20 Matching Annotations
  1. Feb 2025
    1. “They said they’ve learned to avoid these kinds of confrontations by using softer, less direct communication, and ‘chat’ is a perfect example of that. It keeps things casual and nonthreatening, which can help ease the social pressures they face.”

      Woah! I hadn't considered this idea before, but it really makes a lot of sense! I know that I even get choked up sometimes in group interactions: addressing someone by their first name feels so personally, and can really be nerve wracking. You add on this 'confrontation culture", and it really makes a lot of sense why people have chosen to refer to others in these second-person-pov kind of ways.

    2. It’s simply derived from their pop culture, and adds a bit more humor and energy to the conversation.

      At some point, we really need to ask ourselves if the slang children are using is actually "that deep". Should it really be a concern whether or not a kid uses the word "sigma", as compared to the actually harmful things happening in the world? All I have to say is: let the kids cook!

    3. “chat, am I cooked?”

      I can't tell you how many times I've personally used the word "cook" in this context --- all thanks to my little sister, whose speech is riddled with Gen Alpha slang use. I think understanding how slang like this influences our cultural identities is super important, and especially relevant as we all navigate today's online discourse in conjunction with this linguistics course.

    1. Because these terms often spread in ironic contexts, people find them funny, engage with them and are eventually rewarded with more memes featuring incel vocabulary.

      In other classes, I've discussed the harmful rise of the 'manosphere' on social media platforms, with influencers like Andrew Tate being prime examples of these hyper-masculine, incel type men. There is interesting evidence connecting the mental space of men and the rise of these influencers, and it's also seemed to affected areas like the presidential voting polls (with influencers like Joe Rogan endorsing certain candidates). No matter where you stand politically, it is easy to see the sort of harm incel-like ideas can have on men particularly, and I think this article does a good job at highlighting why these slang terms are so widely used.

    2. These slang terms developed on 4chan precisely because of the site’s anonymity. Since users don’t have identifiable aliases, they signal their in-group status through performative fluency in shared slang.

      The ways in which groups of people create slang and their own vernacular is really interesting. I never considered looking into the history of some of the slang I used day-to-day. As someone with a sibling belonging to Gen Alpha (a generation known now for it's insane slang), I am surprised to note the connection between the slang they use and the slang incels. It feels harmful to have such slang be spread around as it has been, especially know that I've gained the knowledge from this article.

    3. the suffix “pilled” as a funny way to say “convinced into a lifestyle.” Instead of “I now love eating burritos,” for instance, one might say, “I’m so burritopilled.”

      Because I'm in a more political space of the internet, I have heard the phrase "red pilled" or "blue pilled" every once in awhile on social media. I've never heard the phrase in any other context, which is why I found it intriguing used in "burritopilled". I am also shocked to note that this phrase actually leads back to rhetoric made my incels.

    1. Today, Black writers and poets continue to explore what it means to be Black and from Appalachia.

      Before reading this, I had never considered the black perspective on living in Appalachia, which I think is very telling of the stereotypes I've associated with Appalachians without even realizing it. The term coined here, "Affrilachia", speaks to the idea that having a self-created labeled identity within a community is essential to fighting against harmful stereotypes.

    2. When “one story becomes the only story,” she said in a 2009 TED Talk, “it robs people of dignity.”

      This quote reminds me of narrative four exchanges I've done in precious courses. For those who may not know, narrative four is a program our university is apart of that helps to foster empathy in lieu of what is called a "single story". When stories are told about certain groups of people, it often becomes, as Adichie notes, the "only story". This is inherently harmful to the formation of identity for people of color.

    3. counties in Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia and the entirety of West Virginia

      The vastness of this region is really intriguing to me. To think that such a large portion of the world has been summed up in small, meager stereotypes feels really gross. It is even more troubling considering that such a grand chunk of the country has been impoverished and "largely ignored".

    1. The idea is to support dialect diversity while upholding the goals of teaching standardized language norms that fit conventions of formal writing and presentations.

      I think this passage really helped me to understand what it means to support dialectical diversity. It should never be "you must speak this way because this is standard", especially in grade schools. But, teaching them the formalities of language to support their writing and presentation skills doesn't take away from their dialect, which is really important.

    2. For most younger speakers, it has resoundingly trounced “say” when introducing a quote.

      I can't tell you how many teachers and adults have drilled the absolute 'like' out of me. Now, when I hear someone use the term excessively, I often find myself internally cringing.

    3. Whether it’s hillbilly hooch, hillbilly hot dogs or hillbilly mascots, there’s probably no other cultural trope that’s so widely and derisively employed as hillbilly, a term broadly used to refer to the people of Appalachia.

      Perhaps it sounds a bit silly, but I had really never before considered the 'hillbilly' stereotype before reading these articles on Appalachian dialect. These stereotypes are seemingly so ingrained in our culture that I hadn't even saw them for the harm they could cause -- it almost felt just like an character archetype. However, in reading these articles, I can really see the negative impact that discrimination against one;s dialect or language can harm groups of people,

  2. Jan 2025
    1. There were even writerly sorts who proposed native English replacements for those lofty Latinates, and it’s hard not to yearn for some of these: in place of crucified, fundamental, definition and conclusion, how about crossed, groundwrought, saywhat, and endsay?

      It is fun to see adopted words broken down to simpler roots/compound words. As mentioned, crucified and fundamental are sufficiently English to me, so much so that crossed and groundwrought are comical. Instead of arboreal, we could use treedweller.

    2. Sometimes they seemed to want to stake the language with ‘We’re here, too’ signs, matching our native words with the equivalent ones from Norse, leaving doublets such as dike (them) and ditch (us), scatter (them) and shatter (us), and ship (us) vs skipper (Norse for ship was skip, and so skipper is ‘shipper’).

      This also adds a further complexity to the language. As these could be viewed as redundancies, yet both forms of the word get frequent use. Which other words share a double from a different original language?

    3. the ending pulls the accent ahead with it: MO-dern, but mo-DERN-ity, not MO-dern-ity. That doesn’t happen with WON-der and WON-der-ful, or CHEER-y and CHEER-i-ly. But it does happen with PER-sonal, person-AL-ity.

      This is one of the most irritating things in the English language to me. Studying Japanese, one of the first things you're taught is that there's no stress on any syllable more than any other when saying a word. It's a Mora-timed language, where English is a stress-timed language. Mora-timed languages don't put stress on certain syllables the way we do in English. By changing the way we are using a word, and thereby changing our intonation, the language just keeps getting more confusing; stress one syllable wrong and everyone in a three mile radius will go, "Why did you say that like that?"

    4. The common idea that English dominates the world because it is ‘flexible’ implies that there have been languages that failed to catch on beyond their tribe because they were mysteriously rigid.

      I've always wondered about this idea, too. English, even for native speakers, is often impossible. There's so many rules about the order that words have to fall in (lazy brown dog instead of brown lazy dog, for example) and the way that we intonate and pronounce. I don't find English to be more flexible than any other language; indeed, its structure is just as, if not more complicated, than any of the romantic and east Asian languages that we struggle so much with.

    5. The different ways of referring to meat depended on one’s place in the scheme of things, and those class distinctions have carried down to us in discreet form today.

      I find it really interesting that we still have some class systems in modern English. It's hard to notice, especially in formal English, but there's definitely some situations where class comes into play in our language.

  3. Sep 2021
    1. 2015, c. 3, s. 110

      Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2014, SC 2015, c 3, https://canlii.ca/t/52m35, s. 110, amends IRPA s. 63(2) and (3) to read:

      Right to appeal — visa and removal order

      (2) A foreign national who holds a permanent resident visa may appeal to the Immigration Appeal Division against a decision to make a removal order against them made under subsection 44(2) or made at an admissibility hearing.

      Right to appeal removal order

      (3) A permanent resident or a protected person may appeal to the Immigration Appeal Division against a decision to make a removal order against them made under subsection 44(2) or made at an admissibility hearing.

      Previously they had read:

      Right to appeal — visa and removal order

      (2) A foreign national who holds a permanent resident visa may appeal to the Immigration Appeal Division against a decision at an examination or admissibility hearing to make a removal order against them.

      Right to appeal — removal order

      (3) A permanent resident or a protected person may appeal to the Immigration Appeal Division against a decision at an examination or admissibility hearing to make a removal order against them.

    2. 2015, c. 3, s. 109(E)

      Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2014, SC 2015, c 3, https://canlii.ca/t/52m35, s. 109(E) amends the English version of IRPA s. 37(1)(b) to read:

      (b) engaging, in the context of transnational crime, in activities such as people smuggling, trafficking in persons or laundering of money or other proceeds of crime.

      Previously it had read:

      (b) engaging, in the context of transnational crime, in activities such as people smuggling, trafficking in persons or money laundering.

    3. 2015, c. 3, s. 108(E)

      Miscellaneous Statute Law Amendment Act, 2014, SC 2015, c 3, https://canlii.ca/t/52m35, s. 108(E) amends the English version of IRPA s. 16(3) to read:

      Evidence relating to identity (3) An officer may require or obtain from a permanent resident or a foreign national who is arrested, detained, subject to an examination or subject to a removal order, any evidence — photographic, fingerprint or otherwise — that may be used to establish their identity or compliance with this Act.

      Previously it had read:

      Evidence relating to identity (3) An officer may require or obtain from a permanent resident or a foreign national who is arrested, detained or subject to a removal order, any evidence — photographic, fingerprint or otherwise — that may be used to establish their identity or compliance with this Act.