Topic: Speech Acts

Title: The Impact of Swearing

Source: Dorm Halls!

Relation: Speech Acts are terms, words, and figures of speech that represent more abstract or far-fetched concepts tied to that particular culture. Swearing is something that radically changes even amongst minor cultural divides, and allows a great deal of identification about a person and their backgroud simply from the way they choose to be rude.

Commentary: Each swear word, in each language, has it's own set of intricate speech acts. Since moving halfway up the state from the San Francisco suburbs to study here, it's been delightfully fun to recognize where people come from based off of what they say when they stub their toe on the way down the stairs. There are made up words, like “Hella” that come from my territory and infuriate other more grammatically inclined swearers, as well as unique ways of using swear words, such as “That's the shit!” to imply something is good. Since my coming to college and learning of the concept of speech acts I've become very attuned to how regional different connotations are. The textbook mentions that speech acts are usually a barrier when learning the intricies of a second language, but I've noticed that it's become a major influence amongst my hallmates' interactions simply because of the (relatively minor) regions they hail from. Some girls down the hall abbreviate the last word of their sentences when they mean to show they are exaggerating. Many people have been offended or put off by them for a long time because they didn't know that was how those girls expressed their humor, they simply thought they were politically incorrect stutterers. A guy across the hall uses the term “rape” whenever he wants to imply a completely non-sexual demonstration of dominance, primarily to recount video game experiences. In short, the knowledge of speech acts has made me much more aware of the cultural significance and impact on interaction in every facet of college life that differences in word choice and use have.

Different strokes for different folks

Topic: Political Frames in America

Source: Fox News, Daily Show with Jon Stewart, The Colbert Report, CNN, ABC, PBS, Various newspaper articles, and my AP government course last year.

Relation:

This particular topic relates to our anthropology class because the source behind people's different interpretations can be defined as a Frame, something we covered this week as a conceptual vantage point from where people perceive. This frame is directly related to the culture each individual lives in and their personal experiences. Frames are what allow two individuals to receive the same information and yet hear different things.

Commentary:

Politicians often use terms they know will incite more than the base definition of the word in order to coerce specific demographics of constituents into acting or thinking a certain way. The reason this works is because of an anthropological concept known as frames, a sort of mental structure that shapes the way each individual sees the world. Both ends of the political spectrum and all levels in between use frame-targeted terms, but because of the nature of frames, each sound byte from each view in the political spectrum approaches frames differently. For example, a right-wing conservative will use the term “tax cuts” and “raise taxes” in the same context and scenario as a left-wing liberal, and yet the two put very different meaning into the words than the other. The conservative uses “raising taxes” as an all-encompassing way of saying that whatever the proposed action is, it will only bring bad things, whereas the liberal expects people to think that he/she is proposing a momentary sacrifice. This can be observed practically every time congress meets, because each side proposes their bills with their own frame incorporated and arguments arise from the misunderstandings.