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Part of being a college student is expanding your vocabulary. Especially when you're reading a whole bunch of scholarly articles in journals.
This week, I've learned quite a few of them:
alterity - An anthropological and philosophical term used to refer to "the other."
Example: In South Park, the alterity of Canadians are indicated using flapping heads and beady eyes (like Terrence and Phillip, and Ike).
diegetic - Describes parts of a work of fiction (story, movie, etc.) that are actually part of the fictional characters' universe. Non-diegetic describes those elements that are not actually in the universe.
Examples: Most narrators are non-diegetic. Most of the time, when a storyteller says "Once upon a time..." they are non-diegetic, because they don't exist within the world of the story. However, a narrator can be diegetic, as in the case of Moby Dick: "Call me Ishmael" - where Ishmael clearly is a player in the drama.
An example from film: In Star Wars, John Williams' well-known soundtrack is non-diegetic, because it doesn't exist within the universe of Star Wars: Luke and Leia cannot hear the music being played as they run from the Stormtroopers. However, the Cantina Band is diegetic, because Han and Chewie can hear it as they sit in the Mos Eisley Cantina.
heuristic - A way of solving a problem, usually informal.
Examples: Trial & error, "rules of thumb", educated guesses, intuitive judgments and common sense are all heuristics.
imbricated - Overlapping, like roof shingles or fish scales. Has come to have an additional meaning of "intertwined" in academic jargon, but it's really just a pretentious word that adds nothing to discourse except to exclude those who don't know it, and I personally don't plan on using it when "overlapping" and "intertwined" work just as well, and with more precision.
indexicality - An indexical word is one that symbolically points to (or indicates) some state of affairs.
Examples: "I" refers to whoever is speaking; "now" refers to the time at which that word is uttered; and "here" refers to the place of utterance.
tautology - A rhetorical phrase that contains unnecessary redundancy, and reveals nothing new.
Example: "Free gift" is a tautology, because a gift, by definition, is free, making the word redundant.
trope(1) - In linguistics, a trope is a turn of phrase, as in irony, metaphor, or allegory.
Example: Describing poverty as "good times" is an ironic trope. Describing a courageous person as "having the heart of a lion" is a metaphoric trope.
trope(2) - In literature (and, by extension, film), a trope is a common theme (similar to a cliché, but without a pejorative connotation).
Example: The concept of a "misunderstood monster" is a trope, of which Frankenstein is the best-known example.
unheimlich - Freudian concept of "the uncanny," something unsettling which is both strangely familiar and foreign at the same time.
Example: Canada, for me, is unheimlich, because it is so culturally familiar, yet simultaneously strangely foreign - like looking at the United States through a fun house mirror.
This week, I've learned quite a few of them:
alterity - An anthropological and philosophical term used to refer to "the other."
Example: In South Park, the alterity of Canadians are indicated using flapping heads and beady eyes (like Terrence and Phillip, and Ike).
diegetic - Describes parts of a work of fiction (story, movie, etc.) that are actually part of the fictional characters' universe. Non-diegetic describes those elements that are not actually in the universe.
Examples: Most narrators are non-diegetic. Most of the time, when a storyteller says "Once upon a time..." they are non-diegetic, because they don't exist within the world of the story. However, a narrator can be diegetic, as in the case of Moby Dick: "Call me Ishmael" - where Ishmael clearly is a player in the drama.
An example from film: In Star Wars, John Williams' well-known soundtrack is non-diegetic, because it doesn't exist within the universe of Star Wars: Luke and Leia cannot hear the music being played as they run from the Stormtroopers. However, the Cantina Band is diegetic, because Han and Chewie can hear it as they sit in the Mos Eisley Cantina.
heuristic - A way of solving a problem, usually informal.
Examples: Trial & error, "rules of thumb", educated guesses, intuitive judgments and common sense are all heuristics.
imbricated - Overlapping, like roof shingles or fish scales. Has come to have an additional meaning of "intertwined" in academic jargon, but it's really just a pretentious word that adds nothing to discourse except to exclude those who don't know it, and I personally don't plan on using it when "overlapping" and "intertwined" work just as well, and with more precision.
indexicality - An indexical word is one that symbolically points to (or indicates) some state of affairs.
Examples: "I" refers to whoever is speaking; "now" refers to the time at which that word is uttered; and "here" refers to the place of utterance.
tautology - A rhetorical phrase that contains unnecessary redundancy, and reveals nothing new.
Example: "Free gift" is a tautology, because a gift, by definition, is free, making the word redundant.
trope(1) - In linguistics, a trope is a turn of phrase, as in irony, metaphor, or allegory.
Example: Describing poverty as "good times" is an ironic trope. Describing a courageous person as "having the heart of a lion" is a metaphoric trope.
trope(2) - In literature (and, by extension, film), a trope is a common theme (similar to a cliché, but without a pejorative connotation).
Example: The concept of a "misunderstood monster" is a trope, of which Frankenstein is the best-known example.
unheimlich - Freudian concept of "the uncanny," something unsettling which is both strangely familiar and foreign at the same time.
Example: Canada, for me, is unheimlich, because it is so culturally familiar, yet simultaneously strangely foreign - like looking at the United States through a fun house mirror.
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You misspelled "alterity." :-)
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I think we'll let it slide this time, since it was a new word to you, and you hadn't learned how to spell it yet. :-)
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(Actually, the Heimlich maneuver is named for its inventor, Dr. Henry Heimlich, who now heads the Heimlich Institute affiliated with Deaconess Hospital in Cincinnati.)
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Which means Dr. Henry Heimlich is homely. ;-)