Some might say Linguistics 101 students have a hella dank assignment. Or that their class is bomb.
The linguistics department couldn’t agree more – it is beginning to see results after eight years of compiling slang terms from Linguistics 101 students.
In fall of 1999 the department launched its own online Slang Dictionary after linguistics department head Eric Pederson proposed the idea.
“We wanted to find a way to involve students whose only training came from one course,” Pederson said.
The University’s Slang Dictionary is online at http://babel.uoregon.edu/slang/pub_search.lasso. Students registered for Linguistics 101 post slang terms they uncover while researching for a class project. Only students registered for the class are able to post entries to the online dictionary, and the professors monitor the content.
The idea for the dictionary was inspired by a research project Linguistics 101 students were assigned in 1998. Students were required to research and interview people in a social group they didn’t belong to. From these interviews they collected slang words, phrases and their definitions.
“Unfortunately, the net result was only a set of papers to grade,” Pederson wrote in his proposal to start the program, which outlines the Slang Dictionary. Pederson continued by saying that students and faculty would be more interested in the research if the department would compile it in a forum that is accessible for everyone.
Though the format appears similar, the Slang Dictionary has no connection with the popular Web site urbandictionary.com. Though the two were founded at around the same time, Pederson insists that they are neither connected nor overseen in the same way.
“I don’t consider (Urban Dictionary) a very serious thing,” he said. In contrast to the University’s Slang Dictionary, which only accepts posts from linguistics students, anyone can easily post or edit entries on Urban Dictionary.
In addition, Pederson said, the Slang Dictionary records slang terms from clearly defined and researched social groups. Thus, it is a more factual listing done to learn not only about slang, but about the social group itself.
The first words posted to the Slang Dictionary on Sept. 29, 1999 came from social groups such as, “Drug culture band roadies” and “Univ. of Oregon Drug Scene.”
Students doing the project are given careful instructions about what social group to choose and what words are appropriate.
“Students receive quite a bit more instructions for the assignment then someone who is just visiting the site sees,” Pederson said.
University junior Kyla Postrel remembers taking the course in spring 2006, during her freshman year. The group she chose to research was the Marion County Police Officers, from her hometown in Salem. Of the many words she recorded, her favorite is “Edison Medicine,” which refers to the use of a Taser.
According to Postrel’s research, a Marion County police officer might say something such as: “I just gave that tanked scrotbag some Edison Medicine,” which means that the officer just used a Taser on an extremely drunk person who looks like a drug user.
Those involved with the project view it as a great success.
“It is neat for people to check out. There is a lot of stuff like this on the Internet so it’s nice to have it organized and accurate,” Postrel said.
English professor Elizabeth Wheeler agrees that documenting slang is important.
“Some of the vitality of language… comes from figures of speech, and figures of speech come from slang,” she said.
Pederson said he is very pleased with the research and how it succeeds in enabling students to be part of prevalent research in the field. He said he knows people are interested in the site because he gets a lot of feedback from the community.
The dictionary has stirred some controversy about whether some of these terms should be recorded or used at all. Pederson said that some of the feedback he gets is about words that appear in the dictionary that some feel shouldn’t be there, such as profanities.
Wheeler has strong feelings about the use of words that describe limitations like physical and mental disabilities, she said.
“It is my mission in life to make people notice this: The use of the word ‘lame’… which I find is used interchangeably with ‘crap,’” she said. “I have a son who is a wheelchair user, and people shouldn’t use that word the way they do.”
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Slanguage Arts
Daily Emerald
March 31, 2008
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