Monday, February 06, 2006

What do you DO?

I realized when I started grad school in linguistics, this was a really hard question to answer. Linguist is not a job or title that a large number of people have preconceptions about. Occasionally someone would assume it was synonymous with "polyglot". Sometimes I corrected them, sometimes not. Such preconceptions could get in they way, but they could also at least give someone a sort of sketch, a few lines I could build on. Zero preconceptions, as is the case often with "linguist" or even"psycholinguist", means that you frequently find yourself "pinned and wriggling on the wall" at a party, your dip drying on your decorative paper plate and the bubbles fizzing out of your drink, trying to answer the question without sounding like a total tit, while your conversation partner is regarding you with increasing levels of confusion or annoyance. And that's if you're lucky. If not, they will just walk. This is why linguists (psycho and otherwise) are mostly tits. Typically, linguists only know other linguists, the occasional "cognitive scientist", and approximately .7 philosophers. If this were your entire social circle, you'd suck too.

But now, ah, now I will have something to say that doesn't entail the risk I'll end up talking about "P-ness" and "A-ness" with my lovers' grandmothers. Now, when someone asks me "So what do you DO?" I can say "I study psycholinguistics". And when they look like they are going to run or pass out from anticipated boredom, I can quickly add "Do you remember that news story about the Tickle Me Elmo book that was heard to be issuing death threats? The one that people reported hearing say "Who wants to DIE?" I and other psycholinguists study why and how that sort of thing happens."

I am so happy. Well, I am sad that children may have been terrorized by the unexpected and menancing question asked in a piping caricature of a child's voice, but I am happy that I now have something I can use to establish common ground which might allow me to get over that conversational hump.

2 comments:

WinterWheat said...

Brilliant! I hadn't heard about that book. Loved the sound bite!
It's hard explaining what you do when people have no schema for it, but I think you've come up with an excellent solution.

As a communication scholar, I have no "ist" to fall back on (sadly, "communist" is already taken) so I have the same burden of explaining what I do. Methodologically I'm a social and developmental psychologist (and indeed about half of my doctoral training was in psychology), so I usually say "I'm a social and developmental research psychologist studying mass media effects on children." People usually get it then. The "research" part is needed so people don't mistake me for a clinician. Unfortunately, the department I'm affiliated with is called "Speech Communication," because it's one of the oldest comm depts in the country, and most of them started off as public speaking departments. If I say I'm in Speech Communication, people ask me about their children's lisps. So that's why I stick with research psychologist.

BTW, you must post about the work you're doing. I'd love to learn more about psycholinguistics.

cjblue said...

I just tell everybody you study head bumps.

And guess what: I *did* watch the game. Well, OK, the game was on and I watched the commercials and even liked a couple. Found it amusing that the men pulled out cards (they did invite the women but we weren't interested) and started a game of texas hold-em during halftime, leaving the women hanging out on the couch with the stupid halftime show (oh good god, Mick, I really didn't need to see that) and the game. The men played until halfway through the 4th quarter. My kids were right there with them. They now know more poker terminology than their mama. I am OK with that.

It was the best superbowl party ever, because the game was on but nobody really cared.

Re A scent: It seems to me that you're the pickier one, so it might be best for you to come over or me to go there and have him try a bunch of stuff, see how you react. I'm happy to help though!

R