“That spelling tho”: A sociolinguistic study of the nonstandard form of though in a corpus of Reddit comments

Marie Flesch

doi:10.1515/eujal-2019-0007

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“That spelling tho”: A sociolinguistic study of the nonstandard form of though in a corpus of Reddit comments

Marie Flesch

Veröffentlicht/Copyright: 12. September 2019

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Aus der Zeitschrift European Journal of Applied Linguistics Band 7 Heft 2

Abstract

Tho, the nonstandard spelling of though which was proposed by American spelling reformers in the 19th century, is making a comeback. In 2013, internet memes such as that backflip tho gave a boost to the shortened form. This sociolinguistic study investigates the use of tho in RedditGender, a 19 million-word corpus of comments posted by 1044 Reddit users. First, concordance lines generated from the whole corpus were analyzed in order to compare the use of tho with the meme and the standard spelling. Then, regression analysis was conducted with a sample of the corpus, containing only complete cases. Results show that tho is rarely used in the meme construction that contributed to popularize it, and that it appears more often as an adverb than as a conjunction. They also seem to indicate that the use of tho is correlated with gender and race. Most frequent users are black males. This suggests that the shortened spelling is not simply a way to save time when typing, and that it is not semantically equivalent to though. It seems to be a marker of affiliation with a social group and of familiarity with internet subcultures.

Zusammenfassung

Tho, die nicht standardisierte Schreibweise, die von amerikanischen Rechtschreibreformern im 19. Jahrhundert vorgeschlagen wurde, feiert ein Comeback. Im Jahre 2013 gaben Internet-Meme wie that backflip tho der verkürzten Form einen Schub. Diese soziolinguistische Studie untersucht die Verwendung von tho in RedditGender, einem 19 Millionen Wörter umfassenden Korpus von Kommentaren, die von 1044 Reddit-Nutzern veröffentlicht wurden. Sie stützt sich auf eine aus dem gesamten Korpus generierte Konkordanzanalyse einerseits, sowie eine aus einer Probe des Korpus durchgeführte Regressionsanalysen andererseits. Daraus geht hervor, dass tho selten in der Meme-konstruktion verwendet wird, die dazu beigetragen hat, es zu popularisieren, und dass es häufiger als Adverb denn als Konjunktion erscheint. Die soziolinguistische Untersuchung scheint auch darauf hinzudeuten, dass die Verwendung von tho mit Geschlecht und Rasse korreliert ist. Die häufigsten Nutzer sind schwarze Männer. Dies deutet darauf hin, dass die verkürzte Schreibweise nicht nur eine Möglichkeit ist, beim Tippen Zeit zu sparen, und dass sie semantisch nicht gleichbedeutend ist mit though. Es scheint ein Zeichen der Zugehörigkeit zu einer sozialen Gruppe und der Vertrautheit mit Internet-Subkulturen zu sein.

Abstract

Tho, la ortografía atípica de though propuesta por los reformadores estadounidenses en el siglo XIX, está volviendo a aparecer. En 2013, los memes de Internet como that backflip tho dieron un impulso a la forma acortada. Este estudio sociolingüístico investiga el uso de tho en RedditGender, un corpus de 19 millones de palabras de comentarios publicados por 1044 usuarios de Reddit. Al principio, se analizaron las líneas de concordancia generadas a partir de todo el corpus para comparar el uso de tho con el meme y la ortografía estándar. Luego, se realizó análisis de regresión con una muestra del corpus que contenía sólo casos completos. Los resultados muestran que tho es poco utilizado en la construcción del meme que contribuyó a popularizarlo, y que aparece más a menudo como un adverbio que como una conjunción. También parecen indicar que el uso de tho está correlacionado con el género, y la raza. Los usuarios más frecuentes son hombres negros. Esto sugiere que la ortografía acortada no es simplemente una forma de ahorrar tiempo al escribir, y que no és semánticamente equivalente al though. Parece indicar afiliación a un grupo social y marcar familiaridad con las subculturas de Internet.

Abstract

Tho, la graphie alternative de though proposée par les réformateurs de l’orthographe américains au 19^ème siècle, fait un retour remarqué. Depuis 2013, elle connait une nouvelle vie sur internet grâce au succès de mème comme that backflip tho. Cette étude sociolinguistique examine l’utilisation de tho dans RedditGender, un corpus de 19 millions de mots composé de commentaires mis en ligne par 1044 utilisateurs sur le site américain Reddit. Elle s’appuie à la fois sur l’analyse de concordances, réalisée sur l’intégralité du corpus, et sur des modèles de régression créés à partir d’un échantillon du corpus. Les résultats montrent que tho est rarement utilisé dans la construction popularisée par les mèmes, et que la graphie semble être plus facilement adoptée comme adverbe que comme conjonction. L’étude sociolinguistique révèle que l’utilisation de tho semble être corrélée avec le genre et la race des Redditeurs. Les internautes qui utilisent tho le plus fréquemment sont des hommes africains-américains. Ces résultats suggèrent que tho n’est pas simplement une graphie raccourcie de though. Tho semble être un marqueur d’appartenance à un groupe social et le signe d’une familiarité avec les sous-cultures d’internet.

Keywords: sociolinguistics; internet slang; Reddit; corpus linguistics; nonstandard spellings

Schlüsselwörter: Soziolinguistik; Internet Slang; Reddit; Korpuslinguistik; Memes

Keywords: Sociolingüística; internet slang; Reddit; lingüística de corpus

Mots-clés: sociolinguistique; Reddit; linguistique de corpus; orthographe

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Published Online: 2019-09-12

Published in Print: 2019-09-02

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Artikel in diesem Heft

https://doi.org/10.1515/eujal-2019-0007

Schlagwörter für diesen Artikel

sociolinguistics; internet slang; Reddit; corpus linguistics; nonstandard spellings; Sociolingüística; lingüística de corpus