Morphology/Semantics Activity
Kathryn M Andrews
Los Angeles Pacific University
Before Observations
Before starting this assignment, I knew I was fairly current in how the younger
generation talks and what kinds of words they use.
This is mainly because I am still fairly young myself, and only just turned twenty
last year, but what surprised me about this assignment was how many different
ways the words I already know can be used.
Yuh
Person A: “Hey, do you want to
go to my house after this?”
Person B: “Yuh”
Meaning: Yes
Oof
Person A: “I still haven’t started my
homework for tomorrow”
Person B: “Oof”
Meaning: Originating from the death sound
effect of an online game known as Roblox,
"oof" is a common expression or response
shared when one is faced with a
melodramatic defeat or taken an
embarrassing L in any real-world situation.
Bruh
Person A: “I really like her, but I am too
scared to ask her out”
Person B: “Bruh”
Meaning: This word can be used many
different ways, to call someone dumb,
when you do not know how to
respond, as a greeting and more other
uses
Yeet
Person A: “Where should I put
my water bottle?”
Person B: “Just yeet it”
Meaning: Throw it aggressively
Lit
Person A: “My mom said you
could spend the night tonight”
Person B: “Lit”
Meaning: Awesome or very cool
Lowkey
Person A: “I lowkey want to go
home”
Person B: “Me too, I’ll call my
Dad”
Meaning: A small amount, or to
keep a secret
Extra
Person A: “You are being so
extra right now:”
Person B: “Are you saying you
don’t love it?”
Meaning: Acting over the top
Tea
Person A: “So spill the tea about
Brian”
Person B: “I heard he ditched
school”
Meaning: The drama or gossip
Shook
Person A: “Did you hear
Person B: “Shook”
Meaning: Shocked
Mood
Person A: “I want pizza”
Person B: “Mood”
Meaning: That is also how I feel
After Observations
I personally use a lot of these words when I am with others my own age, or when I talk
to some of the older kids at my job, but when I had to actually look up the definitions
of these words I was shocked by what some people use these words for.
Thinking about how I’ve heard my parents tell me about words they used to use
versus the words I currently use, they seem radically different.
Some similarities I have seen is that if there is a chance to shorten a word or use a
faster version of a phrase to get a point across, faster is always better.
I would say because my expectations were to hear words I already know, I was not
surprised in that aspect, and I hope for the future I will be able to stay up to date with
what the younger generation is saying.
Future Application
When thinking about how the words I heard can be catoregized with the principles of
morphology and semantics, I want to focus on how “the Principle of Semantic
Compositionality (sometimes called ‘Frege's Principle’) is the principle that the meaning of
a (syntactically complex) whole is a function only of the meanings of its (syntactic) parts
together with the manner in which these parts were combined” (Pelletier, 1994).
By combining different parts of words together to make something new we are able to use
context clues to decipher what they mean. For example, the word “lowkey” means to
keeps things a secret and by keeping things “on the low” they would be keeping things
secret.
The word “mood” is a shorter way of saying that you feel the same way as the other
person, this way a whole phrase is reduced to a single word.
References
Pelletier, F. J. (1994, March). The Principle of Semantic Compositionality.
Retrieved April 10, 2021, from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225899934_The_Principle_of_Sema
ntic_Compositionality
Wolf. (2021). Oof. Retrieved April 11, 2021, from
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Oof
