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From TV Personality to Fans and Beyond: Indexical Bleaching and the Diffusion of a Media Innovation
Author(s) -
Squires Lauren
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of linguistic anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.463
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1548-1395
pISSN - 1055-1360
DOI - 10.1111/jola.12036
Subject(s) - indexicality , phrase , meaning (existential) , personality , sociology , linguistics , psychology , advertising , social psychology , philosophy , psychotherapist , business
This article focuses on the role of indexical social meaning in the adoption, circulation, and diffusion of a mass media innovation. The analysis is a case study of the phrase “lady pond,” a euphemism for women as objects of desire. The phrase's use was popularized by a television personality on the cable network Bravo and has spread beyond those who demonstrate recognition of its media origins. Through a detailed analysis of the phrase in use on Twitter, I investigate the properties of the phrase as it “travels” from Bravo to Bravo fans and beyond. I show that the phrase is used with the same form and meaning as on Bravo, and it is semantically and stylistically integrated into users' repertoires. However, it loses its indexical links to Bravo through “indexical bleaching,” which I argue is an outcome of the phrase's recontextualized circulation and a facilitator of its further diffusion.