Across the Columbus campus, amidst the booming chants of “O-H-I-O,” a linguistic debate has emerged: whether to say “THE Ohio State University” or its more casual counterpart, “Ohio State.” What may seem like a trivial difference in article usage has heightened into a fierce battle: sparking debates, eye rolls, stop sign uprooting, and car flipping among the Buckeyes (and beyond). We have found a dearth of studies examining these behaviors in diverse populations. We seek to fill this gap in the existing literature, delve into the absurdities of this lexical divide, and provide promising areas for future researchers to explore.
Our work involves qualitative studies conducted at a large, research-focused university in the Midwestern region of the United States, and on populations from this community that have moved elsewhere in the United States to spread TheTM Buckeye Nation while donning “Ohio Against The World” t-shirts. Here, we present preliminary results including myriad emergent themes from survey and interview responses that point to potential factors involved in the choice to emphasize “THE”.
We propose theoretical models of the factors that influence the decision to say “THE Ohio State University” or “Ohio State”. These leverage the theoretical frameworks surrounding Meme use and spread described in “Memes in digital culture” (Shifman 2013), and Jenny Talia’s construction of Theoretical Influence Tableaux (TITs) (2008).
As a brief vignette, we provide illustrative quotes from two one-on-one interviews. Participant Mike Oxmall noted “Saying THE is what makes sure everyone knows you are a true Buckeye, who actually knows the words to Carmen and that you ‘take his shoe’ and then ghost his mom too.” We identified the codes of Overcompensation and School Pride. In a Zoom interview from a purple LED-lined room, participant Andy Johnson declared, “I don’t know, I feel like there’s really only one legitimate university in Ohio, ‘THE’ is redundant.” Here, we see a robust presentation of Being a shut-in throughout college.
Further quantitative work is needed to compare the relative effect sizes of each factor and to provide more detailed information on the proportions of the “THE” and the “No THE” populations across various demographics. We hope that this research will provide insight into the effect of propaganda in frivolous and unprofound contexts. Future directions of the research team will be toward examining the number of socially acceptable group “O-H… I-O” chants deemed by “THE” and “No THE” populations. We would like to thank those who participated in this study and the few “THE” people who somehow managed to read this far.
Authored by Malik, Idris (Ohio State Alum) and Kandakatla, Alex (THE Ohio State University Student)