[Ads-l] "Does She Have _A_ TikTok?"

[Barretts Mail]

The same with “an insta” and “a Facebook". BB

> On 31 Mar 2021, at 18:13, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU> wrote:
> 
> Seems like “Does s/he have a Twitter” (i.e. account) may not be unheard of.  I just tried “Do you have a twitter” -account, and got hits for that, although some false positives of the form “Do you have a Twitter buddy?”
> 
> LH
> 
>> On Mar 31, 2021, at 7:05 PM, Martin Purdy <00000bd8cf391c5b-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> wrote:
>> 
>> I do recall my kids saying "xyz has *a* Facebook" rather than just "Facebook" or "a Facebook account".  I must check if they still consider it current.
>> Martin NZ'
>> 
>> 
>> 
>>   On Thursday, April 1, 2021, 11:32:20 AM GMT+13, Martin Kaminer <martin.kaminer at gmail.com> wrote:  
>> 
>> I'm perplexed by the use of the indefinite article, mostly but not
>> entirely by young people, when asking if someone is active on a
>> particular social media platform. This seems more common with
>> platforms preferred by younger people -- instagram, tiktok etc. -- and
>> less say Facebook (I don't recall anyone ever saying "Does she have
>> _a_ Facebook?" and certainly not "Does he have _a_ Gmail?").  I've
>> interrogated several GenZ's about this and they seem clear that this
>> is correct and are aware that this syntax elides the word "account"
>> (They are actually asking "Does she have a TikTok account"). I
>> understand colloquially dropping the word 'account', but inseting the
>> indefinite article continues to perplex me. Does anyone have any
>> theories?  One young social media aficionado insisted there is a
>> distinction to be made between asking whether someone has an account
>> on a particular platform and whether they have the app on their phone
>> but I found this unconvincing.
>> All explanatory suggestions welcomed.
>> ~~ Martin Kaminer

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