3. Decisions

The one-on-one meeting with DJ helped me formally dismiss my other capstone ideas that don’t have to do with humor, language, or the study between the two. An interesting perspective his intern gave, that was forwarded to me, is how figures of speech and sayings change and evolve generationally. For example, older generations may ask “who wears the pants in the relationship?” whereas nowadays, that expression may be considered politically incorrect.

I think I’ve decided to focus on American English in terms of linguistics. I read many idioms from other languages and translations, and quickly got burnt out. Since this is a time to be selfish, I think studying the English language is most fascinating. However, now I need to decide how I am incorporating humor.Is it humor in linguistics, or is that a totally different capstone project? I need to decide who my audience is, as well as the people I will be studying and researching. I like the idea of young adults (who I most identify with now), but old vs. young is also interesting. Hopefully this next week will bring clarity as I further my secondary research in detail of what’s been done on these topics so far.