Mark's Text Terminal



Aggregated Text for Texting Unit or LessonsSource: Crystal, David. Txtng: The gra8 db8. New York: Oxford University Press, 2009.Glossary of Linguistic Terms Related to TextingAbbreviation: In texting, a reduced version of a word. The term ellipsis is used when sentences are shortened.Accomodation: Adjustments people make unconsciously to their speech or writing, influenced by the speech/writing of the person they are talking/writing to.Acronym: A word made up out of the initial letters of other words. Some are pronounced letter-by letter, such as ftf “face to face”; these are also called alphabetisms. Some are pronounced as whole words, such as lol, “laughing out loud.”Character: Any graphic unit of a writing system,, such as a letter, punctuation mark, or special symbol (such as &). In a narrower sense, it refers to a graphic unit which represents a word or part of a word, such as the characters of Chinese or Japanese writing.Clipping: A word formed by leaving out the last letter or letters, such as comin for coming.Code Mixing: In bilingual speech or writing, the transfer of linguistic elements (such as words or spellings) from one language into another, as when Italian che is written as ke (the k not being a letter of the Italian alphabet).Contraction: A word where letters have been omitted in the middle, such as bt for but. The term is also used for forms which are the result of two words coming together, such as I’m (=I am).Diacritic: A mark added to a written symbol, which alters the way it is pronounced in a language. Diacritics are usually omitted in texting.Dialect: A variety of language in which the grammar and vocabulary identifies the regional, social, or occupational origins of the user.Ellipsis: A sentence where part of the structure has been omitted, such as Going out tonight? for Are you going out tonight?. Many sentences in texting are elliptical.Emoticon or Smiley: A combination of keyboard characters designed to convey the emotion associated with a particular facial expression. They are typed as a string on a single line. The simplest forms represent basic attitudes: positive, in the case of :) and negative in the case of :(.Grammar: The study of the structure of sentences (syntax) and words (morphology).Grammatical Words: a word whose function is to express a grammatical relationship in a sentence, such as the, it, of, or and.Inflection: A part of a word that signals a grammatical relationship, such as plural –s in English of past tense –ed.Initialism: The reduction of a word to its initial letter, as in v for very.Lingua Franca: A language which is used to permit routine communication between groups of people who speak different languages. English is a global lingua franca and, as such, influences many texting practices.Logogram: A written symbol that represents a word of a meaningful part of a word (such as a prefix); also called a logograph, and (in certain languages, such as Chinese) a character.Ludic Language: Language whose primary function is to be playful.Macaronic: Describing any piece of speech or writing which playfully mixes up two languages.Orthography: A standardized system for writing a language. It includes everything to do with spelling, capitalization, and punctuation.Phatic Communication: the social function of language, used to show rapport between people or to establish a pleasant atmosphere. Many textisms involve a phatic function, such as g (“grin”).Phonetic Spelling: A spelling system which represents speech sounds in a regular, one-to-one way. Many of the forms in texting are phonetic representations, such as wot for what.Pictogram: A symbol used in picture-writing; also called a pictograph. Emoticons are a type of pictogram.Rebus: Words and sentences made out of a combination of letters, pictures, or logograms, such as c u l8r “see you later.”Standard Language: The variety of language chosen by its speakers to act as an educated norm. It is chiefly identified in writing through the use of an agreed system of spelling, punctuation, and grammar. Departures from these norms are said to be nonstandard (some people use a more dismissive term, substandard). Textisms include some abbreviations that are also found in the standard language, such as iou or asap, but the vast majority are nonstandard.Stylistics: The study of of any situationally distinctive use of language, and of the choices made by individuals and social groups in their use of language. Also, the study of the way language is used for expressive or aesthetic effect. Textism: An abbreviated word form that is distinctive to texting, such as c for see, txt for text, jk for just kidding, and 2day for today. Some of these forms are used in other kinds of electronic communication.Textonyms: The set of words which is generated by a single sequence of numerals keyed into a mobile phone; also called homonumeric words. For example, 726 produces pam, ram, sam, and ran.Textspeak; An informal name for the kind of abbreviated language used in text messaging, and sometimes for any kind of text messaging, whether abbreviated or not.Lesson-Planning TextIntroduction, p. viii: “It is the extraordinary antipathy to texting which has surprised me. I don’t think I have ever come across a topic which has attracted more adult antagonism.” Crystal goes on to describe a conversation at a literary lunch in which a woman who displayed just such antipathy. He continues: “I’d like to think, after reading this book, she might change her mind—or, at least, come to realize that texting has values worth recognizing, even if she cannot appreciate them.p. 9: “All the popular beliefs about texting are wrong, or at lest debatable. Its graphic distinctiveness is not a totally new phenomenon. Not is its use restricted to the young generation. There is increasing evidence that it helps rather than hinders literacy. And only a very tiny part of the language uses its distinctive orthography A trillion text messages may seem a lot, but when we set these alongside the multi-trillion instances of standard orthography in everyday life, they appear as no more than a few ripples on the surface of the sea of language. Texting has added a new dimension to language use, indeed, but its long-term impact on the already existing varieties of language is likely to negligible. It is not a bad thing.”pp. 158-159: “A couple of axioms might be usefully affirmed at this point. I believe that any form of writing exercise is good for you. I also believe that any form of tuition [Crystal here means tuition in the sense of the act or profession of teaching] which helps develop your awareness of the different properties, styles, and effects of writing is good for you. It helps you become a better reader, more sensitive to nuance, and a better writer, more sensitive to audience. Texting language is no different from other innovative forms of written expression that have emerged in the past. It is a type of language whose communicative strengths and weaknesses need to be appreciated. If it were to take its place alongside other kinds of writing in school curricula, students would soon develop a strong sense of when it is appropriate to use it and when it is not. It is not as if the school would be teaching them something totally new. As I illustrated at the end of Chapter 3, many websites are already making texters aware that there are some situation in which it is inappropriate to use texting abbreviations, because they might not be understood.This might seem to be self-evident, yet when a text-messaging unit was included as an option in the English curriculum in schools in Victoria, Australia, for students in years 8 to 10, it was condemned by no less a person than the federal minister of education. The students were being taught to translate SMS texts, write glossaries of abbreviations, and compare the language of texting with that of formal written English. Stylistic comparisons of this kind have long proved their worth in English classes; their value is repeatedly asserted in the documents which led to the UK English National Curriculum, for example, and the comparative study of standard and nonstandard varieties of language is now a regular event in the English classroom—and not only in the UK. The minister was reported as urging a return to “basics.” But what could be more basic, in terms of language acquisition, than to focus on students’ developing sense of linguistic appropriateness? ................
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