Since Friday up until now I am still not sure on what topic I would like to right about for my final paper. I’m thinking of choosing between slang words (generational and those that have been passed on over a period of time) and breaking down oxymorons. If I were to choose the slang topic, I would discuss how slang developed in the past and how they can become words that we use in our everyday lives today. I find it interesting how its primarily used as a form to relate with one another, create bonds and connections in youths. I would question if the same or similar slang words were used in the past to describe things compared to the ones we use today. I will also add that social media platforms do play a part in influencing us to speak the way we do and how words can be coined or reinvented like ghosted GOAT and catfish. If I write about oxymorons I would discuss how it used in our everyday language and how it is a form of blending being that it combines two contradictory terms, revealing the complexity of the word through the  layers of its actual meaning and it creating a whole new meaning. An issue I know I will have when writing this paper is being able to expand and elaborate on the topic I do decide on choosing to a point where I become overly repetitive or get off topic.

I was very indecisive when choosing a final topic for my paper, however, I do find the differences of slang among the generations of Gen X (1967-1982) and Gen Z/Millennials (1983-2010) very interesting. I want to explore this topic because as I went deeper into my college career, I’ve gained many friends of different age groups and would like to discover any differences in the way they speak. Personally, I’ve noticed differences among the slang used in my friends who are in their 20’s (Millennials/Gen Z) versus my friends in their 40’s (Get X). Examples of slang I’ve heard among my friends who are considered Gen X are “headbanger”, “chill pill”, and “diss”. I did some research into these words and it is true that they became popular in the 70’s. “Headbanger” is used to describe a really good song, “chill pill” is used as a way to say “calm down”, and “diss” is used as another word for “insult”. As for my millennial friends, they say words like “Low key” and “clap back”, which became popular in the 2010’s. “Low key” is used to describe something that is not intense or can be considered subtle. Meanwhile, “clap back” is used as a word to describe a counter insult. There are some words I feel that both generations use, such as, “dude”, “trippin”, and “dope”. I have also noticed that some slang change meanings throughout generations. For example, “dope” was used to refer to drugs and can still be used in that context by people who are Gen X. Meanwhile, for millennials, “dope” is used to refer to something that is considered cool. These variations are what interests me and I hope I don’t change my mind on this topic.

Having to pick a topic  is one of the hardest things I had to do for this essay.  I still am not 100% about what exactly I want to write  about. It could be due to the fact that I feel I can not  fully provide much information about topics I am not so familiar with.  Funny fact, while trying to pick my electives for this semester, I looked into this class thinking it would be interesting to learn something new for a change. I am a psychology major and wanted to be spontaneous with my electives. Although I made a great choice choosing linguistics, I do find this class a bit of a challenge.  However, back to the topic, I made a decision that I’ll be talking about  slang words and how slang words can become real words. Slang is a very informal language. They aren’t typically found in a dictionary  and have changed through time. An example could be the word “ dope”. Dope is a short way to say cool or awesome. Now i’m pretty sure if i said that word to my mother she would have no idea what the meaning is.  This is a topic I feel I can provide information about because it’s interesting  for me to do research about slang words.  I want to  talk about how slang words take over throughout time and even past time. When an individual applies language in a new way he may be creating slang if it’s picked up by others and that alone amazes me. I want to  explore how slang words can be the new saying and how people sometimes use slang words more frequently than words that are in the dictionary.  Slang are words used in a  special way in a certain social context and it’s interesting to know the meaning behind each slang word. 

 

After going through the available topics, I still feel like I cannot outrightly choose one out of the lot and this is due to the fact that I feel I would not be able to get much information to write on. I first thought of writing on endocentric and exocentric words for my final paper where I could maybe throw more light on their meanings, how they differ from one another and perhaps examples as well as how they can be written in bracket or tree form, but I still think that would not make the cut based on the total lack of ideas. I really do enjoy writing papers and can say I am very good at it considering way complex ones I have written in the past, but I personally believe I won’t have much to write on using these topics. I also came across the topic of compounding which seems like a good one to write about because here I could also talk about how compounding came about, how words are created using compounding, the types of compound words etc. I have not been able to select the sources I will be using for the final paper simply because I am not certain about what to write on but hopefully if I decide, I will use the CSI library so I can get access to peer reviewed articles. Also, the textbook will come in handy. I will still be going through the other topics to see if I can actually find one to write on but all the same a quiz will be very much appreciated.

I do not really know what topic to write about for my final paper and looking at the topics available I cannot find much to say even for this blog post; hence, it has taken me days to finally come up with something. However, I was initially thinking of doing endocentric and exocentric compounds, but I think I will find it easier if I do Morphology: Basic Notions, where I would specifically focus on simple and complex words, the relations between words, paradigmatic and syntagmatic morphology, the functions of morphology, morphology and the lexicon and a few others. From my research I found out that morphology: basic notions deal with the internal structures of words, and this helps to know how new words are formed, how words are analyzed by dividing them into smaller parts, and how they function with respect to existing complex words in the lexicon. Simplex and complex words are a sub-topic which I will also be expanding on to find out the similarities and differences between them. Simplex words are made up of single parts and they are words that help to express a message clearly whereas complex words are formed by joining simplex words with other words and can be broken down into constituents. I did some research, but I still do not have any other sources yet except the linguistics textbook titled “The Grammar of Words” by Geert Booij, but I will look for peer reviewed sources on the CSI library online and a couple of legit sources from other sites. I know I will face a lot of challenges writing this paper because there is not much to say, and I do not want my paper to be full of tautology either. I initially wanted to write on simplex and complex words only, but I realized it was not much especially after reading the textbook, so I decided to include more topics. Personally, I still suggest that I would prefer writing an exam as compared to writing a paper.

For my paper, I would like to explore “verbing.” Verbing is creating new words by using a noun as a verb it may also be known as “denominalization.” The term “verbing” has taken the noun “verb” and turned it into a verb by adding the past-tense maker “ed.” Countless words have been created through verbing, some that we even use daily. When hearing or reading a verbed word for the first time, initial instinct might lead a person to think that they misheard or misread the word. Some might even argue that verbed words aren’t words at all, but as a descriptivist I obviously disagree! There are different theories to explain why people have verbed words and I would like to explore some of these possible explanations. Some people claim that people verb out of laziness and others believe that it is a process that simply “makes English English.” I would also like to investigate and discuss how technology has influenced our vocabulary in relation to verbing.  I have nosed around and found a few specific examples that I would like to focus closely on. The word “friend” is typically used as a noun, but in more recent times it has been used as a verb. People “friend” each other all the time on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram. A common theme of verbing that you may notice is company names oftentimes are turned into verbs. Uber Technologies is an application-based transportation platform where people can request a car service to drive them from point A to point B. Over the past decade Uber became an extremely popular application and people began to verb the word “uber.” Rather than saying I used Uber to get from here to there, one might simply say “I Ubered.” Bicycle is another noun that can be verbed. A bicycle is defined as a “human powered vehicle composed of two wheels and a frame, propelled by pedals and steered with handlebars.” If a person wanted to say that he/she rode a bike to the park they might simply say “I bicycled to the park.”To assist with my research, I will refer to the Oxford English dictionary, JStor.org as well as an article by Richard Nordquist called “The Definition of Verbing in Grammar.”

In my final paper, I would like to discuss the different types of “word-formation processes” for example, derivation, compounding, inflection, prefix, suffix, blending. to name a few.  In my final paper, I would explain, compare and talk about how each word-formation process has contributed and changed communication as well as how we express ourselves; especially in modern times with texting and social media. I definitely want to learn more about the word-formation process. and share what I have learned so far in class. It is interesting to see and experience how language has evolved through these processes in a way language has become simpler. I plan to use the book “The grammar of words ” written by Geert Booij as one of my sources and among other articles.

For my final paper I picked the topic about slang words. The reason I picked this topic is because I wanted to see how slang words have changed through time and also how it affects the way we speak. I am pretty sure that everyone here has heard different type of slang words when they were growing up like “bro”, “facts”, “YOLO”, “lit” etc. As, the generations progress throughout the years, words also progress into different meanings. This is a topic I want to dive into more, because I want to see how slang expressions end up in our dictionaries and are defined as real words now. I, also, wanted to look into where slang words came from. The problem I am having on this topic is where to look up this information. I don’t know where to start or what key points I am looking for. As I am writing this blog post I am noticing that I have many questions about this topic which is good and bad. I feel like having too many questions will get me off track when writing my final paper. What I have been doing so far is doing a basic search on what slang words have been added to the dictionary.

For my final paper, the topic I would like to focus on is word formation and usage found within Shakespeare’s work. For instance, I think that it would be really interesting to analyze some of the many words that Shakespeare has created and used. As I researched words by Shakespeare, I noticed that he invented words by making nouns into verbs, verbs into adjectives, adding prefixes and suffixes, and putting words together. For example, Shakespeare coined the word “bedazzle,” which I believe is an example of compounding. I am planning on looking into the words he created, and how he formed them, and discover if he used compounding, derivation, etc.

Some issues that I expect might come up are finding sources that are reliable/credible as well as being able to find that correct information. I have only begun a bit of research for this topic, and so far I have already seen some conflicting information on what terms Shakespeare created or did not. Thus, I will have to go into a deeper research, to his very work, and see if there has been use of them before, so that I can confirm that he did indeed coin the terms. Another issue that I will probably run into is staying on topic and being organized in my paper. With a topic like this, there are so many different parts of it to explore, so as I write my paper I want to make sure that I go in depth on what is important rather than mentioning everything that I find. 

For my final paper I will be discussing acronyms used in our everyday life and their origins. We use acronyms daily to save time and space when texting such as LOL ( laugh out loud) or TTYL ( talk to you later). According to the Oxford English Dictionary LOL was added in 2011, however the origin of  LOL can be tracked to the 1980’s in a newsletter and now is used by almost everyone daily. I even find myself saying LOL out loud when I am speaking and something is funny but not funny enough to actually make me laugh. Another point I can bring up is do theses new acronyms become words themselves. Such as the word SCUBA ( self- contained underwater breathing apparatus), I always thought SCUBA was just a word within itself. I think thats why this topic is most interesting to me because acronyms are truly under appreciated. Another good example is ASAP and the two ways you can pronounce this acronym. I also came across an article that spoke about initialism. According to Merriam Webster initialism is an abbreviation formed from initial letters. I will also bring up acronyms such as  Pin ( personal identification number), IMAX ( Image Maximum), LASER ( Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) , BAE ( before anyone else) , etc. I could also bring up how acronyms can be considered slang also in examples like SMH ( shaking my head) , TBH ( to be honest) , IRL ( in real life) and many more.