DOCSLIB.ORG

Diminutives in the Internet Language Bachelor’S Diploma Thesis

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Diminutives in the Internet Language Bachelor’S Diploma Thesis Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies English Language and Literature Rebeka Hrubšová Diminutives in the Internet Language Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Naděžda Kudrnáčová, CSc. 2017 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author’s signature Table of Contents 1. Introduction and Morphology ........................................................................................ 1 2. Diminutives in the English Language ............................................................................ 4 2.1.Morphology .................................................................................................................. 5 2.1.1. Suffixation ............................................................................................................. 6 2.1.2. Prefixation ............................................................................................................. 8 2.1.3. Reduplication ......................................................................................................... 8 2.1.4. Compounding ........................................................................................................ 9 2.1.5. Truncation ............................................................................................................. 9 2.1.6. Inflectional Affixation ........................................................................................... 9 2.1.7. Periphrastic Constructions ................................................................................... 10 2.2.Semantics .................................................................................................................... 11 3. The Internet Language ................................................................................................. 12 3.1.The Virtual Environments .......................................................................................... 13 3.1.1. Tumblr ................................................................................................................. 13 3.1.2. Twitter ................................................................................................................. 16 3.1.3. Reddit .................................................................................................................. 16 3.1.4. Facebook ............................................................................................................. 17 3.2.The Internet Culture .................................................................................................... 18 4. Diminutives in the Internet Language .......................................................................... 20 4.1.DoggoLingo ................................................................................................................ 20 4.1.1. Doggo, Suffixation with -o .................................................................................. 22 4.1.2. Pupper, Suffixation with -er ............................................................................... 24 4.1.3. Pupperino, Gradable Diminution ........................................................................ 28 4.1.4. Bork, Onomatopoetic Introflection ...................................................................... 29 4.2.Quantification > Qualification .................................................................................... 31 4.2.1. Smol ..................................................................................................................... 31 4.2.2. Tol ........................................................................................................................ 34 4.2.3. Lorge/Lorg ........................................................................................................... 35 4.3.Spoopy and Creppy ..................................................................................................... 36 5. Discussion .................................................................................................................... 40 6. Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 41 7. Works Cited .................................................................................................................. 43 1. Introduction and Methodology The purpose of this thesis is to make a contribution to the debate about the nature of diminutives in English, first discussing the traditional ways of approaching the diminutive formation, then directing the focus towards the instances of novel usage of diminutives on the Internet. The body of the thesis is divided into three main sections and each one of them is further divided into several subsections. The first section deals with morphology and semantics of diminutives in the English language and lists word processes that lead to the formation of diminutives to provide some information on what is recognised as possible in the English language and a few other languages mentioned. The second section introduces the Internet language, the culture and trends that influence the shape of it, and provides overview of the social media networks where the novel usage commonly appears to place the novel expressions in context and to explain their demographics. The third part deals directly with the expressions collected from said social media networks and attempts to analyse their origin, meaning, and the word formation processes are made, illustrated with authentic pictures of their usage. The motivation behind the choice of this topic stems from the daily encounters with the peculiarities of the Internet language and from the observation that despite the fact that they are used by vast numbers of the Internet users worldwide, they are investigated only very marginally. Several questions regarding the novel usage were posed: Can these words be defined as diminutives? If yes, is it a reaction of the modern, flexible language to the restrictions of traditional grammar? Or is it a myth that the Standard English does not possess means of creating diminutives? In what ways are the new expressions similar or different from the traditional views on the morphology of diminutives? 1 As for methodology, first, a compilation of words for further analysis was made. The selected words meet these conditions: a) they break the rules of standard spelling and grammar; b) if they do not break those rules and they can be found in standard dictionaries, they are used in ways that are not covered in said dictionaries; c) the ways they are used are comparable to the ways of usage of traditional diminutives. Second, further data about those words were collected: a) data regarding their origin were sought through simple Google searches, by consulting online databases KnowYourMeme, The Urban Dictionary and Meme Database that are concerned with documenting such phenomena, and by further research of the links and references provided in the online databases; b) data regarding their meaning and usage were obtained by analysing authentic examples found on the Internet, by consulting a corpus English Web 2013 when possible, and by comparing previously gained outcomes to definitions found in The Urban Dictionary; c) data regarding the rise of their popularity were collected by using the tool Google Trends. Apart from that, attempts to compile a specialised corpus in the Sketch Engine were made; however, after reconsideration they were given up. The reasons for that are the specific features of the language on the Internet – if they were to be preserved, the texts would not meet the criteria of the Sketch Engine, such as minimal length and punctuation. But if the texts were adjusted in order to meet the criteria, the resulting texts would not be authentic examples of the language found on the Internet. The usage of online databases whose content is crowd-sourced in a similar manner to Wikipedia (i.e. The Urban Dictionary, KnowYourMeme and Meme Database) is justified. As the amounts of content on the Internet are vast and growing every day, the sources of the Internet phenomena can be lost easily. These crowd-sourced databases are the results of 2 shared efforts of multiple people, which means there is a bigger likelihood of finding and documenting the actual sources. As for the definitions on The Urban Dictionary, written by ordinary users of the Internet, they are also valuable for the purposes of this thesis, as they reflect their intuitive perceptions and authentic experiences. 3 2. Diminutives in the English Language The character of diminutives in the English language is a subject of an ongoing debate. Since the Standard English has a very limited number of diminutives in comparison with other languages, such as German, Italian, or the Slavic languages, some are prone to contributing to the opinion that the English language does not possess diminutives at all. Grandi, in his paper Renewal and Innovation in the Emergence of Indo-European Evaluative Morphology, divides languages into four groups based on their ability to produce diminutives and augmentatives, and places English into the type C languages: languages that have absence of both diminutives and augmentatives. In a footnote, Grandi explains that “English displays some diminutive suffixes (for example –let: piglet, booklet), but all of them seem to be completely
Load more

Recommended publications
  • An Analysis of Factors Influencing Transmission of Internet Memes of English-Speaking Origin in Chinese Online Communities
    ISSN 1798-4769 Journal of Language Teaching and Research, Vol. 8, No. 5, pp. 969-977, September 2017 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/jltr.0805.19 An Analysis of Factors Influencing Transmission of Internet Memes of English-speaking Origin in Chinese Online Communities Siyue Yang Shanxi Normal University, Linfen, China Abstract—Meme, as defined in Dawkins' 1976 book 'The Selfish Gene', is "an idea, behaviour or style that spreads from person to person within a culture". Internet meme is an extension of meme, with the defining characteristic being its spread via Internet. While online communities of all cultures generate their own memes, owing to the colossal amount of content in English and the long & widespread adoption of Internet across all strata of society in English-speaking countries, the vast majority of high-impact and well-documented memes have their origin in English-speaking communities. In addition to their spread in the original culture sphere, some of these prominent memes have also crossed the cultural boundaries and entered the parlance of Chinese Internet communities. This paper seeks to give a brief introduction to Internet memes in general, and explore the factors that control and/or facilitate a meme’s ability to enter Chinese communities. Index Terms—Internet meme, cross-cultural communication, Chinese Internet I. INTRODUCTION Internet meme, an extension of the term "meme" first coined by Richard Dawkins (1976) in his work The Selfish Gene (p. 192), refers to the unique form of meme that spreads through the Internet. Internet memes in their various forms currently enjoy substantial popularity among Internet users all around the globe, and are flourishing and becoming increasingly entrenched in the mainstream culture of all the disparate societies in this connected world.
    [Show full text]
  • Describing Doggo-Speak: Features of Doggo Meme Language
    City University of New York (CUNY) CUNY Academic Works All Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects 5-2018 Describing Doggo-Speak: Features of Doggo Meme Language Jennifer Bivens The Graduate Center, City University of New York How does access to this work benefit ou?y Let us know! More information about this work at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/2718 Discover additional works at: https://academicworks.cuny.edu This work is made publicly available by the City University of New York (CUNY). Contact: [email protected] DESCRIBING DOGGO-SPEAK: FEATURES OF DOGGO MEME LANGUAGE by JENNIFER BIVENS A master’s thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty in Liberal Studies in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts, The City University of New York 2018 © 2018 Jennifer Bivens All Rights Reserved ii Describing Doggo-Speak: Features of Doggo Meme Language by Jennifer Bivens This manuscript has been read and accepted for the Graduate Faculty in Liberal Studies in satisfaction of the thesis requirement for the degree of Master of Arts. Date William Sakas Thesis Advisor Date Gita Martohardjono Executive Officer THE CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK iii ABSTRACT Describing Doggo-Speak: Features of Doggo Meme Language by Jennifer Bivens Advisor: William Sakas Doggo-speak is a specialized way of writing most commonly associated with captions on Doggo memes, humorous images of dogs shared in online communities. This paper will explore linguistic features of Doggo-speak through analysis of social media posts by Doggo fan pages. It will use the discussed features as inputs to five machine learning classifiers and will show, through this classification task, that the discussed features are sufficient for distinguishing between Doggo- speak and more general English text.
    [Show full text]
  • So Language. Very Prescribe. Wow. the Familiar Popular Dispute Between Descriptivists and Prescriptivists About Grammar Is
    So language. Very prescribe. Wow. Abstract: The philosophical dispute about linguistic normativity is one battlefield in a larger war over the nature of language as an object of scientific study. For those influenced by Wittgenstein, language involves following – or failing to follow – public, prescriptive rules; for Chomsky and his followers, language is a property of individual minds and brains, and the grammatical judgements of any mature individual speaker – her competence – cannot be, in any linguistic sense, ‘wrong’. As I argue here, the recent ‘doge meme’ internet fad provides surprising evidence for the prescriptivist view. Normative attitudes towards linguistic practices are a ubiquitous feature of those practices, and there is no principled basis on which to regard them as non-linguistic. Keywords: Chomsky; Doge; I-Language; Normativity; Prescriptivism. The familiar popular dispute between descriptivists and prescriptivists about grammar is – let us not mince words here – a profoundly tiresome and pointless one (Wallace 2001), which the explosion of opportunities for pedantry afforded by the internet has done everything to amplify, and nothing to revivify; I have no intention of pursuing it here. But the dispute has roots, or at any rate analogues, in some deep issues in theoretical linguistics and the philosophy of language; and as I shall argue, interesting light is shed on that dispute by a most unlikely online phenomenon. I begin by summarising the main threads of the philosophical debate about normativity in grammar, and the apparent stalemate they have recently issued in. I then try to make whatever sense can be made of the wilfully absurd ‘Doge’ meme, before showing how that phenomenon, surprisingly, provides significant evidence for the prescriptivist case.
    [Show full text]
  • Index of Linguistic Items
    Cambridge University Press 978-1-108-42359-5 — The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language 3rd Edition David Crystal Index More Information VI INDEX OF LINGUISTIC ITEMS A auto 322, 330, 493 classist 189 -eau(x) 213 auto- 138 c’mon 79 -ectomy 210 a indefinite article 234–5, 350 aye 346 co- 138 -ed form 208, 210, 216, 223, 224, 237, short vs long 327, 345, 371 cockroach 149 346, 350 verb particle 367 B colour 179 -ed vs t (verb ending) 216, 331, 493 a- 138, 335 contra- 138 -ee 210, 220 -a noun singular 212 /b-/, /-b/ (sound symbolism) 263 could 224 -een 358 noun plural 212 B/b 271, 280 counter- 138 -eer 210, 220 -a- (linking vowel) 139 babbling 483 cowboy 148 eh 319 A/a 271, 280 back of 331 crime 176 eh? 230, 362 AA (abbreviations) 131 bad 211 curate’s egg 437 elder/eldest 211 -able 210, 223 barely 230 cyber- 452 elfstedentocht 383 ableism 189 bastard 263 Elizabeth 158 -acea 210 be 224, 233, 237, 243, 367 D -elle 160 a crapella 498 inflected 21, 363 ’em 287 -ae (plural) 213 regional variation 342 /d-/, /-d/ (sound symbolism) 263 en- 138 after (aspectual) 358, 363 be- 138 D/d 271, 280–1 encyclop(a)edia 497 -age 210, 220 be about to 236 da 367 encyclopediathon 143 ageist 189 been 367 danfo 495 -ene 160 agri- 139 be going to 96, 236 dare 224 -en form 21, 210, 212, -aholic 139 Berks 97 data 213 346, 461 -aid 143, 191 best 211 daviely 352 Englexit 124 ain’t 319, 498 be to 236 De- 160 -er adjective base ending 211 aitch 359 better 211 de- 138 familiarity marker 141, 210 -al 210, 220, 223 between you and I 206, 215 demi- 138 noun ending
    [Show full text]
  • Ronia Cabansag LING
    Ronia Cabansag LING 402 - Modern English Grammar Final Project 6 Dec 2020 The Grammar of Internet Humor: LOLspeak, Doge, and Because X As an informal space, social media allows users to play with written, published language in ways that would be less appropriate in other contexts. This unique medium has produced equally unique cases of language that appear to reject both prescriptive and descriptive grammar rules. In these cases, grammar rules are purposefully broken to produce a humorous result. One such case is Doge, an viral instance of internet language play characterized by two-word phrases that begin with “much,” “many,” “so,” “such,” or “very,” and end with an unexpected word (Figure 1). Figure 1: A Doge meme created But though they reject recognized rules, these by Marshall (2016) cases of internet humor still appear to follow some set of rules. In the case of Doge, for example, McCulloch (2014a) documents an instance where one Facebook user corrects another’s Doge phrase choices: An example that proves my point conveniently popped up on my Facebook while I was writing this, showing someone actually correcting someone else’s use of doge modifiers to be more ungrammatical. Friend #1 (posting link): Doge is a rescue dog. Much respect. So noble. Wow. Friend #2 (commenting): Your dogeing is too coherent. “Much noble, so respect.” This suggests that there are grammar rules to describe seemingly ungrammatical instances of internet humor. The purpose of this project is to explore the grammar of 3 prevalent categories of internet humor
    [Show full text]
  • From Symbolic Values to Symbolic Innovations
    Paper to be presented at DRUID15, Rome, June 15-17, 2015 (Coorganized with LUISS) FROM SYMBOLIC VALUES TO SYMBOLIC INNOVATIONS EVIDENCE BASED ON INTERNET-MEMES Mickael Benaim University of Manchester/MBS Manchester Institute of Innovation Research [email protected] Abstract Technological assets capture the attention of many scholars in innovation studies, while leaving other sources and forms of innovation less tackled. Among this neglected corpus, this article stresses the important role played by symbolic value in the production and consumption processes of innovative goods and services. We focus more especially on Internet-memes - such as lolcats - that represent iconic productions of the Internet ?lead culture? i.e. embed significant symbolic values. Therefore, this article refers to the economic sociology and strategic management literature to emphasis the force of the symbolic values? creation by new culture-lead communities, through their not so trivial productions: the Internet-memes. We especially aim to contribute to innovation studies and to refine the concept of symbolic innovation, by applying it to both physical and digital goods and services. We argue that Internet-memes are symbolic innovations per-se, but we also emphasise that they represent an almost boundless source of innovative goods and services in various sectors from cultural industries to less expected ones like finance. Jelcodes:O31,O33 ** Please do not cite without permission ** FROM SYMBOLIC VALUES TO SYMBOLIC INNOVATIONS EVIDENCE BASED ON INTERNET-MEMES Abstract: Many innovation scholars focused on technological assets, while leaving other sources and forms of innovation less tackled. Among this neglected corpus, this article stresses the important role plays by symbolic value in the production and consumption processes of innovative goods and services.
    [Show full text]
  • From Symbolic Values to Symbolic Innovation: Internet-Memes and Innovation
    Research Policy xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Research Policy journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/respol From symbolic values to symbolic innovation: Internet-memes and innovation Mickael Benaim Manchester Institute of Innovation Research (MIOIR) AMBS, University of Manchester, Denmark Road, Manchester M13 9NG, United Kingdom ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT JEL classifications: Innovation studies has largely focused on technological assets, while leaving other sources and forms of in- O33 novation less tackled. Among this neglected corpus, this article stresses the important role played by symbolic Z13 value in the consumption and production processes of innovative goods and services. I explore especially O39 Internet-memes that represent iconic productions of the Internet ‘lead culture’, which embed significant sym- M3 bolic values. This article therefore, refers to the economic sociology and innovation management literature to Keywords: emphasise the force of these creations of symbolic value by culture-lead communities, through their production Internet-meme of Internet-memes. I argue that Internet-memes represent a widespread source of innovation in various sectors Symbolic value (from cultural industries to less expect ones like finance). While exploratory, the present study extends the Symbolic innovation debate on the nature of innovation, its symbolic and cultural aspects and its diffusion processes. It ultimately suggests potential new paths for innovation policies to tackle these new forms of innovations. 1. Introduction creativity” (Solon, 2013). The diffusion’s power of memes is facilitated by specific platforms: such as dedicated blogs (e.g. 4chan, Reddit or In 1966 the Beatles were said to be more popular than Jesus. Half a Ihascheezburger); video platforms (e.g.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Mah Lolthesis Let Me Show U It': the (Re)Making and Circulation of Participatory Culture: Memes, Creativity and Networks
    'Mah LOLthesis let me show u it': The (re)making and circulation of participatory culture: memes, creativity and networks Victoria Emma Dantas Esteves University of Stirling Doctorate of Media & Culture September 2018 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisors Prof. Richard Haynes and Dr. Greg Singh for their continued support (on many levels!), belief and feedback throughout this thesis, Dr. Sarah Neely for her input and assurance, as well as all my interviewees for their valuable contributions. I also want to thank Prof. Graham Meikle for his invaluable help, feedback, encouragement and cat memes from day zero; Caspar Rock for his unwavering understanding and for being the embodiment of his namesake; Irina Baltazar for her patience and kindness; Hugo Pereira for telling me I could do this years ago and Gatinho for being the coolest cat I know – all of whom have made this thesis possible. Abstract Internet memes have become ubiquitous in our everyday experiences, both online and offline, permeating a variety of fields; not only are they prevalent in our communications among friends and strangers, they are also present in our political, commercial and cultural experiences. Memes are collective exercises in meaning making and creativity made both inter- personally and globally through sharing, which is built into the craft-like ethos of internet philosophy. Alternative 20th century strategies (e.g. collage, détournement, culture jamming) underlie much of current online interaction, embodying collaborative cultural practices - currently enabled by the accessibility to remix technology - that echo previous movements (e.g. punk, craft, Situationists International). Online memes are the intersection between participatory culture, remixing and intercreativity.
    [Show full text]
  • Sociolinguistic Variation and Enregisterment in an Online Community of Practice: a Case Study of Metafilter.Com
    Sociolinguistic Variation and Enregisterment in an Online Community of Practice: A Case Study of MetaFilter.com Kimberly Ann Witten PhD University of York Language and Linguistic Science September 2014 I Abstract With the emergence of communities that are primarily based in computer-mediated communication (CMC) environments, we see the prevalence of internet-derived neologisms, i.e., netologisms. Often these netologisms are acronyms (e.g., ‘LOL’), blends (e.g., ‘weblog’), or other forms of abbreviation. These new forms may present challenges for English phonotactics, which must be spontaneously resolved by first-time speakers of the netologisms. If the forms contain orthographic characters or sequences that do not directly or consistently correlate to specific English phonemes or phoneme sequences, it is likely that these new forms display phonetic variation. Netologisms can also be used as linguistic resources in taking stances or asserting aspects of identity, especially where phonetic variation is possible. These stances may represent the identity of the group, or they may become associated with particular identities within the group. The process by which sounds, features and word forms become associated with particular identities is known as enregisterment (Agha, 2003, 2005; Squires, 2010). Enregisterment has traditionally been studied in sociolinguistics as a function of individuals interacting in face-to-face (FtF) environments (Johnstone, Andrus and Danielson, 2006; Beal, 2009). However, as more of our daily interactions are mediated by computers and technology, attention must be paid to how enregisterment may take place in primarily text-based social environments. This research presents the first large-scale mixed-methods study of enregisterment occurring in CMC.
    [Show full text]
  • Topics in Sociolinguistics and CMC
    Marisa Brook Mondays and Thursdays & Emily Blamire 1:05 PM – 2:30 PM 381:381: TopicsTopics inin SociolinguisticsSociolinguistics andand CMCCMC Lecture 6: Language variation and creativity online July 11, 2019 LSA Institute, UC Davis Olson Hall 267 variation and creativity Before all else: we owe everyone an apology. We really dropped the ball on inclusion last time. The issue is that in the discussion of the Pavalanathan and Eisenstein (2015) paper, we displayed two slides that contained racially charged language and failed to acknowledge this. Two of these are spellings of a word referring to Black folks that is “still a racial epithet when used by whites” (Smitherman 1977:42, cf. Spears 1998:239, Widawski 2015:27). While African-Americans have the option of using it in a reclaimed way, no one else does (Smitherman 1977:42, cf. Spears 1998:239, Widawski 2015:27). 2 variation and creativity The study does not pinpoint who used these words and also says nothing about them. The decisions a) to make those words prominent on the slides and b) to not say anything about them were the wrong calls. It’s especially not okay for a white authority figure at the front of the classroom to just shrug this off. Here’s what we have done: we’ve removed the slides in question before posting the PowerPoint from Monday on Orbund, and we’re going to take a big step back from Eisenstein’s work here. 3 variation and creativity Thank you so much to those who spoke up about this and invited us to do better.
    [Show full text]
  • The Nonhuman Autonomous Space Agency
    The Nonhuman Autonomous Space Agency In the summer of 2011, the last Space Shuttle launch took place at Cape Canaveral, Florida. When the Shuttle landed 13 days later, the United States, for the first time in 30 years, no longer operated a vehicle capable of carrying humans into Low Earth Orbit. FRED SCHARMEN A few miles from Cape Canaveral, in places like Blue Springs State Park, Florida’s Morgan State University endangered population of manatees takes shelter in the warm spring water that rises through the state’s porous limestone geology. Manatees are famous for their somewhat goofy hybridity, which according to stories led some sailors to mistake them for the half human, half fish mermaids of legend. Like the Space Shuttle, itself a hybrid compromise between budgetary, political, and per- formance constraints, manatees become surprisingly graceful when they are embedded and active in the their environment. In ecological science, biologists talk about the concept of the ‘charismatic megafauna’1, a species of animal that is well known and well liked, which serves as a stand-in and focal point for the complexities of the ecosystem in which it lives. Polar bears serve as a good start- ing point for discussions about the effects of climate change. Talking about mana- tees is a way to begin to talk about how we use the landscape of Florida and the Caribbean recreationally, and how to possibly change some careless habits asso- ciated with that use. MASCOTS AND MEGAFAUNA With the absence of the Space Shuttle as a recognizable icon, the whole enter- prise of space exploration now has a unique problem, it no longer has a mascot.
    [Show full text]
  • Infrastructures of Language and Chinese Scripts in an Age of Global Information Revolution Ulug Kuzuoglu
    Codes of Modernity: Infrastructures of Language and Chinese Scripts In an Age of Global Information Revolution Ulug Kuzuoglu Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY 2018 ©2018 Ulug Kuzuoglu All rights reserved ABSTRACT Codes of Modernity: Infrastructures of Language and Chinese Scripts in an Age of Global Information Revolution Ulug Kuzuoglu This dissertation explores the global history of Chinese script reforms—the effort to phoneticize Chinese language and/or simplify the writing system—from its inception in the 1890s to its demise in the 1980s. These reforms took place at the intersection of industrialization, colonialism, and new information technologies, such as alphabet-based telegraphy and breakthroughs in printing technologies. As these social and technological transformations put unprecedented pressure on knowledge management and the use of mental and clerical labor, many Chinese intellectuals claimed that learning Chinese characters consumed too much time and mental energy. Chinese script reforms, this dissertation argues, were an effort to increase speed in producing, transmitting, and accessing information, and thus meet the demands of the industrializing knowledge economy. The industrializing knowledge economy that this dissertation explores was built on and sustained by a psychological understanding of the human subject as a knowledge machine, and it was part of a global moment in which the optimization of labor in knowledge production was a key concern for all modernizing economies. While Chinese intellectuals were inventing new signs of inscription, American behavioral psychologists, Soviet psycho-economists, and Central Asian and Ottoman technicians were all experimenting with new scripts in order to increase mental efficiency and productivity.
    [Show full text]