Technology, Lexicon, Professionalism

[Alexandre Enkerli]

Chad,

Thanks a lot for investigating this!
Actually, it makes me think that despite the usual quality of their
coverage, the BBC went for the "kids these days" angle. What got me in this
coverage (and I came to it through the geekier angle given by AT) is that it
mostly seemed to reify tired categories instead of using this as an
opportunity to see the actual connections between technological
developments, social changes, and language change.
So your report of McEnery's work is heartening.

Thanks again!

On 12/17/06, Chad Nilep <Chad.Nilep at colorado.edu> wrote:
>
> Tony McEnery has addressed the BBC piece via Mark Liberman's blog,
> Language Log.
> http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003926.html
>
> I gather two things from reading this response and a linked press release
> from
> Lancaster University, McEnery's institution.
>
> (1) I was wrong: Tesco is donating, not selling, its products to British
> schools.
>
> (2) The research seems to have nothing to do with the influences of
> technology
> on verbal development per se (though the data did include blogs).
> According to
> the Lancaster release, "[T]eenagers are still developing their oral
> communication skills, underlining the need to ensure that they are given
> appropriate support by schools in doing so."
>
> The "overuse of technologies such as computer games and MP3 players" bit
> seems
> to appear first in the BBC piece, where it is attributed to McEnery.
>
> -Chad
>
> P.S. Liberman seems particularly interested in the claim that "the top 20
> words
> used...account for around a third of all words." As Liberman point out,
> this is
> not a deficiency, but average for English.
>
> Quoting Chad Nilep <nilep at colorado.edu>:
>
> > This sounds a bit suspicious to me. Notice the last paragraph:
> >
> > "Tesco, which commissioned the report, said it was responding by
> launching a
> > scheme which allows all UK comprehensive schools to interact and
> communicate
> > with other schools around the country using its internet phone
> technology."
> >
> > The BBC seems to be playing into a scheme to sell a product. Tesco
> appears,
> > from
> > their web page, to be a retailer and communications company.
> >
> > The Ars Technica piece doesn't mention Tesco, but they appear to be
> reporting
> > on
> > the BBC report, not on McEnery's study, whatever it may have said.
> >
> > This could perhaps be noted in any blog piece on the subject.
> >
> > -Chad Nilep
> >
> > Quoting Alexandre Enkerli <enkerli at gmail.com>:
> >
> > > Fellow LAers,
> > >
> > > A very bloggable report about negative influences of technology on
> lexical
> > > development, leading to issues with younger people on the job market.
> > > http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/6173441.stm
> > > http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061215-8431.html?tag=nl.e777
> > >
> > > New forms of reductionist linguistic determinism?
> > >
> > > --
> > > Alexandre
> > > http://enkerli.wordpress.com/
>



-- 
Alexandre
http://enkerli.wordpress.com/
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