The word 'SICK'

Independent Study for Half term: English Language: Usage of the word ‘sick’

Obviously, the act of being ‘sick’ is where one vomits, perhaps down to illness or several other biological reasons. However perhaps over the past decade, the usage of the word ‘sick’ has undergone amelioration and has been used to describe something as good or ‘cool’. Perhaps upon hearing the phrase, you would be led to believe that it may connote something negative, however the act of ‘being sick’ is now used as an empty adjective, such as ‘that’s sick’ or ‘how sick is that’. The phrase is used predominantly by millennial, those who have accessibility to digital technology and are frequent ‘texters’. It is said that the phrase first came from skateboarders in the US, who would describe certain tricks as ‘sick’ to define something as ill or absurd. It perhaps could be mentioned that even skaters have their own discourse, with phrases such as ‘gnarly’, ‘rad’ etc.. all being frequently utilized. Of course, this use of phrase may have spread due to social mobility and of course, the introduction of digital technology. An interpretation of this can be that others started to adopt this phrase into their language, perhaps to elevate their social status. Thereby meaning that more and more people started to use the phrase. It could also be said that the word ‘sick’ has not only gone through amelioration, but also through semantic conversion. Semantic conversion is the proposition that words change their actual word class over time, meaning the actual context in which we use the word may change.

 At first, the word ‘sick’ was purely a dynamic verb ‘being sick’, or the concrete noun ‘the sick’, but it has now shifted to an empty adjective. What makes the word ‘sick’ so interesting is how something which can be considered quite repellent, yet now carries connotations of something appealing. The same can be applied with the word ‘wicked’, which at first was an adjective to show something which was absurd and weird, however to call something ‘wicked’ it is now seen as pleasant. Now, a foremost contextual factor when considering the usage of these words is that it is mostly used by teenagers. For years there have been debates as to whether teenagers use certain language to ostracize themselves for their superiors. Perhaps implying that the usage of these words, which were once used in a negative context, are used by teenagers to diverge away from others.

Comparison of 1600 Language

Extract from ‘Romeo and Juliet’ – William Shakespeare 1597

“I take thee at thy word

Call me but love, and I’ll be new baptized

Henceforth I never will be Romeo”.

Of course there are multiple interpretations for any text given, however the most plausible translation into modern English could be this; ‘I trust your word. Just call me your love, and I will take a new name. So that I will never be Romeo’. It is also important to consider that this specific story is a tragedy, thereby meaning that Shakespeare may have used certain language features to heighten the emotion. Still, an interesting aspect of the text is the inclusion of ‘thee’ and ‘thy’, which contextually is an informal usage, however if it were to be used in modern English it may be used by a upper class individual in a sophisticated manner. Although the phrase could perhaps be considered obsolete by most regional dialects, it is interesting how the usage of ‘thee’ and ‘thy’ has taken such a significant semantic shift. From being used as a feature of informal language to now formal, the phrases now may be employed mostly by those who take a prescriptive viewpoint on language. Also, the implementation of the adverb ‘henceforth’ is also interesting towards the text, as in modern English this would be considered received sophisticated and formal, however in the 15^th century it may be an informal usage. In modern English, the use of the adverb ‘henceforth’ could be considered uncommon, with coordinating conjunctions such as ‘so’ or ‘but’ a frequent part of our language when connecting two clauses. As well as this, the adverbial phrase ‘from now on’ may be the most common substitution.

Looking specifically at the syntax of the text, it is clear that we have three main clauses within the text, which could be considered quite disjointed, just like real speech. This is quite similar to modern English, in the fact that we communicate with utterances, and how when we speak it is almost that we are thinking out loud and not processing the utterance with cohesive devices. Although the usage of ‘henceforth’ could be considered a cohesive device by connecting the clauses, modern English also consists of phrases such as ‘from now on’ to also act as the cohesive device. Despite the majority of the words in the text being used in modern English, it can be considered that the actual ordering of the clauses is what is most different from modern English. For example, within the compound clause ‘Call me but love and I’ll be new baptized’, if used in the present day, it may become a confusing phrase. Specifically, the usage of the word ‘but’ is usually a coordinating conjunction, however in this case it is being used to substitute the pronoun ‘you’, which would produce the clause ‘Call me your love’. This shows how over time, although we still use the same range of vocabulary, the word order can change significantly.

Accommodation theory

This theory was constructed by Howard Giles, and stated that we modify our language depending on who we are with, the events taking place and the overall context of the conversation.  He claimed that 'When people interact they adjust their speech, their vocal patterns and their gestures, to accommodate to others'. Giles' theorised that we have the ability to converge our language, meaning we accommodate our language to someone we are talking to, whether it be to enable the participant to understand them better, or to raise their social status. For instance, it is usually seen that adults converge their language when talking to children so that they can understand what is being said, this may be through the use of raised intonation or other features such as empty adjectives. However, Giles also stated that we can also diverge our language to distance ourselves away from who we are talking to. Perhaps we may diverge our language because we do not have a good relationship with someone or just simply do not want to communicate. An example of this could be with two rival football fans, they may both exaggerate their accents to distance themselves from each other and to eliminate any sort of bond. It can be said that throughout many parts of a usual day, we either converge or diverge our language. In fact, it is so substantial throughout our entire language use that we perhaps are unaware that we are even modifying it.

A recent example of accommodation theory is when George Osbourne visited and conducted a speech at Morrison's distribution warehouse in Kent, with presumably a large proportion of the audience being of the working class. What is perhaps interesting of Osbourne's speech is that he actually modified his language to appeal to this audience, with a foremost change being his accent. He pronounced the 'want to' as 'wanna' and 'we have had a' as 'we've ad a', which is a key example of convergence. This scenario is a key representation of how the accommodation theory functions. There are various reasons for us to accommodate our language; establish a friendship, act on positive face needs, to gain something, to boost social status.. There may be several techniques that we use to accommodate our language, such as; tag questions, hedges, following Grice's maxims. On the other hand, different features may be used to diverge our language. This could be the usage of; taboo language, dispreffered response, the flouting of maxims. Another aspect of accommodation theory can relate to overt and covert prestige, which is used famously by Labov and Trudgill. Overt prestige can be where someone uses an accent with connotations of a high social status, perhaps relating to RP. Whereas cover prestige is where someone may use an accent which is less known, therefore they may use it to diverge away from others, which is famously seen by the villagers in Labov's 'Martha's Vinyard' study.