[ ] rplatz

SPA 598 - Gender/Oral Discourse: La Dichosa Palabra

I have finished the longest thing I have ever written: "La Dichosa Palabra: Una búsqueda por la fuente del poder" (the search for the source of power) View here (Spanish). Discourse analysis is very intense because of its subjectivity and the ridiculous amount of factors that can (or cannot) be applied to each context. I've read how the two genders differ in general, but it is hard to come to any conclusions about how girls talk and how guys talk. But, I will say this: Women seem to be able to adopt themselves much better to new, strange and/or (possibly) uncomfortable situations. This could be due to years of oppression they've received and can possibly have a greater capability in discourse style, or it could be due to the fact that most women, more so than man, actually listen and take to heart what people say. When they shake their heads while you talk, they listen. When men do it, they're just putting on a show, in one ear and out the other.

Anyways, this paper is about a TV show in Mexico called La Dichosa Palabra, and I analyze the hour long conversation from three perspectives: turn-taking, politeness and power/prestige. It was fun, but the material required to even have a slight background in the subject is super dense. It digs well into sociology and anthropology, along with plenty of linguistic theories. Hope to have it in English sometime soon... enjoy :-)

CIA The World Factbook - Languages

CIA - The World Factbook, one of the coolest lists ever: languages spoken per country, ranked by usage http://ow.ly/1HvQk. i think this might be bc i put websites as plural.

suriname is one of the most linguistically diverse nations in the world; in fact that whole region including Guyana and French Guyana is such a hybrid. many creoles, indigenous languages, javanese, dutch, english, spanish, portuguese, french, ... i would love to travel there!!

SLC 598 - Sociolinguistics: La aspiración de la /s/

Finally finished one of the big projects for this semester: “Retención contextual y lingüística de la /s/: El español venezolano de Hugo Chávez y Elías Jaua” - View (Spanish). I hope to translate an English version soon. It was really fun analyzing the speech of a world leader such as Chávez, but also really ridiculous to hear what that man has to say. My study is phonological, so I don't take into account what he is acutally saying, but nevertheless, the videos at the bottom of the document are worth watching.

giddy up for may!

Hopeful for Barça...

All they need to do is be the best team in the world. TEAM!! Although strikes of brilliant individual play are always acceptable...

Visca Barça!

continental spread of the World Cup teams

thanks @JMILLERTIME for showing me this a little while ago. this is great way to see the continental spread of the world cup teams. 6 African teams (they didn't list South Africa because it didn't go through qualfying), that's awesome! i really enjoy this view of it all. sooo excited for this summer!! check it out!!!

"else", para expertos del español

"else" is one of those words that are only part of a truly advanced Spanish speaker, really covers a lot of subjectivity. http://ow.ly/1DuFj

ridiculous negation rooting the humor

I love the show Trailer Park Boys. The storylines are fast-paced with horseshit scheming that allows them to live. I absolutely love it. This is the episode where Barb gets a secret admirer and thinks it's Julian. All of the jokes are rooted in the word not, along with many other words that negate. It was humorous because Sam and Barb were saying the double- and triple-negated sentences that sounded like, well, desperate and almost funny/pathetic lower class Canadian English. They always sound like they have frustration, annoyance or depression in their tone, as daily life in the trailer park offers no alternatives. There are many high times though with lots of great friendships. But anyways, these were things that were literally said, to my most accurate effect:

I don’t know what you’re talking about ||| I can’t not be with a girl like you. ||| I can’t do this without bein stoned. ||| It’s not for me, it’s for him. ||| I don’t like you not being drunk all the time. ||| The caveman a l w a y s wins!

Check out the always runnin' JustinTV channel or it's IMDB, it's quite a show...