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Survey of Language and Society 2
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The Internet is now an integral part of everyday contemporary life. This course seeks to explore the linguistic issues that affect us on a daily basis through our use of it. The first half of the course will focus on the debates concerning the influence of text messaging on contemporary language use. The second half of the course will look at the linguistic implications of social networking services such as Twitter and Facebook, online translation, and Natural Language User Interfaces (such as Apple's Siri). By the end of the course, students should have a greater understanding, not only of their own online linguistic behavior, but also of the more general digitalization of human systems of conveying sound and meaning that is going on 'as we speak'.
At the beginning of the semester students will form study groups that will work together in class on the assigned texts throughout the course. The course will be split into two parts. In part one we will read and discuss linguist David Crystal’s book Txtng: The gr8 db8. In part two of the course we will focus on the following issues: SNS sites, such as Twitter, Facebook and Mixi, online translation and Natural language user interfaces, such as SIRI.
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language user interfaces, such as SIRI.
Course Format: One session per week, including seminars, group worksheets, mini-lectures and film presentations. Preparation and participation in group and seminar discussions is compulsory.
Core Texts: A wide variety of sources will be drawn upon. The readings for each week will be made available to students as PDFs via the TUFS online system.
The core texts will be:
David Crystal, Txtng: the gr8 db8, Oxford University Press, 2008.
David Crystal, Internet Linguistics: A Student Guide, Routledge, 2011.
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Course Schedule:
1. Organizational Meeting
2. Txtng: The Gr8 Db8: Warm Up
3. Txtng: The Gr8 Db8: The Hype About Texting
4. Txtng: The Gr8 Db8: What Makes Texting Distinctive
5. Txtng: The Gr8 Db8: Why Do They Do It?
6. Txtng: The Gr8 Db8: Who Texts?
7. Txtng: The Gr8 Db8: What Do They Text About?
8. Txtng: The Gr8 Db8: How Do Other Languages Do It?
9. Txtng: The Gr8 Db8: Why All The Fuss?
10. Twitter, microblogging, and memes (Internet Linguistics)
11. Facebook (Internet Linguistics)
12. Online Translation
13. Natural Language User Interfaces
14. Final Exam
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** Submission of essays will be on the mid and final class of the semester. Ensure that your name and student number appear on the first page.
*** Always make a back-up copy of your essays
Assessment: Essay (25%); group worksheets (25%) class participation (25%) and final exam (25%).
Essay: (25%) is a research paper and should be 2000 words in length. It must contain endnotes and a bibliography. The Harvard referencing system is preferred – notes appear in the text, as in, Crystal 2008: 22, with full bibliographical citation at the end of the paper. (Example: David Crystal (2008), Txtng: the gr8 db8, Oxford University Press. Choice of topic is broad, but must directly relate to core issues raised during the course.
All titles must be approved by the course instructor.
Final Exam: (25%) The final exam will be held on the day of the last class and consists of 15 multiple-choice questions that have appeared in the weekly group worksheets during the course.
All students are expected to have read the seminar materials in advance: preparation is an essential prerequisite.
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