LANGUAGE IN THE PHYSICAL, BUSINESS AND DIGITAL WORLDS Quiz

PDF page 104: The names people give to their physical environment provide a unique source of information about cultural character of various social groups. Place names often reveal the history, beliefs and values of a society. Toponymy is the study of place names, and the names people assign to specific geographic sites offer us the opportunity to recognize a country’s settlement history, important features of the landscape, famous personalities, and local allusion to distant places and times. Place names can change overnight, often depending of political factors and social considerations. The change of Burma to Myanmar and Zaire to Congo are two recent example of changes due to political developments. In the United States, interest in changing the names of places associated with Civil War heroes from the South is an on-going effort, at times with dramatic confrontations between different social groups. Toponyms provide us with valuable geographic insights about such matters as where did the settlers come from, who settled and populated the area, and what language did the early settlers speak. Many of the place names found in the United States can be classified in terms of the following major categories:

PDF page 104: The names people give to their physical environment provide a unique source of information about cultural character of various social groups. Place names often reveal the history, beliefs and values of a society. Toponymy is the study of place names, and the names people assign to specific geographic sites offer us the opportunity to recognize a country’s settlement history, important features of the landscape, famous personalities, and local allusion to distant places and times. Place names can change overnight, often depending of political factors and social considerations. The change of Burma to Myanmar and Zaire to Congo are two recent example of changes due to political developments. In the United States, interest in changing the names of places associated with Civil War heroes from the South is an on-going effort, at times with dramatic confrontations between different social groups. Toponyms provide us with valuable geographic insights about such matters as where did the settlers come from, who settled and populated the area, and what language did the early settlers speak. Many of the place names found in the United States can be classified in terms of the following major categories:

PDF page 104: The names people give to their physical environment provide a unique source of information about cultural character of various social groups. Place names often reveal the history, beliefs and values of a society. Toponymy is the study of place names, and the names people assign to specific geographic sites offer us the opportunity to recognize a country’s settlement history, important features of the landscape, famous personalities, and local allusion to distant places and times. Place names can change overnight, often depending of political factors and social considerations. The change of Burma to Myanmar and Zaire to Congo are two recent example of changes due to political developments. In the United States, interest in changing the names of places associated with Civil War heroes from the South is an on-going effort, at times with dramatic confrontations between different social groups. Toponyms provide us with valuable geographic insights about such matters as where did the settlers come from, who settled and populated the area, and what language did the early settlers speak. Many of the place names found in the United States can be classified in terms of the following major categories:

PDF page 105: • religious significant names (saints, Biblical names)

PDF page 105: San Antonio, Santa Fe, St. Louis, Sacramento, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles; Bethany, AK; Canaan, VT; Jericho, IA; Shiloh, OK

PDF page 105: • directional place names (East, North, South, West)

PDF page 105: North & South Dakota, West Virginia, North & South Carolina, South Texas

PDF page 105: sponsors) Sears Tower, Wrigley Stadium, Trump Towers, Gwinnett County, Dolby Theater, Verizon Center, Sun Trust Park

PDF page 105: • business oriented names (wealthy individuals, politicians, corporate

PDF page 105: A classification scheme proposed by George Stewart (1982) focuses on ten basic themes which dominate North American toponyms. These include the following categories: descriptive (Rocky Mountains), associative (Mill Valley, CA), commemorative (San Diego, CA), commendatory (Paradise Valley, AZ), incidents (Battle Creek, MI), possession (Johnson City, TX), folk (Plains, GA), manufactured (Truth or Consequences, NM), mistakes (Lasker, NC), and location shift (Lancaster, PA).

PDF page 105: A classification scheme proposed by George Stewart (1982) focuses on ten basic themes which dominate North American toponyms. These include the following categories: descriptive (Rocky Mountains), associative (Mill Valley, CA), commemorative (San Diego, CA), commendatory (Paradise Valley, AZ), incidents (Battle Creek, MI), possession (Johnson City, TX), folk (Plains, GA), manufactured (Truth or Consequences, NM), mistakes (Lasker, NC), and location shift (Lancaster, PA).

PDF page 106: Commercial advertisement occupies a noticeable expanse in the cultural landscape. An individual text (use and arrangement of specific language forms) is designed to promote or sell a product within a social context. A commercial text may be accompanied by music and visual depictions. The text may also be accompanied by paralanguage features of oral language (gestures, voice quality, facial expressions) and written language (choice of typeface, letter sizes, range of colors). The advertisement itself brings up several of discourse concerns: Who (seller) is communicating with Whom (consumer) and Why (inform/convince/persuade about the product’ importance/usefulness/ uniqueness)? The participants in the discourse may include various message senders/participants: the actor/s in the TV commercial along with the supporting role of the advertising agency and the studio production staff. The receivers may be a specific target group or anyone who sees the advertisement. Highway billboards, store signs and product advertisements provide a visual representation of commercial language use in a community. Most billboard structures are located on public spaces and display advertisements to passing motorists and pedestrians. They can also be placed in other locations where there are many viewers (mass transit stations, shopping malls, office buildings and sports’ stadiums). Some billboards may be static, while others may change continuously or rotate periodically with different advertisements. In addition, there are product promotions within a retail store, which often involve product placements at the end of aisles and near checkout counters. Novelty ads can appear on small tangible items such as coffee mugs, t-shirts, pens and shopping bags. They can be distributed directly by the advertiser or as

PDF page 106: Commercial advertisement occupies a noticeable expanse in the cultural landscape. An individual text (use and arrangement of specific language forms) is designed to promote or sell a product within a social context. A commercial text may be accompanied by music and visual depictions. The text may also be accompanied by paralanguage features of oral language (gestures, voice quality, facial expressions) and written language (choice of typeface, letter sizes, range of colors). The advertisement itself brings up several of discourse concerns: Who (seller) is communicating with Whom (consumer) and Why (inform/convince/persuade about the product’ importance/usefulness/ uniqueness)? The participants in the discourse may include various message senders/participants: the actor/s in the TV commercial along with the supporting role of the advertising agency and the studio production staff. The receivers may be a specific target group or anyone who sees the advertisement. Highway billboards, store signs and product advertisements provide a visual representation of commercial language use in a community. Most billboard structures are located on public spaces and display advertisements to passing motorists and pedestrians. They can also be placed in other locations where there are many viewers (mass transit stations, shopping malls, office buildings and sports’ stadiums). Some billboards may be static, while others may change continuously or rotate periodically with different advertisements. In addition, there are product promotions within a retail store, which often involve product placements at the end of aisles and near checkout counters. Novelty ads can appear on small tangible items such as coffee mugs, t-shirts, pens and shopping bags. They can be distributed directly by the advertiser or as

PDF page 106: Commercial advertisement occupies a noticeable expanse in the cultural landscape. An individual text (use and arrangement of specific language forms) is designed to promote or sell a product within a social context. A commercial text may be accompanied by music and visual depictions. The text may also be accompanied by paralanguage features of oral language (gestures, voice quality, facial expressions) and written language (choice of typeface, letter sizes, range of colors). The advertisement itself brings up several of discourse concerns: Who (seller) is communicating with Whom (consumer) and Why (inform/convince/persuade about the product’ importance/usefulness/ uniqueness)? The participants in the discourse may include various message senders/participants: the actor/s in the TV commercial along with the supporting role of the advertising agency and the studio production staff. The receivers may be a specific target group or anyone who sees the advertisement. Highway billboards, store signs and product advertisements provide a visual representation of commercial language use in a community. Most billboard structures are located on public spaces and display advertisements to passing motorists and pedestrians. They can also be placed in other locations where there are many viewers (mass transit stations, shopping malls, office buildings and sports’ stadiums). Some billboards may be static, while others may change continuously or rotate periodically with different advertisements. In addition, there are product promotions within a retail store, which often involve product placements at the end of aisles and near checkout counters. Novelty ads can appear on small tangible items such as coffee mugs, t-shirts, pens and shopping bags. They can be distributed directly by the advertiser or as

PDF page 107: Language in Use Ages 5 years and Above Percentage of Population English 484,134 67.80% All languages other than English 229,932 32.20% Spanish 124,331 17.41% Korean 17,911 2.51% Vietnamese 12,692 1.78% Chinese 9,184 1.29% African languages 8,750 1.23% Serbo-Croatian 5,097 0.71% Guajarati 4,725 0.66% French 4,713 0.66% Other Indo-European languages 4,232 0.59% Hindi 4,227 0.59% Other Asian languages 4,181 0.59% Urdu 4,088 0.57% Russian 2,487 0.35% French Creole 2,344 0.33% German 2,127 0.30% Arabic 2,038 0.29% Tagalog 1,539 0.22% Persian 1,289 0.18% Mon-Khmer, Cambodian 1,265 0.18% Japanese 1,198 0.17% Other Slavic languages 1,038 0.15% Polish 886 0.12% Other Pacific Island languages 864 0.12% Portuguese 781 0.11% Laotian 645 0.09% Thai 411 0.06% Other West Germanic languages 395 0.06% Hmong 379 0.05%