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2004-09-05 - 6:29 p.m.

This is something I posted on my linguistics class webct page thing. We have to notice stuff with language (so just about everything...) and then analyze it. This is what I chose to talk about...

Data: Last week at about 7:00 a.m., I was waiting for my turn to merge onto the H1 East-bound at the University on-ramp. After the car in front of me found a gap and took it, I checked to see if there was enough room for me to go. After one car passed I saw a whole large enough for my Civic to make the merge. As I floored it, I noticed that the car that I thought was far enough away to allow me to merge was coming up awfully fast and getting pretty close but I also noticed that I was beyond the point of no return. To make a short story even shorter, a second-and-a-half later the driver was on the left side of me halfway in the middle and right lane flipping me off as he passed and yelling what I could only assume were obscenities. He cut in front of me and pointed to the right towards the King St. exit, turned around yelling (again I assume) more obscenities, and I even saw him rolling down his window to try and shout out that window too. As he moved towards the King St. exit, I passed him, put up my middle finger and drove past.

Analysis: In driving, as in every other aspects of life, there are many non-verbal gestures and cues that give meaning to otherwise meaningless things. Things like the left blinker lets other drivers know that you�re going to turn left or move left a lane. Things like the brake lights not being on lets other drivers know that you�re not stepping on the brakes and are likely accelerating, and especially at an on-ramp such as University, with your foot to the floor.

But perhaps the most intriguing ones were the gestures that this guy was making towards me and me towards him. His pointing to the right with an off-ramp coming up probably implied he wanted to talk to me in a parking lot or at least someplace safer than the shoulder of the freeway. And by the enthusiastic pointing he was doing, it was probably an indication that it was something he held to high importance. In addition, while I couldn�t hear him, the look on his face indicated to me that he seemed pretty angry. And as a little plus, seeing him roll down his window on the freeway to try and yell out of it, I figure he was angry enough to not be thinking straight.

While all of his non-verbal language is only interpretation on my part, I do know what I meant when I put up my middle finger towards him. It meant a big �Yeah, fuck you too buddy.�

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