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A Cool, Awesome, Great Sociolinguistic Analysis of Adjectival Word Choice Presented by Caitlin Arthur

A Cool, Awesome, Great Sociolinguistic Analysis of Adjectival Word Choice Presented by Caitlin Arthur

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Page 1: A Cool, Awesome, Great Sociolinguistic Analysis of Adjectival Word Choice Presented by Caitlin Arthur

A Cool, Awesome, Great Sociolinguistic Analysis

of Adjectival Word Choice

Presented by Caitlin Arthur

Page 2: A Cool, Awesome, Great Sociolinguistic Analysis of Adjectival Word Choice Presented by Caitlin Arthur

Purpose of Study

• Analyze the adjectival lexical choices of individuals of different genders, ages and occupations, in formal and informal social situations.

• Adjectives in question: Cool, sweet, nice, great, and awesome

Page 3: A Cool, Awesome, Great Sociolinguistic Analysis of Adjectival Word Choice Presented by Caitlin Arthur

Background StudySo different and pretty cool! Recycling

intensifiers in Toronto, Canada by Sali A. Tagliamonte

• Purpose: Study intensifier usage in apparent time as related to age, gender, and emotionality of contento Main intensifiers studied were very, really, so and

pretty• Ex: I’m very independent. / That’s really

surprising.

• Methodology: Randomly sampled quotations of informal conversation from the Toronto English Corpus

Page 4: A Cool, Awesome, Great Sociolinguistic Analysis of Adjectival Word Choice Presented by Caitlin Arthur

Background StudySo different and pretty cool! Recycling

intensifiers in Toronto, Canada by Sali A. Tagliamonte

• Findings: o Age- Different intensifiers favored by different

age groupso Gender- “Very” and “so” favored by womeno Emotionality- Use of “so” tied to emotional

adjectives especially among women

Page 5: A Cool, Awesome, Great Sociolinguistic Analysis of Adjectival Word Choice Presented by Caitlin Arthur

Hypotheses

• GenderWomen will use a wider variety of

adjectives than men.

• AgeYouth will favor adjectives, cool and sweet while older generations will favor nice,

awesome and great.

Page 6: A Cool, Awesome, Great Sociolinguistic Analysis of Adjectival Word Choice Presented by Caitlin Arthur

Hypotheses

• Occupation/Focus of StudyEducators and students of language will use cool and sweet less than those in other

fields.

• Formality of Social SituationCool and sweet will be favored in informal

social situations, while nice, awesome and great will be favored in formal social situations.

Page 7: A Cool, Awesome, Great Sociolinguistic Analysis of Adjectival Word Choice Presented by Caitlin Arthur

Methodology• Written survey

o Demographic questions o 6 questions simulating formal social situationso 6 questions simulating informal social situations

• Online survey posted on Facebook

• Paper copies distributed to family, friends and colleagues

Page 8: A Cool, Awesome, Great Sociolinguistic Analysis of Adjectival Word Choice Presented by Caitlin Arthur

Methodology

Your employer informs you that sales are up 10% this month. You say "That's ______.”

a. cool b. nice c. sweet

d. awesome e. great f. other_____________

Question Format

Page 9: A Cool, Awesome, Great Sociolinguistic Analysis of Adjectival Word Choice Presented by Caitlin Arthur

Findings

Overall Pattern

Page 10: A Cool, Awesome, Great Sociolinguistic Analysis of Adjectival Word Choice Presented by Caitlin Arthur

Overall Pattern

Page 11: A Cool, Awesome, Great Sociolinguistic Analysis of Adjectival Word Choice Presented by Caitlin Arthur

Gender

Page 12: A Cool, Awesome, Great Sociolinguistic Analysis of Adjectival Word Choice Presented by Caitlin Arthur

Gender

% T

otal

Res

pon

ses

Page 13: A Cool, Awesome, Great Sociolinguistic Analysis of Adjectival Word Choice Presented by Caitlin Arthur

Age

Page 14: A Cool, Awesome, Great Sociolinguistic Analysis of Adjectival Word Choice Presented by Caitlin Arthur

Occupation/Focus of Study

Page 15: A Cool, Awesome, Great Sociolinguistic Analysis of Adjectival Word Choice Presented by Caitlin Arthur

Occupation/Focus of Study%

Tot

al R

esp

onse

s

Page 16: A Cool, Awesome, Great Sociolinguistic Analysis of Adjectival Word Choice Presented by Caitlin Arthur

Formality of Social Situation

Page 17: A Cool, Awesome, Great Sociolinguistic Analysis of Adjectival Word Choice Presented by Caitlin Arthur

Formality of Social Situation

% T

otal

Res

pon

ses

Page 18: A Cool, Awesome, Great Sociolinguistic Analysis of Adjectival Word Choice Presented by Caitlin Arthur

Conclusions• Great is the overall preferred adjective choice

• GenderWomen do not necessarily use a wider variety of adjectives than men.

• AgeYounger generations use the adjectives cool and sweet more than older generations.

Page 19: A Cool, Awesome, Great Sociolinguistic Analysis of Adjectival Word Choice Presented by Caitlin Arthur

Conclusions

• Occupation/Focus of StudyEducators and students of language use cool and sweet nearly as much as those in other fields.

• Formality of Social SituationCool, sweet and awesome are favored in informal social situations, while nice, and

great are favored in formal social situations.

Page 20: A Cool, Awesome, Great Sociolinguistic Analysis of Adjectival Word Choice Presented by Caitlin Arthur

Thank you!

Page 21: A Cool, Awesome, Great Sociolinguistic Analysis of Adjectival Word Choice Presented by Caitlin Arthur

Works CitedTagliamonte, Sali A. "So different and pretty cool! Recycling intensifiers in Toronto, Canada." English Language and Linguistics 12.2 (2008): 361-394. Print.