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timepiececlockHello, hello folks! I have Linguistics field project that I need you guys to help me with. You see, I was collecting data IRL, but I lost some of the documents and I need new data from people. Can you help me in my time of emergency? I need to get at least 18 people to fill this out, the more the better. Men are especially welcome since there's so few on my friends list. Er... that I know about, anyway. ;P
If you guys could answer these 8 survey questions, that would be great.
If you could then create a link in your journal to this entry to spread the word about my survey, that would be even better. But that's not part of the survey, so you don't have to and you could just answer the questions.
Thank you so so much.
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SURVEY
Gender:
Nationality/ the country of residence which most affected your speech:
Age:
If you are 29 years or younger, do not fill out any more questions. You may leave now with my thanks.
If you are 30 years or older, please answer the following opinion questions to the best of your ability, and feel free to elaborate as much as you like:
1. Do you think language and vocabulary in common daily use has changed since 1990?
2. Do you think widespread computer technology has had a significant effect on the vocabulary you use and understand in the last 10-15 years?
3. How would you say the vocabulary of you, your children, or the people you know has changed since 1990 with the popularization of the internet?
4. What are some new words, phrases, idioms, or other bits of figurative language you might use now that you did not use 10-15 years ago? Do these relate to technology or to other things in life?
5. What are some positive aspects of changes in slang, terminology, idioms, etc. that have occurred since or resulting from the 90s and beyond?
6. What aspects of changes in slang, terminology, idioms, etc. frustrate you or do you dislike?
7. What’s your favorite word, phrase, term or idiom introduced in the last 10-15 years?
8. Do you have a job in the computer/tech industry, and if so how might that affect your answers on this survey?
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Thank you for participating. NOTE: The age question is very important so please be honest about it... my project involves the perspective of people over 30 because that's an age wherein I judged that people would have lived long enough to accurately measure some changes in the language over longer periods of time. Of course, if you want to fill it out for fun, you're welcome to do so. Just make sure you tell me so on the age question. :)
EDIT: I've got enough now, thank you!
If you guys could answer these 8 survey questions, that would be great.
If you could then create a link in your journal to this entry to spread the word about my survey, that would be even better. But that's not part of the survey, so you don't have to and you could just answer the questions.
Thank you so so much.
----------------------------------------
SURVEY
Gender:
Nationality/ the country of residence which most affected your speech:
Age:
If you are 29 years or younger, do not fill out any more questions. You may leave now with my thanks.
If you are 30 years or older, please answer the following opinion questions to the best of your ability, and feel free to elaborate as much as you like:
1. Do you think language and vocabulary in common daily use has changed since 1990?
2. Do you think widespread computer technology has had a significant effect on the vocabulary you use and understand in the last 10-15 years?
3. How would you say the vocabulary of you, your children, or the people you know has changed since 1990 with the popularization of the internet?
4. What are some new words, phrases, idioms, or other bits of figurative language you might use now that you did not use 10-15 years ago? Do these relate to technology or to other things in life?
5. What are some positive aspects of changes in slang, terminology, idioms, etc. that have occurred since or resulting from the 90s and beyond?
6. What aspects of changes in slang, terminology, idioms, etc. frustrate you or do you dislike?
7. What’s your favorite word, phrase, term or idiom introduced in the last 10-15 years?
8. Do you have a job in the computer/tech industry, and if so how might that affect your answers on this survey?
----------------------------------------
Thank you for participating. NOTE: The age question is very important so please be honest about it... my project involves the perspective of people over 30 because that's an age wherein I judged that people would have lived long enough to accurately measure some changes in the language over longer periods of time. Of course, if you want to fill it out for fun, you're welcome to do so. Just make sure you tell me so on the age question. :)
EDIT: I've got enough now, thank you!
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no subject
Date: 2004-03-17 06:29 pm (UTC)Nationality: American
Age: 37
1. Do you think language and vocabulary in common daily use has changed since 1990?
Of course; linguistic change in action. It mostly seems to be on the same narrow heavily-contested ground as always: words for "good" "cool" "bad" "boy" "girl" come and go.
2. Do you think widespread computer technology has had a significant effect on the vocabulary you use and understand in the last 10-15 years?
Well, yes, because I am a programmer - I use words that wouldn't exist otherwise! Outside of the obviously technical field, I made a big effort to pick up old-style "hacker slang" when I read The Hacker's Dictionary in 1983, so that's probably the biggest computer-related influence on my speech.
3. How would you say the vocabulary of you, your children, or the people you know has changed since 1990 with the popularization of the internet?
Since I was active on the Internet before the big popularization in about '92, I've seen some of my own usages shift to match emerging popular consensus. For example, we used to say "send me some mail"; mail (meaning e-mail) was a mass noun. Now it's "send me an e-mail". "Surfing" the web is another one that's come from outside rather than from within my tech community experience. Other people my age have been more unconsciously resistant, but I try to stay linguistically hip.
4. What are some new words, phrases, idioms, or other bits of figurative language you might use now that you did not use 10-15 years ago? Do these relate to technology or to other things in life?
A lot of Anglicisms from spending a year in Britain. ("Brilliant" "chat up" "boozer" and other such words that fit a niche well.) "Lame" for pathetic, "rules" and "rocks" (though these existed in the '80s), "timesuck", "earworm", "what.ever" (i.e. that particular Generation X way of saying the word), "web-surfing" (as mentioned above), and the productive use of the "-age" suffix (sheepage, flamage, suckage, etc.). A certain amount of "gangsta" slang, used very ironically; I'm on the wrong side of whatever divide happened where white kids identified with hip-hop culture. The "have a X thing going" construction.
5. What are some positive aspects of changes in slang, terminology, idioms, etc. that have occurred since or resulting from the 90s and beyond?
The spread of Net popularity has meant that there are now commonly understood phrases to convey to non-geeks what I had to struggle with explaining in the '80s. Some annoying slang has passed on into oblivion (Valley Girl, Preppie, and Heavy Metal talk), but this is part of the constant churn. See also some of the phrases in question 4 and question 7.
6. What aspects of changes in slang, terminology, idioms, etc. frustrate you or do you dislike?
Probably the biggest one - though it's written only - is the mainstreaming of teen chat-room habits. You can now see people posting quite unselfconsciously in serious public forums (such as "comp.compilers" on Usenet) in that all-lowercase, apostropheless, "u" and "ur"-laden unreadable crap; it's moved outside the realm of in-group slang that its writers wouldn't feel comfortable using in adult company. I can easily see where a lot of the casual writing for public consumption by younger Net users might end up quite hard for me to decode in the future.
I also don't like "owns" (intransitive) and the ubiquitous -ors verbal suffix: Cory Doctorow recently wrote a short story called "0wnz0red" which I almost didn't read because of its title. :-)
7. What’s your favorite word, phrase, term or idiom introduced in the last 10-15 years?
The construction "Best. X. Ever."
8. Do you have a job in the computer/tech industry, and if so how might that affect your answers on this survey?
Yup. I'm a programmer, and have been a "hacker" (old word for "geek") since 1980 when I was writing machine-language programs for my TRS-80. Thus I saw the '90s Internet onslaught from the inside perspective of someone who had already consciously adopted '60s and '70s computer slang.