Monday, February 25, 2008

Take the power back...

Its interesting to be able to relate so unintentionally to a reading thats focused on the developement of a dialect that one might consider their own. I would have to say that more than 75% of the slang words described and defined in the reading relate exactly to how I would use the words themselves in my own discoures throughout the day. Even the other 25% are known to me and somewhat understood in content. I grew up skaing and using words like, sick, tight, sweet, amped, etc. were familiar and natural to me. I now undestand how words and phrases can become naturalized in the context of a particular social setting.

I feel that respectively California is moving ahead of the rest of the nation in many ways and I think this can be attributed to how they say in the chapter that Hollywood was looking to reach a large group of people; they had to have some proper medium or norm in language in order to attract audiences. I think its emerging more quickly for this same reason, Hollywood is everchanging; so to meet the demand of widespread popularity I think that one would have to adopt and manipulate differernt forms of language in order to maintain interest. Also how they said that the younger generation was just looking for their own way of expressing themselves and how that changes from year to year. Its spreading eastward because the western media has only that option in meeting the American public. How at the beginning of the chapter they said that California was all dreamers moving west looking for something new and thats exactly what happened a state full of dreamers taking on the world and changing it with the way they represent themselves through all mediums of expression.

1 comment:

  1. I thought brandon brought up a very interesting point especially how you think your slang is unique and you read that article and realize that its very main stream. I was actually very happy to know most of the terms that were being used as slang. But i think its true that when your a teenager you try to be unique and standout. I notice that my group of friends still uses new words. Just the other day my friend used the word jawed. I even had to ask what he was saying. It meant he was really surprised, his jaw dropped.

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