Lynn Edler - Intro to Language Studies

This series of tweets was made into memes that circulate on Facebook. Every time these hit my feed, I get a chuckle. For the last 25+ years, I've been a graphic designer. Many of these interesting tidbits are things I already knew as part of the trade. However, now that I'm in this language arts class, the linguistics behind all of these memes struck me as interesting, yet again. I figured I'd share and add some of my own commentary.  Yes, letters used to be manually placed on the press for printing. The large letters, used less frequently, were stored above the press in the "upper case". The smaller letters, used more frequently, were stored in the lower case for easier access.  ( I did go through and double check some of the claims made in these memes for accuracy .)  No need to cite anything for this fact. We already learned, in class, that many words, in English, have French roots.  The fact I like on this meme is the part about "leading". Yes, types...

Prior to taking Introduction to Language Arts, I was guilty of not understanding the field of linguistics. I had no idea what professional options there really were and I had many of the misconceptions presented in this video: MISCONCEPTION ONE: Linguists love formal grammar. I always knew I wanted to teach English. Even though I ended up in a different career for 30 years, I've still loved all there is about English...except grammar. In fact, I tossed away the lessons I learned on diagraming sentences as soon as I walked the platform at my high school graduation. Interestingly enough, I didn't need to know any of that formal stuff when I hit college the first time. Nor have I had to diagram a sentence...yet...at UTRGV. Still, I felt guilty for not liking grammar. Somehow I figured everyone that likes English must like grammar. Right? Wrong. Whew! Now that I know formal grammar is "prescriptivism," I'm much more comfortable understanding that I prefer "descri...

This meme came across my Facebook feed. It's the kind of social justice thinking that sparks my interest and fuels many of my passions. However, the last sentence really struck me.  Words matter. I've always known and understood that words matter. However, now that I'm in Introduction to Language Studies, I find myself thinking about words even more than I did before. This meme led me to do a search within the field of linguistics to learn more about the connections between language and social behavior. The first Google search I did took me to the Linguistic Society of America  (LSA). I continue to be intrigued about linguistics as a profession. I've already explored the use of linguistics in the field of artificial intelligence. Click here to go to that blog post. On the LSA web page, I was able to learn more about the field of sociolinguistics . Walt Wolfram wrote a very interesting article. He says: Language is one of the most powerful emblems of social behavior. In...