Final Draft
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School
University Of Arizona *
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Course
106
Subject
Linguistics
Date
Apr 3, 2024
Type
docx
Pages
4
Uploaded by ElderGoose3515
Final Draft
Humoyun Umarov
Project 1: Variation Analysis
Part 1 The provided text is an academic paper that discusses the linguistic varieties among Mexican American speech communities, mostly focusing on new generation speakers. This paper describes the complexity of language use (Fought, 2006),
choices, and attitudes inside these communities, and also highlights the Chicano English and code-switching reflecting the Mexican American identity.
Unlike Fought’s academic text, You Tube a social networking platform where users can quickly interact with each other. They can view the video and then immediately comment on it and also comment on other comments. For this reason they are not trying to write correctly or with any citations or evidence, they are just explaining their ideas and thoughts in this comment section. The user comments on the other hand, give diverse reactions to the speech in the video. Also another difference between You Tube Comments and Fought is that people in the comments are not the experts on the topic that they are discussing.
Part 2
Question 1: What differences are there in word choice
(slang, curse words, abbreviations, contractions, etc.)?
“Fought (2010)” employs formal academic language. The author uses a large amount of complex
and scholarly words to convey complex ideas and research findings effectively. This formal register is typical of academic writing, aiming to maintain objectivity and clarity of words while
representing arguments and ideas (Fought, 2010). On the other hand, the word choice in YouTube comments is informal and colloquial. Users often use slang words, mixed, and expressive vocabulary to describe their thoughts and reactions to the video. The language used in
comments tends to be casual and typical of online communication between users.
As an example, for Fought’s formal text: “The various linguistic codes that we find in Mexican American communities play different roles in the language attitudes of the community and in the
construction of ethnic identity by second-generation speakers,” there are some interesting word constructions here like “the various linguistic codes,” which explains the multiplicity of linguistic codes present in Mexican American communities. It conveys the idea that there is not just one dominant language or dialect but rather a range of linguistic expressions, also the word construction “Construction of ethnic identity,” which is used to describe the process where individuals express their sense of belonging to a particular ethnic group.
In the user comments, we can see shortened words like “lol” which means “laughing out loud” and is definitely not used in academic papers, articles, or the word “tbh,” a shortened version of the word “to be honest.” One user highlights the confluence of languages and the creative expression it exhibits by saying "He literally said 'because que' and I can’t relate more to that energy."
Question 2: What differences are there in punctuation and capitalization?
In “Fought (2010),” punctuation is used according to academic writing standards. The text follows common punctuation rules, including the use of periods to end sentences, commas to separate clauses and items in lists, colons, and semicolons to indicate the relationship between clauses (Fought, 2010). But punctuation in YouTube comments varies widely and may not
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