still silly and off-topic

[Dennis R. Preston]

Jim,

Yes, I suspect this baseball-cap wearing is US in British eyes,
although its symbolism may have changed from "typical American" (as
in the Wandafishflick) to implications of hip-hop culture. Before
that latter development, the redoubtable Prof. Trudgill went around
annoying us Yanks by asking:
Q: "What do you do to make a yank drop 50 degrees of intelligence?"
A: Turn his baseball cap around backwards.

Of course, I may have the numbers wrong.

dInIs



>In a message dated Thu, 13 Jun 2002  9:32:35 AM Eastern Daylight
>Time, Lynne Murphy <lynnem at COGS.SUSX.AC.UK> writes:
>
>>But as long as we're being silly and off-topic here, I read the following
>>in _The Big Issue_ today about a pea-shooting contest in Cambridgeshire:
>>
>>"It's traditional Bash Street Kids, English schoolboy, turn your baseball
>>cap backwards and fire kind of thing," said organiser Tom Wood.
>>
>>I didn't know traditional English schoolboys played baseball....
>>
>>Lynne
>
>There is no implication that the English schoolboys play baseball,
>merely that they wear baseball caps, which leads to a serious
>question in non-verbal linguistics:
>
>In England, what does a man or boy communicate by wearing a baseball cap?
>
>In the English film "A Fish Named Wanda", there is one major
>character who is American, who is invariably shown wearing a
>baseball cap.  Is this an English stereotype of how Americans dress?
>If so, was it a shorthand convention to inform an English audience
>that the character was American?
>
>Also what is the significance of an English boy turning his baseball
>cap around?  (Girls cannot do this.  Their ponytails stick out
>through the gap between the cloth and the adjustment band.)
>
>       - Jim Landau
>
>P.S.  This being England, shouldn't that read "pease-shooting"?  As
>in "give pease a chance?"

--
Dennis R. Preston
Department of Linguistics and Languages
Michigan State University
East Lansing MI 48824-1027 USA
preston at pilot.msu.edu
Office: (517)353-0740
Fax: (517)432-2736