Dr Laura Bailey from the Department of English Language & Linguistics has had her research into the use of the word ‘cheeky’ highlighted in a new article on the website Mental Floss.
Mental Floss aims to bring interesting facts, trivia, things you didn’t know and things to put a smile on your face, to its readers. In the article, entitled ‘The New Meaning of ‘Cheeky’ that Got Americans Confused’, part of a series on internet linguistics, Gretchen McCulloch, using Laura Bailey’s research, looks at the use of the word ‘cheeky’ following a recent buzz on the internet about ‘having a cheeky Nando’s’.
Dr Laura Bailey and her colleague Dr Mercedes Durham, from Cardiff University, ran a survey on the use and understanding of the word ‘cheeky’ and whether it sounded natural or awkward. The survey showed that everyone understood the older meaning of cheeky, i.e. ‘cheeky monkey’ – meaning a misbehaving child, but British respondents had a better understanding of ‘cheeky Nando’s’ or ‘cheeky beer’ than the Americans or other countries. Extended meanings of ‘cheeky’ rated lower as people did not think exercise, teachers, water and dinner at Italian restaurants were usually cheeky.
Laura said ‘this is one of the most exciting things about doing linguistics: a silly meme that was viral for about a week and then vanished highlighted both a regional difference in the use of cheeky and a new-ish use of the word among younger people.’
The full results of the survey are available on Laura’s blog Linguistlaura at http://linguistlaura.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/some-cheeky-findings.html
The Mental Floss article can be seen at: http://m.mentalfloss.com/article/66021/new-meaning-cheeky-thats-got-americans-confused