Wednesday, October 03, 2007
Critically assess the following statement, "Mug your head!"
At first glance, the sentence has no syntax nor meaning. But to understand it, we must look at the pragmatics of the sentence. To 'mug' is a common lingo among students to refer to studying. And 'Mug your head!' must have been used by a depressed student trying to scold another fellow student whom he sees as 'mugging' too much.
'Mug' is an ambiguous word for it has many meanings. However, when we put 'mug' in this context, our brain automatically narrows it down to 'mug' as in studying. A mug however is a glass or cup and has no influence in this sentence whatsoever. But in this context, 'muggers' refer to people who study excessively. So we can hear people at the library constantly complaining to their fellow friends, "Look, another mugger who's going to be at the right-end of the bell curve, and frag me who will be at the left-end."
This leads on to another word, being 'frag'. The word 'frag' originated from the game CounterStrike, where 'fragging' means to obtain a kill against a member of the opposite team. Hence, to 'frag' means to win or to dominate over another person. Which, when put into the sentence, it makes sense.
How does 'your head' fit into the statement? If we were to study, the information will be encoded into the brain and not the head. Likewise, the information can be consolidated in the brain and it has nothing to do with the head at all. But, 'your head' is used here because we tend to generalise and regard both the brain and head as a single chunk.
All in all, 'mug your head' is actually a useful and meaningful sentence used to put down another student, who in your opinion, is studying too much. It is also used when a person is depressed, under stress or otherwise in an abnormal state of psychological well being.
In conclusion, MUG YOUR HEAD LAH!
Editor note: It's muggles for Harry Potter, point taken! =p
思念是一种病 {12:26 am}
