ATWA

[syrenum]

[grunge-top]

[writerswritecompany]

[alexanderpf]

verb tenses with timelines via amandaonwriting

[science-of-noise]

Ooh!  Linear temporal logic in chart form.

[evastrange-deactivated20190813]

[lingllama]

[Picture: Background: 8-piece pie-style color split with alternating shades of blue. Foreground: Linguist Llama meme, a white llama facing forward, wearing a red scarf. Top text: “Do not touch morpheme with bare hands” Bottom text: “Risk of inflection”]

[thelingspace]

We’re getting ready to start posting again - we’ve got some interesting stuff we’re looking forward to sharing, interviews and regular videos!

In the meantime, I wanted to share this video from the channel Freedom in Thought, on 1984 and linguistic determinism, the hypothesis that language determines what you can think. It’s a pretty cool look at the topic and gets into some of the science behind it! If you want more discussion on linguistic determinism, take a look at our video, too - it covers some of the same information, but also some of the other research that’s been done, as well!

[yonaks]

i hate languages

[linguisten]

“In the galaxy of languages, every word is a star.”

— International Mother Language Day

[disourseofsocialmedia]

Assignment 1, Option 1 - Ioanna Asanakidi

While teaching English as a second language in a small group of students in Junior High, I found really interesting to use integrated technology in classroom. Technology and social media are very advantageous because they offer afffordances that turn the learning process into a a creative and funny game. For instance, I have used YouTube in tasks for the purpose of practicing listening and speaking skills. My students watched a biography-video about Queen Elizabeth and then, had to participate in an oral discussion concerning her life. Cultural awareness, dialogue and collaboration was encouraged.

In another activity, regarding the environment, I assigned my students with homework on linoit.com in a canvas I had made for the respective lesson. In stead of following the traditional way of paper and pencil, they searched on Google facts about Alternative Energy Sources and posted their answers in this platform. So, I provided them with the link and since they clicked, they had all the instructions on the surface. The activity was neat, reflecting how they enjoyed it. Some of them, found the way to also include gifs, videos and images! It was really amazing.

[disourseofsocialmedia]

Assignment 8 - Ioanna Asanakidi

Twitter is another online infrastructure that allows users to express, publish and sometimes creatively illustrate their own views upon continuous or past matters. Political events such as the argumentation concerning the name issue of FYROM could not miss and are much discussed from simple citizens to politicians.         The above image A depicts practices of online political discourse, maintained by civil participation. More specifically, a Skopjian user posts his caption along  with a sarcastic image, making an allegory of the EU - FYROM relationship to that of a love relationship. The post was published earlier this day, at 12:33 am.         Zoran Zaev, FYROM’s prime minister, is portrayed and sneered for being a less nationalistic figure, whose claims and negotiations foresee the country’s potential for EU membership by changing the region’s name. Thus, the person who is in contrast with such an attitude and writes this post, expresses himself in order to make an impact to the audience. Yet, this is an example of virtual political engagement because “chatting politics online provides an illusion of political engagement”.         On the other hand, picture B, a photo depicting demonstration of Greek protests to a potential Greek compromise of Greece agreeing to Skopje using the word Macedonia in its official name, is a real political engagement, where people are physically acting (February 4, Athens central).

[disourseofsocialmedia]

ASSIGNMENT 7 - Ioanna Asanakidi

The above photo was taken on the 20th of April, at 4:39 pm inside the metro line 2 of Athens, among the stations of Syntagma - Anthoupoli. This sticker - poster, dresses some of the wagons for almost a month, promoting the homonym project “Ένα βιβλίο ταξιδεύει” (“A book is traveling”), through the illustrated hashtag (#enavivliotaxidevei).

The Nonprofit Organisation Network for Children’s Rights (ΔΔΠ) concerns children’s rights on education, family and society. Its “Culture lab” contains a library of numerous valuable books and tablets for children. Another book was added to the collection through the allowance of Alpha Bank.

Now, it is running an annual campaign in which it invites citizens and specifically metro passengers to actively participate by taking a photo inside the metro and uploading to their accounts with this particular hashtag and/or by mentioning @enavivliotaxidevei.

I could possibly argue that this acting but also the advertising of the sponsors, wouldn’t be in the surface without the help of the internet and the internet language. This hashtag, has boosted the acknowledgement of the event as well as the recognition of the organisations who are leading.

Nowadays, people, and especially the iGens love hashtags and other internet-specific language features so they use it in their everyday life and feel part of the society. This is the core of how they operate in the world. Organisations and companies take advantage of such technological influences to launch their products or to promote their actions and verge on youth.

[ioannasans]

Internet

[disourseofsocialmedia]

ASSIGNMENT 6 - Ioanna Asanakidi

The above post depicts an instance of abusive online behaviour in the form of flaming. Two texts are shown in the image as a diatribe between supporters of President Trump (text A) and Obama (text B), respectively. My interest of analysis concerns the insulting comment (text B) which is a vicious verbal attack, on one hand to the interlocutor above it (text A) and on the other hand, to the President of the US D. Trump. Since the user does not have the opportunity to show paralinguistic features like facial expression, tone of voice etc, he is using graphic devices such as punctuation (…), (!!!!), (- -), as equals.  The act of his aggression is also revealed through swearing language. We could definitely agree that this is a harmful context since different linguistic forms of swearing are very profound; cursing expletive (Fuck tRUMP), pre-modifying intensifying  negative adjective (poor , pitiful, lusted Ivanka), (small, pathetic monodic TROPHY-HUNTING sons), adverbial booster (as COWARDLY as their DRAFT-DOGGING court jester father…) and other negative adjectives (idiot). Apart from this typographical features, another linguistic resource i.e capitalisation is very prominent. The user is repeatedly capitalising most of his phrases to mark his aggression, to increase the impact of his bad words to the reader or to compensate the luck of his yelling. However, in his intention to devalue Mr. President’s power, he is writing the initial letter of the name with small ’t’ (tRUMP) and then continues his whole phrase in capitals (Fuck tRUMP, the DIDDLIND, INSCESTUOUS, DEVIANT DIRTY OLD MAN…). 

[disourseofsocialmedia]

Assignment 5

Digital technologies tend to engage us more closely in meaningful connections. 500px, Linguism, Bandcamp, Coursera and Forum Filosofikis are 5 different platforms I regularly use and allow for the construction of online communities. To begin with, 500px and Bandcamp are leisure websites so the values of the communities there are the shared interest of photography and music respectively. 500px is as a positive community formed by photographers or photo enthusiasts where you can praise, share, sell your work with copyright ownership and connect with photographers you admire. px stands for pixels but also for personal expression so in-group jargon, pronouns, evaluations and opinions are obvious in here. Shared practice of photography, shared identities of both creators and consumers as well as constructive criticism is welcomed. Band camp is primarily a site where you can manually list your music for sale on your own terms. Besides, and international audience is reached and I personally belong to this community of fans.

Bandcamp has a smart strategy of promoting music by letting you listen to songs or even whole albums for free. Since great work should be recognised and rewarded, apart from tracking your favourite artists or just your friends’ band, you can also evaluate them with comments and directly interact with them or other fans. Simultaneously a community of shared interests is created. Opinions, a lot of in-group jargon, identity, slangs and evaluations do occur.

Linguism, Coursera and Forum Filosofikis are completely different types of virtual communities. Shared educational background is very central among the users.

Linguism - language in a word, is one of the various blogs concerning language and linguistics and because of its simple construction I would prefer to mention it for the purpose of this assignment. It itself is a language blog formed by a respected linguist and editor, but you can find its communities on Facebook and Twitter as well. In those communities you can read, write and comment on posts and articles related to various linguistic areas. People as motivated and interested in languages and language learning as I am, interact with each other and perform shared practices. Meaningful feedback to articles is also welcomed. Coursera is an amazing platform where courses are taught by professional instructors from universities. Scientific knowledge and skills are shared and everyone can learn and earn credentials. Group forums are also very practical. Here, shared interests, values and goals are established. Terminology is also vey central. Forum Filosofikis includes an offline community among students like me, i.e English language and Literature students from the University of Athens, works in the value of support. Here students discuss various topics related to their field of study. Common background knowledge, information, terminology and anonymity occurs. The issue f shared identities is characteristic between experts and answer people.

All of the websites mentioned above share some norms of behaviour e.g. moderators, and practice eg. insider lingo. There aren’t any sites that I use and I do not feel part of the specific community it involves. I am usually an active user if I am meant to visit and utilise a platform. However, my visits are very short in the sense of duration. 

[ioannasans]

Ioanna Asanakidi #Assignment 5

[disourseofsocialmedia]

ASSIGNMENT 4 - Ioanna Asanakidi Instagram is a social network site where I maintain a personal profile to continue my connections with other users, mostly friends of mine. A screenshot of my account will help us elicit a brief analysis of my online identity. Specific aspects of my social ID are provided, whereas more personal details are omitted. My profile picture displays my sister and me hugged in a happy moment, besides all of my photos depicting myself are circled around such a happy mood. Since self-presentation in social media is more selective than f2f situation, my bio is empty apart from a word provided, “atwa”. The latter stands for an acronym of the phrase All The Way Alive, also one of my favourite bands’ song’s title. I use this motto to express myself most of the times, so in one hand someone could assume that aspects of personal ID such as my attitude is provided while another one could argue that I tend to conceal basic info in my bio. My closest friends and family are aware of this acronym and the ways/ reasons I am connected to it since the JH, so for them it is obvious that a serious part of personal ID is included in this section. Other master identities i.e education, generation, age, religion and geographical region are missing. However, some interactional activities are highlighted, such as one of my hobbies (amateur photography) ascribed in a provided link that leads to my portfolio, as well as my love for travelling depicted in the posts (a few shots of some of my trips abroad). For the most part, I do not claim to follow a specific strategy concerning my online identity on Instagram since I do not highly regard my profile. I just upload whenever and whatever I have a preference for at that current moment. Mostly, I incline towards photos taken by me, places where I have had wonderful memories, people who I love. Nonetheless, I have a quite low number of posts even though the intended audience is very broad/general. Simultaneously I present myself in ways which target certain individuals/groups (my friends, amateur photographers) and exclude others (acquaintances, professional audience). Apart from visually contracted, aspects of my ID are also dialogically performed, in the comments under my photos; Code switching between Greek, English and Arabic language is performed, so implications about my willing to disclose social aspects of ID are allowed. 

[imposer]

[nevver]

[astound]

love me, love me not | credit

[disourseofsocialmedia]

This text is one of my earliest posts on Instagram Stories that demonstrates my practice of code-switching among the Arabic, Greek, English and (minor) French language. The linguistic content is shaped by the intended viewers, real friends of mine. My motivation to switch is the extra-situational background that we share (colleagues in Arabic sessions, speakers of all the 3 languages, native Greeks ) and the content which is about our trip to Egypt. At fist, as I am aware of the fact that everyone speaks English, I use formal English (capital “NOPE”) as a bold indication of a disagreement I have on one of our conversational topics.Then, I continue using solely Arabic because I prefer to keep a distance from the general audience (viewers who do not speak Arabic) concerning some details I relate to in this paragraph. An interesting point is the inclusion of an Arabic adverbial written in Latin letters (“fi”). There is no particular reason for doing so, just the keyboard changed automatically and I was bored to fix it, as I can recall. I the following paragraph I initiate my phrase with English “hate u”, again for formality but also for stylistic reasons. I wish to sound more like I’m kidding. Then greeklish appears! The function of switching to my native language is for my convenience in phrasing the specific syntactic order appropriately. In Arabic, I would need more time to think, prepare and then post it. An additional reason is that I want to sound more serious and a bit of angry with them. However, I do include the Arabic word “صورة ” meaning photograph in order to break the ice again. I conclude with my speech mostly in greeklish with the intervention of the French “pardon” which conveys more expressiveness than a plain “sorry”.  (The extract is a sequel to our group call on Skype, that happened minutes before the post.) Ioanna Asanakidi