Analysis of the pick-up line in spoken English

With the development of the times,our life performed a u-turn,from traditional to modern,from modern to advancing.Also,the language has changed following the times-the using of language in our life from official to spoken ,from tedious to interesting.Some funny expressions is everywhere to be seen, in different situations or contexts.Nowadays,because of new technologies and media,new digital generation pick-up lines are constantly being created,especially the communication between male and female become more funny compared to the past.Therefore,in this paper i will simply analyze the pick-up line in spoken English.

To the beginning,i will shortly introduce what’s the pick-up line.A pick-up line,also called chat-up line ,is a conversation opener with the intent of engaging an unfamiliar person for romance or dating. Overt and sometimes humorous displays of romantic interest, pick-up lines advertise the wit of their speakers to their target listeners.And pick-up lines are often used as 'ice-breakers' when meeting a person for the first time, as they tend to be casual and open-ended, offering the opportunity for romantic banter or some witty repartee.(from Wikipedia)

Then, i will list several kinds of pick-up line and give some explanations.

1.the dividend of word.

This kind of pick-up line is divide a single word into different words,then the original meaning of this word can be translated to another meaning which consist of these divided words’.Take the Chinese character“您”as an example,when one boy use this word to call you,you maybe little bit angry at once you heard,but after listening his following explanation you must be with happy in your mind.And he said:“because you are in my heart(你在我心上).”So that where the funny words expressions is.The same goes for In English,the situation when a boy with a girl in restaurant and ask the girl:“You know what's on the menu?”Normally the answer is some food,but the boy answer is ME-N-U(me and you).So this is the pick-up line’s charming and the wonderful implied meaning of one single word!

2.Polysemy

Polysemy means a word or phrase with different, but related senses.And the pick-up line is happen to use this function of the word.For example,one boy asked:“Are you a bank loan?”Maybe the girl is puzzling,but the answer is“because you got my interest.”The “Interest”have two means one is the feeling that you have when you want to know or learn more about somebody or something,another is in finance the extra money that you pay back when you borrow money or that you receive when you invest money.Here,the pick-up line just use the first means of the word “interest”.Another example,someone ask “What's your blood type?”“B.”And the one said“No, you are my type.”here,the word “type”is interesting,expressing different meaning in different context.Therefore,this kind of pick-up line just smartly adapt different means of one word to different context and express his feeling in a humorous way.

3.Associative expression

The associative is the most creative expression of the user who needs to connect two unrelated expressions  in some way unobtrusively and semantically.For example,One say:“Do you have a map?”The girl maybe confused with this question,but he answered“I'm getting lost in your eyes.”How humorous and funny way to catch the girls heart!In this pick-up line,“you”like the maze,and the man is crazy about you.So if he got the map,he can catch you.That’s where the function of pick-up line comes in,using houmous expressions to transmit one’s mind.

In short,this kind of pick-up line can be called a language game,using the words in more creative way,but also reflect some social phenomena,the development of digital world and the emerging of cyber languages.We should know the essence of pick-up line,using words in creative ways,but we shouldn’t forget our traditional culture in the same time.After all,this kind of expression is mostly for funny and humor,using more easy way to communicate with others.