Alison’s blog

Do you like?

nobody@vox.com(Alison Gannon) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 19:50:16 -0700

I'm going to a big Swing and Lindy Hop dance party saturday night and I am sooo excited. I even went out to buy a new outfit so I look the part. Well, I came home and my parents and brother were sitting chatting and I told them about the clothes I got and where i was going on saturday. My dad said well go upstairs and change so you can show us. I think he was just humoring my enthusiasm but I changed into my Lindy outfit anyway. When I reentered the room I twirled and said "Do you like?" My mom answered first saying "oh yes. that's such a nice skirt....." My brother and dad just sat staring at me. I twirled again to show mom the back again and asked them again "Do you like it?" My brother kinda nodded and my dad smiled and said yes. My mom could tell I wasn't getting the response I desired from them so she spoke on their behalf with "They like it honey." Now either they remained silent because the outfit was hidious and looked bad on me or that it was breathtaking and caused them to be speechless. Or, being guys, they didn't care much. What do you all think the implicature of their silence was? I think they definetly were flauting the maxim of manner because they were being ambiguous with their nods and gazing. Also, flauting the maxim of quantity because they didn't give an appropriate response to my question. Do you all agree?

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Vitamins or no vitamins?

nobody@vox.com(Alison Gannon) — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 18:48:32 -0700

So I haven't been feeling very healthy lately. Not sure if it's a cold or just allergies but I've been taking some allergy medicine and its been helping some of my symptoms. My mom nags me alot when I'm not feeling good to make sure, as if I'm still a child, that i'm drinking fluids, taken medicine and gettiing lots of rest. Below is part of a conversation I had with her the other night.

Me: (cough several times and clear my throat)

Mom: Are you taking your centrum I got you the other day?

Me: I work at 9 tomorrow. (addressed to both mom and dad)

Mom: Are you taking the vitamins I got you?

Me: No

Mom: well you should be taking them everyday.

Me: (laugh) you just saw that centrum commercial didn't you?

Mom: (looks back at T.V)

Me: (clears throat)

Mom: Are you taking your Alavert?

Me: they're 24 hours

Mom: well make sure you remember to take it.

As you can see there are several implicatures and flauted conversation maxims. For one, my utterance to my mom's question of whether or not I took my centrum vitamin today is flauting the maxim of relevance. My working tomorrow has nothing to do with the my vitamins so i do not answer her question. Also, the implicature of my response "they're 24 hours" to my mom's question is "No. I can't take it yet because I've taken one already sometime within that time restriction prohibiting me from taking another one at this point in time." It was just easier to say what I said, lol.

Can you all find any other implicatures, explicatures, or maxims within the conversation?

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GET IT! HURRY!

nobody@vox.com(Alison Gannon) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 19:36:40 -0700

My night gets crazier and humorous for my mom. I was kneeling at the edge of my bed filling out a deposit slip when I happen to look up to see a quarter shaped spider climbing up from my bed to the cieling. I FREAK OUT! Gasp for air as my body flings itself backwards away from the bed. It came from my bed. My bed. OMG! OMG!

I am fearful of spiders. Well, you probably already knew that from previous posts and the implicatures of the above. However, I stress to you yet again that I greatly dislike and am fearful of spiders. So, I go down stairs tell my mother and father who are sitting calmly on the couch what had happened. Niether one want to kill it. I say "well I can't do it. I'm not getting any where near that thing!" Mom responds, "well you better do something. See where it goes cause it may crawl back down on you when your sleeping." That comment gives me the chills yet again as I go back up stairs to see where the little booger crawled off to. I find it on the ceiling and stand their trying to figure out a plan on what to do. Leave it there, through a book up at the ceiling, get the vaccuum, etc., ect. My dad enters the room to save the day and releave me of this terrible creature that could bite me in the night ( visual and thought from mom). I tell him we should get the vaccum since its up on the ceiling but he grabs one of my shirts off the bed and starts swatting at it. OMG! WHAT WAS HE THINKING!?! I yell "No, don't do that." "why not? we have to get it off the ceiling." "NO! It'll just land back on my bed then we won't be able to find it." "He gets a little annoyed from my tone but continues swatting it until it falls... and where does it go? Yes, you've guessed it. On my bed! He thinks however that it got attached to the shirt and was snapping the shirt to lease it onto the floor but after a couple snaps of the shirt, no spider appeared. It was definetly on MY bed. He starts looking around and after a moment I decide to reach over and grab the pile of school books off the bed. Once I start to pick them up I see it move. I couldn't help but scream which scares the crap out of my dad and causes him to yell "where is it?" in an angry yet laughing tone. Angry that I screamed and scared him but laughing because to him it was the most ridiculous situation ever. I managed to yell "It's right there" but unable to point because my body is in some acute stage of shock. He responses with "I don't see it. where is it?" I say "Right there in the middle! Get it. Hurry!" He finally sees it and pinches it between some toilet paper.

When I went downstairs, I see mom crying from laughter on the couch because she heared all the commotion upstairs. I'm glad someone was amuzed by the spider cause I sure wasn't. But as I sat there on the couch I thought about the situation and how my positive politeness in asking dad to go up and please kill it had changed to me yelling out commands when we were in the act of finding and killing it. I don't talk to my dad in such a bald manner but I really wanted him to kill it and to hurry before it crawled out of sight again. Someone in class today mentioned that they use more of a bald tone when they want something to get accomplished and I think I related to them in a way tonight. However, I don't think I did it consciously. That is, I think I just wasn't thinking about my speech because my fear and anxiety took over causing me to have more of a direct, no non-sense or politeness tone.

What do you all think? Does that happen to you, where you change the way you speak consciously or unconsciously in certain contexts?

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Thanks Mom!

nobody@vox.com(Alison Gannon) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 18:57:35 -0700

She's bald! I admit it. She is bald. That's ambiguous, I know, so let me explain... I was sitting in the kitchen eating my late dinner alone by myself when my mom came in from the living room to chat. She talked about the ladies she works with and how her day was while she wiped down some stuff in the kitchen. When she got to the table I noticed she had stopped talking. I looked up from my plate to see why and I see her staring at me. She says "What's that on your face?" pointing to the spot she was referencing, only on her face to show me visually where. I, being a normal person, respond with "what?" as I touch my face where she indicates. "It looks swollen" she replies leaning in to get a better look. "Oh it's probably a pimple or something" I say, trying to finish my meal. Mom responds with "Well don't touch it, it's nasty looking." "Wow! Thanks mom," I reply sarcastically. :) (P.S- It was the tiniest little thing that wouldn't be noticeable unless you are a parent looking you over inch by inch, like my mom, lol)

I guess as a mother she thinks she can violate the politeness maxims such as tact because she doesn't minimize cost to the hearer (me) and consideration because she doesn't minimize my discomfort. However, I wasn't embarressed because I guess I'm used to it or because it's coming from family. But either way, she doesn't minimize potential discomfort.

Do you all have family or friends like this who feel they are in a position or relation with you that they don't have to be face-saving? Instead, they are simply bald in their utterances.

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Maxims Subjective?

nobody@vox.com(Alison Gannon) — Fri, 28 Mar 2008 08:47:42 -0700

I think that some of the cooperative principle maxims are a little subjective. The one that I think is especially subjective is the maxim of quantity. For example, when I tell of an event that had happened I give a lot of detail so that my listener knows exactly what happened and can sometimes visualize what happened. many of my friends and family find this absolutely fine and many do it themselves. However, I do get the occasional person who says "What's the point?" or "Get to the point" like they are in a hurry to be somewhere and don't have the time to listen or they just think my details are irrelevant. So to the latter they believe I have flauted the maxim of quantity by saying more than is needed while the others think I gave a normal response.

What to you all think? Subjective or not? Does this sort of thing happen to you?

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Politeness Principle at its best!

nobody@vox.com(Alison Gannon) — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 20:00:13 -0700

A friend of mine had just recently started dating a guy who is in our dance class. She went on a date with him the other night and called me to fill me in but to also ask for my opinion. She asked, "So what do you think about him?" I honestly didn't know much about him, for I only had two classes with him thus far. I was searching for something positive to say about him because, let's be straight, he wasn't all that cute. He was kinda nerdy in a respectful way, lol, and too thin and scrawny. I feel like force feeding him fattening foods like cupcakes and cookies and pasta and cheese and... you get my point. All because he is so thin. Anyway, to be polite and minimize the cost of hurting my friends feelings because she obviously sees something in him that I don't, I responded with "well, he is an engineer." The implicature of this response is "He's got one good thing going for him and that aint his looks." lol that probably sounds really mean but what could I do? I acted through the politeness principle by minimizing my expressions of impolite beliefs about the guy she was dating and chose an expression that caused the minimum loss of face to her. I don't think she caught on to what I was implying because she agreed and started talking about his job and all his responsibilities and yada yada ya. If she finds him attractive then that's all that matters. However, I should add that he is a real nice guy and a good leader (that is on the dance floor). :)

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There's a SPIDER in your hair.

nobody@vox.com(Alison Gannon) — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 09:07:59 -0700

Something funny happened yesterday in class, when discussing speech acts, that I thought I would share. We were focusing on the three main acts of locutionary, perlocutionary, and illocutionary. I had my head down looking at my notes in front of me writting Myers' previous remarks when I heard Charity say behind me "There's a spider in your hair." My whole body jolted in my seat and then I turned around to Charity and said "What! There is?" She smiled and said something about the examples Myers was writting on the board. When I looked I saw 5 new sentences on the board, the first reading "There's a spider in your hair." I then laughed at myself, relaxed, and started writing down more notes. Charity's locutionary act of uttering the sentence, caused me to perform the perlocutionary act of jalting in my seat, becoming frightened because I don't like spider's in the least, and asking her for conformation. I'm not sure what the illocutionary force was because to me it was a warning if a spider was actually in my hair but she was reading it aloud from the board. What do you all think?

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Short or Young?

nobody@vox.com(Alison Gannon) — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 18:58:20 -0700

I was thinking back to the discussion we had in class before Spring Break about reference and how we use proper names or abbreviated descriptions when naming people. I remember when I joined my High School Track and Field team and found that everyone called each other by their last name to distinguish the Michaels, Matts, Jasons, Ashleys, etc. from one another and also because thats what the announcer always uttered first when placing you on the field during meets. Anyway, my brother had already been on the team so he was obviously Gannon, so when I joined I became lil Gannon. But when you think of where that abbreviation was derived from, the word "little," you think of someone being shorter in height than the other. That would be the default reading of lil. But no. For me, it meant that I was younger than my brother. It seems as though this definite abbreviated description had nothing to do with its semantic content but rather by some other property of the referent. In this example, my age.

What do you all think? And how were you refered to by family, friends, or peers in a specific social community?

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Zeugma within Commercials

nobody@vox.com(Alison Gannon) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 18:33:30 -0800

I saw a Chase bank commercial that I believe includes a Zeugmatic phrase. At the end of the commercial they man says Chase bank. Chase what you want. or something to that effect. The single term 'chase' is used to do two semantic jobs. one is to represent a noun (bank) and the second a verb (to pursue your goals and desires). I guess the company is trying to link the two inorder for people to open an account and follow their goals of saving money. I'm not sure. But it is kinda catchy. I couldn't find the commercial on youtube since it is a new commercial but I hope you all get to see it if you watch some TV this weekend. I saw it played on FOX family several times.

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Equipollent or Overlapping??

nobody@vox.com(Alison Gannon) — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 14:51:38 -0800

I'm confused! I'm trying to figure out the difference between equipollent and overlapping antonyms. See for the test today, on question 2 honest:dishonest I marked it as being equipollent antonyms because I thought both are committed to their meanings. However, could it be overlapping where one term is impartial and the other is committed? For instance, I think it sounds odd to say "She is honest, but more dishonest than him" or "She is dishonest but more honest than him." To me you are either or meaning you are committed to only one term. What do you all think?

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