#fanguistics

I’m currently reading this very recent article about tumblr tags by Elli E.Bourlai. Highlights and abstract: 

• Comment tags are more popular among fandoms. •They are longer than keyword tags and have higher presence of special characters. •Comment tags have 3 main discourse functions: opinion, reaction, aside. •Reaction is the most popular discourse function of comment tags. •Both social structure and technological design influence social tagging in Tumblr.

Tumblr is one of the most popular content sharing websites, where the use of keyword tags that enhance the searchability and visibility of posts is prominent. However, this resource has been creatively exploited by some users beyond its folksonomic use: Since Tumblr does not have a separate comment section for posts, the tag section may also be used for tags with discourse functions such as expressing an opinion, a reaction, or including asides. This article explores the practice of including comments in tags, taking into account the specific technological features of Tumblr’s tagging system, as well as the role of the communities within the website.

The corpus analyzed in the study comprises two datasets collected from the general ‘Trending’ page of Tumblr and 60 fan communities (‘fandoms’). Comment tags and their identified discourse functions (opinion, reaction, aside) are analyzed quantitatively for differences regarding use, structure, and sentiment. The analysis shows significant differences between the comment tags and traditional keyword tags, as well as among comment tags with the three different discourse functions. The results suggest that social tagging practices on Tumblr are influenced both by the technological specifications of the platform and the social structure of the website.

The full article is paywalled here, but if it gets posted publically at some point in the future, it should be findable using this Google Scholar search. 

Me in April 2017: NPR doggos & tweetstorms, teaching yourself linguistics, and a circuit wug

I was quoted in two stories for NPR All Tech Considered: the first was an article about the linguistic style of doggo, pupper, and the rest of the dog rates/dogspotting meme and the second was about twitter threads (tweetstorms).

I was also quoted in a TIME article about Easter and a Fansplaining article about fanfiction versus fan fiction.

The audio from my SXSW Word Curation panel is now online

the archetypical examples: "toeing out of his shoes" and "carding through his hair"

"he/it was all ___ and ___" (optional: "and a little bit of ___")

if this describes a smell then the list will end with "and something uniquely him"

"oh. oh."

"pupils blown wide"

people are always "fucking into" each other (and later are "fucked out")

they also "obscene noises" while doing it

"his breath hitched," never "caught"

everyone always "hums appreciatively"

and does things "a little helplessly"

???

What I did in August 2016: SXSW words proposal, Twitter verified, Wikipedia & jobs advice

I proposed a South by Southwest panel for 2017 about Word Curation: Dictionaries, Tech, and the Future with Erin McKean, Ben Zimmer, and Jane Solomon. There’s still a few days left to vote for it (you do need an account, but you can vote even if you’re not necessarily planning on attending SXSW – we’ll be putting whatever we can online afterwards).

I did interviews on #TheFeed on Sirius XM about…

What I did in February 2016: Fansplaining podcast interview, #lingchat, TV in Singapore

I did a nice long interview on internet language and fandom language on the podcast Fansplaining, episode 15 ~fanspeak, which you can listen to on soundcloud or read the transcript of on tumblr. Key quote: “Your language is not my language but your language is okay.”

I was also the featured guest for a twitter #lingchat on internet language, which you can read on storify. I also storified my…

metaphortunate​ said in response to this post:

Could we come up with a name for our excellent fanfic authors other than the slightly sneering “BNF”?

Is BNF sneering?  Have the connotations changed over time?  I don’t usually perceive a negative connotation when I see it used, but I may just be oblivious.

Thanks to fiora-miriel for writing in response to my fanfic languages stats, and allowing me to respond publicly. I finished that post by inviting fan authors with native languages other than English to share their experiences -- and info about where non-English fanworks are found.  I’ve gotten some great responses about foreign language archives that I’ll be assembling and publishing soon. But I found this response particularly interesting in terms of thinking about writing experience.