What “Mushfaking” Means and The Types of Discourses

Upon reading “Literacy, Discourse, and Linguistics: Introduction” I noticed a few terms that stood out to me. I’ve never heard of these terms before, but the text successfully defines them. To start, I came across the term “Primary Discourse” which the author described as the initial discourse we use to make sense of society and interact with other people. We can acquire this primary discourse at an early age through home life or peer group such as classmates or a teacher at school. The author then goes on to define the term “Secondary Discourse”. Secondary Discourse is a discourse we develop through places outside of home or the initial school, such as churches, businesses, and organizations. A good way to tell the difference between a “Dominant” and “Nondominant” discourse is as follows. A Dominant discourse is one that brings social goods such as money and status advancements along with it. A nondominant discourse is one that could bring harmony with a certain social network, but does not bring such social goods as money. Finally, the last term I noticed was the phrase “mushfake”. This word was defined as “doing something less when the real thing is not available”, coming from prison culture. When you create something that you can’t get a hold of with whatever you have around you, that is a mushfake.