Re:How much do we bend to the will of our tools?
by wccrawford on Tuesday February 04, 2020 @11:19AM
(#22237313)
I live near a few cities that are pronounced very differently by locals than by visitors. That hasn't convinced the locals to change their pronunciation yet, so I seriously doubt that Google will manage it, either. I think pretty much everyone has something that GPS pronounces incorrectly near them.
Re:How much do we bend to the will of our tools?
by silicon2401 on Tuesday February 04, 2020 @12:06PM
(#22238010)
The closest I can think of (not a linguist) is hypercorrection, which is essentially 'correcting' what's already correct, and ending up with something that wouldn't previously be considered correct. But language correctness is defined by speakers, so eventually hypercorrection could eventually become the new standard.
Re:How much do we bend to the will of our tools?
by caleb-allen on Tuesday February 04, 2020 @01:05PM
(#22238808)
Is the use of the word "literally" an example of this?
Re:How much do we bend to the will of our tools?
by silicon2401 on Thursday February 06, 2020 @09:59AM
(#22256410)
I would say no. "Literally" has been used in a non-literal sense for centuries. https://www.etymonline.com/word/literally#etymonline_v_30161
I live near a street named "Elati". Humans pronounce that Uh-lah-tee, all 3 syllables nearly the same emphasis.
Google maps calls it Ell-uh-tee, emphasis on the "Ell".
How long before human language bends to the will of Google maps' pronunciation algorithm.
I don't think this is good or bad, merely interesting, and I'd like to know the name linguists have for this phenomenon.