LIGN 101 - All language is worth studying

### Exam Information

- 100 question multiple choice exam
	- Featuring material from the entire duration of the course.
	- Use the [study guide](https://wstyler.ucsd.edu/docs/l101_study_guide.html)
	- Bubble sheets will be provided
	
- You may create a 3 inch by 5 inch handwritten note card to bring to the exam.  You'll also get a copy of the official IPA chart and our phrase structure rules.

- Card Rules, exam tips and policies are at <http://savethevowels.org/exam>

- **If you need special accommodations for the exam, book a time with the Triton Testing Center now!**

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### Please read my [exam tips and rules](http://savethevowels.org/exam)

- You're held to those policies, and the tips should be valuable!

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### If you need special accommodations for the exam, I need you to book at time at the Triton Testing Center ASAP

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# All language is worth studying
### Will Styler - LIGN 101

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### Today's topic is a rant disguised as a lecture

- It touches on ideas of language ideology, language acceptance, language change, and language attitudes

- Inspired by yet another old person complaining about some form of linguistic expression being 'bad language'

- If I had to sum it all up...

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## **All language use is valid and worthy of scholarly examination**

- Damnit.

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### Today's Plan

- Texting is actual language

- Keysmashing is actual language

- Memes are actual language

- Code Switching is actual language

- Sign Language is actual language

- Bilingualism is *never* harmful

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## Text Messaging

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### Every time a new format for language use emerges, it 'ruins language'

- Over, and over, and over, and over...

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### People always complain about language being killed by...

- Emojis

- Chat services

- Computers

- Typewriters

- The Printing Press

- ... and even...

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### Written Language

> And so it is that you by reason of your tender regard for the writing that is your offspring have declared the very opposite of its true effect. If men learn this, it will implant forgetfulness in their souls.  They will cease to exercise memory because they rely on that which is written, calling things to remembrance no longer from within themselves, but by means of external marks.

- This was **Plato**

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### ... but this is a fact of human existence

- So it's no shock that we get silly statements like...

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### "OMG texting is ruining language!"

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### Text Messaging is very much language

- It just has a different grammar

- ... and speakers are sensitive to that!

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### "hey im coming home late fyi"

- "k"

- "ok"

- "O.K."

- "no problem"

- "No problem."

- "Thank you for letting me know."

- **Huh, those intuitions are worth of study!**

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### Texting hasn't 'ruined language' even when it probably could have!

- Arabic speakers in the 1990s had a problem:

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### Early communication technology was focused on ASCII characters

> 0123456789
> abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
> ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
>!"#$%&'( )*+,-./:;<=>?@[ \\ ]^_`{ | }~

- This remains a magical set of characters which will *almost always work* with any software or hardware developed for Western markets

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### Arabic is not focused on ASCII characters

- ... and existing systems needed diacritics which ASCII didn't support

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### Enter [Arabizi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_chat_alphabet)

- Also known as 'the Arabic Chat Alphabet'

- Emergent systems which used combinations of ASCII characters to encode Arabic sentences

- Different regions used different versions

- Remember, Arabic is a *dialect continuum*

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<table><thead><tr><th>Arabic</th><th>Arabizi</th><th>TUNIZI</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>ح</td><td>7</td><td>7</td></tr><tr><td>خ</td><td>5 or 7’</td><td>5 or kh</td></tr><tr><td>ذ</td><td>d’ or dh</td><td>dh</td></tr><tr><td>ش</td><td>$ or sh</td><td>ch</td></tr><tr><td>ث</td><td>t’ or th or 4</td><td>th</td></tr><tr><td>غ</td><td>4’</td><td>gh or 8</td></tr><tr><td>ع</td><td>3</td><td>3</td></tr><tr><td>ق</td><td>8</td><td>9</td></tr></tbody></table>

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###  كيف حالك

- Chna7welek

- "how are you"

(Tunisian Arabizi)

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### الجو عامل ايه النهارده فى إسكندريه؟

- el gaw 3amel eh elnaharda f eskendereya?

- "How is the weather today in Alexandria?"

- (Egyptian Arabizi)

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### Old people **hated** it

- Arguments from conservative ideologies against it

- Dislike of moving away from the standard literary language and language of the Quran

- Arguments against Westernization of the language

- Youth *didn't care at all*, and used it anyways

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### This system became very, very common

- Used online and offline

- Even in billboards where it was not 'needed'
	
- Continues to be in use despite 'software keyboards' being more straightforward
	
- [There is evidence that it has standardized over time](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17586801.2020.1814482?journalCode=pwsr20)

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### This is a case where text messaging could've broken language!

- The extant writing system could not work with emerging technology

- This could have 'pushed people to a different language'

- Or resulted in the death of Arabic OMG!!!!
	
- ... but nope, people just adjusted how they used language and moved on

- **Wow, that would be fascinating to study!**

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### "OK, sure, fine, that's still language!"

- But kids today just type random characters and call it communication!!"

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### This kind of misunderstanding is so frustrating to me!

- askjdhfkdshfkjdsahf

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## Keysmashing

<small>Special thanks to Allison Park, an undergraduate honors thesis writer here at UCSD on whose work this section is based</small>

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### Keysmashing is a linguistic phenomenon

- This was the topic of Allison's 2021 LSA Poster "hsdgkhsdjnf: On the Linguistic Nature of Keysmashes"

- Marking perhaps the first time a keysmash has appeared in a Conference Proceeding
	
- Involves a chaotic 'smash' of multiple keys on a standard keyboard

- hsgkjsdnsdf
	
- Often associated with LGBTQ+ identities, as well as younger folks

- They are sociolinguistically meaningful

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### Keysmashes appear random...

- ... but are they actually?

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### Are these 'good' keysmashes?

- EALW;IFDJKSLA

- erdtfyguyh

- shdsjhfdkhsdjh

- ksksksksksksks

- ssdiulfsodylfkjsdghsjkafhdjsklgsalfdshnfuslhjkl

- SCL,JZF.S

- sdfsdfsjfs

- KSNCKWNDOWNFONELDNFOENR

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### Is there grammar here?

- Allison examined eight major constraints which, if violated, make keysmashes 'wrong'

- This is effectively a set of phonotactic constraints for keysmashing

- Presented a survey with 48 keysmashes which violated these constraints to **1039 people**

- People rated these keysmashes' 'acceptability'

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### Keysmash acceptability varied in terms of...

- The presence of punctuation

- The length of the keysmash

- The number of vowels

- The set of keys used (e.g. homerow vs. others)

- This is why DVORAK keyboard users often don't keysmash

- The presence of words or word-like sequences

- Other constraints were not well supported
	
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### This was an excellent honors thesis

- Allison did amazing work here

- You can write an honors thesis too!

- Any linguistics student can start the process in their fourth quarter before graduation!
	
	- Just think of a topic and bring it to a faculty member
	
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### Keysmashing is socially transmitted

- Socially meaningful

- Used in conversational discourse

- ... and has phonotactics

- Boy, that sure looks like language

- **Even the Linguistic Society of America believed it to be worthy of linguistic study!**

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### "OMG these kids aren't even using language anymore!"

- "They're just sending each other maymays!"

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<img class="r-stretch" src="memes/memesarelanguage.jpg">
	
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### Memes fit most traditional definitions of language

- They express meaning

- They show both iconic and arbitrary meanings

- They're transmitted through culture and show social identity

- They show hierarchical and morphological structure

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### Memes are meaningless

- <img class="r-stretch" src="humorimg/drake_nah.jpg">

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### Memes have meaning

- <img class="r-stretch" src="humorimg/drake_yeah.jpg">

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### Meme Iconicity

- Memes are often strongly iconic

- Relying on facial expressions

- Photos of situations
	
	- The meaning of 'templates' is based on their image

- Meanings are often grounded in specific cultural contexts

- Memes can become more abstract and less iconic over time!

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### Some meanings require a bit more understanding

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### Some have become very abstracted

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<img class="r-stretch" src="memes/abstraction/saladcat_amongus.jpg">
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### Memes are transmitted traditionally

- Memes are culturally and socially specific

- Memes spread within subcultures before reaching 'mainstream'

- We can tell facts about people from their meme choices

- Some memes need in-group knowledge to be understood

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### Memes from Will's Era

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### Boomer memes

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### Gen-Z memes

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### Memes can 'index' certain identities and social affiliations

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### Memes often need in-group knowledge

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### Memes have morphology

- Different elements of the meme carry different meanings

- They can be added or subtracted

- There's some evidence of inflection vs. derivation

- The meaning of memes is *compositional*

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### Meme template meaning

- Changing ONLY the template changes the meaning

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### ... not all changes have meaning

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### Also, just so we're clear

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### Meme style cues have meaning in isolation too

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### Most subfields have meme-related questions!

- Phonology/Phonotactics

- What form elements can co-occur? What's not a legal combination

- Morphology

- What are the correspondences between meme form and meaning?

- How do memes go from funny pictures to productive chunks of meaning and form?

- Semantics

- How do we describe the meaning of memes?

- Pragmatics

- What effects do context and discourse have on meme meaning?

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### Meme Linguistics continued!

- Sociolinguistics

- What does meme use tell us about people's social life?

- How are memes used to index social identity?

- Conversation and Discourse Analysis

- What roles do memes play in advancing conversations and discourse?

- Translation theory

- Can a meme be translated effectively into another language or culture?

- Can memes be made into text?

- Diachronic Linguistics

- How do memes change over time?
	
	- Do memes follow the same patterns as language?

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### Memes aren't just worthy of scholarly study

- They're worthy of a whole class!

- LIGN 42 'Linguistics of the Internet'

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### "OK, maybe those maymays are language... but at least they're just one language!"

- "Unlike those people who use 'spanglish' when they're trying to speak English!"

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## Code Switching

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## Code Switching

A linguistic term for mixing two or more language varieties within the same conversation

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### Code Switching Examples

- "Tommorow me voy a go to Target para some socks and y un poco de Chocolate"
	- "Spanglish"

- "Wah Lao! This guy Singlish si beh hiong sia." 
	- 'This person's Singlish is very good'
	- "Singlish" (Singaporean English)

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### Code Switching has a few important characteristics

- Code switching can involve any kind of language variety
	- Folks can switch among languages, dialects, sociolects

- It's not the same as borrowing
	- Borrowing is a slow and permanent *lexical* process
	- Borrowings are 'adapted' into the language

- Code switching is done among folks with both varieties
	- It uses the grammar (phonology and morphosyntax) of both languages or varieties, mixed
	- By bilinguals, with other bilinguals

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### Code switching activates nuanced parts of the grammar

- Piccinini 2015 finds that the *phonetics* of English/Spanish code switching utterances are phonetically unique

- These utterances have phonetic properties of both English and Spanish.

- /p/ looks more like it does in Spanish than it does in English

- Words are more English-like as they're further from the 'code switch point'
	- <small>Piccinini, Page, and Amalia Arvaniti. "Voice onset time in Spanish–English spontaneous code-switching." _Journal of Phonetics_ 52 (2015): 121-137.</small>

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### Code Switching is useful!

- Language varieties aren't identical, so you might choose the best one for the meaning you want

- Code switching shows identity and affiliation, and does social work

- Code switching allows speakers to use a more prestigious or expected dialect

- Code switching can be a defense against linguistic discrimination and profiling

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### Linguistic Profiling

- Linguistic profiling involves the classification of people into categories and groups based on elements of their language and dialect

- Profiling can often have negative consequences for the folks being profiled

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### Linguistic Profiling Matters!

- Purnell, Idsardi, & Baugh (1999) had one of the authors call rental property managers in different dialects.
	- Calls made with an African American voice received more callbacks in Black neighborhoods than white neighborhoods.
	- <small>Purnell, T., Idsardi, W., and Baugh, J. (1999) *“Perceptual and phonetic experiments on American English dialect identification*,” Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 18: 10–30.</small>

- This was replicated in 2018 by Kelly Wright at the University of Michigan
	- <small> Wright, K.E. (2023). Housing policy and linguistic profiling: An audit study of three American dialects: Supplementary material. _Language_ _99_(2), [https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2023.a900123](https://doi.org/10.1353/lan.2023.a900123).</small>
	- **This won the Linguistic Society of America's 2024 'Paper of the Year!'**
	
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### Code Switching is a fascinating!

- What happens when people communicate unconstrained by the bounds of any one language?

- It's interesting *that* grammars blend, but even more interesting *how* they do.

- **This is worthy of Linguistic research!**

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### "Well, OK, but at least they're using spoken language..."

- "Not just silly gestures like those sign language people"

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### This one makes me really angry

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## Signed Languages are Languages, Damnit

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### We've been over this

- Signed languages have phonetics, phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics

- The kinds of linguistic analysis done for signed language is *not particularly different* outside of phonetics and phonology

- Notions of morphemes, allomorphs, constituency, phrase structure, and meaning *all* apply here too!

- Our department is a very strong center of signed language study, so this is a great place to learn more.

- **Because signed language merits serious linguistic study!**

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### This seems unnecessary to keep emphasizing, but it's very important in one case

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### "Don't sign to your babies, they'll never learn spoken language!!"

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### Bilingualism is a benefit for Deaf children!

- Children can learn signed languages at the same time they learn spoken languages

- ... and the same goes for multiple spoken languages!

- There are no 'cognitive harms' done by children learning multiple languages, spoken or signed.

- It doesn't make learning spoken language harder

- Teaching signed language can improve outcomes for Deaf children who later want to learn spoken languages

- <small>Hassanzadeh 2012 "Outcomes of cochlear implantation in deaf children of deaf parents: comparative study"</small>

- **There is no harm in teaching signed languages to children, and there's massive harm from withholding language from children!**

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### Language deprivation *is* a problem

- If a child has little exposure to signed language while 'waiting to be able to speak and hear', they're being *language deprived*.

- Language deprivation causes social, emotional, cognitive, and linguistic harm in *all* languages!
	- <small>Humphries et. al 2016 Avoiding Linguistic Neglect of Deaf Children</small>

- Kids may miss the critical period for language acquisition

- This could leave the child struggling to be fluent in any language, *signed or spoken*

- **Teaching and using signed language with Deaf children is important, and lack of language does harm!**

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### So, signed language is language, damnit

- There's no harm in children learning to sign

- This is an old and outdated way of thinking

- In some cases, there's serious harm from children not having language during critical ages

- This is argument isn't just used against signed languages...

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### "Don't speak to your children in other languages or they won't learn English properly!!!"

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### Bilingualism is incredibly normal

- People discourage bilingualism over and over again in the US

- Teachers, guidance counselors, otherwise

- People learn multiple languages in most places around the world and turn out fine

- 'Simultaneous bilingual' is an extremely common thing

- This argument would be laughed out of schools in most places around the world

- ... and when you flip over that ideological rock, a lot of ugly bugs come crawling out

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### "I want to speak to the manager of Linguistics!"

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### No.

- Delegitimizing forms of language that you don't understand is not OK

- Trying to prevent language change is both dumb and futile

- ... and just because a linguistic phenomenon is not happening in your social circle doesn't mean it's not real

- **Keep an open mind, as linguistic phenomena might surprise you!**

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### Wrapping up

- Texting is actual language, damnit

- Keysmashing is actual language, damnit

- Memes are actual language, damnit

- Code Switching is actual language, damnit

- Sign Language is actual language, damnit

- Bilingualism is *not* harmful to learning languages

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## Next time

- We'll talk about one nerd's journey in linguistics, and why translation is *so damned hard*

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<huge>Thank you!</huge>