Pets or Pests? How Linguistic Terminology and Discourse Affects the Perception of American Mustangs

Pets or Pests? How Linguistic Terminology and Discourse Affects the Perception of American Mustangs

Ana Saenz

Throughout the history of the United States, there have been many icons that the American public have chosen to represent the ideal symbol of freedom. This paper recognizes the animal that was chosen for this representation of freedom, or lack thereof, as the American Mustang and their connection to the American people, with respect to the many different experiences shared in the United States. The history of using Mustangs as a symbol of freedom is associated with thought of as being wild, majestic creatures that have wide open spaces to run, and representing the “American Dream,” of having unlimited opportunities. This paper examines the positives and negatives of online terminology that is used to understand how the public views the American Mustang and analyzes the discourse used from public online forums and transcripts. The focus of this research is to understand the fluidity of terms in the (American English) language that the public uses to describe how others may believe the Mustang to be a pet or a pest, and how specific terms affect the overall perception of the animal. The intention of this paper is to attempt at investigating different solutions that have consistent language use, regarding multispecies interrelationships between the American Mustangs and the American public.