Second Language Acquisition Midterm Exam
PART. I
PART. II
| (L1) patterning of form |
| [04:45] Miranda Arandur: bright
… [04:48] brighter [04:48] Flowerqiao Foodiboo: haha [04:48] Amber Wildmist: brightest During this part of the game, they were trying to come up as many words associating with the idea of “shiny objects” as possible. Miranda previously said “bright” as one proposal. Stella followed after three seconds and said “brighter”, echoing with Miranda’s word choice. This applies the grammatical parallel in comparative form of adjectives. By adding “er”, Stella put forth “brighter” as another choice to describe shiny objects. This further led Amber, another team member, to said “brightest”, the superlative from the same adjective. And this parallel on grammar was effective to make others laugh because these words are basically the same but they kept using it as different word choice by simply changing it grammatical form. |
| (L2) emphasis on exact wording |
| [03:43]Jess Galliard: stella looks stupid but smart indeed
[03:44]Amber Wildmist: stulla … [03:44]Dora Rinq: hahaha [03:44] look smart and indeed smart! After Stella solved the puzzle, Jess made fun of her by saying that though Stella looks stupid, but she can actually figure out the riddle. And Amber hence coined a new word “stulla” by combing “stupid” and “Stella”. In response to them, Stella answered “look smart and indeed smart!” This can be broken down in several aspects. One is the grammatical parallel she created by copying the sentence Jess just made. Another is the emphasis on exact wording, i.e. smart. She emphasized that she is smart on the outside and the inside as well. |
| (L3) repetition |
| [04:35] Flowerqiao Foodiboo: haha are you tired?
… [04:35] Miranda Arandur: a liitle(little) bit … [04:35] rest rest Here by repeating the verb twice, Stella was trying to create a sense of cuteness. What’s more, she’s making a pun on the nickname of the subject she was talking to. Miranda, whose nickname, derived from her Chinese name, was “修修”, was whom Stella was addressing to. So Stella said “rest rest”, which in Chinese translated as “休休”, and thus giving it a double meaning to the repetitious wording. |
| (S1) intermediate meaning |
| [04:07] amber da de how!
Watching the combat between Amber, her teammate, and Jess, the rival from the opposite team, and cheering for her teammate, Stella applied a simple, though grammatically wrong, and straightforward approach to make those who shared the Chinese as mother tongue understand quickly. “da de how” is the direct transliteration of “打的好” in Chinese. It is a commonly used applause in Chinese. It is at the same time for the purpose of creating solidarity among her team members, which suits type P3 in the language play. |
| (S2) vital or important subject-matter |
| (S3) reference to an alternative reality |
| [03:01] I’m alive!
Stella was playing a fictional role in the game so when she said “I’m alive!” she didn’t mean the actual self is alive because it was not her who died but the character she was playing died. So this fits in the alternative reality. |
| (S4) inversion of language/ reality relation |
| (P1) focus upon performance and upon the speaker and/or the writer |
| [04:30] amber wants to da(打) deer
[04:31] she did!!!!! [04:31] omg!!!! [04:31] how can u do that! [04:31] deer is cute! In this conversation, Stella was shocked by Amber’s action of shoot a deer. Her words showed both P1 and P6. For P6 it’s her personal value on the cuteness of deer. Also the exclamation “omg!!!!” expressed her shock at the sight of it. As for P1, she was commenting on Amber’s performance. By questioning “how can u do that!” she showed disapproval to this action. |
| (P2) use in congregation and/or intimate interaction |
| (P3) creation of solidarity and/or antagonism and competition |
| [03:31] Dora Rinq: we can’t shoot people at random here
… [03:31] Isabella eats shit ^^ By speaking dirty language to the person at the opposite team, also who had just mistakenly shot her to death, Stella here suggested the antagonism against Isabella. But after all, they’re still friends in reality so she didn’t want to put the words too harsh. Therefore, she added the expressional mark “^^” to soften the voice of that sentence. |
| (P4) no direct usefulness |
| (P5) preservation or inversion of the social order |
| (P6) enjoyment and/or value |
| [03:29] ya! (when she entered the game)
[03:42] ya!!!! (when she solved the puzzle) [03:49] ya! (when she participated in 打架) [04:15] ya!! (when the team she belonged win the first combat) We can tell that Stella used this term quite often during casual conversation. According to my understanding of her characteristic, she does like to say “yeah” as an expression of her enjoyment in things. And the situations listed above which she was in also confirm this idea. The first time she showed her excitement. The second one she showed her accomplishment. The third time is the passion she put in the participation in the game. And the last one is to share the enjoyment of the triumph their team had got. |
