Part 1: In an email to me, propose your topic for Major Assignment 2 in a 300 word paragraph. HEADS UP: This will be 10% of your grade for this assignment and will count as your “zero draft.” In your paragraph, I want you to explain why you’ve chosen this topic for a personal writing experiment investigating literacy. In another paragraph of the same length, respond to the reading handout on “The Maker’s Eye.” Tell me what from the article inspired you. What skills do you want to work on in your re-writings of this assignment? Reminder: EMAIL THESE TWO PARAGRAPHS TO ME.
Part 2: In a response to this blog post, respond to the second reading for today, “The Meanings of a Word,” in 200-300 words. Choose a word and analyze its meanings. How does this word change according to its social contexts? What is painful about it, mysterious, or slippery? In other words, how does it slip from one meaning to the next depending on the conditions in which it is used and who is using it? How does its word-power slip from our attempts to control this word?
Keshav Bhati
One word that gets used a lot today is “mad”. This is a word I commonly use in slang where it means very. You can use it in situations such as “”it is mad cold” or “that movie was mad boring”. Generally, you would use this word in this context when talking with friends or classmates. The old definition of mad, someone being angered, is still used too. The word in this context can be used with anyone anywhere. It is just a basic word that everyone knows the meaning to. If you slightly switch your tone however when using it in this context you can use mad sarcastically. For example, if someone were to say “oh so you’re mad now” the definition would still be someone being angered but now the person is using it in a condescending manner. In this situation the word has much more power and can come off very strong showing that both parties in this situation may be “mad”. The many different uses of a simple word such as mad shows how much power one word can carry. This is a word kids learn from a very young age and as they grow up they understand the different ways that they can use this word.
Michael Fajardo-Criollo
One word that I use very commonly and I hear all the time is the slang word “deadass”. While being a slang word New Yorkers can agree to add this word into the dictionary because of its importance. Its original meaning being to be very serious. However seeming plain, the word has many many meanings. Ranging from being used as “Seriously”, “seriously?”, a reaction, and even like “I’m deadass mad sir”. It can be used in many situations and changes depending on the context of the situation. One way the word meaning can change if it goes from question to a response. So someone might say that their friend is not being deadass, “You’re deadass joking right now”, and then the friend might reply, “I’m deadass about to, I am not playing.” It can be used in both contexts and in another minute that friend might receive some shocking news and respond “that is deadass crazy”. Now the word has extended beyond the timbs of New York and people all around states and possibly other countries use the word. The fact is that this word can be used in every sentence and can be interpreted very differently as a result.
One word that has various meanings depending on the social context is “right”. There are various scenarios in which this word is used. One scenario would be whether something is “morally right”. In this usage of the word you would probably see somebody asking it certain actions are morally correct or “right”. Another usage for the word is for directions. For example, make the next right or stay right on the fork. Another directional example would be in baseball, hockey, or soccer. Right Field or Wing means that the person is on the right side of the field. The word “right” is used often in conversations where a fact is stated or even a argument, where someone is “right”. For the fact example it could be a conversation where person a claims “oh, it seems to be raining today”, and the person responds with “right”, reassuring fact. The word “right” has various connotations, it just depends on what the social context is, that determines the usage.
Randolph Harrison
A word that has been used towards me that has different contexts is the word “Jew”. When this word is used towards me in a negative manner, it’s always about money. Usually, when people who are frugal about money are criticized, they are usually called “cheap”. However, when a person is Jewish and has identified that to other people, they might instead be called a Jew. Since my dad comes from a Jewish background, I sometimes get called this when I use money around friends sparingly. Another negative connotation that comes with the word is greed. When I do something that my friends might consider greedy, they might call me out as Jewish. Phrases like, “You’re such a Jew” or “You’re so Jewish” are not unfamiliar to me. However, in an academic setting, the word Jew wouldn’t have those same connotations since it’s being used objectively; for example, if I was taking a Jewish history class, the word Jew would come up a lot, but I wouldn’t take note of it since it’s objective. For me personally, I don’t take offense when my friends call me a Jew since we are so close and I know it’s not malicious. However, when it is used maliciously, it fuels antisemitism and causes divisions.
“Male” and “Female”, but often the words are used in a derogatory manner. The words themselves are very simple but in society its associated with being categorized. It’s common to hear “you females” for example and it sounds so basic but it deteriorates a person down to just their sex. Very common to the use of the n word in the article because its a grouping based on uncontrollable factors of a person. Calling someone based on their sex already limits choices in lifestyle because society has a standard. Males must wear blue, they have to be smart, they have to be the breadwinner, they have to be strong, and most importantly they cant show emotion because they’ll be shamed into being called a female. Female must wear pink, they must cook , they must clean, they must have children, and most importantly they have to keep their image at best or they’ll be shamed into being called a male. Although sex determines the genitalia and its functionality it already has all the meanings set up before birth. Its painful because it limits what a person feels right with doing because of the social conditioning and if you against it you have society against you. I can’t be a power lifter because it’ll ruin my image as a female, the same way males can’t cry because they won’t be strong. It creates social immobility.
Part 2: In a response to this blog post, respond to the second reading for today, “The Meanings of a Word,” in 200-300 words. Choose a word and analyze its meanings. How does this word change according to its social contexts? What is painful about it, mysterious, or slippery? In other words, how does it slip from one meaning to the next depending on the conditions in which it is used and who is using it? How does its word-power slip from our attempts to control this word?
The meaning of the word “cool” varies depending on the context that the word is used in. Someone can use the word to describe temperature, “It’s cool in this room”. The word can also be used to describe someone popularity, “Omg, he’s so cool”. We tend to know how the word is meant to be used just based on context that its used in, this isn’t necessarily a word that is hard to control. We always seem to know how the word is meant to be used. The term also depends on who’s using it. For example; if a popular person were to say “Im cool”, we might assume that he/she is talking about their social position, or “clout” rather then be talking about the temperature.
Christian Boyle
A word that is regularly used to mean different things is the word “literally”. Depending on the context you use it in, literally can literally mean literally, or it can literally mean figuratively. The trouble with this word is that it is often difficult to understand what a person means when they say literally. The dictionary definition of the word was changed due to the prevalence of people saying it to mean figuratively, even though figuratively can be recognized as pretty much the opposite of literally. People can say things such as “that’s literally impossible” where it is unclear if they mean that something is truly impossible or just very difficult. There are not many words in the English language that can simultaneously mean the opposite of what they mean as well as the original definition. It is generally used to mean figuratively within younger social groups, and if you used it to mean that with older people they may either correct your usage of the word, or not understand what you meant by saying literally. It is debated whether using literally to mean figuratively is a misuse of the word. Many people perceive the changing of the dictionary definition to be detrimental as it encourages less word variety in someone’s vocabulary, but others view it as a natural evolution of the English language over time.
Jacob Kapustin
When thinking of a word that is used commonly with slang, there isn’t a better word that would cross my mind other than, Bro. “Bro”, is a word that I have unsuccessfully tried to remove from my vocabulary for many years now. Originating from the word brother, “bro” has been an overused slang in the male community around America. “Bro” can be used to refer to your brother, friend, or even a stranger when you’re simply trying to dilute the awkwardness. I also use “Bro” either when I am trying to grab someone’s attention or to emphasize the importance of my story. This word has been overused in many scenarios, and it is best for both myself and others to get rid of it from their vocabulary. I have been getting remarks about it for a few years now, but can’t seem to stop saying it. Just yesterday I was told by a coworker that she’s not my bro, and to stop saying it….awkward. Although I’ve got ridden of most of my brooklyn slang such as deadass and mad, I haven’t been able to get rid of the word I have been using since I was five years old wearing an I love haters SnapBack.
Retard. Just writing the word down makes me feel uncomfortable due to the way society uses this word. Retard means a “delay or hold back in terms of progress, development, or accomplishment.” It can be used regularly like in the sentence “Her progress in writing her paper was retarded by her sprained wrist.” Another meaning for the word is “a mentally handicapped person”. The literal word is not a derogatory term, all it means is slow, but the way it is used is. It is painful to see that a word that was once a respected medical term that would replace the insults, is now the term used to offend people with intellectual disabilities. This leaves little to no room to be able to use this word even if not meant as an insult, because it can be seen as hate speech. When using this term it offends intellectually disabled peoples, their friends and family because when referring to someone or something as “retarded”, it makes the notion that it is extremely undesirable. The person who says it still has some power over how it is interpreted. If someone who has a close loved one who is intellectually disabled, were to say that being mentally retarded is okay, it would be a more socially acceptable way to use the word “retarded” due to its context. On the other hand, if a bully at school were to make a remark about a peer being the r-word, it would most certainly not be socially acceptable. Same goes for how people refer it to certain things such as “wow Keeping up With The Kardashians is a retarded show”, which is also not socially acceptable.
One word that has several meanings in terms of context is the word “point”. I found this word very interesting because depending on how it is used in a sentence, it can be either a noun or a verb. One example of a point is the period at the end of a sentence. This type of point is a noun. It is a punctuation mark that is used to make a statement and it means that the sentence it is being used on is definite, therefore it can’t be changed. Another example of a point can be the sharp end of a weapon or tool. This type of point is also a noun and is used to describe where to use that weapon or tool. A point on a pencil (a tool) tells you which way you should write with that pencil. The point on a knife (weapon or tool, depending on circumstances) tells you where to cut something. Furthermore, the word point can also be used as a way of directing someone towards something. For instance, you may point at a location on a map when telling someone which way they should go. When used in a sentence, this type of point becomes a verb.
In the English language one word that has evolved to have multiple meanings is the word “sick.” Sick used to mean that someone is ill. “I came come to school today because I am sick.” Now, the word Sick has evolved to become slang that means something is really good, or really cool. For example, “Where did you get those shoes from, they’re sick.” According to the social context its used in, the word sick has slipped away from it’s original meaning of someone being under the weather.
For this task, I am choosing to analyze the word moist. This is a word that make people cringe when hearing it. The word itself just means that an object looks wet to the touch or that it is actually wet. However, the word denotes and icky meaning, some would even say it has a sexual connotation in some contexts. In many cases, this word can no longer even be used due to its meaning being completely misconstrued. Using this word in a text instead of a synonym such as wet could completely change the meaning of the whole sentence. For example, in the sentence, “that sponge looks really moist”, from my experience, listeners respond in disgust. If you exchange it with the word wet, “the sponge looks really wet”, listeners might respond, “yeah, it is wet
Ka Lye Chan
The word “bitch” has many various connotations depending on the context in which it is used and the tone in which it is said. I hear it on the train full of teenagers, on TV, in households, anyplace you can think of. The dictionary defines bitch as a female dog but it has become one of the most used curse word that can sound like different things. For example, if you are a female and your female friend say, “Bitch, no you didn’t”, when talking about something funny that you did, they are saying it in a more endearing way, kind of a substitution for “girl” or “you”. A lot of times however, it is used to insult females and sometimes males. It is used to describe someone’s behavior as being rude and abnormal in the adverb form. It is used to somehow emasculate men when saying, “Stop being a little bitch” by means of saying that the male is acting like a female and should “man up”. It is used to dehumanize women and compare them to dogs. This word can be used in so many ways to connotante different things, but all of them replaces the female pronoun. I’m not sure what the history of this word is but I’m taking a leap in saying that men started to use “bitch” as an insult first but now women are using it too and there’s a sense of taking back the word and changing its meaning like Gloria Naylor mentions in “The Meaning of a Word”.
A common New York word is “dub”. It originally means to give someone or something a new name or a nick name. New York teens use this word to describe the actions situations or people to avoid. “This party is a dub.” or “She dubbed you for another guy.” It basically means you’re not into what is being described. This is used very commonly between friends. It can be used as an adjective or a verb. It has a negative connotation behind it, being that what is being described is uninteresting or boring. Dub goes from giving someone a nickname to describing something. It can be confusing because the meaning no longer is associated with names and nicknames. It goes from “He was dubbed the king of NY” to “He was dubbed by the king of NY”. With a simple “by”, the meaning of the sentence shitfts. The second sentence could either be very confusing to an older person, but a young New Yorker would read it and understand. The sentence could mean the king of NY avoided him or ignored him, or he was given the name by the king of New York.
One word that has several meanings is the word “scrub”. Usually when people think of the word scrub they think of something that cleans the bathroom tiles . That is one of the meanings but the other meaning is totally unrelated. Growing up in NYC there are a lot of slang words people use in their everyday language. The second meaning of scrub is when someone is really bad at something. For instance you and your friends go the basketball courts , but there are only the three of you so you guys cant actually have a good game. But on the other side of the courts you see three other players so one of your friends suggests that you guys play them 3 on 3 . You tell them you don’t play basketball too often so you would probably make them lose. But they tell you ” Don’t worry these kids are scrubs”. This doesn’t have anything to do with cleaning, it just means that they are really bad at the the sport. Slang words usually have two definitions but can mean totally different things. This is what makes language so unique
In Response to this blog post and reading “ The Meanings of a Word” there are many different words that share different meanings depending on who I saying it, or where it is being said. One word that is being used every day that has different contexts is the word “Sick” For example people around my age would use the word “Sick” in a sentence like “ She has a Sick body” which means her body is incredible or “ That was a sick location” which means that was a interesting place. People that are older like our parents wouldn’t say Sick in a sentence like that only just to say “ She’s sick she’s not feeling well”. This word has many different ways it can be used and these are just a couple of ways they’re being used in our society.