Archive for the ‘Interjections’ Category

Yo Day 2: OY/YO at Stanford

January 6, 2020

(Continuing the Yo! theme for today, following “King/Saint Melchior”. I note that these postings have absolutely nothing to do with the Star Wars character Yoda.)

From Stanford News, the piece “Saying hello to OY/YO at Cantor Arts Center: Deborah Kass’ bold sculpture welcomes guests from its new home at Stanford’s Cantor Arts Center” by Beth Giudicessi on 12/30/19 (mailed out today when the university reopened after the holiday break):


(#1) From the YO viewpoint

Cantor Arts Center hopes its newest sculpture, OY/YO by artist Deborah Kass, acts as an extension of the museum’s new vision to present art and ideas in contemporary and inclusive ways. The piece was installed Dec. 20 and is now on view to the public.

(more…)

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The signs of speechlessness

December 7, 2019

What do you say to convey that you can’t find any words to describe your state of mind? What’s the verbal equivalent of the speechlessness emoji 😶 ? (Which literally has no mouth, indicating an inability to speak.)

Some people have conventional expressions for this purpose. Here’s one of them, homina, in today’s Mother Goose and Grimm:

(#1)

As a cartoon bonus, we get the (metonymic) conversion of an expression evincing some state of mind — homina evincing bewilderment, surprise, or shock to the point of speechlessness —  to a measure noun denoting a degree of the evinced state of mind — homina as a unit of bewilderment etc. A special sort of nouning, generally available for interjections:

I give that experience three eeks / ughs / ewws / ouches / …

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Posted in Conversion, Emoji, Interjections, Linguistics in the comics, Metonymy, Movies and tv, Nouning, Semantics | Leave a Comment »

Follow-up: BOOIESUZYKQHHHH

June 2, 2019

From the annals of Cartoonland spelling bees, in my 5/31 posting “Ultimate spelling bee”, this Bob Eckstein cartoon:


(#1) The contestant offers BOOIESUZYKQHHHH as the spelling for the given pronunciation /búwisúzikyú/ (or something very close to that)

In creating this cartoon (hastily — if you’re doing a bunch of cartoons a day, you don’t have a lot of time for reflection), Eckstein pulled some pronounceable nonsense out of his head as the contest word. The result is an expression with recognizable parts, two of which, /súzi + kyú/ form a familiar name — Susie Q — while the other, /búwi/, might be heard as any of several names, but in Eckstein’s mind was just two nonsense syllables that bubbled up in the heat of the moment.

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Posted in Interjections, Language and food, Linguistics in the comics, Music, Names | 2 Comments »

The town that time forgot

March 15, 2018

Today’s Zippy, touring the center of historic Dingburg:

A great compendium of Zippy preoccupations: Hostess cupcakes and Little Debbie snack cakes, bowling, Poindexter barbats, topknots, beatniks, and much more. Somehow frozen in a past between 1885 and 1945, so that it’s historical, fantastical, and absurd, all at once.

And then there’s the conversational language: beep, honk, and urp.

Posted in Interjections, Linguistics in the comics | 3 Comments »

All the /do/s

August 10, 2017

(#1) Homer Simpson ejaculates

From the American tv show Psych, S2 E12 “The Old and the Restless” (2008):

Shawn Spencer: Can you check for a John Doe, please?
[Desk clerk nods, turns to her computer]
Shawn Spencer: Actually, can you check all the Does? Tae Kwon, Cookie, Play, Do-Si…

An extended play on the syllable /do/ in English.

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Posted in Dance, Interjections, Language and food, Language play, Movies and tv | 5 Comments »

The art of interjection

November 13, 2015

In yesterday’s national edition of the NYT, a Jason Bromwich story with the arresting head:

Oy or Yo? Sculpture With Something to Say Lands at Brooklyn Bridge

(#1)

The rude interjection is a staple of New York life. Now, the landscape of the city will itself heckle residents and tourists, with a brash new sculpture in Brooklyn Bridge Park that yells “YO” if you are looking at it from Manhattan or “OY” if you are gazing out from Brooklyn.

The sculpture, “OY/YO,” is the first of this size from the artist Deborah Kass, who describes herself as a “total, absolute, 100 percent provincial New Yorker.” It was commissioned by a Brooklyn developer, Two Trees Management Company, and was placed in the park on Monday.

(more…)

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