Talking our way to social order

Some thoughts on the language of Deadwood

The actual town of Deadwood, South Dakota, around 1874

A few years ago, I wrote a piece about the HBO series, Deadwood, about how it uses language as one of the means by which the characters control violence in this ungoverned settlement. Linguists will tell you that in most languages, the length of an utterance is often an indicator of its level of politeness—Good afternoon and what a pleasure it is to see you here today, is more formal and polite than, Hi—but Deadwood takes this sociological truth to a poetic level that few other shows ever attempt, and it is the main thing that sets the show apart. Anyway, I happened to see an interview with show creator, David Milch, in which he talks about the same issues, and I wanted to add his insights to what I had already written, and so I have updated the original piece.

The HBO series, Deadwood, is set in the town of the same name, before it officially became part of South Dakota and the United States itself. It is an actual American town (s…