The Slang Generation Checkup
Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2006 12:23 pm
I would like to welcome everyone to this new forum with an announcement and an invitation. alphaDictionary will undertake in the coming academic year the creation of a major language resource on slang. Here is the official announcement of a central feature of it:
We are beta-testing a major new feature of the alphaDictionary website (alpha-beta: get it?) which you might enjoy helping with. We have now developed a test (we are tentatively calling it a "Checkup") for the generation which your speech—specifically your slang—identifies you with. In other words, you tell our magic machine which slang terms you used in high school or college, and it will tell you when you attended those schools (in case, like me, you can't always remember).
Like our Rebel-Yankee Test, our aim is to acquaint our visitors with a fascinating element of language, this time, slang. We start with a short exegesis on the nature of slang, then procede to our usual 20 questions. This time, though, the questions are about the slang expression used in your high school and college years. When this information is gathered, our "Generational Slang Engine" will pin-point (where "pin" refers to a rolling pin) the decade of your high school-college years.
I personally think that once we get sufficient feedback, we will be able to do more than pinpoint the decade. I think we can eventually make a pretty good stab at the age of the person undergoing the checkup. However, for the time being, our goals are modest.
If you think you might be interested in serving as a guinea pig in this endeavor, click here to go to the check up page. Remember, at present this is a top secret project, so keep it to yourself except for your feedback here. Simply convey your impressions in a response to this post or send me an e-mail message through my profile page.
We are beta-testing a major new feature of the alphaDictionary website (alpha-beta: get it?) which you might enjoy helping with. We have now developed a test (we are tentatively calling it a "Checkup") for the generation which your speech—specifically your slang—identifies you with. In other words, you tell our magic machine which slang terms you used in high school or college, and it will tell you when you attended those schools (in case, like me, you can't always remember).
Like our Rebel-Yankee Test, our aim is to acquaint our visitors with a fascinating element of language, this time, slang. We start with a short exegesis on the nature of slang, then procede to our usual 20 questions. This time, though, the questions are about the slang expression used in your high school and college years. When this information is gathered, our "Generational Slang Engine" will pin-point (where "pin" refers to a rolling pin) the decade of your high school-college years.
I personally think that once we get sufficient feedback, we will be able to do more than pinpoint the decade. I think we can eventually make a pretty good stab at the age of the person undergoing the checkup. However, for the time being, our goals are modest.
If you think you might be interested in serving as a guinea pig in this endeavor, click here to go to the check up page. Remember, at present this is a top secret project, so keep it to yourself except for your feedback here. Simply convey your impressions in a response to this post or send me an e-mail message through my profile page.