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

Thu Apr 1 10:31:31 UTC 2021

Thanks. Still curious as to how or why a seemingly superfluous article
would widely appear and persist when the sentence works perfectly well
without it. The meaning of "a tiktok" is, well, anything but definite,
which is to say _referring to a particular member of a group or class_.
Are there any analagous examples of such conversational counter-entropy in
other domains or is this somehow social media/GenZ specific?

On Thu, Apr 1, 2021, 4:52 AM ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "Does She Have _A_ TikTok?"
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Interesting topic, Martin. Here are some examples collected from twitter:
> "a myspace", "a facebook", "a twitter", "an email", "an Instagram", "a
> tikt=
> ok"
>
> https://twitter.com/omg_zoeyy/status/23161146
> Timestamp: 12:12 AM =C2=B7 Aug 28, 2007
> Twitter handle: omg_zoeyy @omg_zoeyy
> [Begin tweet text]
> do you have a myspace?
> [End tweet text]
>
> https://twitter.com/dancerbabe1331/status/231668472
> Timestamp: 12:48 AM =C2=B7 Aug 28, 2007
> Twitter handle: dancerbabe133 @dancerbabe1331
> [Begin tweet text]
> Do you have a facebook?
> [End tweet text]
>
> https://twitter.com/osestosis/status/822086327
> Timestamp: 7:43 PM =C2=B7 May 28, 2008
> Twitter handle: Clayton Yocom @osestosis
> [Begin tweet text]
> @macfan406 Do you have a twitter?
> [End tweet text]
>
> https://twitter.com/ShawnWreck/status/872706771
> Timestamp: 12:01 PM =C2=B7 Jul 30, 2008
> Twitter handle: ShawnWreck @ShawnWreck
> [Begin tweet text]
> @coreymol do you have an email where I can send the links for the
> videos on how to do it..
> [End tweet text]
>
> https://twitter.com/aphototaker/status/13071139735609344
> Timestamp: 10:22 PM =C2=B7 Dec 9, 2010
> Twitter handle: Ada Hernandez @aphototaker
> [Begin tweet text]
> @helloimcole1234 thanks! Do you have an Instagram?
> [End tweet text]
>
> https://twitter.com/ReianaErich/status/1027720320470282240
> Timestamp: 8:56 PM =C2=B7 Aug 9, 2018
> Twitter handle: erich reiana @ReianaErich
> [Begin tweet text]
> Jojo do you have a tiktok
> [End tweet text]
>
>  Garson
>
> On Wed, Mar 31, 2021 at 9:23 PM Barretts Mail <mail.barretts at gmail.com>
> wro=
> te:
> >
> > The same with =E2=80=9Can insta=E2=80=9D and =E2=80=9Ca Facebook". BB
> >
> > > On 31 Mar 2021, at 18:13, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
> wrote:
> > >
> > > Seems like =E2=80=9CDoes s/he have a Twitter=E2=80=9D (i.e. account)
> ma=
> y not be unheard of.  I just tried =E2=80=9CDo you have a twitter=E2=80=9D
> =
> -account, and got hits for that, although some false positives of the form
> =
> =E2=80=9CDo you have a Twitter buddy?=E2=80=9D
> > >
> > > LH
> > >
> > >> On Mar 31, 2021, at 7:05 PM, Martin Purdy
> <00000bd8cf391c5b-dmarc-requ=
> est at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU> wrote:
> > >>
> > >> I do recall my kids saying "xyz has *a* Facebook" rather than just
> "Fa=
> cebook" or "a Facebook account".  I must check if they still consider it
> cu=
> rrent.
> > >> Martin NZ'
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>   On Thursday, April 1, 2021, 11:32:20 AM GMT+13, Martin Kaminer
> <mart=
> in.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
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org