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Origin and nature of slangs
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The first example of loaded language that I have found is in an article written for the Star Tribune titled “Target layoffs will hit 1,700 today, with another 1,400 jobs going unfilled” by Evan Ramstad, John Ewoldt, and Kristen Leigh Painter. In the article, the writers use double speak when they use the word “downsizing” instead of firing employees. The article states “Target Corp. cut 1,700 people at its corporate offices in the Twin Cities on Tuesday, the largest downsizing of its headquarters staff ever and the biggest at any Minnesota company since 2002.” This is an example of loaded language and more specifically doublespeak because the writers are deliberately distorting the words to make them seem not as bad. Doublespeak is used to …show more content…
Ambiguity is when a word is used in a sentence but it has an unclear or unfixed meaning. An example of this is in “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger, in one scene Holden says “I ran all the way to the main gate, and then I waited a second till I got my breath. I have no wind, if you want to know the truth. I’m quite a heavy smoker, for one thing—that is, I used to be. They made me cut it out. Another thing, I grew six and a half inches last year. That’s also how I practically got tubby and came out here for all these goddam checkups and stuff. I’m pretty healthy though.” This is an example of ambiguity because the words “they” and “here” used by the speaker are ambiguous. But the readers are allowed to presume from the context that “they” might be the professionals helping out Holden and “here” might be a rehabilitation center.
The fourth example of loaded language is innuendo. Innuendo is when something is said in such a way as to imply the opposite. In the Disney tv show Austin and Ally, Dez tells Trish that “Austin’s been spending a lot of time with Ally, if you know what I mean.” The use of “if you know what I mean” is a common mark of an innuendo. This serves to insinuate that Austin has been doing more than simply “spending time” with Ally. In this example, the statement lightly implies that the two are dating in
Here is one example, “...and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky…” (Dr.King, 177). The entirety of the paragraph is an example of pathological rhetoric, which if a person can relate or sympathize with anything King has written, they can be convinced that segregation laws should be changed. In this excerpt, King conveys the prejudiced feelings that every African American would feel in this kind of society, which causes the reader to automatically feel sympathy towards the cause.
One specific example is, “...We are becoming a callous, chickenhearted and immoral people…” Wainwright uses words such as callous, and immoral, to show his stern disapproval of the witnesses actions. In this sentence, Wainwright is calling out everyone, saying that more people need to be good Samaritans, and help when someone is in need. This is because Kitty Genovese had at least 38 witnesses, but not one of them went outside their home to help her, and not one of them called the police until after the murderer had driven off. Another example of Wainwright’s use of diction is, “Another witness had the awful distinction of being the only person Kitty Genovese recognized in the audience, taking in her final moments.” This was when Kitty called the man she recognized by his name, but he didn’t answer, he ignored her, leaving her helpless. With the specific content of the sentence, it appears that Wainwright shows her sarcasm towards the man that had to go through those “traumatizing” moments. By Kitty calling the man’s name, it shows the inexcusable public apathy from him, for not caring, or bothering to see what she
Moral ambiguity is lack of sense in ethical decision-making. This means morally ambiguous characters are difficult to classify as either good or evil, as they contain strong aspects of both. These types of characters generally have real problems, causing their inner conflicts, which also makes them sympathetic. Stories that have morally ambiguous characters usually create built-in tension, because there is always the question of whether their conniving nature will be able to take hold, causing them to fail in their pursuit. In the play The Crucible, an example of a morally ambiguous character is Mary Warren.
For an example, Tan uses word diction like “yanked”, while Chua uses words like “squeeze”. The word squeeze and yank share a similar meaning, but portray a totally different diction. Unlike Tan’s excerpt, Chua uses irony to illustrate a tone: “‘RELAX!’ I screamed”(Tan 47-48). The irony Chua uses creates the innocent tone. The innocence is created by the mother because she is trying to help her daughter relax, but then she screams, making it only more difficult for her daughter to do so. Although Chua’s excerpt illustrates a stressful tone, some diction portrays a good side of their relationship. Amy Chua says her daughter said “Stop it, Mommy. Just stop it”(Chua 47-48); the term “Mommy” is a word that illustrates love and care, showing the reader that there is still a good side to the
The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien is a magnificent menagerie of nearly every form of figurative language and continues to impress the millions who discover his work. The Hobbit is one of the greatest epitomes of sophisticated yet riveting work brought to life by utilizing similes, metaphors, imagery, and symbolism in the book. In each of his illustrious works, Tolkien bestows a particular personality and The Hobbit, especially, is no exception.
Birk and Birk explore the many processes that automatically and often unintentionally, take place during the gathering of knowledge and expression through words. In their book Birk and Birk break the usage of words into sections: Selection, Slanting by the use of emphasis, slanting by selection of facts, and slanting by the use of charged words. When words are used this way they reveal naturally occurring bias of the writer. Upon reviewing the selection from Birk and Birk’s book Understanding and Using Language it is clear that the essay written by Jake Jameson has examples of every principal Birk and Birk discuss. The Birk and Birk selection provides us with a set of tools that enable us to detect bias in the many forms that it takes. These tools reveal what Jamieson favors and make plain the bias present in his essay The English-Only movement: Can America Proscribe Language With a Clean Conscience?
Shakely touches on all of them, which include alliteration parallelism, similes, and metaphors. Alliteration is given in the phrase “Cleveland cap” describing the Cleveland Indians merchandise he brought home that disappointed his mother. “Brands benign” makes for another effortless mix of words. “Leering, big-nosed, buck-toothed redskin caricature” serves as both an alliteration in “big-nosed, buck-toothed” and parallelism with repetition of three. “Dignity and respect” being repeated at the end and the beginning of two paragraphs allows for beautiful flow and rhythm. More examples of parallelism are “stomping and war-dancing” and “war-painted and lance-threatening.” Shakely derives devices of similes and metaphors in several areas. He says that an article from Los Angeles Times provoked such a strong reaction that it was an “irritant, like a long-forgotten piece of shrapnel.” His powerful comparison of the mascots and how big of an issue it’s portrayed strikes a bit of Pathos. “Most stories about sports teams and their ethnic mascots are treated like tempests in a teacup.” Shakely describes many of the mascots to “act like fools or savage cutthroats” and also that the Atlanta Braves’ mascot “acted like a village idiot” which depicts a pessimistic image of Native Americans. “As benign as monikers” compares harmless Native American nicknames with offensive racial and ethnic slurs that are
There are many reasons why people use euphemism as mentioned by William Lutz in “The world of Doublespeak” states that “euphemism is an inoffensive or positive word or phrase used to avoid the harsh, unpleasant, or distasteful reality” (390). However as mentioned by Lutz in “The world of doublespeak” when a euphemism is used to mislead or deceive, it becomes doublespeak” (391). For example instead of saying we killed three people they would use the phrase we exterminated three intruders to mislead and confuse people especially the uneducated. Also as stated by William Lutz in “The World of Doublespeak” indicates that “when you use a euphemism because of your sensitivity for someone’s feelings or for a recognized social or cultural taboo, it is not doublespeak” (390). For instance, imagine someone told you I heard your grandpa died that would sound harsh, but if someone said I heard your grandpa passed away that sounds more respectable which is not considered doublespeak. Lutz finds the People who are responsible for euphemism doublespeak tend to be people that try to cover up the unpleasant, which are mainly the government, armies and the news. Next as stated by Lutz “it is a language designed to alter our perception of reality”
The term signifying refers to the playful, humorous indirection or innuendo, the talking around an implied meaning, the ambiguous metaphor, the invective that only works if the opponent lacks humor and responds in a literal fashion. Signifying is an attitude toward language, but it is also a social gambit: signifying enables the man and the woman of words to challenge and criticize without becoming committed to any particular claim or meaning: for only the response will tell. For instance, if I say, ‘Yo mama so old, her social security number is ‘1’”, and you say, ‘Fuck you, man”, you’ve lost, you took what was in the figurative and put it in the literal thus committing yourself to the fact that your mom is old. Now, if you reply, “well YO mama so old, when she was in school there was no history class”, or “yo mama so old, when God said ‘let there be light’ she hit the switch” then the signifying can continue.
Syntax was presented as the last part of the story that gave this selection its final touches to change the story. This can be proven because in paragraph 7, he says, “I got to my feet, stomach taut, mouth tired of chewing, and flung my Frisbee across the street, its shadow like the shadow of an angel fleeing bad deeds. I retrieved it, jogging slowly. I flung it again until I was bored and thirsty.” The way that the sentences are structured makes you think about how he felt after eating the pie that he stole. It also gives the story a sense of emphasis on what Soto did as a 6-year-old boy. He also states in the last paragraph, “I lay until I was cold and then crawled back to the light, rising from one knee, then another, to dust off my pants
A good example of this element is in paragraph two which there is a conversation between a DMV officer and a test taker with the DMV officer telling the test taker to, “Ok, make a left turn here.” Then the test taker responds, “Whoops.” Then the DMV officer writes something on down and the test taker asks the officer, “Does that mean I failed the test?” and with the DMV officer responding, “Nah, she’s getting back up. You just clipped her.” This is an example of situational irony, as that is not what the audience expects the DMV officer to say, as when the test taker says, “Whoops.” the audience does not know why the test taker said that, and getting such a calmed responds to hitting something is shocking. This is meant to make the audience chuckle, as anyone who has taken the drivers test knows that hitting anyone while driving means that you have failed the test. Later in the story there is a “Reality-Based” Florida Driver’s Q&A that Dave Barry writes he has prepared, but the thing is that every answer is ridiculous and would never be actually said by anyone who can drive. For example the person asking the question asks, “I have noticed that some roads have more than one lane, What is the purpose of the extra lanes?” and the person answering these question responds, “To provide a place for you to swerve into while texting.” This is the first question in the “Reality-Based”
Ambiguity can be defined as a lack of precise meaning or interpretation, so how can we describe human existence as “ambiguous”? Surely, there must be some essence, or characteristic thing, that we can use to solidify the meaning of our existence. However, it becomes difficult to pin down exactly what every human existence has in common. Dreams of fame and fortune motivate and consume the lives of some people, others dedicate their lives to help people less fortunate, and still there are those that sit on a couch all day watching TV as their years monotonously pass by. In The Ethics of Ambiguity, Simone de Beauvoir develops an existentialist view that explains the details of an ambiguous existence and how those who exist should act in this world. De Beauvoir relies on an individual’s freedom to argue that existence is ambiguous and that each individual should act with the intention of securing this freedom in herself and others. I find Simone de Beauvoir’s analysis on an ambiguous existence to be logical, as I tend to think and act in ways that may constitute my being an existentialist.
A clever choice of words can make things seem different than they are. For instance, during the Vietnam War, the Defense Department of the United States. States used many misleading phrases in news reports. Instead of "forced" transfer of civilians" they said "relocation", and instead of "lies" they said "elements in the credibility gap." Cirino 18:
Let’s start with something simple. Oxymorons. Let’s say you’re getting ready for a job interview and as you’re leaving the house, someone yells out behind you, “Just Act Natural, you’ll be fine.” You get in the car and the only thing you get on your mind is “acing natural.” A person can’t act and be natural at the same time and the entire time you’re driving to the job interview, you’re thinking, what can I do to act more natural. That, my friend, is an oxymoron and can easily be mis-interrupted. You’ve heard of them before. They can easily be defined as a couple of words contradicting one another but used as a fixed expression. A couple of examples, found missing, same difference, good grief, and airline food.
These are some conventions that are seen in a variety of situation comedies. However, in order to understand how they work, there needs to be an understanding of why and how they are used. This can be done by performing a Textual Analysis. According to Brennen (2013) describes textual analysis as a method, “all about language, what it represents and how we use it to make sense of our lives” (Brennen, 192). Brennen (2013) breaks down textual analysis by first defining what ‘text’ is. A text is anything we use to make meaning from. This means that anything from a book to a film to a website to popular music can all be considered a text. The goal of a textual analysis is to evaluate the meaning (or meanings) found in these texts and attempt to