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

[Chris Waigl]

Definitely "does she have a Facebook" or "what's their Facebook" is a
thing. I was just asked by one of our students "can you give me your
WhatsApp"?? . I usually understand it to mean "an active account on
[platform]", or analogous to a phone number for the purpose of exchanging
instant messages.

Chris

On Wed, Mar 31, 2021 at 5:23 PM Barretts Mail <mail.barretts at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 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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>


-- 
Chris Waigl . chris.waigl at gmail.com . chris at lascribe.net
http://eggcorns.lascribe.net . http://chryss.eu

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