HUMOR IN AMERICAN
POP LANGUAGE
NOTE: After we made this power point, of course
American pop language continued to change and so
we hope that one of the students in Honors 394 will
do their project on this subject.
Docsity.com
Prepare for your exams
Study with the several resources on Docsity
Earn points to download
Earn points by helping other students or get them with a premium plan
Guidelines and tips
Prepare for your exams
Study with the several resources on Docsity
Earn points to download
Earn points by helping other students or get them with a premium plan
Community
Ask the community
Ask the community for help and clear up your study doubts
University Rankings
Discover the best universities in your country according to Docsity users
Free resources
Our save-the-student-ebooks!
Download our free guides on studying techniques, anxiety management strategies, and thesis advice from Docsity tutors
Word of the Year: An Analysis of American Pop Language and Its Impact, Slides of Sociology
An insightful look into the american pop language and the words that have had the most impact during various years. It includes time magazine's top ten buzzwords from 2008, merriam-webster's words of the year, and the american dialect society's selection of the most useful, creative, unnecessary, outrageous, and euphemistic words. The document also encourages readers to reflect on the meaning and cultural significance of these words.
Typology: Slides
2012/2013
1 / 28
This page cannot be seen from the preview
Don't miss anything!
Related documents
Partial preview of the text
Download Word of the Year: An Analysis of American Pop Language and Its Impact and more Slides Sociology in PDF only on Docsity!
HUMOR IN AMERICAN
POP LANGUAGE
NOTE: After we made this power point, of course American pop language continued to change and so we hope that one of the students in Honors 394 will do their project on this subject.
The variety shown in these books
reflects the wide range of interest in
words and how we use them.
Merriam-Webster 2008 Words of the Year
Recession: What we deny that we’re in
Airball: Someone who disrupts things but doesn’t
do anything positive
Jingle-Mail: House keys in envelopes to be mailed
to banks as the owners walk away from their
mortgages
Nanomanagers: Micromanagers, but more so
Staycation: A vacation at home
THE WINNER WAS BAILOUT : A word first
associated with sinking ships
Each year, the American Dialect Society http://americandialect.org/ selects the words that have had the most impact during the previous year. Categories include:
- Most Useful
- Most Creative
- Most Unnecessary
- Most Euphemistic
- Most Outrageous
- Most Likely to
Succeed
- Least Likely to
Succeed
- The most fought- over is the “Word of the Year.”
- In some years, members create special categories as when in 2006 they gave a “Best Tom-Cruise-Related Word” and in 2007 a “Best Pluto-Related Word.”
Which of these terms are the
“Most Useful”?
- PODCAST: (i-Pod + broadcast)
- GREEN: a prefix which designates environmental concern, as in “greenwashing”
- -ER words:
- BIRTHER: Someone who questions Obama’s American birth
- DEATHER: Someone who believes America has death panels
- TENTHER: Someone who believes that what the government does is in violation of the 10 th^ Amendment
- TRUTHER: Someone who doubts the official account of the 9/11 accounts
Which Are the Most Creative?
Bragabond: Someone who travels and brags a lot
- Whale tail: Thong or G- string underwear above the waistband of pants, shorts, or a skirt
- Googlegänger: A person you find on Google with your same name.
- Dracula sneeze: Covering your mouth with the crook of your elbow when sneezing
Muffin top: Bulge of fat hanging over low-rider jeans
Which Are Most Outrageous?
- Whizzinator: Realistic prosthetic penis for passing drug tests
- Crotchfruit: A child or children as referred to by proponents of “child-free” public spaces
- Toe-Tapper: A gay man looking for a contact. It alludes to Senator Larry Craig, who was arrested in June of 2007 for an encounter in a public restroom, in which toe tapping was judged to have been a sexual come-on.
- Death Panel: The people who critics of government- provided health care say would decide if patients would live or die
- Sexting: Texting sexual messages or pictures
- Underpants Bomber: The Nigerian passenger who put a liquid bomb in his underwear
Which Are Most Euphemistic?
- Extraordinary Rendition: Sending prisoners
overseas for torture
- Internal Nutrition: Force-feeding prisoners
against their will.
- Human Terrain Team: The name given to a
group of social scientists employed by the US
military to serve as cultural advisers in Iraq or
Afghanistan
- To Hike the Appalachian trail: To go missing as
did South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford when
he went to meet a lover in Argentina.
- Sea Kittens: A word coined by PETA to refer,
with fondness, to fish.
Which Are Least Likely to Succeed?
- Cruiselex: Any word related to Tom Cruise
- Pope-squatting: (See earlier definition)
- Earmarxist: A congressman or senator who is famous for adding earmarks
- Polywood: Hollywood stars who are political
- Slow Media: Newspapers and other paper-based periodicals, c.f. Snail mail
How are these movie posters helping to
spread new meanings for old words?
Name of the Year
- In 2009 Betraeus was chosen as it was used by
http://www.moveon.org to refer to General
Petraeus, who at the time was our commander in
Iraq.
- This is ironic because Rush Limbaugh first used
the name Betraeus to describe liberals who
would not support the War in Iraq.
- In 2010, the Name of the Year was Tweet, and the
“Word of the Decade” was Google.
Former Words of the Year:
ARE THEY STILL VIABLE?
- “Heck of a job” --phrase by President Bush
to describe the success of Undersecretary Michael Brown, who was charged with handling the complications of Hurricane Katrina
- “Truthiness” --first used on Stephen
Colbert’s The Colbert Report
- “Subprime” used to describe a risky or
poorly documented loan or mortgage.
Old Slang Still in Use
- Been there. Done
that.
- He’s history.
- The bottom line.
- Chill out!
- Go for it.
- That’s hot.
- To dis someone.
- To push
someone’s
buttons.
- Under the radar
- 24/
- Do the math.
- Gimme a break!
SOME RECENT
BUZZWORDS:
- Blahger: A blogger whose message consists
of “blah-blah-blah.”
- Cellular Macarena: When a cellular phone
rings and everyone starts reaching into his coat, pants, purse to answer it
- Dixie-Chicked: To be reviled or boycotted for
voicing an unpopular political sentiment