Americanism
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- This page is about the linguistic term. For other uses, see Americanism (disambiguation).
In functionalist linguistics, an Americanism is a particular usage, i.e. a word or phrase used for the time being by the native speakers of English in the United States. Such usages are not rule driven, but are dynamic and culturally determined. The term may also describe such usages if they are exported to, and adopted by, the native speakers of English who live in other countries, especially through the popular media of television and movies. Some such dialectal terms are American coinages, while others are archaisms (e.g. "Fall" in the sense of "Autumn") that may also linger in other dialects.
Explanation
This topic falls within the scope of linguistics in that it examines the mechanisms for using sounds (or their written representations) for communicating meaning. The functionalist methodology is more general because it links linguistic facts to non-linguistic facts and gives a broader empirical coverage. Any conclusions are also cognitively more plausible because functional explanations are more readily tested. This application of functionalism is directly linked to semiotics, where the distinction between word and thought refers to both the inevitable interrelationship between verbal and nonverbal, and to the recognition that one can only understand language through the contact events as its participants live them. The problem with pure linguistics is that it dismantles language into its components, analysing usage in slow-time whereas, in the real world, there is an often chaotic blur of language and signal exchange during human semiotic interaction. Yet, no matter how chaotic, social interaction to communicate the meaning(s) intended cannot be effective except through a system that has rules accepted by all the participants. That some of these rules would be learned behaviour and unconsciously applied, e.g. for decoding the subtle shifts of facial expression or body language, does not diminish their reality or significance. Hence, usage can best be explored by using a combination of linguistics and semiotics in a functionalist framework.
An example
As an example, let us take the denotative or surface meaning of two words in English. As a noun:
- an elephant is large, grey-skinned, herbivorous pachyderm having its origin in either Africa or Asia; and
- a room is an enclosed space within the broader structure of a building, usually accessed through a door and admitting light through a window.
Thus, we come to the phrase, "an elephant in the room" which America is currently exporting to the world. In semiotics, a particular usage comes into being through the manipulation of connotative or implied meanings and of the value of the signifiers. The term for the process of adding a new meaning is encoding. In cognitive linguistics and rhetoric, this would be considered a metaphorical usage. In communication theory, the more general process is described as framing, i.e. the packaging of a certain piece of media content to predispose the audience to make the desired interpretation and to exclude others.
Applying the commutation test requires the analyst to substitute words. Thus, for "elephant", alternatives might be "ant", "goat", "hippopotamus", etc. For "room", alternatives might be "box", "enclosure", "Astrodome", etc. It is therefore reasonable to infer that the value significance in the relationship between the two words is a reference to relative sizes. If a small area is occupied by a large animal, any other animal or human seeking to share the same space must take care to avoid injury, thus decoding the connotative meaning. The process for analysing the metaphorical implication is similar. But, the usage has also acquired a further ironic quality from some contexts in which those occupying the space decide that it is prudent not to mention the presence of the elephant.