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Diane: I mean it’s a conference on language and when I finished the proposal I realized the whole paper was going to be about technology and I’d called it “Technical issues related to texting.”
Juanita: So you just renamed it “How texting affects how we talk”?
Diane: No, I had to throw out all the technical stuff and when I’d done that I saw there weren’t any language issues left.
Juanita: Hard.
Diane: So I designed a new study. I now have the subjects texting messages to each other.
Juanita: It’s been done.
Diane: Not this way. The messages they send have to be about problems with texting.
Juanita: Very reflexive. Texts about texting. Nice one Di.
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Voiceover
Reflexive, meaning to refer to oneself. Reflexive, as in reflexive pronouns like myself, herself, itself. Reflexive verbs, of which there are almost none in English (perjure [oneself]) but many in languages like French or Serbo Croatian. Reflexivity in the sciences where circular relationships can occur, as when the act of observation can influence an outcome.
In this case Juanita is offering a McLuhanesque explanation. Diana has chosen a medium whose message refers to itself.
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