This class was…

A: Acidified

B: —

C: Neutral

D: —

E: Based

Linguistics of Memes

Will Styler - LIGN 42

Today’s Plan

• Administrative Notes

• Course Feedback

• What have we learned?

• Looking forward

• Thank you

Administrative Notes

Your final project is due on March 20th at Noon

• You’ll submit it on Canvas, choose one group member to submit it

• Late projects are penalized at 30% per day without good cause

• Don’t forget to fill out the self-grading rubric cover page

  • If you’re doing a video/website/etc, this is the only thing you’ll upload, and include a link

Participation grades will go up shortly

• All other grades will be finalized soon

What have we learned?

It’s always helpful to look back as a way of summarizing a long quarter’s worth of work

• To contemplate just how far we’ve come

What have we learned about memes?

What have we learned about the internet?

What have we learned about language and linguistic analysis?

What’s the most important thing you learned?

What does the future hold?

How do you think memes will change in the future?

• Formats?

• Topics?

• Morphology?

• What will be timeless?

  • (Unlike Will’s memes)

How do you think language on the internet will change?

The Class Meme

2022’s Class Meme

Drum roll please….

A Final Thank you

This class and group has been the best I could’ve hoped for this new format

• You’ve been kind to each other and to me

• You’ve worked together, and found common ground with relative ease

• You’ve engaged with the questions, and made this class more than just a meme

I’ve learned an incredible amount from you all!

• You’ve helped me better understand how a shifting medium has shifted

• You’ve helped me to confirm many ideas I had about the linguistics of memes

• You’ve shared elements of the meme world that I never, ever would’ve found on my own

• I can now have a bias in Floptropica while watching Sylvanian Drama and maining Articuno 🗿

• I will never be able to say “That’s a thing” without laughing internally

You’ve also challenged me

• You’ve highlighted places where my understanding is not accurate (anymore?)

• Teaching this material has forced me to grow and innovate as a teacher

• You’ve made me expand my cultural and memetic sphere of understanding

• I aged more on Wednesday than I had in every year prior

You have forever shaped this course

• I appreciate you all, and will likely always appreciate you all, whenever I teach this course

• I will be thrilled if my next group of students is as kind, fun, participatory, and excellent as you all are

• I’ve learned a great deal, and the next course will be better for your having blazed the trail

I hope you’ve learned from me too

• That some of this will be helpful as you move forward in your life as an online person, a memer, and a language user

• I hope that you now understand language better, and will see these facts on both sides of the digital divide

• I hope that you’ve now seen just how weird a college class can be while still talking about important and interesting ideas

• … and if there’s one important thing I want you all to take away from this quarter…

Thank you