Language In Culture & Society

The other day, my roommate wanted to ask me a question but didn't know how to phrase it. She said everything she wanted to say to me in Korean so the words could get out of her brain, then translated it to English. She admitted this was very hard but the only way she could find the right words

One of my best friends, who I happened to meet online, speaks Russian at home. They told me that when visiting family in Russia, people often see them as foreign or an outsider because of their accent

An old friend of mine from high school speaks Tagalog at home, but has said that it is much easier to communicate in English

The reduction of response time

The transcendence of space

The unification of communicative & mediating capacities into a single device

The increased portability of that device

Let's break these down further.

The first attribute is the "reduction of response time." Before cell phones, people could communicate over long distances by writing letters, then telegrams, then wired phones. All of these required some degree of response time, unless your desired person happened to be sitting next to their landline. With the cell phone, responses can be almost instant; it is extremely rare for someone to leave the house without their cell phone. In the case of a missed call or text, the recipient can update the sender whenever there is a free moment, with again instant delivery & response.

The second attribute is the "transcendence of space." While the older communication methods can be used to communicate with people across the world, cell phones make it so much easier. You are not tied to your house, waiting for the postal employee to deliver a letter or waiting for the phone to ring. These mobile phones almost negate space with the way you can talk to someone across the world from anywhere. A good friend of mine spent the semester abroad in Ireland; we could talk whether I was in my dorm, on the train, or riding my bike. At any of these moments, he could be on the bus, walking from the pub, or in the grocery store. Thanks to our phones, the space between us is all but negated & it feels like the other is right around the corner.

The third attribute is "unification of communicative & mediating capacities into a single device." Think about everything your phone can do: it can send & receive calls, texts, & emails, it can take high-quality pictures & videos, you can browse social media & upload posts, & you can play games. If you have your phone, what's the need for a laptop, camera, or video game console? Modern cell phones are all about efficiency & streamlining our experiences so everything is convenient.

The final attribute is "increased portability," which speaks for itself. Phones are relatively small, being able to fit in most pockets or purses. They can do almost anything, so there is no need to bring other devices. The world is in your hand if you have your cell phone.

Citations:

In Russian, razbliuto refers to the feelings you have for someone you used to love

The "premonition of love," basically meeting someone & knowing you'll fall in love, is known as koi no yokan in Japanese

Greng-jai is Thai for needing help but not wanting to bother anyone else with it

These are seemingly universal experiences, but these languages took the opportunity to assign them a word. Perhaps the feelings are more common in these languages, or they hold more weight culturally.

English also has words that don't translate to other languages. A lot is slang that came from AAVE or queer communities, but other words like serendipity or hillbilly have no real meaning outside of English. These words evolved to fit our cultural experiences & share how we view the world.

Citations:

Slauer, S. (2019, October 9). 20 amazing words that don't exist in English - but really should. Insider. Retrieved December 12, 2021, from https://www.insider.com/words-that-dont-translate-no-english-equivalent-2018-9.

In high school, two of my classmates began their transition. One completed his transition over the summer & solidly began to use masculine pronouns in class, with the very rare slip-up from our teacher. The other classmate started their transition later & had a lot more exploring. This classmate & I were best friends at the time, so I was always the first to know about their pronouns and had to correct teachers on more than one occasion. But this classmate could never get a feel for « il », and « elle » was just plain wrong. We made do.

It has been literal years but every time I see Martin’s tweets posted somewhere and his word is shared as truth while her post is not shared it sort of reiterates the fact that we trust men to speak about feminism more than we believe women who experience it. 

Adding screenshots of her post. His whole post is there without needing a link. Hers should be, too.

Take the example of Nicole & Marty (above). Email communication does not often lend itself to speech patterns that an outsider would perceive as "male" or "female." It is assumed that the field Nicole & Marty work in is male-dominated, which would explain why male clients are hostile to Nicole. Even though the two employees communicated in a similar fashion, clients assumed that Nicole was unqualified. When they switched, the problem went away. Communication styles did not change, but male clients kept their perceived gender stereotypes, so the rampant sexism came to light.

English, like other languages, favors the man. There has been a gradual shift to gender neutral language: postal worker vs. mailman, chairperson vs. chairman, etc. This has also led to the "singular they" being more common in society: "someone lost their wallet," or "their name is Morgan!" Recently, society has seen a rise in neopronouns that serve to represent gender in ways further outside of the binary. Some people will use multiple sets of pronouns, demonstrating how gender is a social construct and people can identify & refer to themselves in whatever way feels most comfortable.

There was a period of time when I used the label genderfluid; my pronouns were "they/she," in that particular order to encourage people to use "they/them" more often than "she/her." In this case, I felt what I believed to be a shift in gender throughout the day or week. I've since realized "they/them" pronouns make me much more comfortable, and now identify just as nonbinary. I still present very femme, and default to female speech patterns at work, which makes my masc-presenting days feel like I'm asking for attention. These are biases and patterns I am trying to change within myself, so I can live my truth as a nonbinary person & be happy with the way I live my life.

Other people who use multiple sets of pronouns sometimes leave it up to the person speaking about them. This can lead to sentences like "She went to the store to buy soup for xir mom;" talking about the same person.

Gendered labels are also losing their traditional meanings. I have seen wlw relationships where one partner will use the term "boyfriend" because it makes them the most comfortable & fits their relationship dynamic. Similarly, I am in a straight-presenting relationship & while "she/her" pronouns make me uncomfortable, I adore being referred to as his "girlfriend."

Gender roles & stereotypes have been in society since the beginning, & I doubt they are going anywhere soon. But hopefully gender neutral language can become common in our everyday vocabulary & gendered terms will lose their connotations. Small shifts will eventually cause big waves to change how we communicate & see each other as people.

Citations:

The beauty of the scene is that it is carried out in relative silence. The background music is hushed, using ominous tones. The little dialogue feels solemn, a direct contrast to most of the film before.

The concept of dem "Dem" is often used to show association between two parties, such as a group of friends: "John & dem" "Dem" can also be used similarly to "those," as in "dem books"

Different verb conjugations General American English often adds an -(e)s to the end of third-person verb conjugations (e.g. "he goes to the store"). However, AAVE does not have specific verb endings and often uses the infinitive or first-person verb ending (e.g. "he go to the store").

Similarly, AAVE often uses the verb "to be" without conjugation (e.g. "we be drivin to the store")

Eliminating "is" or "are" AAVE often leaves out conjugations of "to be," so long as they are not the end of a sentence "There he is!" vs. "We visiting them tomorrow"

These and other rules prove that AAVE can be considered a true dialect, if not a separate language, of General American English. Those who speak AAVE are not "less educated" & are simply speaking their native tongue

Citations:

Phrases like “that’s certainly a thing”, “it’s so shaped”, or “one of the most animals” (is there a name for this?)

when people write with little to no punctuation like they are just so done

More specifically, asking questions without punctuation i.e. ‘what’ or ‘why’. It’s like, you want to know but also you are resigned to the answer?

When people capitalise The Thing for emphasis - particularly if they add a trademark symbol to really drive The Point™ home

How we use both bold and italic text for emphasis, but they convey it in different ways and I can’t quite explain how

As I mentioned in my first post, the internet, especially tumblr, has its own language that people outside of these circles have a hard time understanding. @fruitviking's first point can be defined as "literalism," which is taking words at face value. Saying "that's certainly a thing" implies that the referenced object is, well, a thing that exists. It's not good, bad, or anywhere in between; it just exists.

Another point that often comes up in the topic of internet grammar is the lack of punctuation. Again, this likely stems from an original limit on characters per message, but has evolved with its own meanings. Generally, punctuation will emphasize a message. The more punctuation marks, the greater the emphasis. Question marks add urgency or more confusion:

Friend A: Omg guess who I ran into Friend B: Who???

Exclamation points convey excitement or frustration:

I can't wait for tonight!!

And god forbid the final sentence of your long paragraph ends with a period. This is one of the most passive aggressive ways to communicate:

Hey, make sure you're on time tomorrow. We've had a big problem with that lately.

Emojis have also evolved as forms of punctuation. Clapping has been used in between words for emphasis. Hearts can convey genuine intent, especially in short messages or sentences that could otherwise come across as mean.

Since beginning high school, I have explored nonbinary identities. Originally I put off the issue because I never experienced any dysphoria. When quarantine started, I figured it would be a good time to revisit exploring my identity. My first label was "genderfae," which "is a form of genderfluidity that never encompasses feeling masculine...it may include genders other than male and female...be between male and female...the feeling of no gender...or any other [nonbinary] gender" (https://gender.wikia.org/wiki/Genderfae) Because genderfae is not a widely known identity, I often said I was genderfluid, using they/she pronouns. The summer after my freshman year of college, I dropped the "she" entirely & now use they/them pronouns.

My friends have been largely supportive of this; they make efforts to correct others about my pronouns and helped me pick out a chest binder. But because of my long hair, round face, short stature, and curvy figure, I am always seen as a girl by anyone out of my immediate circle. In class, I try to remind my professors, TAs, and classmates, but it soon becomes exhausting. I've all but given up on being referred to correctly by my team and the athletics staff. In the past, I've reached out to coaches and admin, asking if they can use more gender-neutral language: "athletes" or "people" instead of "women" or "ladies." This has been a largely successful movement, yet I will still be referred to as "she." Zimman states that:

...language...plays an inescapable role for trans people in the process of coming out and transitioning...Because language is pervasively gendered...some consideration of language is necessary whenever a trans person seeks validation from the cis world.

There is also the issue of labels: many words that were originally used as slurs against the LGBTQ+ community are being reclaimed by those same people. Personally, I describe myself & my LGBTQ+ friends as queer, but would be very uncomfortable if a cis straight person referred to me as such. My fiancé (who is also queer) will sometimes refer to himself as a fag. Zimman tells the story of Jessica, who described "an entire group of people consisting of herself and several other trans women as a 'bunch of trannies.'" Zimman goes on to claim that:

...it is largely acceptable to use [tranny] as a self-identified label...it is not acceptable to apply that word to others without knowledge of their feelings toward it. However, other-identification is seen as problematic even when the language in question is not considered potentially offensive (e.g. describing someone as a woman without knowing that they identify with the term.)

Today's society, thanks to the younger generations, is slowly becoming more trans-friendly. People introduce themselves with pronouns or ask others about theirs. The meanings of "man" & "woman" are evolving to simply mean anyone who identifies with those terms. Traditional gender roles are on the way out as women push to hold more responsibility in the workforce and men are encouraged to tune themselves to their emotions. No one can force another to be a man, woman, or anything other than themself.

Citations:

Gender Wiki. (n.d.). Retrieved October 19, 2021, from https://gender.wikia.org/wiki/Genderfae.