Lingua inglese e comunicazione multimediale

American English vs British English

American English puts the article before institutional nouns. (BE= in Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary vs. AE= in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary)

Spelling Differences

• colour - color
• centre - center
• realise - realize (zet)
• catalogue - catalog
• check - cheque
• traveller - traveler

Rhotic or Non Rhotic

AE: Rhotic (r is always pronounced) red, very, part, four

BrE: Non Rhotic (r is pronounced only in some positions)

Pronunciation Differences

1. American [u] vs British [iu] when "th", "d", "t", or "n" are followed by "u" or "ew"
2. In American English, "t" and "d" both have a very light voiced pronunciation [d] between vowels. "Writer" and "rider" can sound the same.
3. "ile" is pronounced [l] in AE, "ail" in BrE. Examples: fertile, hostile

Additional Differences:

• URL
• Mobile phone
• Opportunity

Why English is the Language of Communication?

A language becomes a

“global language” because of the POWER of the people who speak it.

1. POLITICAL MILITAR POWER of the British Empire
2. POWER OF SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY: industrial revolution (18th – 19th c.)
3. ECONOMIC POWER: American and Britain had the money market
4. CULTURAL POWER: inventions of modem society →isEnglish always turning up in the right point at the right moment the Lingua Franca for Internationalcommunication.

STANDARD ENGLISH

It is applied in grammar and language, but not in pronunciation.

SBE: is normally written and spoken by educated speakers in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Irland, Australia,New Zeland and South Africa

GA: is used in the US and is the reference model for many Asian countries, Latin America and Scandinavian countries.

In Britain 12-15% of the population (of whom 9-12% speak it with a regional accent) speaks the SBE.

It can be used in formal, neutral and informal styles:

1. Dad was very tired after his lengthy journey
2. Father was…
3. The old

man was bloody knackered after his long trip

STANDARD

NON STANDARD

You done it, did you? You did it, didn’t?

I go, you go, he goes I go, you go, he go

I don’t want any I don’t want none

Himself, themselves Hisself, Theirselves

I am, you are, he is I be, you be, he be

I was, you were, he was I were, you were, he were

I seen vs I have seen I saw vs I have seen

She hasn’t done it She ain’t done it

Those people Them people

They did They done

The person who went The person what went

We don’t want He don’t want

I know there’s work what i have to do I know what i have to do

We’ve done that quite recently We done that quite recently

You (tu, voi) Thou (tu), you (voi)

SPEECH VS WRITING : INTERNET AS A MIXED MEDIUM

THE INTERNET

Internet linguistics: the scientific study of all manifestations of language in the electronic medium.

The Internet: “Association of computer networks with common standards which enable messages to be sent for many registered

communicate with facial expression

The lexicon is vague, with words referring to the situation, like that one or in here.

It's used in casual situations.

It's good to express social relationships and personal attitudes.

It's used to record facts.

There is the possibility of re-saying a phrase while the other person is listening, but errors, once spoken, can't be deleted and the speaker must live with the consequences.

Includes prosody, rhythm, pause, tones of voice.

Includes pages, lines, punctuation.

Informal register:

• Contracted forms
• Nonsense vocabulary (slang)
• Obscenity
• Slang, idioms, phrasal verbs

Higher levels of formality:

• Long sentences
• Specialized terminology

VIEW → OPPOSITION VIEW

Writing is…

• Objective
• Durable
• A monologue
• Planned
• Formal
• Syntactically complex

Speech is…

• Interpersonal
• Ephemeral
• A dialogue
• Spontaneous
• Informal

Abstract: The Internet can be considered as a mixed medium. It combines elements of speech and writing, as well as other forms of communication. For example, Skype allows for face-to-face interaction, messaging is similar to a conversation, and online newspapers resemble their offline counterparts. Email, on the other hand, can vary greatly in terms of quality. The language used on the Internet is not identical to speech or writing, but it displays properties of both and offers unique capabilities. This view suggests that the use of the Internet exists on a continuum, with varying contexts of use. Due to technology, the boundaries between different mediums are not always clear.

Concrete: The Internet can be seen as a hybrid medium that combines elements of traditional writing, face-to-face speech, newspapers, television news, scripts of plays, radio discussions, and phone conversations. It also allows for the creation of texts in one medium that can be delivered in another, such as talking books or spoken word performances.

lectures posted on websites).

More examples:

1. The informal style found in emails: "speech by other means", but with individual differences (who, to whom, age, sex, first language of emailer)
2. Blogging: circulation in written form but with features of speech (a blog can also be informal, narrative or a dialogue.) →STYLE CONVÈRGENCE written and spoken styles are sometimes combined together.

Examples of media discourse in which writing reflects speech:

• Blogs
• Emails
• Instant messaging

Examples of media discourse in which speech reflects writing:

• TV speeches read from scripts
• Audio books
• Scripted interviews
• Conference talks

DIFFERENCES WITH SPEECH

Feedback

In a conversation, listeners have an active role because they use gestures and facial movement. So if we say something wrong we can see the other's reaction. →With Internet, feedback is absent (it isn't simultaneous). Things obviously will improve. Because of this, many

Internet interactions are considered cold and distant.

Emoticons

Today there are over 60 emoticons, but their semantic role is limited: an emoticon can have different meanings.

A lot depends on the output: an utterance consisting only of an emoticon is unusual in Twitter.

Multiple conversations

In traditional speech we can't pay attention to more conversation. Instead with Internet we can do that with chatroom. It's important to know that the order in which messages appear on a screen can be different because depend on factors that we can't control.

There are short sentences, abbreviations, punctuation: strategies motivated by economy (individual variation)

In a dyadic (daijadic) interactions instead the most of utterance respect the adjacency.

There are strategies to say to which messages we are responding to, like introducing the topic again or the name of the sender.

DIFFERENCES WITH WRITING→Hypertext links One of the most important proprieties of Internet is the

hypertextuality.With hypertext links we can move from one text to another, form one place to another.

PersistenceIf a written page is static and permanent, a web page can change in front of our eyes.Outputs display different kind of persistence: comments to a blog stay as long as the blog exists, emails can beremoved by the receiver.

Multiple authorship (moltipol outhorship)With wikipedia, readers can modify the text and this has lexical consequences: it makes texts heterogeneous,because people have different views on how formal it has to be. (hetrginios)So we can find pages with contract and uncontracted forms at the same time.Also, there isn’t a final product because the author can change the original text and create a second edition.

A NEW MEDIUMFacets are parameters of contrast in relation to which output can be defined.Technological facets characterize medium, social facets characterize the number and relationship of those who usethe medium.

1. Synchronicity: the activity
1. Operates in real time or not
2. Length: the number of characters allowed
3. Identity: messages can be anonymous or not
4. Persistence: the period that messages remain on the system
5. Audience (publicity or privately accessible)
1. Number of participants
2. Purpose: the reason for a message
3. Topic: the content of messages
4. Code: the language used by participants
5. Participant characteristics (age, gender, background, etc.)
6. Activities (using texts, photos, videos)
7. Tone (aggressive, persuasive)
8. Norms of organization (moderator, admission)

LANGUAGE CHANGES

Changes in language take decades to be established, but with Internet they can take much less time.

RELEVANT LINGUISTIC LEVELS

Vocabulary: (structure and meanings words and word groups), Orthography, Grammar (plural and syntax)

Pragmatics, Patterns of discourse / styles.

Vocabulary

Is the area that most manifests change.

Terms like computer, software, monitor aren't specifically Internet terms because they were used in

electronics.In 2010, 600 neologism were introduced in Twittionary, one of the online dictionaries that include Twitter terms.

ES: twictionary, twendy, celebritweet, twaddiction.

ESEMPI:

1. ab / abt = About
2. Adventuritter = Adventurous twitterer
3. Auto – DM – killer = a destroyer of auto DMs
4. Aplusk = Ashton Kucher’s twitter name
5. Artwitt = an artist who uses twitter and who ‘paints with words’
6. Attwaction = happens when you feel attracted to another tweeter
7. Attwicted = to be addicted to twitter
8. Avi = profile pic

Also blogs generate similar terms, like celebriblog or vlog (‘video blog’)