Re: The language of Joss Whedon (was Re: the Language of Firefly)

Oxford University Press has published a Lexicon with extended essays
on slang and linguistic turns on Buffy.

Slayer Slang: A Buffy The Vampire Slayer Lexicon
by Michael Adams (Hardcover)

He uses Buffy as an example of linguistic change in action, analyzing
newly productive slang constructions, as well as lexical items. An
interesting book even if you're not a fan (though surely more so if
you are).

  -- David

On 9/7/05, Paul Bennett <paul-bennett@...> wrote:
> On Wed, 07 Sep 2005 14:36:55 -0400, Kit La Touche
> <kit@...> wrote:
>
> > personally, i love what this show does with language - it's a mix of
> > reasonable changes, fun changes, and things that are current among at
> > least my group of nerdy friends (though i don't know which way the
> > influence has gone in that case.  we use "shiny" *a lot*.)
> >
> > and that example of kaylee... it's mostly her way of speaking, i'd say.
> >
> > can't wait for the movie!  /silly fan.
>
> Joss (and his team) loves to make minor tweaks to language and dialect.
> Wordplay runs rampant throughout his other shows, Buffy The Vampire
> Slayer, and Angel. Lots of verbing of nouns, and nouning of adjectives,
> under and over specification, punning, confusion of meta levels, and so
> forth. There's probably at least one website with a whole collection of
> the wordplay of Mutant Enemy. If not, I might have to compile one, one
> day. It'll be a lot of work.
>
>
>
>
> Paul
>

--
   -- David