Rationale
This editorial addresses the different types of language used across a variety of social relations and contexts through the examples of ‘baby talk’, which is the unique type of language and manner that adults tend to instinctively speak towards infants and young children, as well as how language has developed alongside social media, as a platform for a variety of social situations and contexts. This ranges from professional advertising to to private messaging, all the way to relationship status announcements. Although this is the result of facilitated and quicker means of communication in all social contexts leading to sentences and phrases becoming shorter from use of acronyms, abbreviations, and omittance of spaces and dashes, …show more content…
Language has adapted alongside human activities and behaviour for thousands of years, showing that it is extremely malleable and flexible. This is to the extent that the meaning of language used changes for the different ways it is used in, and even the same words or tone used in a situation can be interpreted to have different meanings depending on the context it is used in. For example, job interviews using vernacular would be interpreted as rude and unprofessional, although it is just a different type of language than formal language.
It is evident that language is evolving without increasing use of technology, especially social media. Social media has profoundly increased communication speed faster than it has ever been in human history, cutting off distance as a limiting factor for communication. Nowadays, friendships and long distance relationships can easily be maintained through social media. Additionally, social media has made wide audiences of people more easily accessible than ever before, with over 829 daily users(Wilson, 2014) of Facebook, which is one of many popular social media websites on the internet. The facilitation of communication with large audiences and wide demographics has changed people 's thinking for accommodating communication with wider audiences for self-promotion and other reasons, and therefore changed the way language is used online. All these factors that …show more content…
Because our modern communication methods have changed, our communication has also.
Another example of language change in different contexts is shown in ‘baby-talk’ where many people instinctively speak to babies and young children in a higher than normal pitch, greater range of tones, and often verbalize both sides of conversations. This unique way of communicating is only used in the circumstances of encountering young children or infants, showing that language use changes in different contexts and social situations.
In the use of ‘baby-talk’, people often add the sounds, ‘ie,’ or ‘y’ to the ends of words, and use these words more frequently, for example, ‘doggie’, ‘kitty’, and ‘tummy’. Often, both sides of a conversation with the young child are verbalized by the person speaking to the young child, e.g. “Would you like some mashed banana? Oh yes you would. Well, I’ll get you some”(Kutner, 2016) If this type of language were used in any other social contexts, it would be taken rude and condescending since this type of language is associated with infants and young
This editorial addresses the different types of language used across a variety of social relations and contexts through the examples of ‘baby talk’, which is the unique type of language and manner that adults tend to instinctively speak towards infants and young children, as well as how language has developed alongside social media, as a platform for a variety of social situations and contexts. This ranges from professional advertising to to private messaging, all the way to relationship status announcements. Although this is the result of facilitated and quicker means of communication in all social contexts leading to sentences and phrases becoming shorter from use of acronyms, abbreviations, and omittance of spaces and dashes, …show more content…
Language has adapted alongside human activities and behaviour for thousands of years, showing that it is extremely malleable and flexible. This is to the extent that the meaning of language used changes for the different ways it is used in, and even the same words or tone used in a situation can be interpreted to have different meanings depending on the context it is used in. For example, job interviews using vernacular would be interpreted as rude and unprofessional, although it is just a different type of language than formal language.
It is evident that language is evolving without increasing use of technology, especially social media. Social media has profoundly increased communication speed faster than it has ever been in human history, cutting off distance as a limiting factor for communication. Nowadays, friendships and long distance relationships can easily be maintained through social media. Additionally, social media has made wide audiences of people more easily accessible than ever before, with over 829 daily users(Wilson, 2014) of Facebook, which is one of many popular social media websites on the internet. The facilitation of communication with large audiences and wide demographics has changed people 's thinking for accommodating communication with wider audiences for self-promotion and other reasons, and therefore changed the way language is used online. All these factors that …show more content…
Because our modern communication methods have changed, our communication has also.
Another example of language change in different contexts is shown in ‘baby-talk’ where many people instinctively speak to babies and young children in a higher than normal pitch, greater range of tones, and often verbalize both sides of conversations. This unique way of communicating is only used in the circumstances of encountering young children or infants, showing that language use changes in different contexts and social situations.
In the use of ‘baby-talk’, people often add the sounds, ‘ie,’ or ‘y’ to the ends of words, and use these words more frequently, for example, ‘doggie’, ‘kitty’, and ‘tummy’. Often, both sides of a conversation with the young child are verbalized by the person speaking to the young child, e.g. “Would you like some mashed banana? Oh yes you would. Well, I’ll get you some”(Kutner, 2016) If this type of language were used in any other social contexts, it would be taken rude and condescending since this type of language is associated with infants and young