#Internet linguistics

[paladinkite]

Lately when I'm in a bad mood, or a bad place mentally, I'll start up the usual internal stuff where "(person) probably thinks this about me" or "[imagined argument with this person]" and, at least the last couple times, I'll realize I'm doing it and say to myself "you're just making up a little guy to get mad at." and I break out of that. Like, the very online discourse post about "making up someone to be upset at" has fully shifted part of my mental health process and I think that's *fascinating*.

[the-entity-down-the-street]

I love the phrase "I don't go here" in regards to fandoms. Like it's a school you don't attend. Such a fun cheeky way to engage with media you don't personally consume but want to admire the fanart/memes/etc. You don't go here, just visiting. :)

[adhd-languages]

I finally started reading “Because Internet” and I’m having so much fun :)

[vexangle]

op turned reblogs off but i still want to save it becuase its rather interesting how online dialects for (some) different languages show up similarly in ways that would not necessarily happen in traditional written media

[firstofficerrose]

Does anyone know of an etymology and/or usage history for beloathed?

[natdeviantrat]

the internet is so much fun like the writers could not have known there would be a viral world tour meme right before the announcement of lestat's rockstar era but there is and it fits so well it at least slightly altered the zeitgeist of the whole moment and will probably serve as an in fandom reference throughout the next season but within days another meme will surely pop up for us to add to the stack and

[randomwordzard]

petition to bring back "snazzy" in the form of "snaz"

[bread--quest]

do you want to be sooo niceys and helpful to me. do you find language in all its mutations interesting and worth researching. do you use the suffix "-core" in conversation

if the answer to any of these is yes, then please fill out my form!!!

this is for a project in my linguistic anthropology class!! we're researching uses of the suffix "-core", as in "cottagecore" and "fairycore" but also as in "mecore" and (this is an actual example i overheard) "joe bidencore." as part of the project we're supposed to interview people who use it, but unfortunately none of my friends have used it out loud recently, and so my group project members kindly agreed to let me use my tumblr platform to take a larger group sampling instead. please help me. i need them to think i'm cool. take my poll

your information will not be shared, the poll does not collect emails and none of the data collected from it will be used outside of this college course. there is a set of optional questions about identity at the bottom, but you can leave any of them blank if you wish. thank you so much!!!!

also the presentation is due on thursday so um. the poll will close by wednesday at the latest. thumbs up.

[allthingslinguistic]

August-September 2023: Etymology isn't Destiny merch and an academic article about lingcomm

My newsletter for August-September 2023: Etymology isn't Destiny merch and an academic article about lingcomm

I joined onto a fun project this month, Zach Weinersmith of the webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal is running a Kickstarter for his book, The Universe: Abridged Beyond the Point of Usefulness, and one of the bonus rewards is an audiobook of his other book, Shakespeare’s Sonnets: Abridged Beyond the Point of Usefulenss. I’ll be the one reading the highly abridged sonnets, which I’m looking…

[darlingofdots]

LOVING the hot new grammatical construction we are using on the internet that goes "are you a [x] or perhaps some kind of [y]" and "POV: you are a [x] or maybe a [y] of some sort". It always delights me. It's such a whimsical turn of phrase. I love internet grammar

[rubiscodisco]

50-ish years ago foods that left a burning sensation on the mouth was more often described as "hot" rather than "spicy".

Over the years "spicy" gradually overtook "hot" in the english vocabulary, and it seemed like "spicy" became more common around 10-ish years ago.

A few years ago, the use of "spicy" to refer to sexual content in books and other media gradually became popular.

Now anything that's even mildly controversial, or out-of-the box, or confronting, or aggresive, can be called "spicy"...

The year is 2050. Everything can be called spicy. It's spread to include verbs, nouns, spicy, and spicy. Spicy spicy spicy, spicy spicy.

[touchlikethesun]

ik there are already loads of studies into tumblr linguistics but i think there should be more.

[mina-le]

Mina Le on how internet slang was co-opted from AAVE and America’s Black drag scene

[alexr-fightgames]

how do you do, fellow kids.

do you have "whom of which" in your language? would you ever produce a sentence of the following structure?

Our striker, whom of which is our best player, scores a lot of goals.

This is a judgement free zone, I just wanna know if you would say that. I had a linguist as a doctoral advisor, so I am basically a linguist too, which means, y'know -- empiricism all up in effect.

thanks!

(this construction is apparently a thing? grammar -- it keeps on happening.)

[nordarknessdimsthesky]

A linguistic analysis of tumblr hyperbole in the tags

This post expands my previous analysis of hyperbolic reactions to cluster tags by themes. There were too many themes, some of them overlapping, to create a cohesive graph. Instead, I present several overarching themes from a data set of 50 tags observed and documented in various corners of tumblr.

1. Feeling Normal™️

Tags within this cluster profess Normal feelings (read: extreme excitement, enthusiasm, obsession, derangement, etc.).

#mmmmrrrghuhhhhghhh #I'm so normal about it teehee #absolutely not rending my clothing #feeling very normal and not feral at all #i will simply never recover #gif sets sent to personally destroy me #i can't cope #the eyes #i'm a puddle #i am INCONSOLABLE #i am DISTRAUGHT #IM NOT OKKAAAAAAYYYYYY #FEELING TOTALLY ONE HUNDRED PERCENT NORMAL

2. Feralness

The following data points conjure animalistic behavior. There’s a non-zero amount of biting and chewing involved.

#chomping biting barking #biting my arms off #rattling my cage #[incoherent biting noises] #chewing glass #chewing through wood #*shaking the bars of my enclosure* HELLO!!!!!!!! #climbing the walls #biting gnawing chewing #im gonna rip off my front door and eat it

3. Noisy Emotional Outbursts

These tags encompass crying, screaming, yelling, and other loud reactions.

# shaking sobbing crying #SCREAMIIIING BANGING MY HEAD ON THE WALL #*no thoughts only wailing* #i am SOBBING #IM CRYING LIKE A BITCH #*just fucking yelling* #S C R E A M #screeching into a pillow #brb sobbing for 5-7 business years

4. Throwing

All of these tags except the last one involve being thrown instead of throwing things. I, personally, am entertained by the range of places/situations people are throwing themselves into.

#i am going to THROW MYSELF into the SEA #hurl me into the sea #hurl me into the sun #trebuchet me into the sun #hurl me straight at europa #vent me out of an airlock #slam me against a wall #put me in a box and throw me down the stairs #throwing myself into traffic you know? #just defenestrate me already #defenestrate me #absolutely hurl me through plate glass #i'm going to start tossing furniture

5. Bodily Harm

There’s a good deal of overlap with the previous theme. Nearly all of the tags involving throwing would result in varying degrees of bodily harm. Here are the tags outside of the Throwing subgroup.  

#im going to throw upppppp #tearing my hair out #banging my head against the wall #SCREAMIIIING BANGING MY HEAD ON THE WALL #biting my arms off #microwaving myself #crumple me up and microwave me

6. Absurdism

My personal favorite cluster. The imagery conjured and resulting comedic hyperbole is just [chef’s kiss].

#im gonna rip off my front door and eat it #crumple me up and microwave me #put me in a box and throw me down the stairs #defenestrate me #absolutely hurl me through plate glass

7. Keysmashes

These tags center less around meaning and more around style, so they form the last group. A handful of these could fall under Noisy Emotional Outbursts because they represent reaction noises. In my linguistic judgment, keysmashing increases the hyperbole – consider augh versus aughfhghghghhh – the latter reads as prolonged and more intense emotionally.

#aghdjakgsjadhjaka * #hrhrhrhgnnnghhhhh #aughfhghghghhh #mmmmrrrghuhhhhghhh #I'm so normal about it teehee #waughfhghghh #oughhhhghghhh

*one digression in a friend discord server was how people interpret keysmashes in their minds. Some hear the first couple letters and then some sputtering, others hear static. It’s a common joke that you need a minor in linguistics to understand conversations in this friend group. Such is the nature of things when the chaos linguist energy is strong.

[allthingslinguistic]

June-July 2023: Lingstitute and Merriam-Webster

In June and July, I headed to Lingstitute 2023, the LSA summer institute, at UMass Amherst. It was great to get to hang out with old friends and meet lots of new people While I was in Massachusetts, I dropped by the headquarters of Merriam Webster to say hi to the dictionaries and lexicographers! (In that order.) Thanks especially to Peter Sokolowski for the guided tour and to Stacy Dickerman…