Technology

Question 1

Key points from Dennis Baron article (2009)

Answer 1

• New technologies disrupt society, politics, education and economies due to a lack of trust
• New communication technologies spread literacy
• Type writers proposed difficulties as it was hard to see the whole text and if a person made a mistake they would have to start over
• Digital communication enhances interaction

Question 2

Quote from Dennis Baron article

Answer 2

‘computers and the internet are neither the best developments in history nor the worst. They are simply the latest in a series of innovation in how we do things with words’

Question 3

Dixon-Kaminska

Answer 3

Text speak is corrupting orthographic knowledge

Question 4

McWhorter’s analogy

Answer 4

• Lava lamp analogy
• Fluidity of language (descriptivism)
• ‘joy in the infinite variations’ of language

Question 5

3 waves of internet users (Mculloch)

Answer 5

1st wave - pre 1990 - tech savvy individuals
2nd wave - 1990-2000 - technology becoming mainstream for normal people
3rd wave - 2000 - people who have always lived with technology or people who didn’t grow up with it but now use it as it is essential for daily life

Question 6

Views about the printing press at the time

Answer 6

David Crystal described it as ‘thought to be the invention of the devil because it would put false opinions into people’s minds’

Question 7

Philip Seargeant

Answer 7

• The Emoji Revolution (2019)
• Society and technology are factors that affect language change
• Seargeant admitted that ‘by the time you read this book it will be out of date’

Question 8

Sharon Goodman (1996)

Answer 8

• Informalisation of language
• Argues that there was a Golden Age of English around the 18th century

Question 9

Examples of informalisation

Answer 9

• Shortened terms of address
• Contractions of negatives
• Slang

Question 10

When were emojis first used?

Answer 10

2011

Question 11

By 2015, what percentage of online users were using emojis?

Answer 11

Over 90%

Question 12

David crystal quote (present and past)

Answer 12

Texting language is no different from the other innovative forms of language that have emerged in the past

Question 13

What is the name of Guy Deutscher’s book?

Answer 13

The unfolding of language

Question 14

Why does language change? (Guy Deutscher)

Answer 14

• The world is always changing
• Contact
• People like change (‘people are progressive creatures’)

Question 15

Guy Deutscher quotes

Answer 15

Language change happens through the ‘accumulation of unintended actions’

‘Language needs to keep pace with new realities, new technologies and new ideas.