T-Shirts: Urban Language of Remembrance______37
Research into neuropsychology and neurophysiology has shown that areas
of the brain, primarily the limbic system and amygdala where neurons project to
the hypothalamus, are connected to the cerebral cortex, the so-called higher
brain where certain areas of the brain (e.g., frontal and temporal lobes) are
involved with language (Snyder 44). Such insights into brain structure and
function have relevance here since language has neuroanatomical correlates.
Therefore, the role that emotions play in shaping language of remembrance
cannot be overlooked.
Even if the composer of the memorial message might not be able to be
interviewed, it can be inferred that those individuals responsible for the structure
of the messages take an emotional component of communication into account as
they go about the task of designing T-shirts with an emotionally charged
message. Thus composers of T-shirt language summon these emotional
components of grief, loss, pain, and social ties in shaping communication and
the tone of feeling that accompanies the way in which readers interpret the
language of remembrance. This process of evoking emotional language,
specifically that of remembrance, takes place whether the method of
communication is oral or written. Zoltan Kovecses takes a similar view when he
claims that “conscious feelings are expressed and spread through language”
(36). Therefore, in composing the message of T-shirts as forms of remembrance,
issues of emotion are central to such an undertaking.
Coupled with an emotional component of the message seen on T-shirts to
denote remembrance, composers of T-shirt messages choose language that
readers can easily comprehend. Unlike speech, where feedback is immediate,
the language of T-shirts must be processed with no help from composers. An
example of language that is easy to comprehend is R.I.P. This statement is a
type of universal language to mark the departure of a loved one, and family and
friends frequently use this choice of language to convey to others their
sentiments about the deceased individual. Thus, the use of language and its
emotional components are closely linked in conveying words of remembrance to
readers of the language of T-shirts.
To this point, communication within a minimalist perspective has been
considered and the chief concern is with the basic features of communication
involving senders, a medium, and receivers of the message. However, a feature
of communication that has relevance to this topic is discourse analysis.
T-shirt Language as Discourse
All forms of discourse address the functions of language, the structure of
text, and the relationship between text and context. Discourse, according to
Margaret Wetherell, is the study of language in use (14). One issue that is
central to a study of discourse is that it considers the study of language as social
action. In othe