Date:    Mon, 1 Jun 1998 22:13:23 -0500
<br>From:    Mike Salovesh <salovesh[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]NIU.EDU>
<br>Subject: Re: "You know what I mean"
<br>
<br>Maria Sansalone wrote:
<br>>
<br>> Hi:
<br>>    I'm an editor at Merriam-Webster, Inc., the reference publishers.
<br>> I recently got a call from a college professor who would like
<br>> information on the phrase, "You know what I mean." He says that he's
<br>> been hearing it quite a bit in the speech of black college students.
<br>> He'd like to know if it's rooted in a recent movie, but from my brief
<br>> look into it, it appears to go back to at least the 20s in familiar
<br>> speech.  I appreciate any information.  Maria Sansalone
<br>
<br>Wow.  That calls for an anecdotal reply:
<br>
<br>25 years ago, I taught a graduate seminar jointly with a political
<br>scientist.  (I do political anthropology.)  We devoted the first several
<br>meetings to consideration of the word "WYKWIM", an acronym for "Well,
<br>you know what I mean".  We used the word to indicate that WYKWIM assumes
<br>a commonality of background and tradition that is not necessarily
<br>there.  The only proper answer to WYKWIM in our situation was "No, I
<br>don't KWYM."
<br>
<br>The point was that even though we often used the same words, they came
<br>with entirely different baggage laid on by our different professional
<br>cultures.  He and I were well aware of those differences, because we
<br>both were inclined to multidisciplinary approaches -- but his political
<br>science students were amazed at the "ignorance" of my anthropology
<br>students, and vice versa.  That's why we taught the seminar in the first
<br>place.  By its end, we had a much wiser body of participants.  They
<br>proved it by recognizing that many troubles in communication come out of
<br>false WYKWIMming.
<br>
<br>--  mike salovesh                               <salovesh[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]niu.edu>
<br>    anthropology department
<br>    northern illinois university                     PEACE !!!
<br>
<br>P.S.:  Just before clicking "send", I remembered a song from the early
<br>50s.  It was sung to U.S. armed forces people in bars all over Japan,
<br>Korea, and the Far East Command.  The words I remember went
<br>
<br>        "Met a girl in Tokyo, you know who I mean
<br>         Said her name was Michiko, you know who I mean . . . "
<br>
<br>The base clearly was an earlier, and well-established, "you know what I
<br>mean".  Maybe some other Korean War veteran might be able to provide
<br>more of the words.
<br>
<br>And now, dammit, that song will be roaring around in my head for hours.
<br>Thanks, I guess.  NOT.
<br>