Language As The Mark Of Subculture Summary

Varun Gupta

Professor Natalie Suzelis

Interpretation and Argument 76-101

12 December 2012

Language as the Marker of Subculture

Introduction

The Jargon used by people in a career can occasionally make it difficult for people to join that career. It can make it incredibly difficult for people outside of that workplace to understand communication that happens within the workplace, excluding people outside of that specific group. An example of this is the EMT slang, scoop and run, which seems completely inane to anyone who is not an EMT, but is a meaningful term in the EMT world. Another example is “Campers” a bit of slang used by restaurant servers to describe customers who don’t leave their table even long after they are done eating. This is

He notes that “words such as bitch, dyke, feminist, whore, slut and rape held special power for Riot Grrrls” (64) and in argues that phrases that were originally derogatory were eventually appropriated into positive images for the subculture. Thompson through this discussion, brings up how language is a fluid mechanism for resistance, and has significant ability to act as a method of rebellion. He notes how the “Riot Grrrl” movement was able use the same words as people deriding it did in a positive way that brought themselves

(Andrea, Tina and Lisa laugh) Interviewer: Do you think it sounds ghetto when you use slang? Lisa: I don’t know.


Tina: Yeah. I think it sounds just normal.

That’s just something I use every day. But I know how to turn it off and on. When I’m around adults, I think I speak properly.

The above discussion shows how the girls feel that the use of AAVE is normal, but at the same time switch codes into standard American English when speaking to adults. Codeswitching is an aspect of subcultural life, and the parallel between the codeswitching the girls do and the codeswitching of the Queercore movement is quite clear.

A major aspect of the discussion involved authenticity and the artificial use of African American vernacular. Its pretty clear that the girls looked down on those they felt were not being “real” about their use of vernacular.

Interviewer: What do you think when you hear a white person talking like they’re black?

Tina: You could really tell the difference. ‘Cause just like, right now, it’s all just like comfortable talk. But you know, you find another person, it’s like, what can you see? They be trying to talk like, ‘Oh, yeah, my homies.’ You know, they try to do like ...