Dude: Supplementary Materials

Published in American Speech, Vol. 79, No. 3, Fall 2004, pp. 281-305.
A PDF version of the paper (copyright 2004 American Dialect Society) is available here.

All other material on this page copyright 2003 by Scott F. Kiesling.

Abstract

Older adults, baffled by the new forms of language that regularly appear in youth cultures, frequently characterize young people’s language as “inarticulate,” and then provide examples that illustrate the specific forms of linguistic mayhem performed by “young people nowadays.” For American teenagers, these examples usually include the discourse marker like, rising final intonation on declaratives, and the address term dude, which is cited as an example of the inarticulateness of young men in particular. This stereotype views the use of dude as unconstrained – a sign of inexpressiveness in which one word is used for any and all utterances. These kinds of stereotypes, of course, are based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the functions and meanings of these linguistic forms. As analyses of like and rising intonation have shown, these forms are constrained in use and elegantly expressive in meaning. Dude is no exception. In this article I outline the patterns of use for dude, and its functions and meanings in interaction. I provide some explanations for its rise in use, particularly among young men, in the early 1980s, and for its continued popularity since then.

Indeed, the data presented here confirm that dude is an address term that is used mostly by young men to address other young men; however, its use has expanded so that it is now used as a general address term for a group (same or mixed gender), and by and to women. Dude is developing into a discourse marker that need not identify an addressee, but more generally encodes the speaker’s stance to his or her current addressee(s). 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), largely because of its origins in the “surfer” and “druggie” subcultures in which such stances are valued. 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.

The Dude Corpus

I encourage instructors to use these materials in courses, but please let me know that you have used them!
All materials copyright 2003 Scott F. Kiesling. Educational use is permitted.
Please email me if you would like the results in a different format.

The Dude Survey

I encourage instructors to use these materials in courses, but please let me know that you have used them!
All materials copyright 2003 Scott F. Kiesling. Educational use is permitted.
Please email me if you would like the results in a different format.

Links

Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure Page

Clerks Page

Fast Times at Ridgemont High Page

Doonesbury Comic

Zits Comic