Dude, Virtually Speaking

An interesting paper by Scott F. Kiesling surfaced via Clive Thompson, published in American Speech (Fall 2004).  Diagramming the long and colorful etymology and use of the word "dude", Kiesling's paper underlines a striking and varied history - see here - putatively stretching from Yankee Doodle to Mott the Hoople/David Bowie...   Yet, not until championed by Sean Penn (1982, Fast Times at Ridgemont High) did "dude" find ubiquity and fame - leading to distinctions such as: a "native speaker... of Dude".   

What does "dude" say about virtual worlds, if anything?

...Language is always fascinating, though in some decontextualized scheme of things, perhaps "dude" is not all that striking, linguistically.   Yet from our perspective it is worth mentioning for two reasons - as an expression it is utterly pervasive, especially among younger males, and no less in online spaces.   And there is also Kiesling's other assertion:

The term is used mainly in situations in which a speaker takes a stance of solidarity or camaraderie, but crucially in a nonchalant, not-too-enthusiastic manner. Dude indexes a stance of effortlessness (or laziness, depending on the perspective of the hearer)... The reason young men use this term is precisely that dude indexes this stance of cool solidarity. Such a stance is especially valuable for young men as they navigate cultural Discourses of young masculinity, which simultaneously demand masculine solidarity, strict heterosexuality, and non-conformity.

A while back, with only slight tongue-and-cheek deference to Dave Kosak's fabulous article "The Automated Online RolePlayer", I asked whether "...players have already been "caricaturized" to a point where they have become an A.I. and all we do is embellish the messages with a personal fiction?"  Kosak hypothesized a robot that could play MMPOGs and "fit right in" using simple language rules, such as:

If someone says something ending in a question mark, respond by saying "Dude?"
If someone says something ending in an exclamation point, respond by saying "Dude!"
If someone says something ending with a period, respond by randomly saying one of three things: "Okie," "Sure," or "Right on."

Perhaps, to extend this view only slightly,  "dude" is the perfect expression of calculated carelessness for players in worlds where work is so easily confused with play and where casual non-confrontational solidarity is a necessary social lubricant for unlocking entertainment content.

But on the other hand, perhaps the larger significance of "dude" is that it symbolizes a type of cultural homogeniety that serves virtual worlds poorly - iconic mono-cultures, only incidentally youthful.  Does "dude-ism" discourage discourse and linguistic patterns that might be suggestive of more diverse places, fictional or otherwise?  Or is it cheerful and benign?   Yes, we're all facile with it - comfortable, cool, and vernacular.  But is it healthy for our worlds?

Perhaps this question is no more directed to virtual worlds than real ones, in which case why should we care if "dude" is used instead of "hello" or "Dr. Livingstone, I presume."     But maybe virtual world interactions are more susceptible to the little spaces between words - those little moments pregnant with our private fictions.  And thus, any convergence and regularization in word choice and expression carries a disproportionate influence in shaping how we relate to each other, and how we carry ourselves.  Thus, perhaps, we have all become recklessly youthful, nonchalant, and in solidarity.

"Dude" could be just another word.   However, just maybe in our quieter reflections while we wonder the cultural connections of our human mimicry - whether to an AI or to an idealized sense of culture - "dude" is there, a creature swimming a greater current.  Should virtual worlds strive for more complex and variated social cultures?  Or does that get in the way of casual gaming?  Are we simply too tethered to the real world with its utterances, short punctuated syllables and all?

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See also:  Kiesling's dude supplementary materials.

Comments

[Magicman]

1.

Dude?

[Matt Mihaly]

2.

Dude!

[William Huber]

3.

I'm reminded of the work of Temple University linguist Muffy E. A. Siegal on the use of "like" as a linguistic hedge and as a discourse marker. As a native Northern Californian now living in San Diego, I've decided to let my "Californian English dialect" flag fly with pride after repressing it for years. With words like "shawww" and "duuude," Californian English begins to resemble Mandarin, with raising and falling tones having distinct semantics.

Like, dude. Duude! I'm all, you know.

[Nathan Combs]

4.

>Californian English begins to resemble Mandarin, with raising and falling tones having distinct semantics.

fyi - Kiesling's corpus (520 examples), begins to show some of the diversity:

http://www.pitt.edu/~kiesling/dude/DudeCorpusPub.xls

from:

http://www.pitt.edu/~kiesling/dude/dude.html

[Peter Ludlow]

5.

what I've seen of this so far is weak. I mean, where does this take us.

'like' is more interesting, not just because its a discourse marker, but it almost behaves like a signal of hyper-faithful quotation. "And John was all like 'dude your pee faced'", where the inner quote is pronounced like John would pronounce it. Dude, it's like this his dude stuff goes nowhere, dude. Move on.

[Nathan Combs]

6.

>'like' is more interesting

Arguably, "dude" is more impactful, culturally, (e.g. cited above) at this point in time. I mean, like, its almost to the point where unless exaggerated or in-context, 'like', doesn't immediately imply Valley Girl dialect. Could be just me though ;)