Tag Archives: folk speech

Spreading

Text:

Context:

Informant KS is a 19 year-old USC freshman from San Jose, California. The informant participated in the Speech and Debate program during all four years of high school under the National Speech and Debate Association. The event which this technique is referring to is policy debate, where teams of two students each debate a policy proposal made by one team.

KS: “Spreading is a portmanteau of ‘speed reading.’ It’s a technique developed fairly recently, but it’s very widespread in high school and college policy debate tournaments. Basically, in the first two speeches of the debate, you typically just read off your pre-written evidence. What people found out is, you can read a lot more evidence in your 6 minute speech if you read the evidence at an insane pace, then send out the documents so that people can read the evidence along with you, which they can read a lot faster than they can hear. You read the evidence at rates of 300-400 words per minute. You would slow down for the part you have written yourself, and you would speed up when you have written someone else’s words. A very common habit is people doing incredibly sharp breaths when they’re speed reading. So it’s become a joke that people breathe that way when they’re spreading. The most common reaction for a normal person is ‘How the heck is anyone understanding what’s going on?’ Basically, in college level debate, the judges are all other previous debaters or coaches. So they have all also trained how to understand spreading, and so therefore, only the people within the debate can actually understand the debate. The interesting thing about spreading is that it locks debate to a certain demographic to watch. Historically, debate has been focused on rhetorical abilities and public speaking; however, spreading has indicated a shift away from learning how to speak in public towards learning how to think critically and respond to complicated arguments and many arguments in a short amount of time.”

Analysis:

The National Speech and Debate Association was founded in 1925. Since then, the organization developed its own folklore among its participants, such as their own slang terms and techniques. The term “spreading” and its respective practice is one which reflects the growing competitiveness of academics in the United States, as it subverts the classical values of debating — rhetorical skill and public speaking, according to Keshav — in order to win the most points during the debate. Along with the growing competitiveness of academics and the NSDA is the growing inaccessibility of speech and debate: some schools lack the funding and resources to develop their own speech and debate programs; with increasingly complex and specialized skills such as spreading, the barrier of entry grows higher and higher. Additionally, the proliferation of spreading reflects the growth of a common culture amongst the NSDA. The organization is old enough that former participants return as judges and coaches to pass down the technique of spreading as coaches or adequately understand spreading as judges. The folklore surrounding spreading “spreads” further, into common jokes, such as the tendency for debaters to take sharp breaths during their speeches.

出外靠朋友: “Going out, relying on friends”

Chūwài kào péngyǒu

Translation: “Going out, relying on friends”

Background: Y is a 21-year-old college student from Taiwan who is navigating her new life in Los Angeles, California. Having grown up in and gone to school in Taiwan, she is incredibly familiar with Taiwanese folklore and culture.

Context: This is a proverb that Y’s parents would always say to her to remind her of the importance of making friends and networking. It refers to when you are out of your parents protection and when you must rely on friends to give you a helpful hand. It emphasizes the importance and benefits of having close friends.

Analysis: This proverb highlights the importance of friendship and having a large safety net in Taiwanese culture. It highlights the transition from living with your parents to expanding your horizons in the real world amongst working adults. Contrasted with American culture, where young adults are expected to fend for themselves once leaving their parents’ protection, Taiwanese culture values building your network before the jump into adulthood. Once you step out of the familial nest, you are expected to be independent of your parents yet not entirely independent of your peers. Overall, it is a proverb highlighting the importance of community and fraternity among peers when transitioning from one stage of life to the next.

凱瑞 : “Carry”

“Kǎi ruì”

Translation: “carry”

Background: Y is a 21-year-old college student from Taiwan who is navigating her new life in Los Angeles, California. Having grown up in and gone to school in Taiwan, she is incredibly familiar with Taiwanese culture and folklore. She attributes her familiarity with modern Taiwanese folk speech to her experience in the Taiwanese education system.

Context: Y remembers first hearing “凱瑞” from a classmate in high school. Y describes “凱瑞” as folk speech which describes someone who is carrying the whole team. It describes someone whose skill, personality, and preparation is so efficient that it compensates for the shortcomings of others. For example, when in a group project, if one student’s efforts outweigh and compensate for the incompetence of others, you can say that this exemplary student is very “凱瑞”. This example of folk speech is most commonly employed in the educational setting and used by the youth.

Analysis: As mentioned, this folk speech is used most commonly amongst the Taiwanese youth, specifically students. Y’s personal example of the group project demonstrates the common occurrence of loafers, slackers or idle workers that can create the need for a more skilled individual to contribute extra effort so that the whole group may meet certain expectations. The usage of “凱瑞” highlights how the person who carries the whole team is venerated for their noble act of stepping up to the challenge. In fact, the existence of such a phenomenon in Taiwan, the word referring to it and its relevance to other cultures (especially American schools) can possibly imply that the experience of a group project is despised in many academic spheres worldwide.

Dead Dove: Do Not Eat

Content Warning: Discussion of potentially triggering topics including, but not limited to, sexual assault.

ZN describes an acronym convention within the fanfiction community. This convention warns readers that there is content that may be triggering or that could be deemed incredibly offensive that is being used for sexual intent within a work of written fan-fiction. These topics could include non-consensual sex, underage sexual conduct, and more.

ZN.) So there’s something called Dead Dove, Do Not Eat, or DDDNE which is a tag that people will put on AO3 (the Fanfiction website Archive of Our Own) fanfiction posts that means that there’s some triggering content or potentially triggering content. It’s usually sexual in nature, so it’s like non-consensual sex or like underage stuff or like bestiality or something like that. It’s written in a way that it’s meant to be pornographic and like you’re meant to be turned on by it, so it’s kind of a trigger warning. But, it’s different than a trigger warning because trigger warnings will usually be used like “We deal with this really heavy topic in a way that’s trying to be respectful but you may get triggered by it.” Dead dove do not eat is specifically for like sexual assault scenes that are written like pornography.

This is an acronym that a community decided to use colloquially to describe content that would be very taboo for most readers. It is a piece of folk speech used by those that frequent fanfiction websites and communities. It’s not dissimilar to acronyms used in other communities to refer to inappropriate content, but in contrast its more used as a tag than to replace the actual inappropriate content. It’s interesting that it’s both used to keep users that may dissent to reading this content away from the content but also to attract users that may enjoy this type of writing. While this type of writing existed before the internet, now it is very accessible to whoever is browsing, so it’s very important that the community has a way to distinguish what they are okay with reading before being exposed to potentially harmful content. 

“Slay” – folk speech

1. Text

Main Piece: The informant provided an instance of folk speech: the word “slay”.

2. Context

Relationship to the piece:

Informant:

“So I guess a form of folk speech that I’m familiar with as part of the queer community is probably the word ‘slay'”

“I know it’s really generic but it’s a word I use a lot and my friends use a lot and also a form of queer empowerment in general”

When do they use it:

Informant:

“If you do something really well, you like ‘slayed that'”

“same thing with like ‘you ate and left no crumbs'”

“like you did something really well and there’s no debate about it”

Where they heard it:

Informant:

“I sort of just learned it on the internet and like being associated with the queer community I also picked it up as well”

“I don’t really know where it came from but it’s fun to say”

3. Analysis

With the information from the informant, “slay” seems to be a slang in the category of folk speech that is used by the queer community as well as those in support of the queer community as a word that empowers individuals, especially queer people, by celebrating their accomplishments. This is important for the queer community that has had a difficult history so coming up with slang that celebrates their own people is a powerful thing. It seems to be used in casual settings mostly between friends and has a positive connotation that cheers each other up. It seems to be pretty widespread as it is described by the informant to be “generic” and “used a lot”. It also seems to be part of the internet culture as well since the informant mentioned “learning it on the internet”. This shows how the internet and social media has been a huge changing force in bringing together the queer community and empowering the community.