The bare bones of my grammar project.
As a clip, I've decided to use the "Buffyspeak" featurette on the S3 DVDs. It's not entirely linear, but it does cover a lot of relevant topics. Anyway...
Slayer Slang
Language Creation in TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Buffy is able to survive longer than the other Slayers because she is embedded in language and because she embodies language. It is a very particular language, with its own vernacular, but it behaves like all languages in that it creates, it compiles, it translates, it follows well-defined rules, it draws upon shared knowledge, and it must be wielded with precision in order to be effective... Any Slayer can brandish a weapon, but for Buffy, the tongue is as pointed as the stake.
-Karen Eileen Overbey and Lahney Preston-Matto.
"Staking in Tongues: Speech Act as Weapon in Buffy"
Basic Scooby Gang Dramatis Personae:
Scooby Gang: for the purposes of the show, "The Scoobs" are the group of people nearest and dearest to the Slayer.
Buffy Summers: 16 years old when she was called to be the Chosen one, a Vampire slayer, Buffy moves to fictitious Sunnydale, California at the start of her junior year of high school. She is a native of LA, and her young, California-style, slang-filled speech pattern is one of the main forces behind how language is created in the show. Other characters tend to pick up and modify her speech patterns (which include word-combining, suffixing and prefixing, and semantic shifting) as the show progresses.
Xander Harris: Xander is the 'Joe Normal' of the show-- he has no superpowers and is seen as the heart of the Scooby Gang. Linguistically, he picks up Buffy's speech pattern quite quickly and often uses puns in his speech pattern as well as many of the techniques of language creation described below.
Willow Rosenberg: Willow began as a shy computer nerd who became a very powerful witch by the end of the show. Willow's speech tends to include a lot of word-combining as well as utilizing suffixes to modify words.
Rupert Giles: Giles is Buffy's Watcher (her trainer and mentor). He also acts as the librarian of Sunnydale High. He is the main adult figure on the show, and also one of two main British characters on the show. He comes from an upper-class family and has a very high level of education, as we know he was once curator of a famous British museum and also can read dozens of languages (including supernatural languages). This elevated level of education reflects in the way that he speaks-- he nearly always speaks perfect Queen's English, with some British slang thrown in (he says "bloody hell" quite a lot, throwing in harsher words when upset). The other British character, a vampire named Spike, is from a lower class, and he tends to use more lazy speech and much more British slang ("poof," "bint," etc.).
Ways of Creating Language:
Prefixing: Buffy tends to use prefixes in unconventional ways. This includes the prefix un, which she uses to create words like "unbudger" and "unmad." She says to Giles, "C'mon, Giles, budge. No one likes an unbudger." This follows a pre-existing language pattern set up by words like "undead."
Other prefixes she uses are de (as in "defreak"), pre ("pre-here," as in, "before I got here"), non (I am completely non-mathy"), and the German prefix, über ("überachiever," "übercreepy").
Suffixing: Even more than prefixing, the Scooby Gang tends to add suffixes to words. This often changes the function of the word. It is not uncommon to see verbs turn into adjectives or nouns when an unconventional suffix is added, and many other interesting variations arise.
While popular suffixes like -sville ("dullsville"), -aholic ("chocoholic"), -alooza ("vampapalooza") are used often, the suffixes -y (which combines with verbs and nouns to create adjectives), -ness (which tends to combine with verbs and adjectives to form nouns), and -age are very special in Buffyspeak.
Driveyness: n State of driving
Quote: "I told my mom I wanted to be treated like a grown-up, and voila, driveyness." - Buffy, Band Candy
Here, we see the verb drive added to the suffix -y to become an adjective, drivey. Additionally, the suffix -ness is added, making the word function overall as a noun.
The suffix -age is one of the most popular suffixes in the Buffyverse because it is more flexible. It combines with both nouns and verbs, usually to produce a unique noun. For instance, the verb slay combines with -age to form slayage.
Slayage: n Killing vampires or other demons
Quote: "Sorry I'm late. I had to do some unscheduled slayage in the form of Theresa." - Buffy, Phases
Proper Nouns Shift to Verbs: Proper names, usually pop-culture references and names of fictitious characters, often shift to form phrasal verbs. This requires common knowledge of these references, and because it does, this kind of language creation binds the group together socially and linguistically.
Pulling a Carrie: v Executing a supernatural and vengeful stunt (reference made to the Stephen King character)
Quote: "I've got to stop a crazy from pulling a Carrie at the prom." - Buffy, The Prom
Scully: v To make one exercise skepticism (reference made to Dana Scully of The X-Files)
Quote: "I cannot believe that you of all people are trying to Scully me." - Buffy, The Pack
Combining Words: The Buffyverse (Buffy + Universe) also favors word combinations as a way of creating language. For instance, Xander jokingly calls Buffy "The Buffinator" (Buffy + The Terminator). Other interesting terms coined have included vampnap (vampire + kidnap, ie- a kidnapping by a vampire), Buffybot, (Buffy + Robot, ie- the robot created to mimic Buffy in later seasons) and manimal (man + animal). As the rogue slayer Faith says, "Every guy, from Manimal right on down to Mr.-I-Loved-The English Patient, has beast in him."
Fragmenting and Verb Shortening: The Scooby gang habitually clips words ("sitch" is a common word for "situation") and verb phrases. Therefore, "creep out" becomes simply "creep" ("He creeps me big time.") and "freak out" becomes "freaked" ("I totally freaked.") This is one way in which the younger Scoobies distinguish themselves from the more educated speakers like Giles because it expresses a completely separate style of youthful speech.
Re-Defining: The most obvious example of re-defining comes from Faith's use of the term five-by-five. It originated as military slang in the 1940's used on aircraft carriers, but Faith uses it to mean "everything's good" or "everything's square." As she says to Oz, a werewolf, in Faith, Hope, and Trick, "Hey, as long as you don't go scratchin' at me or humpin' my leg, we're five-by-five, ya know?"
Another example of this is the term 'Scooby Gang,' which originated on the cartoon show, Scooby Doo. There are similarities between the Scooby's supernatural crimesolvers and the group who helps Buffy fight demons, and they therefore dubbed themselves the Scooby Gang.
Use of the Word 'Much': 'Much' is traditionally thought of as an adjective in the English language, but it has come to form many interesting combinations in modern slang. Though Buffy is not the first show to feature verb + much (as in, "Walk much?" sarcastically after someone trips), it is fairly unique in the way it utilizes both adjective + much and noun + much.
Adjective + much: The queen of this combination is Cordelia Chase, the Buffy's snobbish foil who temporarily becomes one of the Scooby Gang. One of her trademark quips is "Morbid Much?" which she often uses when someone is giving exposition on a particularly gruesome demon or crime.
Noun + much: A noun, can be used right before 'much' as well. Ordinarily, it means "often." For instance, if Xander asks Willow, "Tuna much?" he is referring to her habit of bringing tuna sandwiches for lunch.
Another variation on the word 'much' is the adjective muchly. For instance, Xander says in Life Serial, "Well, I appreciate it muchly." Here, muchly is taken to mean "tremendously."
An Abbreviated Lexicon of Slayer Slang
Avoidy: adj Evasive. "Do not get all avoidy with me." - Xander, Bargaining.
Backseat mothering: n Unsolicited advice from a non-parent (usually Giles). Patterned after previous slang terms, like "backseat driving."
Be Kind, Rewind: catchphrase Repeat. "Whoa, Giles. Be kind-rewind." -Buffy, Lover's Walk.
Buffyverse: n The mythological universe in which the show takes place.
Childhood trauma: n Problem. "God, what is your childhood trauma?" -Cordelia, Welcome to the Hellmouth.
Clothes fluke: n A kiss resulting from wearing formal wear, such as the one that Xander and Willow share in Homecoming.
David Lynch: adj Nonlinear, a reference to the director. "Its prescence in our dimension causes a sort of temporal disturbance." "So that's why time went all David Lynch." -Anya and Buffy, Dead Things.
Destiny-free: adj Uninfluenced by destiny. "I don't have a destiny. I'm destiny-free." -Buffy, Becoming.
Eeuch: v To disparage with a guttural sound. Derived from onomatopoeia. "Did you just eeuch my name?" - Buffy, Tabula Rasa.
Fray-adjacent: adj Near combat. "Maybe you shouldn't be leaping out into the fray like that. Maybe you should be... fray-adjacent." -Buffy, The Zeppo.
Groiny: adj Sexual. "When they get groiny with one another, the world as we know it falls apart." - Cordelia, re: Buffy and Angel.
Inner Moppet: n Inner Child. "Whatever is causing the Joan Collins 'tude, deal with it. Embrace the pain, spank your inner moppet, whatever, but get over it." -Cordelia, When She Was Bad.
Keyser Soze: v To manipulate., a reference to the film, The Usual Suspects. "Does anyone feel like we've been Keyser Sozed?" -Xander, The Puppet Show.
Kissage: n An episode of kissing. "It's like freeze-frame. Willow kissage- but I'm not going to kiss you." -Oz, Innocence.
Sherlock: v To investigate, a reference to Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. "Tara and I could Sherlock around." - Willow, Seeing Red.
Single White Female: v To harass someone by imitating them obsessively, a reference to the film of the same name. "Hey. I'm the one getting single-white-femaled here." -Buffy, Faith, Hope, and Trick.
Twelve-steppy: adj Confessional. "I don't mean to get all twelve-steppy, but..." -Faith, Enemies.
Unmixy: adj Incompatible. "Cars and Buffy are like, unmixy things." - Buffy, Something Blue.
Wiggins: n An episode of fear, over-excitement, or agitation. "This place just gives me the wiggins." - Buffy, Welcome to the Hellmouth.
Language Creation in TV's Buffy the Vampire Slayer
Buffy is able to survive longer than the other Slayers because she is embedded in language and because she embodies language. It is a very particular language, with its own vernacular, but it behaves like all languages in that it creates, it compiles, it translates, it follows well-defined rules, it draws upon shared knowledge, and it must be wielded with precision in order to be effective... Any Slayer can brandish a weapon, but for Buffy, the tongue is as pointed as the stake.
-Karen Eileen Overbey and Lahney Preston-Matto.
"Staking in Tongues: Speech Act as Weapon in Buffy"
Basic Scooby Gang Dramatis Personae:
Scooby Gang: for the purposes of the show, "The Scoobs" are the group of people nearest and dearest to the Slayer.
Buffy Summers: 16 years old when she was called to be the Chosen one, a Vampire slayer, Buffy moves to fictitious Sunnydale, California at the start of her junior year of high school. She is a native of LA, and her young, California-style, slang-filled speech pattern is one of the main forces behind how language is created in the show. Other characters tend to pick up and modify her speech patterns (which include word-combining, suffixing and prefixing, and semantic shifting) as the show progresses.
Xander Harris: Xander is the 'Joe Normal' of the show-- he has no superpowers and is seen as the heart of the Scooby Gang. Linguistically, he picks up Buffy's speech pattern quite quickly and often uses puns in his speech pattern as well as many of the techniques of language creation described below.
Willow Rosenberg: Willow began as a shy computer nerd who became a very powerful witch by the end of the show. Willow's speech tends to include a lot of word-combining as well as utilizing suffixes to modify words.
Rupert Giles: Giles is Buffy's Watcher (her trainer and mentor). He also acts as the librarian of Sunnydale High. He is the main adult figure on the show, and also one of two main British characters on the show. He comes from an upper-class family and has a very high level of education, as we know he was once curator of a famous British museum and also can read dozens of languages (including supernatural languages). This elevated level of education reflects in the way that he speaks-- he nearly always speaks perfect Queen's English, with some British slang thrown in (he says "bloody hell" quite a lot, throwing in harsher words when upset). The other British character, a vampire named Spike, is from a lower class, and he tends to use more lazy speech and much more British slang ("poof," "bint," etc.).
Ways of Creating Language:
Prefixing: Buffy tends to use prefixes in unconventional ways. This includes the prefix un, which she uses to create words like "unbudger" and "unmad." She says to Giles, "C'mon, Giles, budge. No one likes an unbudger." This follows a pre-existing language pattern set up by words like "undead."
Other prefixes she uses are de (as in "defreak"), pre ("pre-here," as in, "before I got here"), non (I am completely non-mathy"), and the German prefix, über ("überachiever," "übercreepy").
Suffixing: Even more than prefixing, the Scooby Gang tends to add suffixes to words. This often changes the function of the word. It is not uncommon to see verbs turn into adjectives or nouns when an unconventional suffix is added, and many other interesting variations arise.
While popular suffixes like -sville ("dullsville"), -aholic ("chocoholic"), -alooza ("vampapalooza") are used often, the suffixes -y (which combines with verbs and nouns to create adjectives), -ness (which tends to combine with verbs and adjectives to form nouns), and -age are very special in Buffyspeak.
Driveyness: n State of driving
Quote: "I told my mom I wanted to be treated like a grown-up, and voila, driveyness." - Buffy, Band Candy
Here, we see the verb drive added to the suffix -y to become an adjective, drivey. Additionally, the suffix -ness is added, making the word function overall as a noun.
The suffix -age is one of the most popular suffixes in the Buffyverse because it is more flexible. It combines with both nouns and verbs, usually to produce a unique noun. For instance, the verb slay combines with -age to form slayage.
Slayage: n Killing vampires or other demons
Quote: "Sorry I'm late. I had to do some unscheduled slayage in the form of Theresa." - Buffy, Phases
Proper Nouns Shift to Verbs: Proper names, usually pop-culture references and names of fictitious characters, often shift to form phrasal verbs. This requires common knowledge of these references, and because it does, this kind of language creation binds the group together socially and linguistically.
Pulling a Carrie: v Executing a supernatural and vengeful stunt (reference made to the Stephen King character)
Quote: "I've got to stop a crazy from pulling a Carrie at the prom." - Buffy, The Prom
Scully: v To make one exercise skepticism (reference made to Dana Scully of The X-Files)
Quote: "I cannot believe that you of all people are trying to Scully me." - Buffy, The Pack
Combining Words: The Buffyverse (Buffy + Universe) also favors word combinations as a way of creating language. For instance, Xander jokingly calls Buffy "The Buffinator" (Buffy + The Terminator). Other interesting terms coined have included vampnap (vampire + kidnap, ie- a kidnapping by a vampire), Buffybot, (Buffy + Robot, ie- the robot created to mimic Buffy in later seasons) and manimal (man + animal). As the rogue slayer Faith says, "Every guy, from Manimal right on down to Mr.-I-Loved-The English Patient, has beast in him."
Fragmenting and Verb Shortening: The Scooby gang habitually clips words ("sitch" is a common word for "situation") and verb phrases. Therefore, "creep out" becomes simply "creep" ("He creeps me big time.") and "freak out" becomes "freaked" ("I totally freaked.") This is one way in which the younger Scoobies distinguish themselves from the more educated speakers like Giles because it expresses a completely separate style of youthful speech.
Re-Defining: The most obvious example of re-defining comes from Faith's use of the term five-by-five. It originated as military slang in the 1940's used on aircraft carriers, but Faith uses it to mean "everything's good" or "everything's square." As she says to Oz, a werewolf, in Faith, Hope, and Trick, "Hey, as long as you don't go scratchin' at me or humpin' my leg, we're five-by-five, ya know?"
Another example of this is the term 'Scooby Gang,' which originated on the cartoon show, Scooby Doo. There are similarities between the Scooby's supernatural crimesolvers and the group who helps Buffy fight demons, and they therefore dubbed themselves the Scooby Gang.
Use of the Word 'Much': 'Much' is traditionally thought of as an adjective in the English language, but it has come to form many interesting combinations in modern slang. Though Buffy is not the first show to feature verb + much (as in, "Walk much?" sarcastically after someone trips), it is fairly unique in the way it utilizes both adjective + much and noun + much.
Adjective + much: The queen of this combination is Cordelia Chase, the Buffy's snobbish foil who temporarily becomes one of the Scooby Gang. One of her trademark quips is "Morbid Much?" which she often uses when someone is giving exposition on a particularly gruesome demon or crime.
Noun + much: A noun, can be used right before 'much' as well. Ordinarily, it means "often." For instance, if Xander asks Willow, "Tuna much?" he is referring to her habit of bringing tuna sandwiches for lunch.
Another variation on the word 'much' is the adjective muchly. For instance, Xander says in Life Serial, "Well, I appreciate it muchly." Here, muchly is taken to mean "tremendously."
Avoidy: adj Evasive. "Do not get all avoidy with me." - Xander, Bargaining.
Backseat mothering: n Unsolicited advice from a non-parent (usually Giles). Patterned after previous slang terms, like "backseat driving."
Be Kind, Rewind: catchphrase Repeat. "Whoa, Giles. Be kind-rewind." -Buffy, Lover's Walk.
Buffyverse: n The mythological universe in which the show takes place.
Childhood trauma: n Problem. "God, what is your childhood trauma?" -Cordelia, Welcome to the Hellmouth.
Clothes fluke: n A kiss resulting from wearing formal wear, such as the one that Xander and Willow share in Homecoming.
David Lynch: adj Nonlinear, a reference to the director. "Its prescence in our dimension causes a sort of temporal disturbance." "So that's why time went all David Lynch." -Anya and Buffy, Dead Things.
Destiny-free: adj Uninfluenced by destiny. "I don't have a destiny. I'm destiny-free." -Buffy, Becoming.
Eeuch: v To disparage with a guttural sound. Derived from onomatopoeia. "Did you just eeuch my name?" - Buffy, Tabula Rasa.
Fray-adjacent: adj Near combat. "Maybe you shouldn't be leaping out into the fray like that. Maybe you should be... fray-adjacent." -Buffy, The Zeppo.
Groiny: adj Sexual. "When they get groiny with one another, the world as we know it falls apart." - Cordelia, re: Buffy and Angel.
Inner Moppet: n Inner Child. "Whatever is causing the Joan Collins 'tude, deal with it. Embrace the pain, spank your inner moppet, whatever, but get over it." -Cordelia, When She Was Bad.
Keyser Soze: v To manipulate., a reference to the film, The Usual Suspects. "Does anyone feel like we've been Keyser Sozed?" -Xander, The Puppet Show.
Kissage: n An episode of kissing. "It's like freeze-frame. Willow kissage- but I'm not going to kiss you." -Oz, Innocence.
Sherlock: v To investigate, a reference to Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes. "Tara and I could Sherlock around." - Willow, Seeing Red.
Single White Female: v To harass someone by imitating them obsessively, a reference to the film of the same name. "Hey. I'm the one getting single-white-femaled here." -Buffy, Faith, Hope, and Trick.
Twelve-steppy: adj Confessional. "I don't mean to get all twelve-steppy, but..." -Faith, Enemies.
Unmixy: adj Incompatible. "Cars and Buffy are like, unmixy things." - Buffy, Something Blue.
Wiggins: n An episode of fear, over-excitement, or agitation. "This place just gives me the wiggins." - Buffy, Welcome to the Hellmouth.