Chapter 4: American Style

Question 1

What is colloquialisation?

Answer 1

• The process of incorporating speech-like features (words, expressions, discourse conventions) into the written medium = conversationalisation of English.
• Strongly present in politics, fiction and in our writing (texts, emails etc.)
• Brings about informalisation and democratisation (the reduction of distance between the speaker/writer and the addressee/reader).

Question 2

Give 4 grammatical examples of colloquialisation in writing.

Answer 2

1) contracted verb forms e.g., don’t etc.
2) periphrases instead of modals e.g.. ‘have to’ instead of ‘must’ or ‘need’, ‘going to’ for ‘will’ or ‘shall’
3) questions - to avoid unequal modes of interaction so that writer and reader are on equal footing
4) decrease of passive forms - results in more directness and immediacy = more personal style

Question 3

What are the different types of swearing?

Answer 3

• Profanity = general word for offensive language e.g., animal epithets (you cow!), the ‘7 dirty words’
• Blasphemy = religious
• Slur = socially offensive and targeted to a specific group e.g., n-word, f-word etc.
• Playing the dozens = insults directed at someone’s family members e.g., yo mama jokes

Question 4

What are the 4 functions of swearing?

Answer 4

1) abusive swearing = to harm s.o. - sometimes in the form of ‘advice’ or with similes/metaphors e.g., ‘why don’t you go fuck yourself?’; ‘you’re dressed like a slut’
2) attention-seeking device
3) cathartic swearing = emotional release e.g., to help mitigate pain
4) to create a rapport with s.o.

Question 5

What are the 3 most common categories of swear words?

Answer 5

• Body parts/sex
• Religion
• Cleanliness, bodily functions and diseases

Question 6

What is a euphemism?

Answer 6

A mild or innocuous expression which is used in place of words that might be considered harsh or unpleasant in order to lessen the impact of the language and to avoid being overly blunt.

Question 7

How have the following words been changed to be gender neutral?

• headmaster/mistress
• waiter/waitress
• air steward/stewardess/hostess
• chairman
• policeman/woman
• nanny

Answer 7

• principal
• server
• flight attendant
• chairperson
• police officer
• baby sitter, child minder

Question 8

List euphemisms for the following words/phrases:

• Jesus Christ
• to go to the toilet
• goddamn/damn
• son of a bitch
• to die
• to have sex
• to be euthanised
• fat
• short

Answer 8

• jeepers creepers, jeeze (geez), gee williker
• to powder your nose, to use the restroom
• goldarn, dang
• s.o.b, son of a gun
• to meet one’s maker, to pass (away)
• to do it
• to be put to sleep
• heavy
• vertically challenged

Question 9

What are the 7 euphemism creation techniques?

Answer 9

1) phonetic distortion = deliberately misspelling a word and/or mispronouncing a word e.g., jeepers creepers, geez, initialism (s.o.b)
2) use of vague/abstract/formal words e.g., technical sounding words (vertically challenged), abstractions (to meet your maker), loanwords/foreign words (faux pearls = fake)
3) widening of meaning/use of subordinate word (= hypernym) e.g., growth (cancer), residents (prisoners)
4) ellipsis or longer periphrasis e.g., the ladies (ladies room), intercourse (sexual intercourse); vertically challenged (short), visually impaired (blind)
5) use of an unrelated word (sometimes close sounding, but not always) e.g., son of a gun, shut the front door
6) use of negative - to disimprove for ‘to make worse’
7) typographical means e.g., asterisks (f**!), three dots (sh…), grawlix @$%^&!)
NB euphemism creation techniques are not mutually exclusive e.g., visually impaired = periphrasis and technical.