Language Change - technology

Question 1

What is ChatGPT

Answer 1

an AI model that attempts to simulate human interaction

Question 2

Name 2 concerns about ChatGPT’s impact

Answer 2

Could eliminate call centre jobs
Could lead students to cheat in coursework/essays

Question 3

What is Algospeak?

Answer 3

a relatively new phenomenon that has emerged out of the need to avoid AI detection in social media spaces (particularly TikTok)

Question 4

Give an example of an Orthographical variation in Algospeak

Answer 4

non-standard capitalisation/punctuation continue/phonetic spelling eg. seggs

Question 5

Give an example of a Lexical variation in Algospeak

Answer 5

some words semantically broaden to avoid the algorithms eg. the noun phrase ‘mascara wand’, some eumphemisms eg. the noun ‘swimmers’ and ‘going camping’ (getting an abortion)

Question 6

Name 2 concerns about Cloud based voice services: Alexa, Google Nest, Siri etc.

Answer 6

By giving these modes a female voice, we are potentially reinforcing the notion of women as deferential and compliant.
Children do not speak to alexa/siri with polite attitudes which reduces their skills in empathy and negatively affects their development.

Question 7

When did Twitter first emerge?

Answer 7

2006

Question 8

Give an example of a graphological variation in Twitter

Answer 8

first used on twitter in 2007 (prior to this was just used in computing) @ used as a Twitterhandle

Question 9

Give an example of a lexical variation in Twitter

Answer 9

the noun ‘troll’ and the verbs tweet and follow semantically broadened with social media use:cultral and dialect exposure means and increased use of shared lexical features eg. the OED records the first use of ‘stan’as as a verb from a tweet in 2008.

Question 10

When did text messaging become more widely used?

Answer 10

Mobile phones became popular from the 1980’s onwards but it wasn’t until the end of the 1990’s that text messaging was widely used.

Question 11

Why did users have to make their text messages brief?

Answer 11

Text messages cost around 12-15p per message for around 160 characters, so users need to find ways to maintain brevity.

Question 12

Give an example of a graphological variation in mobile phones

Answer 12

emojis became more popular and were first used in 1997

Question 13

Give an example of a lexical variation in mobile phones

Answer 13

acronyms abbreviations and initialisms (LOL became popular although the earliest recorded form was from a chat room in the 1980’s; autocorrect eg. cool to book / dont to foot let to short lived lexical changes

Question 14

When did the internet begin to be widely used?

Answer 14

In the 1990’s

Question 15

Give an example of an orthographical feature of the internet

Answer 15

Non standard capitalisation / punctuation; use of compression and phonetic spelling ‘wot u up 2’ (David Crystal) and also vowel addition to express mood ‘soooooooo sorry’ (Christopher Werry)

Question 16

Give an example of a lexical feature of the internet

Answer 16

Acronyms, abbreviations and initialisma became popular as a fast form of communication; the concrete noun scroll becomes a verb.

Question 17

What year did Caxton bring the printing press to England?

Answer 17

Caxton brought the printing press to England in 1475.

Question 18

Name 2 orthographical variations of the printing press

Answer 18

• The noun ghost only has an ‘h’ because of the Flemish type setters (‘gheest’)
• At the time, spelling was not standardised and Caxton gives the example of the concrete noun egg being spelled in several different ways

Question 19

Name 1 graphological variation of the printing press

Answer 19

The symbol ∫ used to be used to symbolise the double ‘s’ in words but as this fell below the type setting line it was eventually phased out.