Advertising dinosaurs of the pre-PC age

Blog entries, eh? Nothing for nearly two weeks and then three come along all at once. Please forgive the dearth of postings of late - I've been a very busy chap.

Anyway, hot on the heels of our recent (AS level) class discussions of the representations of subjects and audiences in adverts, I happened upon this article while scouring the net for tasty morsels. I offer no comments (I wouldn't dare), but I think you'll find them particularly interesting as a window on the way we used to be when it came to gender politics. Prepare to be amazed/infuriated/amused* (*delete as applicable).

Rents think Teenglish website is bare nang, blats

...or something. If you thought that 'malt' was something used in making beer, 'rare' was a way of cooking steak and 'flossing' was that thing the dentist is always nagging you to do, then you need the Teenglish Jargon Buster. Okay, maybe you don't actually need it, but your parents might, as this story in the Daily Mail tells us.

The jargon buster is a feature of the gotateenager website hosted by Parentlineplus, the purpose of which is to "help break down the language barrier" between parents and teenagers. What is interesting about this website is that it aims to keep on updating the dictionary of 'Teenglish', inviting contributions from parents in order to do so. This is particularly important given the extreme transience of this particular type of slang - it changes more rapidly, probably, than any other type of non-standard or colloquial usage, so websites like this are useful for linguists like us if we want to keep track of this high-speed language change as it occurs. After all, some of the words that appear in slang dictionaries like this one are out of date almost as soon as they are published ("phat", anyone...?).

War of the words

As the campaign for the American Presidency gathers pace, the candidates and their 'people' are keener than ever to find something - anything - to use as a weapon against their opponents. In the wake of yesterday's outcry about Barack Obama's 'lipstick on a pig' comment comes a fresh accusation of racism against supporters of John McCain.

The argument revolves around the use of the word 'uppity' by two separate Republican politicians in reference to Obama and his wife and to a black news reporter, as reported here. A spokesman for the two Republican politicians argued that they had "simply evoked a word that by definition described [their] demeanor as being superior, arrogant and presumptuous". However, supporters of Obama have been quick to point out that the word has a racially-loaded history and that its use by the Republicans is far from innocuous. This article explains the background to the use of the word:

The phrase “uppity (N-word)” was used to let a black person know he was out
of his “place.” It was used on black people during the civil rights movement, who refused to give up seats on buses and who moved into segregated neighborhoods, as well as black people who used proper English. It was likely the last phrase heard by freedom riders in Mississippi before they were killed and buried in an earthen dam.

Whether or not the Republicans were conscious of this history is unclear. What is clear, though, is that language really is a 'loaded weapon' and should be handled with extreme caution!

it wz me wot dn it lol

Linguists have played an important role in the science of forensics for many years, using their knowledge of the structures and patterns of language use to identify the origins of 'mystery voices', construct pictures of the social background of suspects and even expose falsified written statements. Until recently the forensic linguist's evidence has been mainly in the form of tape recordings and written documents, but this news report explains how linguists are now beginning to focus on the language of electronic media such as text messaging.

The article comments that people "choose their own text language "rules" - which they tend to use throughout all their messages", and explains that it is therefore possible to spot a 'fake' message sent by someone masquerading as someone else (as was proven to have happened in the murder case on which the article focuses). The article goes on to say that "forensic linguists can also build a "sociolinguistic" profile of the author: they can give an idea of a texter's gender or age... women tend to be inter-personal while men make arrangements".

So it would seem that the language of electronic communication varies in the same ways and according to the same factors as spoken language does.

More grammar gripes

Following their report on Tesco's decision to re-label their "10 items or less" checkouts (as discussed in my recent Less is more blog posting), BBC News on-line magazine has published a 'rogues gallery' of the 20 most hated grammar crimes, as identified by its readers. Have a look at the list and see whether you feel as strongly about these misuses of language as some people apparently do. Perhaps you have some additional gripes of your own that don't get a mention here...

CONGRATULATIONS...

...on choosing to take the most exciting*, useful** and just plain excellent*** A level course known to human beings. We'd just like to take this opportunity to say "welcome" to all our new AS English Language students, and "welcome back" to those of you starting your second year of English Language at Strode's.

The purpose of this blog is to help you to keep up to date with current news articles, websites and other resources that focus on aspects of English Language and that will support your learning. The blog is updated by members of the English Language team on a regular basis, so please do log in as frequently as possible. If you've got something to say about the issues raised in one of the blog entries, please do feel free to post a comment. Similarly, if you happen to come across an interesting language-related resource/website/news item somewhere and you think other students would benefit from accessing it, then please email the details to your teacher at jjones@strodes.ac.uk, nwhillans@strodes.ac.uk or telliott@strodes.ac.uk and we'll post it up.

*probably
**no doubt about this one
***well, we like to think so

Less is more

The language police are on patrol again - and this time they've got Tesco under surveillance. As this BBC News article explains, there are those who object to the grammatical inaccuracy of the "10 items or less" sign that appears on some checkouts, arging that 'fewer' is the correct term to use in this context:

Both words are used as comparatives - fewer meaning "a smaller number of", less
meaning "a smaller amount or quantity of"... Fewer should be used when you are
talking about items that can be counted individually, for example, "fewer than
10 apples". Less is correct when quantities cannot be individually counted in
that case, e.g. "I would like less water".

So we return once again to the presecriptivist debate. Grammatical pedants (and I hold my hands up to being one of them on this particular occasion, the confusion between 'less' and 'fewer' being one of my own language 'niggles') strive for technical accuracy, while their more linguistically liberal counterparts might argue that nobody is confused by the supposedly inaccurate "10 items or less" so why bother about it? All good fuel for the language debates furnace.