Monthly Archives: April 2011

Brohemian Rap-sody

BROHEMIAN RAP-SODY I present to you a modern online classic, Brohemian Rhapsody from “College Humor.” An excellent example of sociolinguistic creativity, this Fraternity changes the words and content of an iconic song, expertly embodying the current meaning of “Bro” in … finish reading Brohemian Rap-sody

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Anderson Cooper, Indexicality, Snooki

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No Béarla

No Béarla is a television program that aired on TG4 (the Irish Language television station) in Ireland in 2007. The title comes from the English negative “no” and the Irish word for “English.” The program looks at the status of … finish reading No Béarla

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Talk: Jennifer Nycz, Friday April 22, ETC 208

Changing words, or changing rules? Using second dialect acquisition to test phonological theory Jennifer Nycz, University of York How do speakers who move to a new dialect region acquire phonological features of the new dialect? Social factors surely affect this … finish reading Talk: Jennifer Nycz, Friday April 22, ETC 208

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Renn Fayre Softball

Soon it will be Renn Fayre and time for some inter-departmental throwing down. Linguistics needs to represent! The deadline to sign up is the 22nd, so we’ll need a team name by then. In the slightly longer term, we’re also … finish reading Renn Fayre Softball

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Talk: Jennifer Garland, Wednesday April 20, 4:30 ETC 205

Jennifer GarlandUCSB Normal.dotm 0 0 1 254 1449 lala 12 2 1779 12.0 0 false 18 pt 18 pt 0 0 false false false /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:”Table Normal”; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:””; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; … finish reading Talk: Jennifer Garland, Wednesday April 20, 4:30 ETC 205

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Viewing of “The Linguists” Friday April 22, PSU

“Speaking an impressive combined total of 25 languages, David Harrison and Gregory Anderson make an engaging globe-trotting duo as they locate seven surviving speakers of Chulym in Siberia (two of whom had died by 2007); interact with speakers of the … finish reading Viewing of “The Linguists” Friday April 22, PSU

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One Mother Tongue?

The notion that there is (or that we can know there is) one mother tongue – that all languages evolved from one original language – is controversial among linguists. New evidence published in Science argues that there just may be … finish reading One Mother Tongue?

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Toy Advertisement Vocabulary Reinforcing Gender Stereotypes

This informal survey, focusing on vocab words used in advertising for children’s toys, presents an interesting (if unfortunately predictable) distribution, with prevalent words including “battle” and “power” for boys, and “love” and “magic” for girls.  The words, gleaned from television … finish reading Toy Advertisement Vocabulary Reinforcing Gender Stereotypes

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Misheard Lyrics

For a while in the early 2000s (2005-ish), there was a trend on Youtube of subtitling foreign songs homophonically with what the lyrics sounded like in English, a technique called soramimi. The first video of this type was done by … finish reading Misheard Lyrics

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