for science

[daisysusan]

Because of a conversation I had with [Poll #1763689]My apologies for the US-centric nature of the regional options, but I'm most interested in whether it's a regional dialect thing within the States or not. Thanks for voting!

Comments

[scorpiod1.livejournal.com]

Okay this is odd, but for the first one, I tend to think it's either the second option or the third option. IT'S JUST DEPENDS ON THE CONTEXT FOR ME.

What is this convo even about anyway?

[daisysusan.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know what you mean. I sometimes use "hook up" to mean the first option, but it someone says it to me, I assume they mean "got naked and enjoyed themselves."

The conversation was not all that in-depth, but it was something like us talking about people using hook up to mean sex versus to mean everything-but-sex and then wondering whether it was regional. So I was like, I should make an LJ poll. And then this happened.

[thatsapplejack.livejournal.com]

derp derp i have been terrible about reading my flist for WEEKS, which is awful and i hate it, but tumblr brought me here, so YAY HIIIII.

i answered "something else" even though that doesn't really apply - when i SAY hooked up, i usually mean "everything but sex," but when i HEAR it, i usually assume they mean sex. this is RIDICULOUS THOUGH, WHY DO I THINK THIS WAY? i've never thought about it before. that's weird, right? i wonder where that comes from.

so uh yeah, sorry my answer probably won't contribute anything to your research... but i'm interested in linguistics and such so i'm excited to see what comes of this too!

[daisysusan.livejournal.com]

That is ridiculous but also interesting, lol.

If I get enough responses, I'll probably make a chart or something BECAUSE I AM A GIANT NERD. So feel free to reblog or whatever.

[softly-me.livejournal.com]

To me, "hook up" means anything from make out to have sex. I used to think it meant to have sex, but then I started living in a student house in London with people who frequently used that term and did NOT mean sex. It led to more than a few awkward moments. Basically, my roommate had sex with this guy (they 'hooked up'). My friend made out with a guy while they were dancing at a club (they 'hooked up').

[daisysusan.livejournal.com]

So both the second and third options, basically? That makes sense.

[goldy-dollar.livejournal.com]

FUCK YEAH CENTRAL CANADA.

Yes that is basically all I have to contribute. :p

[daisysusan.livejournal.com]

LOL. ♥

[canadian-plant.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I'd need to have context to differentiate. I think I'd be able to tell if someone meant sex versus hanging out, but neither feels like the dominate meaning to me. Hmm. Well, maybe I'd assume sex when it was used in the past tense ("Jill and I hooked up last night"). Asking, "Do you want to hook up later?" doesn't sound inherently sexual, though.

Hi, I came via tumblr. I have a linguistics degree so this topic can really get me thinking XD

[daisysusan.livejournal.com]

That makes a lot of sense; I tend to think that way as well, but sex is kind of the dominant meaning for me.

Hi! I was hoping to get a broader group of people through tumblr, because MORE DATA = BETTER.

[queer-theory.livejournal.com]

I don't automatically assume anything. I wait for context.

[daisysusan.livejournal.com]

Making you, probably, a much wiser person than the rest of us.

[queer-theory.livejournal.com]

LOL... Probably not. I've just been in enough situations where I assumed something and it wasn't what the person meant. :P

[hm-yrie.livejournal.com]

So hooking-up is anything that falls in the range of heavy-make-out-session up to just short of intercourse. (So, for example, oral sex would fall in "hook up")

[daisysusan.livejournal.com]

I find this amusingly specific.

[myr-soleil.livejournal.com]

I said I came from Eastern Canada but obviously most of my knowledge of spoken English comes from TV (or Internet I guess) so maybe that doesn't have the same impact for your poll. SORRY I'M SCREWING EVERYTHING UP!!

[daisysusan.livejournal.com]

No, it's fine! I am just curious! :D

[quickpixie.livejournal.com]

Oh hey, all right! Two things: One, I am not the only one representing from SE, and Two, the majority of people (so far) agree with my definition of 'hooking up.' You have no idea how many awkward conversations I've had re: different definitions.

[daisysusan.livejournal.com]

SOUTHEAST REPRESENT. I'm from North Carolina, lol.

And it totally means have sex.

[quickpixie.livejournal.com]

<3 I'm from Florida (the part that's still super Southern aka the part where I'm about twenty minutes from the GA border). Yay SE!

It totally does. What else could it mean?

[daisysusan.livejournal.com]

I'm from Charlotte, which is oddly not super Southern despite being about 45 minutes from South Carolina. I think it's because of all the people who move there from up North combined with being a pretty big city.

I REALLY CAN'T THINK OF ANYTHING.

[quickpixie.livejournal.com]

I'm in Jax right now, which, despite our influx of Northerners, has still managed to remain remarkably Southern. Size really doesn't matter here and that's not a good thing. :/

I KNOW THERE IS NOTHING ELSE OKAY

[daisysusan.livejournal.com]

Well, Charlotte's a lot bigger? I dunno.

[quickpixie.livejournal.com]

I think, actually, that Jacksonville is a little bigger, both population and land mass wise. It's just that it's never developed into a city. :/ It's still just basically a small town spread out over a fuckton of land.

[daisysusan.livejournal.com]

You're right; Jacksonville is bigger. The Charlotte metro area is bigger, though. I dunno, I haven't actually been to Florida since I was 9.

[quickpixie.livejournal.com]

It is. Jacksonville's metro area consists of banks and companies and downtown is just generally businesses all around. I haven't been to Charlotte proper in a couple of years, but its airport *is* one of my favorite hubs to fly through? Ugh, but seriously, Jacksonville. So completely made of fail.

[daisysusan.livejournal.com]

Charlotte's downtown was a lot like that for a long time; it's only in the last 15 years or so that a huge effort has been made to give it more variety/nightlight/whatever. The airport is a huge one, comparatively speaking, like in the top 15 in the world in terms of traffic.

The last time I went to Jacksonville was aaaaaages ago, back when my grandmother lived in Lake City, but she moved to the mountains of North Carolina ten years ago, so.

[quickpixie.livejournal.com]

Jax keeps saying they're going to do something, but so far, nothing. Downtown still remains lifeless after five o'clock.

Oh, man. I'm ridiculously familiar with Charlotte's airport. I've flown through so many times, I feel like I know it better than I know the Northside.

[daisysusan.livejournal.com]

That's a bummer. :(

Oh goodness, wow. I know it ridiculous well, but that's kind of to be expected.

[reogulus.livejournal.com]

hook up = sex
idk i learned that from the internet

[daisysusan.livejournal.com]

YOU LEARNED RIGHT.



not that my deeply scientific study is biased or anything

[urania-chan.livejournal.com]

Polls! I like polls! :)

Haha, but I guess my answer isn't of much use, considering I only learned English as a foreign language. xD
But to explain my answer a bit: to me it could mean all of the possibilities, it would really depend on the context...

[daisysusan.livejournal.com]

I lot people have said that, actually, a plenty of them are native English speakers.

[urania-chan.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's interesting. :)

[amoenavi.livejournal.com]

Haii bb! Polllllllls.

In MA (or in the greater Metro Boston area to mid-western MA XD) "hooking up" is a really specific phrase to use and thus only really used when something sexual happened anywhere from making out to sex.

[daisysusan.livejournal.com]

Huh, that's interesting. So no one in MA uses it to mean anything else? That's cool.

[anna-sg1.livejournal.com]

Like someone else already said, for me it's either the second or the third opetion - heavily depends on context - tho it mostly tends to be third.

[daisysusan.livejournal.com]

I'm starting to wish I'd included an option that encompassed both of those. Whoops.

[fledmusic.livejournal.com]

I assume people mean sex, though sometimes I will clarify, depending on how well I know the person. (Am I the only one who started singing "I Do Not Hook Up" by KClarkson???? LOL)

[daisysusan.livejournal.com]

Good, you assume the proper thing, lol. (And yes.)

[waluk.livejournal.com]

I tend to think they mean "hang out" unless it's in the past tense, like someone else mentioned.
And you know I'm from Charlotte too. :3

[daisysusan.livejournal.com]

Woooooo Charlotte!

(It's really interesting how this doesn't seem to be regionally divided at all. I think people mean sex.)