Pop Culture English

Phil BensonLinguistics and Modern Languages

Popular culture English

popular culturethe language of pop songs

creative language

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Popular culture

the culture of everyday life

how we give meaning to everyday activities

Yum cha – eating with meaning

Mediated popular culture

the culture of everyday life as it is represented in and circulated by mass media

‘traditional media’pop music, television, films, magazines,

newspapers, popular fiction, advertising and branding

‘new media’ blogs, reviews, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest,

Facebook, Twitter, MSN, SMS….

Yum cha in the media

Chialin’s blogYumcha Restaurants

OpenRice – dim sum searchCha siu bao…

Popular culture English

Popular culture: circulation of images, sounds and language

How is English used in different popular culture media?

How does popular culture influence everyday English?

Born this way

Born this way – MV(song starts at 3:00)

“…as Lady Gaga would say…”

Guardian Books Podcast. interview with Andrew Solomon, author of Far from the tree

I'm beautiful in my way'Cause God makes no mistakes I'm on the right track, baby I was born this way Don't hide yourself in regret Just love yourself and you're set I'm on the right track, baby I was born this way

What has Lady Gaga contributed to the English language?

Lady……Gagalittle monstersmother monsterTwitter queenGaga monstraparva

Madonna - wannabeJustin Bieber - belieber

What is pop culture English like?

basic vocabulary and grammarrepetitive

spoken / colloquialcreative / playful

formulaic

The language of pop songsStudy of top 50 English song lyrics (13,161)

• Basic: At the level of simplest graded EFL readers• Repetitive: Each word repeated average 3 times per song• Colloquial: 10 words make up 25% of the total:

the, to, a, and; I, me, my, you; gonna, loveQuestions and imperatives are frequent (25%)Conversational (I and you)

• Creative/playful: No• Formulaic: Frequent repetition of short phrases

Murphey, Tim (1992). The discourse of pop songs. TESOL Quarterly, 26 (4), 770-4

I will survive…At first I was afraidI was petrifiedKept thinking I could never liveWithout you by my sideBut then I spent so many nightsThinking how you did me wrongAnd I grew strongAnd I learned how to get along

And so you're backFrom outer spaceI just walked in to find you hereWith that sad look upon your faceI should have changed that stupid lockI should have made you leave your keyIf I've have known for just one secondYou'd be back to bother me

Go on now goWalk out the doorJust turn around now'Cause you're not welcome anymoreWeren't you the one who tried to break me with goodbyeDid you think I'd crumble?Did you think I'd lay down and die?Oh no, not I

I will surviveOh, as long as I know how to loveI know I'll stay aliveI've got all my life to liveI've got all my love to giveAnd I'll surviveI will survive, hey hey

Gloria Gaynor

I will survive…At first I was afraidI was petrifiedKept thinking I could never liveWithout you by my sideBut then I spent so many nightsThinking how you did me wrongAnd I grew strongAnd I learned how to get along

But now you're backFrom outer spaceI just walked in to find you hereWith that sad look upon your faceI should have changed that stupid lockI should have made you leave your keyIf I had known for just one secondYou'd be back to bother me

Go on now goWalk out the doorJust turn around now'Cause you're not welcome anymoreWeren't you the one who tried to hurt me with goodbyeDid you think I'd crumble?Did you think I'd lay down and die?Oh no, not I

I will surviveOh, as long as I know how to loveI know I'll stay aliveI've got all my life to liveI've got all my love to giveAnd I'll surviveI will survive, I will survive

I will survive…At first I was afraidI was petrifiedKept thinking I could never liveWithout you by my sideBut then I spent so many nightsThinking how you did me wrongAnd I grew strongAnd I learned how to get along

And so you're backFrom outer spaceI just walked in to find you hereWith that sad look upon your faceI should have changed that stupid lockI should have made you leave your keyIf I've have known for just one secondYou'd be back to bother me

Go on now goWalk out the doorJust turn around now'Cause you're not welcome anymoreWeren't you the one who tried to break me with goodbyeDid you think I'd crumble?Did you think I'd lay down and die?Oh no, not I

I will surviveOh, as long as I know how to loveI know I'll stay aliveI've got all my life to liveI've got all my love to giveAnd I'll surviveI will survive, hey hey

Who are we?• 94% of songs have unspecified ‘I’• 86% have unspecified ‘you’• I, me, my = 10%; you = 5% of total words• 94% have no specific time• 80% have no specific place

• ‘I Will Survive’: I, me, my = 15%, you = 7%

Murphey, Tim (1992). The discourse of pop songs. TESOL Quarterly, 26 (4), 770-4

Who are pop songs talking to?

• ‘I’ speaking to ‘you’ (person in the song) Did you think I'd lay down and die? (‘I will survive’)

• ‘I’ speaking to ‘you’, the audience You may say I’m a dreamer… (‘Imagine’ – John Lennon)

• ‘I’ telling ‘you’, the audience, a story about ‘me’I did it my way… (‘My way’ – Frank Sinatra)

• ‘I’ telling ‘you’, the audience, a story about ‘them’Desmond has a barrow in the market place, Molly is the

singer in a band (‘Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da – The Beatles)

New wordsword meaning origin

amazeballs

babylag

floordrobe

go postal

MSN-ing

New wordsword meaning origin

amazeballs an expression of enthusiastic approval blogging

babylag a feeling of being very tired and sometimes confused because of the lack of sleep caused by looking after a very young baby

marketing

floordrobe a pile of clothes left on the floor of a room ??

go postal become extremely angry film

MSN-ing sending messages through an Instant Messenger internet

New wordsword meaning origin

mummy porn

omnishambles

sick

thx

tiger mother

New wordsword meaning origin

mummy porn a genre of erotic fiction designed to appeal to women

journalism

omnishambles something that is very badly organised and is ineffective in every possible way

television

sick impressive, especially because of being fashionable or attractive

street sports

thx thank you TXT MSG

tiger mother a very strict mother who makes her children work particularly hard and restricts their free time so that they continually achieve the highest grades

parenting literature

Memes* – word and image

facepalm

facepalm compilation

vocal fry

vocal fry epidemic*meme = an idea that spreads very

quickly via the Internet

‘Brand’ new words

Word play

The linguistics of pop culture English

word formation examples

compound nouns amazeballs, tiger mother, vocal fry

compound verbs go postal

item substitution babylag (<- jetlag), mummy porn (<- soft/hard porn)bridezilla (<- Godzilla), cyberbully (<- cyberspace)

blending floordrobe, newphoria, froyolicious

morphological derivation

omnishambles

conversion MSN-ing (noun to verb), facepalm (compound + noun to verb)

respelling thx

semantic change sick

Language play

*$ English

Read: How Starbucks shamed you into speaking its languageWatch: The Starbucks Rap

Q & A

Pop Culture English

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Thx!!!!!!!miss u!!!!!!!!

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