Love Island Lingo (Part 1)
How contestants of Love Island UK use sociolect to fit in with the group
Hey everyone! Welcome back to Everything Literacy.
For this post, in anticipation of the forthcoming summer series that starts next week on Monday 3rd June 2024, I will explore how group dynamics affect the sociolect of contestants on the TV show Love Island, specifically the UK version. (I haven’t seen any other versions of the show, so from this point forward I will refer to the show as Love Island UK in the interest of clarity.)
First, a note on sociolect. The definition is: ‘the dialect of a particular social class’.
Sociolect is the next step beyond the language of the family unit, and it can be informed by participation in many different types of groups, including:
Regional location (the feature more widely attributed to the term ‘dialect’)
Religious affiliation
Sports club membership
Adolescence (when use of slang peaks)
Job/industry
Hobbies
Other groups with a common goal (which may or may not feature culty aspects)
Language is a uniting force. I briefly touched on this in my last post when I considered how our idiolect builds up through the relationships and eras of our lives. Savvy Love Island UK contestants utilise specific words/phrases associated with the show, whether consciously or unconsciously. The sociolect appears to be a mixture of slang, regional dialect and a form of show-specific jargon.
It has always struck me how easily so many of the contestants of Love Island UK, or ‘islanders’ as they are known on the show, have assimilated into the role of the typical islander. The contestants use language to fit in with the group, and therefore may need to use language that is outside of their normal sociolects.
For starters, the show is made up largely of regular UK citizens aged around 18-30 years old (I say ‘largely’ because a couple of previous contestants are children of people with celebrity status), which means they are more than likely viewers of previous series. As the show (in its current iteration) has been running since 2015, there has been plenty of time for the sociolect to establish, and for contestants to learn the appropriate stock words/phrases that if used correctly will help to cement their place within the group.
Regarding group dynamics, the set up of Love Island UK means that people who would usually fall into non-primary groups (i.e. where members can participate physically and emotionally as much/little as they choose) are forced into faux primary groups, which are more intimate connections usually reserved for family, friends and close work colleagues. The reason the contestants begin to use the same sociolect, whether they would normally use these terms in their lives before entering the show or not, is due to the strong influence primary groups have over their members.
As I have an avid interest in language, both in written and spoken modes, I have collected many examples of the sociolect of Love Island UK. (There are too many to cover in just one post, hence the ‘Part 1’ in this post’s title!)
Firstly, I have selected my top ten words/phrases that are essential for every contestant (and viewer) to know:
‘Graft’ - to speak with many different contestants in order to find a romantic partnership. It has connotations of ‘hard work’ and of a grounded ‘everyman’ who is just trying to get on in life.
‘Crack on’ - to participate in ‘grafting’. This phrase can be used both as a statement of intent and as permission from another contestant (romantic partner hopeful and love rival alike).
‘Muggy’ - to take an action that is outside of ‘bro-code’/‘girl-code’ (i.e. social etiquette).
‘Pied’ - to be released from a romantic partnership, often unceremoniously.
‘Test’ - to try out a second romantic partnership to see if the first one is strong. In recent years, this term has been bandied about by contestants who have found a romantic partner early in the series, and who appear to be hedging their bets.
‘Head turned’ - to pursue a romantic partnership with a different romantic partner than the current one.
‘On paper’ - to state one’s usual checklist of desired attributes in a romantic partner. This can be used both when a contestant is following their usual checklist and when they are deviating from it.
‘A bit of me’ - to declare that a contestant holds the desired attributes of a romantic partner.
‘Moving mad’ - to start ‘grafting’ another contestant before adequately dealing with the feelings of the current one.
‘I’m open’ / ‘I’m closed (off)’ - to declare a stance of wanting to get to know other contestants romantically or not.
However, phrases that particularly allude to the insular nature of being a contestant on the show, and betray how culty participation in the show can become, include:
‘On the outside (world)’ / ‘on the inside’ - these phrases demonstrate the isolated nature of being on the show. The longer a contestant has stayed on the show, the more institutionalised they become. The real world (and their normal lives) outside of the show becomes the alternative reality, which is reduced to a concept of life ‘outside’. This word also has connotations of prison life, although contestants clearly have the freedom to leave at any time. Finally, the contestants’ normal lives as they knew them are not waiting for them ‘outside’. When they do eventually leave the show, for a time at least, they will be well-known to the general public and will therefore be treated differently.
‘It is what it is’ - this phrase is regarded as a ‘thought-terminating cliché’, which is intended to bring critical thinking to a halt. Contestants perhaps use this phrase to pacify themselves when something happens on the show that they are not happy with, but to complain or take action would disrupt the group dynamic or the show’s prescriptive format.
Additionally, there are conflicting relationship dynamics on the show in terms of working as an individual versus working as a group. As an individual, each contestant tries to find a partnership that is either romantic or keeps them on the show longer in hope that they will eventually find a romantic partnership (or else some level of fame, and with it possible lucrative contracts, from anything to event appearances to brand influencing). As a group (ultimately the contestants need to live together and spend 24 hours a day in each other’s company), contestants need to foster friendships to make the experience of participating in the show tolerable, if not enjoyable.
Here are some phrases that are used when the contestant is justifying their actions when they are operating as an individual:
‘Step on toes’ - contestants regularly announce that they are not ‘afraid’ to do this in order to find a romantic partnership.
‘Make a connection’ - this phrase is basically what the show boils down to: can the contestant find a romantic partnership? Perhaps this phrase has become popular because the Gen Z contestants grew up with the internet, where being ‘connected’ has both literal and figurative connotations.
‘I’m in here for myself’ / ‘I’m staying true to myself’ / ‘I back myself’ - these phrases all riff on the theme of the ‘self’. Fundamentally, Love Island UK is a reality show where contestants start as strangers and operate as individuals.
As previously mentioned, I have collected many more examples of words/phrases that are used within the show’s sociolect, which I look forward to sharing with you soon. For now though, I will be listening out for new words/phrases to be added to the sociolect in the forthcoming series of Love Island UK.
Will you be watching the forthcoming series? Do you have any interesting sociolect words that you have heard and would like to share?
Please share your examples of Love Island UK sociolect in the comments section below!
Book of the Week
Title: A Short History of Nearly Everything
Author: Bill Bryson
Fiction/Non-fiction: Non-fiction
Genre: Historical, popular science
Whilst Bryson is best known as a travel writer, he has also written the odd book out of scope of his norm, and this is one of those books. I read A Short History of Nearly Everything when I was at university, so it has been about 20 years since I read it. However, it made a real impact on me. My major takeaways were: how many scientific discoveries were made in a short space of time and how amazing they were, considering the time period in which they were made. If you want a crash course in the history of planet Earth from the big bang to the turn of the millennium, then this book will do the trick. Wildly consumable, and will give you dinner party fodder for years to come.
Word of the Week
Word: histrionics
Word class: noun
Definition: melodramatic behaviour designed to attract attention
Usage: "by now, Anna was accustomed to her mother's histrionics”
Synonyms: dramatics, theatrics
I have chosen this word because it can easily be conflated with the word ‘history’, which links to this week’s Book of the Week. We all know someone who is prone to displays of dramatic behaviour. Now you have another word to describe their antics!
If you have enjoyed reading this post, then please come back next week when I’ll be discussing varieties of UK dialect.
In the meantime, keep reading, keep writing, keep learning.