Shulman linguistic sarcasm
Professor Shulman explains, "In Hebonics, the response to any question is usually another question with a complaint that is either implied or stated. Thus 'How are you?' may be answered, 'How should I be, with my bad feet?' Shulman says that Hebonics is a superb linguistic vehicle for expressing sarcasm or skepticism. An example is the repetition of a word with "sh" or "shm" at the beginning: "Mountains, shmountains. Stay away. You should want a nosebleed?" Another Hebonics pattern is moving the subject of a sentence to the end, with its pronoun at the beginning: "It's beautiful, that dress." Shulman provided the following examples from his best-selling textbook, Switched-On Hebonics: Question: "What time is it?" English answer: "Sorry, I don't know." Hebonic response: "What am I, a clock?" Remark: "I hope things turn out okay." English answer: "Thanks." Hebonic response: "I should be so lucky!" Remark: "Hurry up. Dinner's ready." English answer: "Be right there." Hebonic response: "Alright already, I'm coming. What's with the 'hurry' business? Is there a fire?" Remark: "I like the tie you gave me; I wear it all the time." English answer: "Glad you like it." Hebonic response: "So what's the matter; you don't like the other ties I gave you?" Remark: "Sarah and I are engaged." English answer: "Congratulations!" Hebonic response: "She could stand to lose a few pounds." Question: "Would you like to go riding with us?" English answer: "Just say when." Hebonic response: "Riding, shmiding! Do I look like a cowboy?" To the guest of honor at a birthday party: English answer: "Happy birthday." Hebonic response: "A year smarter you should become." Remark: "A beautiful day." English answer: "Sure is." Hebonic response: "So the sun is out; what else is new?" Answering a phone call from a son: English answer: "It's been a while since you called." Hebonic response: "You didn't wonder if I'm dead already?" |
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