A Discussion of Slayer Slang

How did a professor of English and Linguistics come to write about such a strange topic? It is simple: “he was channel surfing past the WB, and heard some random teenager say the line, ‘Love makes you do the wacky.’” Adams was immediately hooked and soon started cataloging the slang and jargon, excited by the “wealth of new words and old phrases used in new ways.” He does not “think any other television show has been as productive at

English is not, however, used to seeing the types of functional shifts that make up a significant proportion of slayer slang. Many of these shifts may in fact be redundant, but ‘they are also expressive, because they propose the thingness of an adjective state, and doing so makes the adjective palpable, as when personification fleshes out metaphor” (p72). It is not so much the fact that nouns may be used as adjectives, etc. that sets slayer slang apart-proper grammar does that often enough-it is the specific nouns and such the writers choose that make this language so humorous and unique. Most people would understand the phrase “he pulled a Houdini,” but they would not necessarily get “time went all David Lynch on me” or “I feel like I have been Keyser Sozed.”

Obscure pop culture references aside, the most significant functional shift in slayer slang is that of much from adverb to adjective. As an adverb, much can mean ‘to a great degree’ or ‘often’ as in “I do not exercise much.” Technically, adverbs can modify verbs and adjectives, but not every modifying adverb is automatically accepted by orthodox speakers as in the case of much. Some examples are “Having issues much?” and “Over-identify much?” So, in the case of noun + much, then, “either a rule is broken (adverbs don’t modify nouns), or a rule is amended (adverbs can modify nouns), or there is a new part of speech (the adnoun), or the adverb shifts to a new adjective sense” (p77). Unfortunately, none of these alternatives quite explains the situation of the slayer slang much.

Truth be told, all the language of Buffy the Vampire Slayer leaves a lasting impression and not just because some of it is outlandish slang. Adams references this excerpt to explain it best:

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