A month of what?

So, yeah. It's been a month since I've updated people on this and that. Pardons and apologies.

I've been doing well, have been crazy busy TAing, trying to get a departmental working papers off the ground, and planning the ILLS conference. However, I have had a bit of time to work on dissertation matters. I guess at this point I can talk a bit about what my topic is. Right now I have a Word document with a basic outline and some ideas, which I hope will, by the end of the semester-ish, turn into a decent proposal.

So, I'm interested in borrowings of language material from English (by which I mean Standard American, African-American, and possibly whatever is called Hip Hop Nation Langauge (HHNL)) into German, and specifically why language material (lexis, syntax, semantics, morphonology, etc.) is borrowed, and how it then disseminates into the broader society. Because of this, my primary data are coming from the German-speaking hip-hop community, and more specifically from a few Internet forums where said hip-hoppers discuss hip-hop matters. I'm planning to do this in a corpus-sociolinguistic manner, looking at motivations for borrowing, and which micro-level social theories can inform macro-level accounts of borrowing and loan formation. Fun stuff! So, there you go.

Even though I'm not looking directly at lyrics, it's important for me to be literate in the German hip-hop scene, and plus I like the translation and analysis exercise of looking at a few strophes of lyrics on this blog, so I think I'm going to continue the practice. Let's have a look at Samy Deluxe's 'Hab Gehoert":

(Chorus):
Ich hab gehört ich sei frustiert und dass meine Frau mich verlassen hat
(I heard that I was frustrated and that my wife/woman left me)
wer ist dann die Frau die letzte Nacht in meinem Bett geschlafen hat?
(Then who's the woman who slept in my bed last night?)
ich hab gehört ich hätte ausgesorgt und sei schon reich
(I heard I was set for life and was already rich)
wenn dass so ist dann wieso sagt mir meine Bank nicht bescheid
(If it's like that, then why isn't my bank telling me about it?)

Verse:
ich hab gehört dass ich eigentlisch Sachse wär
(I heard that I was actually a Saxon)
und nur noch Hamburg gezogen weils grad so abgeht hier
(And only moved to Hamburg because it's going on here right now)
hab alles gehört vom grössten Kompliment zum schlimmsten Diss
(Heard everything from the biggest compliment to the roughest dis)
von der höchsten Prominenz bis zu den jüngsten Kids
(From the highest prominence down to the youngest kids)
und verglichen mit allen möglichen Rappern der Szene
(I've been compared to all possible rappers in the scene)
hab gehört ich sei cooler als diese und besser als jene
(Heard I was cooler than this one and better than that one)
aber nicht so deep wie er,und nicht so tight wie er
(But not as deep as this guy, and not as tight as that guy)
erzählt dass jemand anders ich will diesen Scheiss nicht hörn
(Tell that to someone else--I don't want to hear this shit)

So, about two weeks ago, I was jamming out to this song on the bus, and I first noticed the 'sei' form, which I've bolded here. At first, I thought that the AAVE habitual/superreal 'be' had crossed over into German, so I asked Professor Hock about it. Apparently, (and thinking about it, I should have known this), 'sei' is the present subjunctive (i.e. when talking about things being theoretical, which this song does). Oh well, another day, another misinterpreted lyric, right?

Anyway, I'm trying to read everything I can, but this project has so many facets it's hard to know where to start. One interesting read recently, though, was Trudgill's argument (Spring 2008, Language in Society) that identity doesn't play a role in dialect formation, and that it's all about linguistic accommodation in language contact.

Well, I disagree, but I'm looking forward to reading the 15-odd rebuttals in that same issue.

Anyway, that's it for now.
Super big-ups to my man Christoph, who is bringing the noise.



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Reading: Cecilia Cutler's thing from Language and Linguistics Compass
Listening to: Afrob & Ferris MC - Reimemonster

NDW = NDP?

So, I was youtubing up some German rap videos the other day, and I was thinking about a presentation I saw at the Hip Hop Conference last October. The presentation, which covered the "scary" new nationalism which was infiltrating German rap, centered on one video, Fler's Neue Deutsche Welle. One specific conceit of this video which was under consideration was the flag (trailing behind the motorcycle in the video). For readers unfamiliar with German culture, the use of overt patriotic symbols like the flag outside of official contexts are uncommon and generally frowned upon (see Wikipedia:Nazism). However, calling this a fearsome surge in German nationalism might be jumping to conclusions. Fler, as the conference presentation mentioned, is part of the Aggro Berlin crew, which is multi-ethnic. I'll reproduce the following excerpt from the song lyrics, along with my own (admittedly rusty) translation:

Das ist Schwarz- Rot- Gold, hart mit stolz
Man siehts mir nicht an, doch glaub mir, meine Mum ist deutsch
Es macht Klick, Klack, jetzt schiebt der Deutsche n cotton
Komm nach Berlin und du siehst wie sich die Leute hier boxen
Das ist normal,das hier ist Multi- Kulti, meine Homies kommen von überall
Ihr holt die Bullen, wir sind die Aussenseiter, wir sind Aggro Berlin
Schwarz; Weiss- egal, jeder ist hier Aggro in Berlin

This is Black-Red-Gold (colors of the German flag), hard with pride
You don't see it looking at me, but believe me, my mom is German
It goes click-clack, now the German pushes cotton (???)
Come to Berlin and you'll see how the people box
That's normal, it's multicultural here, my homies come from everywhere
You all get the police, we're the outsiders, we're Aggro Berlin
Black or white, it doesn't matter, everyone's aggro (aggressive) here in Berlin

So--is this patriotic? nationalist? racist? WTF?

Anyway, yes--this is indirectly pertinent to my dissertation, the topic of which I'll print more about soon. I'll give you one more excerpt from 'Neue Deutsche Welle':

Ein deutscher schiebt Welle, jetzt bin ich endlich am rappen
und jahrelang war es cooler blöd auf Englisch zu rappen
Ne neue Ära beginnt, dass ist wie Volksmusik
Die Medien boykotiern mich, doch ich werd vom Volk geliebt
Ihr habt es damals nicht geglaubt, es gab nur Papa Bär
Was für ein Kindergarten, heute regelts Papa Fler
Die Deutschquote ist im Arsch und es ist nichts passiert
Dein Radiosender spielt nur shit, er spielt nur Britney Spears
Es gibt nur Ami-Rap, weil man da kein Wort versteht
Und ich werd gnadenlos zensiert, weil mans sofort versteht

A German pushes wave (???), now I'm finally rapping
and for years it was cooler to rap stupidly in English
A new era begins, it's like folk music
the media boycott me, but i'm loved by the people
you didn't believe it back then, there was only Papa Bear
Some kind of kindergarten, today reigns Papa Fler
The German quota's trashed and nothing has happened
Your radio station only plays shit, it plays Britney Spears
There's only American rap, because nobody understands a word
and I'm mercilessly censored, because it's immediately understandable

Well--obviously what hip-hoppers would call the 'flow' is lost in translation, but this last part (attitudes about English borrowings into German) is definitely related to my dissertation topic. Note that he does use the English 'shit' while bringing out these anti-anglicism views. Innnnnteresting...

Anyway, I've made some progress--I discussed my computational methods with Liam (see Hey, listen! to the right) while camping, and he thinks my schemes are doable and gave me a reference to a Dan Roth paper (don't remember which one). I'll also be looking into some literature on communities of practice for the sociolinguistic side of things.

Alright, I think it's just about dinnertime. Peace.

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Reading: N/A
Listening to: Fler - Neue Deutsche Welle

Folder Madness

Hey blogologs. I'm making SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS on my proposal, as evidenced by the attached photo. I've gone ahead and created a folder in which to store things relevant to my dissertation. As soon as I finish this post, I'm going to create a file in this folder and start writing up research questions (!!!) (!!!!!)

Life is awesome.
Peace.

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Reading: Global Englishes and Transcultural Flows, by Alastair Pennycook
Listening to: The Blueprint, by Jay-Z

Playing Catsup

Alright, so here's the deal. I forgot to read an article yesterday, so I will read two (or the equivalent) today. Let's see if I can pick out something relevant for once.

Well, it looks like we don't have it, but
Glocal Linguistic Flows: Hip-Hop Culture(s), Identities, and the Politics of Language Education by Sammy Alim and Alastair Pennycook looks extreemingly relevant. Guess I'll have to ILLIAD that one up.

Also, this other thing? "Discourse constructions of youth identities" from Jannis Androutsopoulos and Alexandra Georgakopoulo. Which the UIUC library, of course, also doesn't have.

Argh, I'll get back to this when I find something we actually have.
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Reading: NOTHING YET
Listening to: N/A

Quizzin'

Well, the evening finds me writing up quizzes for the class I'm soon to be TAing for. One of the chapters I'm reading, "The Language of Cyberspace", by Denise E. Murray, will count as today's article, as it is definitely related to my (as-yet-unrevealed) topic. No more cheating like this, though--I really gotta find more closely-related work.

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Reading: Finnegan and Rickford, eds. Language in the USA.
Listening to: The songs that Sammy Alim's article on Hip Hop Nation Language put into my head.

Post the Fourth

Ok, those mobile posts are ugly. I'm making another post so they're not at the top of the page. OK NOW I'LL GO READ FINE GOOD YES
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Reading: N/A
Listening to: N/A

topic. anyway, apparently there's a buffer limit. how linguistically interesting! here's what tonight's reading is from.

I'm testing out posting by

I'm testing out posting by text message from my phone. I probably won't do this very much, but it's fun, and quasi-relevant to my

A Journey Begins

I finished my Summer II class yesterday, I got my Master's degree in the mail a month ago. Is it time to start the party? Yes, I answer, and that party is my dissertation.

In this blog, just like it (currently) says up top, I hope to post primarily about progress on my dissertation. Not that I'm restricting myself to such material, just saying. I've had a dozen or more blogs, and haven't kept one going longer than 6 months. On the other hand, I've never had a real topic to blog about, either.

Well, here's the deal. I'm reading material related to my topic, and I'm trying to make sure and read at least one, if not two, relevant articles/book chapters per day. As I do so, I'm putting a finer point on the topic I've selected (more about that later, but clues are available in the blog design.) The next real step is to make order from chaos: I have several class papers and half-abandoned projects which I hope to synthesize into the beginnings of a proposal. Strap yourselves in, this might take a couple years.

Peace.
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Reading: Language and literacy development in computer-mediated..., Steven L. Thorne and Rebecca W. Black
Listening to: Nothing