merriam Webster cites the usage of 'and' and 'but' as a sentence starter as perfectly okay, but does note that there "are times when it would be ill-advised to begin a sentence with and or but."

To learn that my entire youth it had been perfectly okay to use conjunctions at the beginning of a sentence was extremely shocking for me. This led me to begin researching the rational behind teacher's indignance against this sentence structure. It seemed to be a shared experience "that schoolchildren have been told not to put [and and but] the beginnings of sentences over the past 200 years."

If we look at the ProWritingAid's explanation of this rule, teacher's disapproval of these conjunctions begin to make a lot more sense. Author Julia Granowicz-Johnson explains that many teachers aim to prevent students from "writing the way they talk." Granowicz-Johnson cites the constant repetition of conjunctions in common American speech amongst teenagers as a reason teachers began to dissuade students from beginning sentences with and or but. When students were prohibited from starting sentences with simple conjunctions, they were forced to think more creatively about sentence structure, which helped them "expand [their] vocabulary."

Grammarly offered another interesting explanation of when it is acceptable to use conjunctions. Grammarly argued that writers should "consider your audience when deciding to structure your sentences this way" hinting that this usage is restricted for lower social groups whereas more dignified groups who would view this sentence structure as an "error."

In my personal opinion, I do believe that students should not be scolded for using conjunctions to begin their sentences, but I do believe they should be pushed to find different ways to begin their sentences. Although I do not agree with the standard variety or a 'right way' to speak, from personal experience, being pushed as a student out of my comfort zone of simple conjunctions into more complex sentence structure, did push me to be a better writer and has helped me to the position I am in today.     

]]> 2022-09-08 18:56:52 UTC https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2288737931 "Deadass" in My Personal Text Messages with friends from West Orange, NJ apa9887 https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2298631118 2022-09-15 16:35:12 UTC https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2298631118 "No Cap" in Personal Text Messages with friend from Irvington, NJ apa9887 https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2298647250 2022-09-15 16:44:54 UTC https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2298647250 "For Real" in Personal Text Messages with friend from Miami, Florida apa9887 https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2298653142 2022-09-15 16:48:52 UTC https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2298653142 Entry #2: Linguistic Variables and Variants- Intensification Comments apa9887 https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2298663613 When we began talking about linguistic variables and the various forms of intensification used in general lexicon and/or vernacular, I began to think about the various ways my friends and I said the same thing on a day to day basis. The first linguistic variable example that popped into my head was "deadass," "for real" and "no cap" all various intensifiers used to validate and/or question a statement.

I have cited three examples of usage of these phrases within my personal text messages. When coding these messages based upon region I began to see how each phrase was associated to certain social groups. I am from West Orange, New Jersey. When I was texting my friends from my general community. of practice, I often responded with "deadass" But when I was outside my community of practice and just inside of my social network with my my friend from Irvington, New Jersey the phrase "no cap" was used in substitution to "deadass." I didn't realize in the moment, but subconsciously, when communicating with people outside of my immediate community, the vernacular I used changed, because it was not my immediate subculture.

This idea became even more apparent when analyzing the text message received from my friend from Miami, Florida. My friend belongs to an entirely different speech community than me, therefore the more universally recognized phrase of "for real" was used, rather than my more frequent lingo of "no cap" or "deadass." I believe that although my tendency is to rely on my vernacular of "no cap" or "deadass" each phrase holds different weight depending on the social group I'm apart of. In my hometown of West Orange, the variant that is socially acceptable is "deadass", in the broader New Jersey state, the most common linguistic variant is "no cap" and across the United States, the most recognizable linguistic variant is "for real." Therefore, my conclusion after this research was, I will continue adapt my linguistic variable depending on my social situation, because some of my vernacular is regionally based, therefore it is easier to hold a mutually intelligible conversation when my interlocutor can understand all of my phrases. ]]> 2022-09-15 16:55:57 UTC https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2298663613 Phone Booth Advertisment (Southern California, 2021) apa9887 https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2309277261 Translation of White Sticker: 
3 minutes for $1. 
To all of Mexico!

Translation of Red Sticker:
Direct Call with Money
Press 41152
The Number in Mexico

]]> 2022-09-22 18:12:56 UTC https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2309277261 Wikipedia Reference: [31% of California are Mexican] apa9887 https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2309328460 2022-09-22 18:46:37 UTC https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2309328460 Patois Advertisement for 'Ting' (Golden Krust, 2020) apa9887 https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2309330431 Translation: Meet me with a Ting!]]> 2022-09-22 18:48:01 UTC https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2309330431 Wikipedia Reference: [New York has the highest population of Jamaican Americans..] apa9887 https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2309345624 2022-09-22 18:59:34 UTC https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2309345624 Entry #3: Advertisements Tailoring Language to Appease the Population- Comment apa9887 https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2309346885 When given this task to find advertisements that specifically adapted to tailor the population they were advertising towards, I found these two photos in my camera roll, that in my opinion perfectly display how companies will cater to their specific population. 
 
My first example is a photo I took advertising for a phone booth in Southern California. This advertisement is it is displayed in Spanish to cater towards the high population of Spanish Speakers in California. The interesting thing about this advertisement, is the fact that its selling point is for a dollar costumers can call anybody in Mexico for three minutes. I did some research, and I found out that approximately 31% of California's state population is Mexican, most of them located in Southern California. (Wikipedia) This means that 3 in 10 people in California, are Mexican-American. This promotion specifically cites Mexico as a country, because they want to target the Mexican-American population who might not be able to call their families as frequently because of the cost of international calls. This advertisement was intended to strike a chord in the hearts of the Mexican-Americans who saw this sticker and entice them to pay a dollar to use the telephone.

My second example is a picture of an advertisement I saw inside of the Jamaican restaurant Golden Krust in Brooklyn, NY for a lime soda called Ting. This advertisement is written in the Jamaican dialect of Patois, and is advocating for a casual drink that you can have while spending time with your friends. New York has the highest population of Jamaicans in the United States. Over 300,000 Jamaicans live in the tristate area, triple the amount of those in Georgia, Connecticut or Maryland. (Wikipedia) The advertisers chose to use the Jamaican dialect to target the high percentage of Jamaican-Americans in New York who would frequent a cuisine specific restaurant like Golden-Krust. From personal experience as a First-Generation Jamaican-American, Patois is a language that is primarily spoken, rather than written. An advertisement written in Patois is a lot more impactful and allures me and other Jamaican-Americans that much more. 

My mom is a brand-marketer, and she used to always tell me, the key to creating a great advertisement, is to cater the commercial to the target population. I did not realize it before this experiment, but the language adaptation of a particular sociolect by companies, is a key factor in enticing potential consumers to buy the product. Now when walking down the street, I will be much more wary about buying something because of an advertisement and ask the question: "Do I really like this product? Or am I just excited by the advertisements use of my linguistic variables?" ]]> 2022-09-22 19:00:19 UTC https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2309346885 Shein Advertisment: 'Fri-Yay Deals You Don't Wanna Miss' apa9887 https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2319918735 2022-09-29 18:28:18 UTC https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2319918735 Shein Advertisment: "Wanna be voted BEST DRESSED?" apa9887 https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2319918959 2022-09-29 18:28:29 UTC https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2319918959 Entry #4: Non-Standard Variable 'Wanna' and its Covert Prestige apa9887 https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2319919579 During class, when Laurel highlighted how famous fast-food companies like Dunkin' Donuts and McDonalds, utilized the covertly prestigious, g-dropping non-standard variety to attract customers, I immediately turned towards my jam-packed promotions email folder, to look for other ways companies tried to use non-standard language to attract customers. The first major example that caught my eye, was companies' use of "wanna" instead of the standard-variety "want to" in the headlines of their emails. I found two specific examples from popular Gen-Z, fashion company Shein's use of "wanna" which I have linked below.

Similar to g-dropping, "wanna" is a non-standard variant of lexicon, that is used to shorten the phrases "want to" or "I want to." This phrase exemplifies covert prestige, because it is a phrase that is very commonly used by many different groups of people. According to Thought Co., in addition to "gonna", "wanna" is one of the most commonly used reductions of speech used today. Despite that fact, 'wanna' is still not standard language, therefore it soley holds covert prestige. 

Since a lot of people use this variant, there is a lot of positive attributes associated with it. It is so common that before writing this response, I even had to search up whether or not "wanna" was a proper term, because for a second I wondered whether or not it counted as the standard variety.  Although using the term "wanna" will earn you street cred with your friends and family, it is still not considered a standard variety. Therefore if you were to use "wanna" while writing an academic paper or speaking in 'professional' spaces which socially seem to require 'standard language', the use of 'wanna' would insinuate lack of education and have negative affects on your perception in the space. 

In the case of the fashion company Shein, by using the word "wanna", I believe they want to communicate that they are a very accessible and casual company. I believe by sending this message of casualness, they want to consumer to know that they can casually browse their online selection of clothes and purchase items of clothing. I believe Shein was very successful in their endeavor to solicit a customer. When I first glanced upon these advertisements, I did not even realize that they were using non-standard language, but rather I was more focused upon the content they were advertising. By using common sociolect with covert prestige, Shein, like McDonalds and Dunkin' Donuts, is able to attract more and more customers.]]> 2022-09-29 18:28:52 UTC https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2319919579 ThoughtCo Reference: Most common reductions... apa9887 https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2319950206 2022-09-29 18:49:48 UTC https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2319950206 My Research Topic apa9887 https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2339105954 For my research project on sociolinguistic variables, I have chose to analyze the variants in greetings and characterize the social significance of the various greetings. I am interested about whether usage is affected by the channel of communication (ie: phone vs in person) and/or if the greeting was in initiation or response.

So far I have only collected 15 tokens of data. Over the past week, I have experienced some difficulty remembering to write down the greeting of the various interactions I have on a daily basis, thus I have not reached the target. In order to catch up, I am going to stay hyper aware and document greetings during the day while also looking into my text/virtual conversations I have with my friends and family on a daily basis. I believe using both the in-person and i-message mediums, will help me catch up and collet 105 tokens in the next two weeks. ]]> 2022-10-13 16:39:57 UTC https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2339105954 My Data Spreadsheet apa9887 https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2339106533 2022-10-13 16:40:17 UTC https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2339106533 Ladies, Let’s Make a Resolution to Stop Saying “Sorry…” apa9887 https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2359385552 2022-10-27 16:40:01 UTC https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2359385552 Women, Stop Saying 'Just' So Much, You Sound Like Children apa9887 https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2359386471 2022-10-27 16:40:43 UTC https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2359386471 Entry 5: 'Sorry' and 'Just' apa9887 https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2359410459 After discussing language and gender stereotypes in class, I became particularly interested in researching the gender-specific linguistic variations that are commonly associated with women such as 'just' and 'sorry' in media and the subsequent prescriptivism that comes with that. 

In the middle of my research, I came upon a short compelling article by author Jocelyn K. Glei with the compelling prescriptive title "Ladies, Let’s Make a Resolution to Stop Saying “Sorry..." Throughout this article, Glei uses vague generalities and various common examples of workplace situations in which many women often use the phrase 'sorry' even when there is little to apologize for. Jocelyn K. Glei emphasizes upon Dominance Model. Glei argues that women will use the linguistic variable of 'sorry' whenever interacting with colleagues or bosses who are in a different status of power, purely to "[deflect] your own agency and opinions as a woman—and their validity." The purpose of this article is to push women out of using 'sorry' and shrinking themselves in front of authority, because Glei believes it is often unnecessary and undermines them of agency. The article is biased towards thinking that women will often make themselves weak in front of authority and that apologizing in an email is "unnecessary" and strips women of power. 

The second article which gravitated me was Tracy Moore's fascinating opinion piece, "Women, Stop Saying 'Just' So Much, You Sound Like Children." This article begins by discussing the importance of eradicating the lexicon 'sorry' and moves to emphasize that in addition to apologies, 'just' is also lexicon which is "keeping you from being taken seriously as a woman." Moore supplements her opinions with citations from former Google executive Ellen Petry Leanse's article at Business Insider about how various qualifiers like 'just' can impede the clarity of women's speech and in Moore's opinion "undermine our authority." This article functions a perfect example of the Robin Lakoff's, "Difference Model." Tracy Moore argues that as apart of women's rapport style, women are taught to use the linguistic variant 'just' as a way of "being nice" to maintain social relations. Moore pushes against this politenesss and like Jocelyn K. Glei, maintains a similar biased opinion that linguistic variations like 'just' sends "a subtle message of subordination, of deference."

In many ways I agree that simple apologies before sharing an idea or the notion of apologizing for "bothering" a colleague are useless and should be eradicated. I also share the opinion that eradicating qualifiers like 'just' is helpful in simplifying and clarifying emails. But I also do not agree with the idea that a simple linguistic variant has the power to strip people of influence. I believe that notion of being able to give away power purely through our use of language is a form of the Standard Language Ideology. This is the same rationale which is used to justify using a "right way of speaking" in order to be taken seriously. The idea of "correct language" is an arbitrary societal decision based purely on the language of those in power. I believe we should not give linguistic variants the power to take away our agency.

]]> 2022-10-27 16:57:06 UTC https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2359410459 2) Expressive Emoji in Text Message (2022) apa9887 https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2378907076 2022-11-10 16:20:08 UTC https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2378907076 1) Directive Emoji in Text Message (2022) apa9887 https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2378907077 2022-11-10 16:20:08 UTC https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2378907077 3) Phatic Emoji in Text Message (2022) apa9887 https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2378907078 2022-11-10 16:20:08 UTC https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2378907078 Entry #6: Emojis functioning as Expressive, Directive and Phatic Communicative Functions apa9887 https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2378913626 When Laurel presented the capacity for emojis to express communicative ends, I immediately looked towards my text messages and my frequent emoji use and began to analyze the many ways my friends and I use emojis to express certain ideas. 

My first example is the use of the emoji where the black girl is kneeling in addition to the phrase "please." In this case, the emoji is being used for the directive function of language. In the context of this conversation, I used this emoji to emphasize my plea to my friend to send me a funny gif. Through using the emoji where somebody was kneeling, I attempted to appeal to my friend's sympathies and get her to do what I wanted. In the end, I believe the use was   somewhat successful. Immediately after I sent that message, my friend said "I promise I will" and hours later, I received the funny meme I had been impatiently waiting for.    

The second example I found of an emoji being a function of language, was when I used the skull emoji to describe how I felt. In this text conversation, my friend and I were discussing our feelings about the day. By starting the phrase with  "bc [because] I feel so..." and completing the phrase with an emoji, it sets up the emoticon to be a clear representation of how I feel, which in turn is an expressive function. I chose to use the skull emoji, because it is one of my most used emojis often used to express feeling super exhausted, upset or at a loss for words. In many ways I believe this use was  unsuccessful. The skull emoji can be somewhat hard to interpret, because it is full of multiple meanings. I should have used either the crying, sleeping or laughing emoticon. in order to express a clear, singular emotion.  

The last example of emojis enacting a function of language, was when my friend Steph attempted to use the sad, looking down emoji to express a phatic function. This message was sent by my friend after reading a text rant I had sent previously which she took several hours to reply to. By using a sad, apologetic emoji along with the phrase "my apologies", Steph is attempting to express solidarity to me as well as a sense of empathy. I found her use of the emoji quite successful. By apologizing for the circumstances I was experiencing as well as showing that she felt equally as affected with a sad emoticon, Steph expressed a strong sense of solidarity as well as the thought "I am here for you." 

In class we have analyzed the many ways we manipulate our language to express an idea depending on our interlocutor, setting, background. Before this Padlet, I have never thought about how emoticons could also play a factor in this linguistic variation in speech events. Now in my daily conversations, I will continue to look at the many ways I utilize emoticons as a function of my language!]]> 2022-11-10 16:24:18 UTC https://padlet.com/apa9887/linguistics/wish/2378913626