TV dialogue can function to exploit the resources of language, for example through poetry, linguistic innovation (including linguistic play), humour, or intertextuality. Example (1), from the Australian comedy series Kiki and Kitty, exploits some of the different words in Australian languages and language varieties that can be used to refer to a woman’s vagina:

Example (1)
KITTY [Kiki’s personified vagina]: I’m your vagina. Your moot. Your budju. Your pussy. Yer, yer, your bobcat. Your nganyi. Your muff! [laughs] Your…
KIKI [an Aboriginal Australian woman]: Cock-socket!
(Kiki And Kitty, season 1, episode 1, “Kitty comes to town”)

Poetry:

TV dialogue can also employ poetry or rhyming, as in Example (2) from the US sitcom Brooklyn Nine-Nine (season 6, episode 5, “A tale of two bandits”).

Example (2)

Linguistic innovation (often also resulting in humour):

Example (3)
MELANIE: That’s why you’re gonna come over there and back me up.
JOY: Why do I have to? You’re the one who went all Don Rickles on Cleveland.
(SydTV, Hot in Cleveland)

Example (4)
MELANIE: Cupcakes are up. Actually, they’re Ohio cakes. See ‘cause they’re round on the ends and high in the middle. Get it? O-hi-o.
(SydTV, Hot in Cleveland)

Example (5)
MYNOR: Rebecca was amazing. She was a nurse and I was a basket case so you know, not a, not a bad match. I was the guy with the almost great idea. Floogle and Blahoo, and Facebooger. I was, I was just always one step behind, and she was cool with it.
(SydTV, Dollhouse)

Example (6)
HEARN: If Victor’s off program then, he could be Jekyll and Hyde-ing just like Alpha did.
(SydTV, Dollhouse)

Example (7)
PAUL: And did she look exactly like Caroline?
MYNOR: No, but, eat it, F-Bitch-I, she was beautiful and she knew it and she loved me.
(SydTV, Dollhouse)

Example (8)
SOPHIE: Have the best time in the world. And say hello to huge Jackman for me.
(SydTV, Two Broke Girls)

In (3), the idiom go all * on someone is filled with the name of a real-life US comedian known for his insults (http://www.donrickles.com/?page_id=14, accessed 23 March 2016), simultaneously creating realism (see references to the ‘real’ world). In example (4), a character plays with the sound similarity between the adjective high and the middle syllable of Ohio. In (5), the character changes the globally-known proper nouns Google, Yahoo, Facebook very slightly to indicate his ‘almost greatness’, while in (6), the title of a well-known book undergoes verbification (Jekyll and Hyde-ing). Example (7) features the character Mynor insulting FBI agent Paul as F-bitch-I, playing with the acronym FBI. In (8), Sophie’s nickname for actor Hugh Jackman relies on linguistic play with sound similarity (Hugh/huge).

I also identified what Curzan (2013, online) calls a ‘semantic extension of slash from its more conventional use’ in the noun phrase a two-hundred-dollar piece of chicken-slash-salmon:

Example (9)
TED: If I don’t bring a date, a two-hundred-dollar piece of chicken-slash-salmon will go uneaten.
(SydTV, How I Met Your Mother)

Curzan mentions this usage of slash as an example of slang used by her undergraduate students, which is in line with the fact that the characters in How I Met Your Mother, including Ted, are all supposed to be in their mid to late twenties (indexing their age).

Example (10) below illustrates extended play with slang, and is also a valuable reminder of the importance of qualitative and co-textual analysis. The example features a conversation between the main protagonists of the sitcom Workaholics – young white males Adam, Anders, Blake – who discuss Topher, a guest character in this episode.

Example (10)
TOPHER: Oh man, you know I had some tight-ass plans for today but, I knock on the wrong door and meet you fellers. Dude, that’s balling. [leaves]
ADAM: Topher is the man.
ANDERS: Yeah.
ADAM: And he’s pissing off our roof right now, that is balling.
ANDERS: He’s the baller I was supposed to be.
ADAM: That’s how cool he is, he’s not afraid to piss off a stranger’s roof. That’s balling.
ANDERS: Yeah, he balls.
ADAM: He balls big time.
ANDERS: Yeah.
BLAKE: For sure, okay yes it’s safe to say that he’s the ballingest guy we’ve ever met…
(SydTV, Workaholics)

In this example, Topher introduces the adjective balling (~ ‘awesome’, ‘cool’), which is then taken on by the main protagonists who repeat it but also ‘riff’ on it, as it were, with the use of the noun baller (~ ‘cool dude’), the verb to ball (in analogy to rock), and the superlative ballingest. The Urban Dictionary states the meaning of balling as ‘rich’ or ‘cool’ and both baller, ball and balling are associated with African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and listed in Widawski (2015: 135-136).[1] However, none of the characters are African American, and they may not be using these terms in the same way. The appropriation of a stylized AAVE style by such characters may result in the perpetuation of racist language ideologies and social stereotypes, while simultaneously ridiculing these characters (Bucholtz 2011, Bucholtz & Lopez 2011). However, Bucholtz & Lopez (2011) and Lopez (2009) also note that this is not necessarily always the case, as white characters may employ a non-racialized AAVE-influenced style, and that effects partially depend on the markedness/ordinariness of the linguistic practice. The functions of such representations thus need to be determined on a case-by-case basis. In example (9), the slang does not seem to be overly racialized and clearly signals group membership within the narrative, showing the characters’ bonding over their mutual admiration of Topher. At the same time, it also makes viewers laugh at these characters and their ‘bro’ speak – a linguistic stereotype associated with particular kinds of young men, including ‘stoners’ like these characters (Demby 2013, Martin 2013).

Intertextuality:

Intertextuality (allusions to other texts) is also included as sub-category of ‘exploitation of the resources of language’. Such allusions exploit the common culture that viewers and the characters share. In other words, language is exploited because of its cultural value here. Example (11) contains several allusions to the song ‘Follow the Yellow Brick Road’ from the movie The Wizard of Oz. Only viewers familiar with the song would recognise these as instances of playful intertextuality:

Example (11)
NED: Looks like he’s working on this thick yellow hose!
CHUCK: Well, let’s follow the yellow thick hose.
NED: Follow the yellow thick hose!
EMERSON: I sure hope there’s methane down here, ’cause the skinny ones are the first to go!
CHUCK: Hello?
EMERSON: He ain’t down here! Ain’t nobody down here! We been walking around here for hours following Dead Girl and now we lost!
NED: We’re not lost. We’re following the yellow thick hose!
(SydTV, Pushing Daisies)

The British TV series River is another excellent example for intertextual references, with lines from poems, novels, and plays, such as:

• Do not go where the path may lead. Go where there is no path and leave a trail.
• Guilt has quick ears to an accusation.
• It is forbidden to kill, therefore all murderers are punished, unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets.
• Have no fear of robbers or murderers. They are external dangers, petty dangers. We should fear ourselves.
• Old sins cast long shadows.

(All examples mentioned and their origins explained in Gill 2015).

Notes

[1] I do not attempt to differentiate between words originating in AAVE and those originating in ‘hip hop nation language’ (Alim 2004: 391), which is ‘rooted in African American Language (AAL) and communicative practices (Alim 2004: 393), but is only one of several language varieties used by African American speakers.

References