https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety A collection of language data consequential to this course en-us 2022-09-07 01:49:11 UTC 2026-01-04 05:26:05 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.net/icons/png/1f47a.png jhr402 https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2297249425 2022-09-15 00:24:07 UTC https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2297249425 jhr402 https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2297250566 2022-09-15 00:25:01 UTC https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2297250566 jhr402 https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2297252812 2022-09-15 00:26:44 UTC https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2297252812 jhr402 https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2297293696 For my example of prescriptivism, I chose the phrase "for all intensive purposes," which is commonly used in place of "for all intents and purposes." Many would affirm that the latter is an idiom with the meaning of "for the matter at hand," "essentially," "in effect," or "for our uses," while the former is an incorrect jumble of words that means nothing. I first became aware of this common substitution in middle school, when my English teacher would constantly correct people  (usually girls, albeit I was unable to find any concrete source for this in other instances) when they used the incorrect form. While he mentioned that this was a language peeve of his, he corrected enough people that his corrections became MY language peeve.
After using Google to do some research, I found that the phrase actually has a storied past. According to a Merriam-Webster article, as linked in this Padlet, the phrase was popularized by the 1546 Act of Parliament in England, in which King Henry VIII used the phrase "to all intents, constructions, and purposes" in order to convey that he had utmost power and divine authority. The idiom was well received, and, due to its phonetic similarity to "all intensive purposes," was subsequently altered to form this new string of words holding the same meaning. Apparently, this is called an "eggcorn" (mistaken for acorn), and it represents when a phrase is commonly heard wrong or "wrongly" pronounced.
In order to gauge public attitudes of the altered idiom, different sources must be employed. Looking at the Urban Dictionary entry, we can see that some strong negative feelings are directed at the new phrase, with the author of the entry describing its users as "barely unintelligent people."  In the englishgrammar.com article,The author states that the phrase has gradually shifted from its original "to all intents" to "for all intents," yet recommends at the end of the article to avoid the "intensive" construction in speech and especially in written work. Whether this advisory recommendation comes from disdain or caution, I find it odd how the replacement of "to" with "for" seems to be adequate, yet the replacement of "intents and" with "intensive" immediately makes the idiom incorrect. In fact, I was unable to find a source advocating for the altered construction, or even one that describes why it is wrong, besides the implication that the change from the original King Henry VIII verbiage makes it incorrect.
Personally, I do not find any harm in using the construction in its modern form. Since the key tenet of language is mutual intelligibility, and people hearing the modern, "wrong form" can immediately understand its meaning, for all intensive purposes, the idioms are semantically congruent.

]]> 2022-09-15 00:58:36 UTC https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2297293696 jhr402 https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2308018761 2022-09-22 04:01:16 UTC https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2308018761 jhr402 https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2308049525 2022-09-22 04:32:03 UTC https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2308049525 jhr402 https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2308054368 It's quite common for the phonemes /d/ and /j/, when combined at the end of a word and beginning of another, respectively, to be assimilated and turned into a /ʤ/ sound. This happens with a great deal of sounds when connected in two different words, including the combination of /t/ and /y/ forming /ʧ/, as well as others listed in the example website of pronuncian.com. While typically discussed as a more "natural" version of English, I believe that the assimilation is taken a step further in some areas of Long Island, as well as the broader New York area.
First of all, pronouncing a sentence in which /d/ and /j/ assimilation is used without assimilation, such as "did you" as "did ju," is completely viable. In fact, this pronunciation is more in line with the prescriptive rules set forward by Standard American English, as exhibited in the linked YouTube video labeled Un-assimilation of /d/ +/j/, where the speaker says the phrase in this matter. However, he affirms that using assimilation, pronouncing the phrase "did you" as "diʤu," makes the speaker sound more natural. Another example of this assimilation can be found in the linked video labeled Assimilation of /d/ and /j/. It should be noticed that the speakers in both these videos are British, exemplifying that this assimilation is present in accents that are not just American. However, I believe this variable is more complex than just a simple binary of assimilation or no assimilation.
It is my view that assimilation occurs in varying degrees depending on the location, or some other factors, of someone's residence in New York. A great example of this is the YouTube video linked as New York Accent Assimilation, where the speaker says "did you." While the assimilation is there, it barely occurs, and the /ʤ/ phoneme is not particularly long. This differs from the Long Island accent that I know, in which the assimilation takes such precedence over the rest of the anterior word that it almost deletes it entirely. I find this change most noticeable in a common Long Island situation; you just walked into a deli for a sandwich, and you do not know if the person standing at the counter has ordered their food yet. So, you ask the question, "did you order yet?" In many delis, particularly those located on the South shore of the island in Nassau County, the question will sound like the voice recording linked as "Did you order yet" (I was unable to find an example online; please believe me when I say my rendition is most accurate).  Notice how the question is pronounced as "ʤu ɔːrda jət," with the "di" section completely removed. This assimilation and deletion combination is used by primarily working class people of the South shore of Nassau County, but I find myself using it depending on the situation (such as being on the South shore, or trying to be informal), even though I am from the North shore of Suffolk county. Indeed, the accents of Long Island can differ depending on latitude, as explained in the video linked as Reference to Long Island Variant Differences. Since this accent is considered more "Long Island" than the variant used in the North shore, it is typically seen as more casual, and possibly stems from the wealth disparity between the two areas.
I chose to discuss this topic because I find that most information about the Long Island accent online tends to trend toward discussing vowel differences, and ignores those based on consonants. As mentioned, I was unable to find an example of this variation in assimilation, and had to make one myself. I believe it is one of the many ways New York accents can show diversity between different areas, while still remaining in the main accent group.


]]> 2022-09-22 04:36:44 UTC https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2308054368 jhr402 https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2308055835 2022-09-22 04:38:11 UTC https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2308055835 jhr402 https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2308056609 2022-09-22 04:38:57 UTC https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2308056609 jhr402 https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2308069968 2022-09-22 04:50:58 UTC https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2308069968 jhr402 https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2308080190 2022-09-22 04:59:37 UTC https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2308080190 jhr402 https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2318572447 2022-09-29 02:26:17 UTC https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2318572447 jhr402 https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2318574468 2022-09-29 02:27:44 UTC https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2318574468 jhr402 https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2318575358 2022-09-29 02:28:25 UTC https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2318575358 jhr402 https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2318658712 For this entry I decided to use pictures from my trip to Tokyo in 2017. While I never left the city, the metropolis offered a litany of different environments to explore, and their contrasting nature was made evident through the language written on signs, roadways, and advertisements.
For some background, Japanese has 3 different writing systems: Hiragana, katakana, and kanji. Hiragana is the language in its most phonetically basic sense; each character correlates to a syllable, which combine to form words when used in combination. There are only 46 characters in hiragana, making it relatively easy to write, learn, and pronounce. Katakana is a mirror of hiragana, with the same 46 syllables being represented in a more angled, straight-edged writing style. This system of writing is used mostly for foreign loanwords (コンピューター = computer; pronounced "konpju:ta:). Lastly, there is kanji, which are symbols largely borrowed from the Chinese writing system that substitute hiragana in order to make writing shorter and concise. Kanji takes a while to learn, even for native speakers; children learn kanji up until high school in Japan, and young children can often not recognize more complex ones. These writing styles all contribute to signaling how a sign or advertisement is created for its target audience.
The first example of this language targeting design is the Playground Slide, which I took a picture of in Yokohama. While it may be hard to see, the main text on the side of the slide spells out すべりだいのちゅうい (pronounced suberidainoʧu:ri), which generally translates to "playground slide warning." What's interesting about this is that it is not written in kanji, like 滑り台の注意; even as I typed the sentence out in hiragana, my computer wanted desperately to convert it to kanji. I believe this spelling was deliberate, as the children using the slide may not know the kanji associated with the words. Therefore, knowing that the sign's target audience would be young children, the designers choice to write the warning in the simplest way possible, so that no kanji knowledge was needed.
The second example I want to use is road lettering on a city street, also in Yokohama. Here, the message is 速度おませ (pronounced sokudo-omase), which generally means "slow down" or literally "speed - drop it." I believe this warning uses kanji because a massive majority of people driving in Yokohama have a grasp of basic kanji. Here, the city municipality probably decided writing the warning in a "normal" way would be fine, hence the use of kanji. While this example is not as exciting as the last one, it serves as an example of how an average sign or warning in Japan would be written, if targeted to the average Japanese citizen.
Lastly, my third example is a picture taken near Shibuya Crossing in central Tokyo. Congruent in purpose to New York's Time Square, this intersection is heavily populated by tourists, most of which probably have a tenuous grasp of the Japanese language at best. While the picture is blurry, its easy to see a clear presence of English in the advertisements, such as Bic Camera, Clarion, and Taito Station. Subsequently, katakana is used under some of these advertisements, such as Bic Camera, which mimics the English pronunciation of the advertisements' contents or titles. I believe the presence of English is not an accident; it makes sense to advertise in the de facto global lingua franca in a place where people from all over the world are prevalent.
I chose these examples to show that not just dialects or different languages can show how writing correlates with its target audience; in fact, degree of language comprehension can also be a factor. Japanese is a great language to showcase this, as its variety of writing systems lends itself to being carefully created for specific readers. ]]> 2022-09-29 03:40:25 UTC https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2318658712 jhr402 https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2328720023 2022-10-06 04:32:01 UTC https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2328720023 jhr402 https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2328748571 For this entry, I chose a Popeye's Louisiana Chicken commercial as my example of covert prestige. If the title didn't give it away, Popeye's is a fast food brand based in Louisiana, which has a rich history including the French and Creole languages. The influence these languages has had on English speakers in the region has been significant, with speakers adopting shortened [i] sounds that are almost deleted, as well as removing pronouns from certain words. The history of African Americans in Louisiana, mostly stemming from their immigration from Haiti, brought the French and Creole language to the region. The effects of this mix of Creole, French, and Standard American English speakers has largely influenced the formation of grammar in African American Vernacular English, among other immigrant groups who brought their English knowledge to the country as well. In the commercial, the actors can be heard repeating "love that chicken," before finishing the chant with "love that chicken from Popeyes." Interestingly, the implied pronoun "I" is removed from the utterance, as can be seen in AAVE and Creole dialects. Finally, the narrator pronounces Louisiana differently than the Standard English American pronunciation. combining the [ui] diphthong to a more simple [u] sound. This replicates a traditional Louisiana accent.
 I believe this is an example of covert prestige because the advertisement is purposely replicating dialect changes present in Louisiana natives. The objective of this replication is to affirm that Popeye's is truly a Louisiana staple, and the chicken is sourced and a product of New Orleans. In a more holistic sense, this persuades the people watching the advertisement that the product is more genuine, and more likely to be satisfying. Even though AAVE, and the Louisiana accent, are non-standard English dialects, its use can persuade people to trust the product that it advertises.]]> 2022-10-06 05:01:07 UTC https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2328748571 jhr402 https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2348172458 For my research project I have decided to undertake the Greetings topic. I chose this topic because I believe greetings are somewhat easier to elicit and overhear than the other topics, and allow the acquirement of more unique tokens than other topics. One challenge I have faced so far in my research (I have elicited 28 tokens so far) is that most of these tokens come from people who have a close relationship to myself. I am going to make more of an attempt to "overhear" greetings in order to gain a larger variety in my tokens. I also have a question: Since I am currently taking a Japanese course, should I be accepting tokens in Japanese?]]> 2022-10-20 02:13:34 UTC https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2348172458 jhr402 https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2359221097 Admittedly, I have fallen a little behind on my data collection. So far I only have about 90 tokens. In order to get to 120, I plan to spend a great deal of time during the weekend walking into stores in order to get the maximum number of greetings. I will also be talking to friends to elicit more greetings.]]> 2022-10-27 14:59:13 UTC https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2359221097 jhr402 https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2368308876 2022-11-03 12:02:46 UTC https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2368308876 jhr402 https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2368318218 2022-11-03 12:09:51 UTC https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2368318218 jhr402 https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2368352830 The first article, from Insider, lists 12 words that men more commonly knew compared to women, and 12 words that women more commonly knew than men. This article is rather brief, and does not offer much of an explanation for the selection or methodology of the words provided. It tends to use vague generalities when comparing the two genders. However, it does offer some evidence for the difference model being present, in the sense that men were more likely to know words associated with science and technology than women, while women were more likely to know words associated with fashion and art. This difference in knowledge reflects the difference model, as the societal pressure for women to not engage in STEM-oriented fields shapes their vocabulary. Likewise, the societal pressure for men to not pursue careers or interests in art and fashion lends to their lack of knowledge of vocabulary associated with these subjects. This article, while lacking in background information, does not appear to be biased towards one conclusion or the other, and aptly presents a case for the difference model of gender differences in language.
The next article, from bigthink.com, discusses how men commonly use more abstract language than women. Through the analysis of blog posts and Congressional hearing transcripts, and by assigning abstraction values to 40,000 English words, researchers were able to measure the rate in which men and women differed in their use of abstract speech. The article makes some reference to linguistic variables, such "communicative abstraction," but is scant on specific linguistic data. The overall conclusion from the studies was that men more commonly use abstract concepts in their speech and writing, while women tended to be more detail focused. This reflects the dominance model, as the researchers theorized this difference in communicative abstraction stems from males having more historical access to public speech opportunities to express high-level concepts. The article seemingly has no bias against one conclusion or the other, and appears to follow with the researchers' conclusions.]]> 2022-11-03 12:33:21 UTC https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2368352830 jhr402 https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2387927875 This is a screenshot from a Discord chatroom. In Discord, users can react to messages sent in the chatroom using emojis. In this example, a user has reacted to a Youtube video of cute Flemish Giant rabbits with an emoji that displays large, almost tearful eyes (the official name of the emoji in Discord is called :pleading_face:). In my opinion, this emoji is used in an expressive sense to denote that the user reacting thinks the video is cute. Commonly, this emoji is associated with a reaction of tenderness or affection, making the reaction expressive in this case.]]> 2022-11-17 08:42:06 UTC https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2387927875 jhr402 https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2387983231 In this example, my aunt is talking to my cousin to ask about her charity trip that requires donations. Rather than reply "OK" or "Yes" when her question was answered, by aunt simply replied with a "thumbs up" reaction to her message to communicate that she received and understood the answer. This also doubles as a way to conclude the conversation, as the emoji does not make either person feel as if they're being "left on read," and can be free to do other things. In this sense, the use of the thumbs up emoji is phatic, because it concludes the conversation while conveying information.]]> 2022-11-17 09:32:01 UTC https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2387983231 jhr402 https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2387990933 This Cher tweet uses emojis to convey information. The American flag emoji is used to refer to America as a whole, the "100" emoji is used in place of the word "hundred," and the orange (fruit) emoji is used to replace the word "orange." By using these emoji to represent different words and concepts, Cher is using these emoji in a referential sense, as they are conveying information that does not pertain to mood. Instead, they represent physical things like countries, numbers, and colors. ]]> 2022-11-17 09:38:41 UTC https://padlet.com/jhr402/languagensociety/wish/2387990933