[ SECRET POST #4099 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #4099 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 46 secrets from Secret Submission Post #587.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

nayrt but LOL, exactly. This whole "tumblr-speak that's deliberately written like a 10 year old with poor spelling and grammar and no punctuation is a special dialect and you HAVE to speak it in order to be taken seriously on tumblr" is... really funny. I'm not sure whether ayrt is trolling or serious but given their last response to you I'm leaning more toward "trolling" now.

[(Anonymous)]

There are multiple anons posting here, for starters.

I don't think it's a secret code or that you should have to talk that way to be taken seriously. but I do think there are times when it's a style, rather than a mistake. That doesn't seem like an over-the-top argument to me.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, but this is about whether it's a style with any communicative merit whatsoever aside from signalling that you're not crusty.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes. I think that it does have communicative merits and is a reasonable choice to use in certain environments slash mediums. I'm not exactly sure how I can really prove that - I'm not sure how, in general, one would go about proving the communicative merits of a style. But I can say that in my experience, the style isn't intrinsically bad for communicating. And I can say that the general form of argument (that demotic/lower-register/vernacular styles are of lesser communicative merit) is an argument that, I think, is relatively common and has usually been incorrect in the past.

[(Anonymous)]

How can intentionally misspelling things or using the wrong word have communicative merit?

If I go to read a post (or fic) and it takes me ten readings to realize what they're trying to say in a sentence, that has no communicative merit because it's preventing communication if I can't understand it.

This isn't like... e e cummings-esque lower case 'style' which while annoying to me, is still a stylistic choice because it doesn't impede your understanding of the writing itself.

[(Anonymous)]

How can intentionally misspelling things or using the wrong word have communicative merit?

If it communicates something. Say it gives you the sense of a tone of voice or pronunciation, for one example. There's all kinds of ways.

If I go to read a post (or fic) and it takes me ten readings to realize what they're trying to say in a sentence, that has no communicative merit because it's preventing communication if I can't understand it.

That's... not a great example? Like. There are definitely some times where it's just bad incomprehensible writing. I don't want to say any different. Probably a lot of the time. But there might also be times when something has a meaning even if you don't necessarily get that meaning. It's kind of hard to tell the difference between those times. Something can have communicative merit without it necessarily being comprehensible by everyone. I mean, by that argument, I could say that French isn't a real language, just because I personally can't understand it.

DA

[(Anonymous)]

It seems to me that what you are saying is that the language is a subproduct of the Tumblr culture, therefore it facilitates the communication between those who belong to it and helps express particular feelings within it. That would be its main
"merit" so to say.

It seems reasonable and not unlike any other form of slang, actually. But it seems also normal that people who are not in that "wave" may feel alienated by it.

[(Anonymous)]

da

Sure, it's a style, but if it's the only style a poster ever uses, I'm going to be getting an impression from them that they're not anyone I really need to take seriously. Or will enjoy talking to for very long because damn, do I find it cutesy and repetitive and tiresome.

I understand the concept of dialects and code-switching just fine, written as well as spoken. I absolutely get that sometimes deliberate misspellings and weird grammar can be used for humorous or dramatic effect. The problem comes in when I start to suspect that they really don't know how to spell that word or what it really means, because I never see them use it correctly.

Also, word creep and "meaning changes" can be really insidious and harmful. There are whole areas of fandom Tumblr where "pedophile" has come to mean "draws teenage cartoon characters kissing." So now we don't actually have a word that means "pedophile" anymore in that context. See how that could be a BIG problem?