(a)Where did you see the ad/sign/text? Answer: Tanhualin, Wuhan, China

(b)What community does it target? Answer: Tourists who come to Wuhan from other parts of China.

(c)Why do you think the advertiser chose the language that they did? What effect was it intended to have? Answer: A form of subtle marketing aimed to induce tourists to patronize the store

Explanation: 

I saw this fake zebra and its accompanying sign at Tanhualin, Wuhan’s storied alleyway famed for featuring a range of boutique souvenir shops where thousands of tourists around the country would come to visit on a daily basis. The sign reads “个斑马的武汉”, a literal translation of the phrase would be “A zebra’s Wuhan.” A translation that makes no sense to people who do not know Wuhanese, the regional dialect native to the City of Wuhan. However, a person who speaks the dialect would immediately realize that the sign is a stringent satire of the City’s notoriously churlish dialect. While “个斑马” means “a zebra” in the standard Simplified Chinese Characters, the pronunciation of “个斑马” in Standard Mandarin is phonically similar to the phrase “raised by a whore” in Wuhanese, Wuhan’s regional dialect. Therefore, rather than meaning “a “zebra’s Wuhan“  as indicated by the zebra statue behind the sign, “个斑马的武汉” actually means “Wuhan, a city raised by whores.” However, to understand the sarcasm of the sign aside from its offensive nature, we need a very important context: “个斑马” or “raised by a whore” is a widely known phrase used in daily conversation by Wuhanese dialect speakers to express a range of emotions such as excitement, fear, happiness, and anger. The reason for incorporating such an obscene phrase into the day-to-day conversation is caused by the city’s distinctive place in modern history. Designated as a trade port to Western colonial powers during the early 20th century. Wuhan’s newfound position as a transportation and commercial hub for central China created the need for a large number of barge haulers, a low-skill and laborious occupation that are only applied by low-class people whose only means is to find jobs that could sustain themselves.  The influx of such people to Wuhan to fulfill its exploding hauler demand created a large hauler population in Wuhan, whose original disparate dialects merges into Wuhanese as a result of Dialect Leveling, a process by which original dialect evolved in new environment and eventually become a new dialect. It is to compensate for the harshness of their occupation, that these haulers, without the constraint of polite society, incorporated all sort of “bad” words into the ordinary everyday conversation in Wuhanese to vent out resentment for their abysmal working conditions and eventually passed down that speech pattern even when the original hauler community vanished after the nation modernized. The tendency to constantly use obnoxious phrases such as “raised by a whore” in Wuhanese, however, gives people who visited Wuhan years after that historical period the impression that Wuhan folks are irredeemably ill-bred. A widely circulated joke about the city’s boorish dialect said that upon observing multiple instances where ordinary residents in Wuhan greet each other by the breakfast stall using phrases like “Morning, you whore-raised little bastard”, some uninformed visitors theorized that a sizable portion of the population in Wuhan are indeed raised by prostitutes. Thus, I suspect the reason for installing this sign in front of a souvenir shop is that it serves as a form of marketing by conforming to tourists’ stereotype about Wuhan as a bad-mannered metropolis and appeals to the joke of it being “a city raised by whores.” This piques the interest of informed tourists who may go on to patronize the shop.

(a)Where did you see the ad/sign/text? Answer: Xudong Ave, Wuhan, China

(b)What community does it target? Answer: Native Working-class people in Wuhan who have a tight budget

(c)Why do you think the advertiser chose the language that they did? What effect was it intended to have? Answer: The use of direct phonetical transcription of local dialect assures the restaurant's targeted customers that this is the restaurant that caters to their needs

Explanation:

      Another instance of using dialect as a form of advertisement also occurs in Wuhan, where a low-end fast food restaurant is named “其德堡.” Likewise, a literal interpretation of the name makes no sense as the direct translation of the name in Standard Mandarin would be gibberish as well.  However, the pronunciation of the name in Standard Mandarin is phonically similar to “吃的饱” in the regional dialect Wuhanese, which means “a fulfilling meal.” An important context for understanding why the restaurant is named using a phonetic imitation of the regional dialect using Standard Mandarin characters is that the restaurant is a cheap, low-end that targets consumers are working-class people who live in Wuhan, who predominately speak the regional Wuhanese dialect rather than Standard Mandarin(a state-mandated instructional language) due to the limited education they received. It is likely that the restaurant owner wants to have a name that sounds more approachable to its target consumers by exploiting the fact that having a dialect-based name signals the restaurant’s low-end status due to the covert prestige Standard Mandarin held in the city. For working-class consumers who have limited budgets, the name would assure them that they could walk into the restaurant without fearing to embarrass themselves when they see the price.

- Sentence Example: "Are y’all [yawl] coming home for holiday this year?" Instead of "Are you all coming home for holiday this year?" (Merrian Webster)

 

- Background & how does the variant exemplify covert prestige? Answer: Covert prestige means instances where nonstandard languages, dialects, or variants are regarded to be of high linguistic prestige by members of a certain speech community. The use of “y’all ” exemplifies as covert prestige since as a variant of the standard American English “you all”, y’all is an informal, common way of addressing two or more people in Southern American English and in African American Vernacular English, both of which are not considered as standard American English, hence the covert. Yet, using "y’all" in one’s speech will likely tie the speaker more closely with people who speak Southern American English or use African American Vernacular English, who favors the casual and welcoming spirit exhibited by the use of the variant, hence the prestige.

 

-  Reason for picking this variant: Answer: As an international student, I’m always very curious about African American Vernacular English, which is featured intensively in hip-pop music, but I found them very difficult to comprehend for an ESL student. I’m also interested in Southern American English due to a film that inspired me when I was little – Forest Gump. Therefore, I think “y’all” seems to be the perfect choice for my padlet because it intersects with both areas of interest.

 

- What are the negative and positive attributes associated with the variant? Answer:  
        - Negative attribute: "Y'all" is a common phrase used in African American Vernacular English, a sociolect attached with a stigma that associates its speaker to the low-class and the uneducated. Additionally, "y'all" is deemed to be inappropriate for formal occasions.
        - Positive attribute: Saying "y'all", to me, seems to be a very effective way to express a light-hearted, welcoming spirit and a sense of brotherliness that saying "you all" simply could not express. Also, the phrase is slightly shorter than saying "you all," which saves time.

 

- What do you think the user is trying to communicate by using the variant? Did it work, in your opinion? Answer: The user is trying to communicate to his/her listener a sense of shared identity, and it often worked. For example, Barack Obama, the former President of the United States, used “y’all” in a restaurant located in a historic Black neighborhood to address the restaurant's staff (Atlantic). The use of the variant greatly increased the popularity of Obama among the local community and many African Americans. Because these people start to identify Obama, who seems to be able to speak in the same way as themselves, as a down-to-earth and approachable human being rather than an out-of-touch politician. (Source provided in the linked article) Personally, I think using the variant to impress the group that favors the variant (in this case using "y'all" to appeal to many African Americans)is an effective strategy since the covertness of the variant implies that those who speak the variant had less power and that any attempt to appeal to them will be appreciated because these people know the language, dialect, or variant they use is not acknowledged as the standard and people may often have to make a genuine effort to get to know it. Additionally, this strategy of employing a familiar linguistic variant that exhibits covert prestige is especially effective when it is used by a powerful person to identify himself to a group of less-powerful people since these people will often be very happy that they got the powerful person's attention.

 

(b)Does the change in its usage reflect a technology, concept, event, etc., coming into being or gaining/losing importance at a particular time? Or does it reflect language-internal change, with no obvious external motivator?

 
Rising: “cyber”

-       (a)Answer:  The reason for the rising trajectory is due to the fact that the internet was not formally invented until 1983. Specifically, the word stays relatively out of the lexicon until 1982 and peaked in 2000, which is the peak of the dot com bubble. At that time the world has an extremely optimistic prospect about tech companies, which is why it leads to over speculation on the stock market. The instant money people can get from investing in tech companies at that time leads to a surge in using the word "cyber". After the bubble blasted, however, the word “cyber” continued its popularity primarily because the internet’s revolution on every aspect of our lives had been put into motion. From remote learning to recommendation algorithms, the use of the internet is now ubiquitous. Therefore, we’re left with a persistent rising trajectory on the graph. An illustration and example of the dot com bubble is linked in padlet.

-       (b)Answer:  The change in its usage reflects a technology gaining more importance at a particular time. As the internet plays an increasingly dominant role in our lives, the word’s use also proliferated. 
 

Fad: “aviation”

-       (a)Answer: Ever since the Wright brothers invented the world’s first pane at the year of 1903, the use of the word “aviation” is climbing, albeit at a relatively modest rate compared to the word use’s peak during 1943 and 1944, the most intense years of the second world war, where hundreds of battles were fought between the Allied and the Axis powers, often with air supports. The use of airplanes also contributed a significant part to the bombing of London, a crucial moment in the entire war. The participation of airplanes in the war that happened in both Europe and the Pacific occupied a prominent role in English Newspapers that covers the news on war actively. This contributed to the spike of this word around 1943 and 1944. However, when the war ended in 1945, the word use plummeted and is restricted to the civil and scientific realm instead. An example of the word's use in World War II is linked in padlet.

-       (b)Answer: the word use’s trajectory is primarily caused by distinct historical periods. Specifically, the World War II.
 when the word is featured extensively in English newspapers.

 

Decline: “empire”

-       (a)Answer: The reason for the declining use of the word “empire” I think is twofold: First, there is the actual, physical disappearance of worldwide empires around the globe. As methods of production for human society changed, most feudal, inefficient empires were replaced by republics and constitutional monarchies. Second, the word “empire”, after the decolonization movement and the dominance of the United States - an anti-imperialist power - in the international sphere, has been associated with oppression and cruelty.  The dominant narrative of international discourse has attached a stigma to the word "empire". This disincentivizes people to associate themselves with anything related to “empire” and refrain from using the word to address others. An example of the word's stigmatization is illustrated in an example linked in padlet, where protestors demand the removal of the statue of imperialist Cecil Rhodes, a strong proponent of British imperialism during the 19th century.

-       (b)Answer: The word’s use declined steadily throughout the centuries primarily due to changing social structure and the shifting of global power to the anti-imperialist United States. Both are external factors.

- Reason for picking this article: Answer: This seems to be an illustration of the difference theory while many articles I found tend to be illustrations of the dominant theory. Maybe I just want to introduce a bit of diversity in my padlet.

- Briefly discuss its linguistic merit: Answer: The "Uh" and "Um" study shows how man and woman may use the same linguistic expression for different purposes. From a linguistic perspective, it may offer insights into how each gender differs in behavioral traits

- Are specific linguistic features referenced, or only vague generalities? Answer: The specific linguistic feature referenced is the incidence of use of two linguistic variants: "Uh" and "Um", respectively by male and female.

- Is quantitative evidence used? If so, do you find it convincing? Answer: There is quantitative data present to support the claim made by the article. Specifically, the article cited the research done by Mark Liberman, a linguistics professor at the University of Pennsylvania, who noticed the trend after analyzing two datasets containing audio samples from 11,972 speakers. The analysis concludes that, on average, women in this sample said “um” 22 percent more than men, and men said “uh” 250 percent more than women. But men also use filler words (either uh or um) more than women overall—38 percent more often than women. He also found that, over time, the gender divide here seems to level out, and older people of both genders use uh more and um less.

- Explain how the article demonstrates the difference and/or dominance models. Answer: This article illustrated the difference model since the article concludes by stating that the observed difference in the incidence of different usage of "Uh" and "Um" arises from the fact that different gender uses these two phrases for differing communicative functions. It is possible that men are saying ‘uh’ as a placeholder to keep the floor whereas women say ‘um’ to indicate: ‘I’m listening.” This corroborates with the difference model since the theory is based on the notion that in communication and other interactions, men are fundamentally different from women.

- Tell us whether you find the article to be biased in any way, and, if so, how? Answer: This article, I think, is pretty unbiased because, as the article suggests itself, the findings on which the article based its arguments are derived from a computerized database, meaning that we cannot examine the conversational context in which the "ums" and "uhs" appear. I believe if an article is intelligent enough to assess the shortcomings of the article it cited then on the whole it must be reasonably objective.

- Context & Sentence Example: This article investigates the perceived trustworthiness of voice with different pitches. It is found that high pitch voices, commonly associated with females, are perceived to be less trustworthy and competent in the political and business arena than low pitch voices, a pitch normally linked to males. Example: linked in a separate tile, specifically 2:11 - 2:14 of the video

- Reason for picking this article: Answer: I find female disadvantage in the political and business realm is quite pronounced across societies and wish to analyze it in further detail, this time from a socio-linguistic perspective

- Briefly discuss its linguistic merit: Answer: The article falls in the category of telling a specific gender not to speak in a certain way. From a linguistic perspective, it analyzes the subject of male-female power imbalance in the different voice-pitch commonly associated with each gender and the connotations behind it. This allows us to use linguistic knowledge to further understand gender inequality and advocate for a more equitable linguistic solution to it.

- Are specific linguistic features referenced, or only vague generalities? Answer: There are no very specific linguistic features being mentioned but there is a generic reference to the high and low pitches of the sound.

- Is quantitative evidence used? If so, do you find it convincing? Answer: There is quantitative evidence present to support the claim. The articles cited a study published in 2013, which measured the vocal pitch of 792 male CEOs and found that those with lower voices were more likely to run larger firms, with a 1 percent drop in vocal pitch was associated with a 1.4 percent increase in the size of the firm managed. (Women were excluded from the study because there weren’t enough of them serving as CEOs.) This article concludes that the research explains why women, whose voices are, on average, almost twice as high as men’s, face a particular challenge when speaking in male-dominated fields, like business and politics. 

- Explain how the article demonstrates the difference and/or dominance models. Answer: This article demonstrates the effect of the dominance model since it interpreted a distinctive phonologic feature of female speech, specifically high pitch voice, as associated with a "lack of competence" Using the example of Karen Stintz, a Toronto city councilor, and Margret Thatcher, the article illustrated how female politicians are being hindered in their political careers just because of their high-pitched voice has been associated with incompetence whereas a low-pitch voice, traditionally possessed by males, are favored and celebrated as the symbol of strength and power. (The Dominance Model argues that women have an inferior social position in society and that men dominate women. These social conditions are reflected in male and female language use)

- Tell us whether you find the article to be biased in any way, and, if so, how. Answer: The article may be biased because there is not enough woman that serves as CEOs in the first place to conduct a more complete study. Additionally, the claim may be an over-exaggeration of the negative aspect of female speech patterns. This is because high-pitch voices, although may be associated with trustworthiness in the political and business sphere, have been attached with positive qualities in other spheres. For example, in acting, the ability to express oneself in a high-pitch voice even though one's voice is not high pitch originally is considered as an advantage. 

- Reason for picking this article: Answer: I am a long-time fan of Eason and his songs. As an international student, I  would often feel a sense of homesickness during my stay in the U.S., and listening to Eason’s song would often comfort that longing for my family and friends back home. Therefore I think choosing his notable style shift for this padlet would be an ideal choice for me.

- Which groups does the singer seem to be identifying with: Answer: As a Hong Kong native, the singer seems to shift his identification to that of the Chinese mainlander (Chinese who resides on the Chinese mainland rather than in Hong Kong, Macao, or Taiwan) later in his career

- Why do you think they shift: Answer: The first reason Eason Chen shifted his style could be a form of audience design that is due to his signing with a big record company (Emperor Entertainment Group). Record companies are profit-driven. It may be that seeking more revenue from the more populous Chinese mainland market, the record company urged Eason to try to get more fans from the Chinese mainland, rather than restricting his career development in Hong Kong, which only has a tiny population. A useful tactic to break into the mainland market would be to write and publish more songs in Standard Mandarin, the preferred dialect of the mainland, to appeal to mainland audiences. The attempt is successful and Eason is now one of the most popular singers among Chinese mainlanders. An alternative explanation for Eason's shift is more nuanced. As a Hong Konger born under the British rule of the island, Eason spent his formative years in the turbulent political environment of a Hong Kong detached from Britain and handed back to China (mainland). The island’s century-long colonial rule under the British has caught Hong Kongers at the time, who suddenly become Chinese citizens overnight, in a state of identity disorientation. Native Hong Kongers find it hard to identify with their mother country and its people: the majority of the mainlander speak Standard Mandarin rather than Cantonese (The native dialect of Hong Kong), the mainland economy is state-driven whereas Hong Kong has laissez-faire capitalism, the mainland has always been independent while Hong Kong had operated as a British overseas territory for over 100 years. The palpable sense of loss at the time has helped to create a wide array of excellent films, songs, and books that explore Hong Kong and its people's new identity under the island's reunion with the mainland e.g. Happy Together(a film by Wong Kar-wai that purportedly features an LGBTQ relationship but with a political allegory tucked inside, hence the name). Yet despite the disconnection, a sizable portion of Hongkongese feel it is morally imperative to integrate with the mainland. As a social influencer, Eason’s effort to speak mandarin, the prevalent mode of speech on the mainland, may be an act to better connect Hong Konger and the mainlander on an emotional level that would help to improve the relationship between the two groups of people once separated from one another due to British imperialism. 

- Which elements of language is the shift apparent in? Answer: The pronunciation is the most apparent element of language shift. Cantonese technically is a subset of the Chinese language and they both use almost identical characters, yet it has its own pronunciation system that is almost unintelligible to speakers of standard Chinese. Eason’s later and most successful albums are predominantly in Mandarin Chinese. His song is so successful that many of his mainland fans mistakenly believed that he is a mainland singer. In fact, as a Hong Kong native, Eason only learned to speak standard Chinese when he was well into his 20s

- Do you find the shift convincing? Answer: It is convincing on a commercial level, as evident by the sheer amount of songs written to fit the rhymes of Standard Mandarin lyrics. However, during numerous interviews with mainland media, the audience would often discover that Eason speaks Standard Mandarin in a grammatical structure similar to Cantonese. Therefore it is dubious that a genuine shift had occurred.

 

- Background: Answer: As a British colony starting from mid 19th century, India, divided into numerous smaller kingdoms, hosts a myriad of different languages that are mutually unintelligible. The British, in an attempt to aid the colonial administration, implemented a small education program that only teaches a handful of local elites about speaking proper English. It is from that time that Indian people began to judge one’s ability to speak English as someone’s social status. Recognized English as an official national language after Independence for its ability to connect India’s diverse ethnic groups, each of which speaks a different language (Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Urdu, Gujarati, Punjabi, Kashmiri, Rajasthani, Sindhi, Assamese, Maithili, and Odia). To fulfill this need for unifying communication, the overt prestige attached to English continues in modern India, where the resource is scarce and good education is only supplied to either the rich or the extremely talented due to its huge population. Thus, the desire to send a kid into a school that teaches its curriculum in English (English medium schools), as opposed to a school that teaches in Hindi, the native tongue of many Indians(Hindi medium schools), becomes middle-class anxiety because the ability to speak English translates into one’s future social status. If the child could speak English fluently, the family could very possibly move to a higher class. If the child could not speak it fluently, the family may face the threat of regressing back into the lower-middle class.

 

- Reason for picking this article & how it connects to overt prestige: Answer: I think the film cast the problem associated with overt and covert prestige in a very delicate light. On the one hand, advocating a standard language (assigning a specific language with overt prestige, in this case, English) could have many benefits including lessening the challenge of communication among different ethnic groups and promoting a sense of national unity. In this case, English has become an instrument to unite Indians who speak different regional languages together. On the other hand, the promotion of a specific language obstructs class mobility and undermines linguistic diversity. Children that live in remote and less developed regions in India could not afford an English medium school, and many of them, thanks to the overt prestige attached to English, are ostracized in an increasingly competitive Indian economy, in which many jobs with decent pay require English proficiency. The parents that actively promotes English over their culture’s mother tongue for better employment prospect for their kids are accelerating the process of language death. Coupled with the competitive pressure in a country with a huge population, Hindi, along with many other languages spoken by billions of other Indians, will conceivably disappear in the future due to the prominence and the overt prestige attached to English. Where could we find a balance to maximize the unifying effect of attaching a language with overt prestige and minimize its destructive effect on linguistic diversity? I think this is an issue that sociolinguists should devote more attention to and, hopefully, could propose an appropriate solution.