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However, in the film directed by Tina Fey that depicts the cruelty of an exclusive group of "Mean Girls," ordinary things for which there is already descriptive language is rendered into slang so adults do not understand the full cruelty of what is being said. Some adults may know that Regina and company are 'mean' but not to the extent which they rule the school and use exclusion as a way of enforcing their own mini-regime of terror. One of the strengths of the teacher played by Fey, Ms. Norbury, is that she is 'hip' to the language used by the mean girls, like when she tells them to stop using slang like "sluts" and "skanks."
The exclusive nature of the language of adolescents is underlined by the fact that the main character, named Cady Heron, in "Mean Girls" has grown up in South Africa, so she is initially uninitiated to the social structure of a typical American high school and the language of adolescents. She may speak English fluently, but she is not fluent in the mannerisms and interplay that is expected of her as a teenage girl. She was homeschooled, so she does not even seem to understand the 'adult vs. adolescent,' 'us vs. them' mentality of slang adolescent culture in general. Adults like her parents have always treated her and talked to her like equals, so the covert subtext of hostility in adolescent dialogue initially escapes her.
Cady immediately gravitates to the least popular students in school, not by design, but because...
However, the Plastic girls begin to incorporate Cady into their social circle, although her unusual background, which might be considered a social 'plus' in some arenas, instead turns her into a "homeschooled jungle freak," in their words, when they wish to be conniving and cruel. The fact that growing up with anthropologists parents who are university professors in a remote location might be fascinating is reduced, in the language of slang, to a social deficit because it is deemed deviant, when they wish to put Cady down.
Thus "Mean Girls" shows that language, even seemingly innocent language, can be a weapon. Beauty and social smarts put Regina on top, but so does her generation of cruel words that solidifies her position in high school society. And only when opponents like Cady speak Regina's language can she compete with the 'mean girl' on her terms. Slang, love it or hate it, the film suggests, is a necessary weapon for survival in the hothouse culture of adolescence.
Works Cited
Mean Girls." Directed by Tina Fey. 2004.
Works Cited
Mean Girls." Directed by Tina Fey. 2004.
The introductory "like" is placed before a sentence, such as "Like, how are you," "Like, sit down," or 'Like, it's cold in here," and then there is the introductory "it's like" such as "It's like, she should mind her own business" (Grammar pp). The introductory "like" is generally a filler and does not affect the meaning, while the introductory "it's like" is usually an intensifier and gives emphasis to the
Slang and Communication in CLUELESS One way that human culture tends to be defined is both the way we are able to manipulate the environment and communicate cognitively with an idea of past, present and future. Communication allows for group behavior to occur, cooperation, problem solving, and the ability to think beyond one's self as an individual and more as a community that can express itself in subtle and artistic ways.
female of a dog or other animals of the dog family e.g. fox a gray hound *****. However, when used as slang it implies derogatory characteristics of a woman especially a cruel and unpleasant one. In terms of relating it to something or somebody it implies 'making bad or critical comments about someone/something or complaining' inclusive of 'unpleasant situation etc.'. Thus, its literal meaning is quite different from its common
slang term for psychoanalysis in popular culture is 'talk therapy.' This is because the first forms of psychoanalytic discourse, as developed by Sigmund Freud, relied upon a release of verbal free associations on the part of the patient to enable the analyst to better understand the patient's mind. However, various other forms of psychological counseling have developed and evolved since psychoanalysis was conceived in Vienna, Austria. It has become
Realism in an American, Fictional story of Detection -- Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest So, a realist style, you say? How to convey a sense of realism? Use short sentences. Terse dialogue. Deploy words that are direct in their meaning. Don't be stingy with the slang and other types of common and prosaic language. Don't use too many complex metaphors or words many syllables or subtleties. But do use words that have
slang are roughly balanced. Slang has been defined by Michael Adams (2009) as "the area of speech in which biological, social, and aesthetic elements of human experience meet" (p. xiii). Adams' definition is intentionally broad because slang itself is such a dynamic expression of ideas, that words and phrases are constantly acquiring and losing meaning, as fast as fashionable slang-speak-words can be developed and recycled. Knowing and using slang