Dr Robert Lawson
School of English! Birmingham City Open Day Presentation University Language on the Internet
❖ The Internet is a veritable cornucopia of interesting language issues - from people complaining about how much English is changing to the introduction of new and innovative forms of lexis and discourse.!
❖ The connectivity of the Internet means that new forms reach a wide audience in a very short amount of time.!
❖ The Internet is also a great place to watch creative uses of language in usually quite unexpected ways, from lolcatz to ‘all your base are belong to us’ and many more.!
❖ Such creative material can sometimes gain a massive amount of ground in a very short period, almost spreading like a virus. Memes
❖ Introduced by Richard Dawkins in The Selfish Gene (2006 [1976]) where he argues that the meme is the basic unit of cultural transmission, or imitation. !
❖ So a meme can be ‘tunes, ideas, catchphrases, clothes fashions, ways of making pots or of building arches’ (Dawkins 2006: 192). !
❖ Alternatively, a meme is ‘the unit of cultural heredity analogous to the gene. It is the internal representation of knowledge’ (Plotkin 1995) !
❖ ‘Memes are hidden, internal representations of knowledge that result, again along with environmental influences, in external behaviour and the production of cultural artefacts such as skirts and bridges’ (Brodie : 7). !
❖ Memes ‘compete’ with one another and those that ‘win’ are responsible for the activities and creations that constitute present-day culture. Memes meme everywhere… Language memes? An interesting case of le doge…
❖ Doge meme!
❖ Relatively recent meme but can trace history back to 2005 in an episode of Homestar Runner!
❖ Atsuko Sato posts a picture of her dog in February 2010 but first attestation of the ‘doge’ meme in October 2010 Le Doge
❖ Growth is fairly rapid from October 2010 onwards.!
❖ Gains traction on 4chan, Reddit and Tumblr.!
❖ In January 2013, /r/doge is created How to speak Doge
What light. So breaks. Such east. Very sun. Wow, Juliet.! What Romeo. Such why. Very rose. Still rose.! Very balcony. Such climb.! Much love. So Propose. Wow, marriage.! Very Tybalt. Much stab. What do?! Such exile. Very Mantua. Much sad.! So, priest? Much sleeping. Wow, tomb.! Such poison. What dagger. Very dead. Wow, end. Doge-speak The language of Doge
❖ What kind of characteristics do we see in Doge?! ❖ Comic sans font! ❖ All lower-case! ❖ Standard English spelling! ❖ Fluorescent colour scheme! ❖ Odd phrasing?! ! ❖ What kinds of words go together and what kinds of words are used? The grammar of Doge
❖ Common collocations! ❖ such drift! ❖ much dignity! ❖ ❖ very leeder! Other common words! ❖ ❖ many robe! Wow! ❖ ❖ much infinity! Amaze! ❖ so gif! ❖ Excite! ❖ very guitar! ! ❖ such fall! ❖ Length of phrase?! ❖ so trick! ❖ Minimal of two words! ❖ much feels! ❖ Maximum of three? ❖ very sad! ❖ many happy! ❖ such pbs! ❖ very art The grammar of Doge
❖ Shortest form of word used - amaze and excite rather than amazing or exciting.!
❖ Limited set of pre modifying words - so, such, many, much and very.!
❖ But what comes after?!
❖ ‘Selectional restriction’ - certain words go well with some words and not well with other words. The grammar of Doge
❖ Much and many ! ❖ Much goes with mass nouns and many goes with count nouns! ❖ Compare much wine was consumed vs. many wines were consumed! ❖ What about many wine and much wines?! ❖ Not Standard English but very good Doge-speak! ! ❖ Very/so - S.E. the wine was very/so delicious but not very wine or so wine. Very/ so used to modify adjectives but not nouns.! ! ❖ Doge modifiers (many, much, so, very, such) are never found with verb forms in Standard English but collocate with verbs in Doge! ❖ many swim, much swim, so swim, very swim, such swim! ! ❖ These forms are ungrammatical in Standard English but perfect in Doge- speak. So why speak Doge?
❖ Why do Shibas speak ungrammatically?!
❖ How do we talk to our pets? ‘Baby talk’?!
❖ Talking with other people on the internet? ‘Verbal incoherence mirroring emotional incoherence’?!
❖ The Internet now seems to be at a stage of playing with grammatical structure (e.g because Internet) rather than lexis, which points to the possibility of even more innovative forms emerging in the future.