All 12 Uses of
conscious
in
Do You Speak American?
- In Pittsburgh, this local reinforcement through language has become highly self-conscious, a constant topic of conversation and regular features in the local press.†
Chpt 2self-conscious = nervousness or discomfort felt by someone due to concern about what others will think of them
- So—there is an evident, self-conscious class factor in how people wish their speech to be perceived.†
Chpt 3 *
- One feature of Texas talk is how people employ it self-consciously as part of their identity.†
Chpt 4self-consciously = with nervousness or discomfort felt by someone due to concern about what others will think of them
- All these things operate beneath consciousness, of course, making their detection even harder.†
Chpt 2
- Another Factor: Local Pride and Identity So—mysterious forces within society, operating beneath consciousness, are driving significant language change, making Americans from one region harder for others to understand at a time when other mass trends in our society are toward conformity.†
Chpt 2
- So MacNeil consciously began trying to modify those vowels, but found that it is not easy to change one's speech pattern—Shaw's Eliza Doolit-tle notwithstanding.†
Chpt 3 *
- He says that hip-hop guards its "street-conscious" identity, using "slang" to connect with African Americans but standard English grammar to appeal to the white audience: "Many hip hop artists know that white suburban fans are attracted to those artists that maintain a core Black urban audience.†
Chpt 6
- He says that the more attention hip-hop artists pay to their speech, the more nonstandard it becomes, raising an interesting question: "Can the conscious use of these forms in the hip hop and the society as a whole, contribute to the continued Afro-Americanization' of African American Language," making it "more and more distinct from other varieties of English?"†
Chpt 6
- When people with different patterns of speech try to communicate with each other, both sides of the conversation quite unconsciously shift their accent toward the middle.†
Chpt 7 *unconsciously = not in a self-aware mannerstandard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unconsciously means not and reverses the meaning of consciously. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky. Also note that while many people use this as a synonym for subconsciously, experts in the mind may distinguish a difference.
- Jayk quite unconsciously used like thirteen times, in both senses, in the next sixty-nine words: "Yeah, like, I, like, what I say, like, sometimes people just don't understand it, like, I, my terminology for certain things, which is, like, like, who, my clique, my group, like my friends, like, nobody else understands it, so if I go someplace new, they are, like, they don't know it so, like, and they are, like, they are, like, 'What are you talking about?†
Chpt 7
- Does it indicate some unconscious uncertainty lurking in the psyches of young Californians and young Americans elsewhere?†
Chpt 7 *unconscious = a state similar to sleep where one is unaware of anythingstandard prefix: The prefix "un-" in unconscious means not and reverses the meaning of conscious. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.
- Does changing language mean a changing American consciousness?†
Chpt 7
Definitions:
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(1)
(conscious as in: conscious after the operation) awake (not asleep or in a state similar to sleep where one is unaware of anything)
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(2)
(conscious as in: a conscious effort to lose weight) intentional (done on purpose) -- perhaps with significant effort
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(3)
(conscious as in: environmentally conscious) aware or concerned about something
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(4)
(conscious as in: the conscious mind) mental activity of which one is self-aware
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(5)
(conscious as in: conscious life on other planets) capable of thought, self-reflection, and will