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American slang in mainstream magazine writing

AACL 2008 – BYU – March 13-15 2008 . American slang in mainstream magazine writing. Anna Belladelli University of Verona, Italy.

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American slang in mainstream magazine writing

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  1. AACL 2008 – BYU – March 13-15 2008 American slang in mainstream magazine writing Anna Belladelli University of Verona, Italy

  2. The study of ephemeral American English takes an open mind, patience, and wide-ranging interests: one must explore traditional sources of words and grammatical patterns, like books and magazines; but one must look at out-of-the-way magazines, not Time or Newsweek […] (Adams 2000: 384)

  3. What is slang? SLANG SHOULD NO LONGER BE DESCRIBED AS • Appendix of standard language • Curious vocabulary • Created at the peripheries of society • Used secretly, occasionally SLANG IS • Ordinary competence of language users (Eble 1996) • Unsanitized vocabulary • Vehicle of identity and cultural heritage • Used extensively

  4. Starting Point: Cosmopolitan (2007) Slang – the alleged “speech of the peripheries” – is used by the center  the magazine itself Indeed, it is widely used in: • HEADLINES • SUBHEADS • CAPTIONS Conversely, it is hardly found in: • QUOTATIONS  the experts’ and interviewees’ voice • LETTERS  the readers’ voice • BODY OF THE TEXT

  5. Where is slang?

  6. Where is slang?

  7. CosmopolitanSection “You, you, you” (2007) Top five most frequent slang lexemes: • CHICK • HOT • BUDDY • COOL • PAD All “basic slang lexemes” (Moore 2004)

  8. Corpus TIME Magazine Corpus (1923-2006) • online, free-access corpus • mainstream weekly magazine • interface by Mark Davies (Brigham Young University)

  9. Buddy

  10. Buddy - Collocates (Function: NOUN) (Function: NOUN) (Function: ADJECTIVE) good war/wartime your + adj. their wounded her golf/golfing high school my + adj. her + adj. 11 10 8 8 7 7 6 6 6 4 movie system list comedy film 16 13 10 5 3 his a/the/Ø his + adj. my old + adj. old your Army bosom drinking 177 172 102 28 27 27 16 15 12 12

  11. Buddy as Social Label It always describes a male-male(s) bond. Only 3.4% of occurrences (1923-2006) has a female or mixed referent: IMPOSED LABEL (2.5%) The journalist, or a male third party (e.g. male interviewee), describes a couple or group of female or mixed friends as “buddies” SELF-ATTRIBUTED LABEL (0.9%) A female describes her own male or female friend(s) as “buddy/buddies” children love affairs socially inappropriate behaviors

  12. Chick

  13. Chick - Collocates (Function: NOUN) (Function: ADJECTIVE) flick lit(erature) rock thing 6 3 2 2 a/the/Ø Dixie white this/these his his + adj. biker hot young Commando 51 29 12 8 5 4 4 4 4 4

  14. Chick as Social Label It always describes a young, clueless, and attractive woman, although the reference can be serious, sexist, playful, or critical, according to the context. IMPOSED LABEL (78.6%) It is often used in movie summaries to describe a female character, and in quotes by male third parties (e.g. interviewees). In 4.8% of cases, a female is imposing the label. SELF-ATTRIBUTED LABEL (21.4%) In the last two decades, a gradual linguistic riappropriation is taking place, and sometimes its advocates manage toparticipate indirectly in mainstream discourse(s). to define her own group to typecast other women members of the star system COSMOPOLITAN’S FICTIONAL WOMAN

  15. Concluding Remarks • STARTING POINT: Cosmopolitan 2007 Chick and buddy are the most frequent slang lexemes, used by the fictional idealized woman as imposed (only apparently self-attributed) labels on real women. Slang hides a conservative “evaluative structure” (Caldas-Coulthard 1999) • THIS STUDY: Time Magazine 1923-2006 Chick and buddy originated within male discourses and their use has increased through the decades, also following historical events and cultural turns. There is some room for linguistic riappropriation.

  16. Thank you Anna Belladelli anna.belladelli@univr.it

  17. References ADAMS M. (2000), “Ephemeral Language”, American Speech, 75(4): 382-384. CALDAS-COULTHARD C. R. (1999), “Women who pay for sex and enjoy it”, in N. COUPLAND and A. JAWORSKI (eds.) Discourse. London: Routledge. 523-540. EBLE C. (1996), Slang and Sociability. Chapel Hill and London: The University of North Carolina Press. FAIRCLOUGH N. (2001 [1989]), Language and Power. London: Longman. LIGHTER J. E. (1994), Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang. New York: Random House. MOORE R. L. (2004), “We’re Cool, Mom and Dad Are Swell: Basic Slang and Generational Shifts in Values”. American Speech, 79(1): 59-86.

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