Slang is much rather a spoken than a literary language. One can identify and distinguish slang words by their contrast with standard vocabulary. Slang words are more expressive, they are mostly ironical words. We use slang to create fresh names to words frequently used in our speech. Very often slang words sound vulgar, cynical and harsh. Slang originates nearly always in speech and so-called “ Good Slang “1 arising from mental acuteness is vital and precise in statement. Slang can awaken imagination because it is very compact and vivid, it gives new life to abstract and old ideas. That is why we have every reason to say that slang is rather emotional than thought language.
There are a lot of synonyms in slang: slang words can be found for food, alcohol drinks, stealing and other violations of the law, death, madness, etc. The idea of pretty girl, for example can be expressed by more than hundred words: peach, flower, sugar, honey, etc. The subject of slang was the reason for many debates and considerations, concerning its nature and the attitude towards it.
I. V. Arnold believes that there is a question whether slang should be considered a helpful source of vocabulary or a manifestation of vocabulary decay has been often discussed.
Some linguists state that there are slang words that appear in a definite period of time, but gradually people get accustomed to them and they do not even considered the slang words. Some of these words are accepted now as literary words, for example: shabby, pall, chap, odd, trip, etc. Many of these words and phrases seem to have become the active strength of the language.
In most cases slang consists of old words with new meanings or new shades of meaning. Slang words are continually appearing.
Slang words are divide according to their place in the vocabulary system. In his book on lexicology of the English language Arnold makes the following subdivision of slang words: “If they denote a new and necessary notion they may prove an enrichment of the vocabulary and be accepted into standard English. If, on the other hand, they make just another addition to a cluster of synonyms, and have nothing but novelty to back them, they die out very quickly, constituting the most changeable part of the vocabulary.” He also suggests another type of subdivision slang words into “general slang“ and “special slang“. General slang words are not specific for any social or professional group.
As for the special slang, it includes words belonging to teenager, student, football, sea slang and so on.
In all languages an important source of slang has been considered the language of students. Such words as: fag, snob, mob, chum, crony, etc. have come into standard English from the language of English schools and universities. The universities of Oxford and Cambridge prefer slang phraseology of their own to all set forms of literary English.
Here is some examples given by Laktionova and Shamlidy2: “cut“ in the sense of dropping an acquaintances, “ fizzing “ – first-rate or splendid, “governor“ – the general term for a male parent, “ plucked “ – defeated or turned back at an examination, etc.
Slang is also wildly used by representatives of different professions. But it should be remembered that if the word only names a special notion, it belongs to terminology and not to slang. “If, on the other hand, it is a jocular name for something that can be described in some other way, it is slang.”3
There are some professional slang words that gradually became general slang words. The distinction between them are not always sharp.
“A great deal of slang comes from the USA: corny, cute, fusspot, teenager, swell, etc. It would be, however, erroneous to suppose that slang is always American in its origin. On the contrary, American slang also contains elements coming from Great Britain, such as “ cheerio “ – “goodbye“, “right-o“ – “yes“ …”, Arnold.4
Slang is considered to be one of the most difficult questions for linguists. At the end of discussion of slang we should notice that the lexical meaning of a slang word contains not only the denotational information but also an emotive. Very often slang words express irony.
Neologisms
The vocabulary of any language constantly changes. Our life is progressing and a lot of new things appear, requiring new words naming them. At the same time another words become out of date and we do not use them in our speech, as a result they drop out of the language. Sometimes a new name is introduced to an old thing that continues to exist. The number of words in a language are not constant.
New words and expressions created for a new notions or things are called neologisms. They may concern different spheres of living, for example some social relationships, such as new form of state: People’s Republic, or they may be something that threatens our lives or environment: nuclear war, acid rain, traffic fumes, etc. Words that name new styles of clothing, footwear, hair-do, dancing are also belong to neologisms, although they are insignificant and short-live. Arnold gives the following definition of neologisms: “… neologism is any word or set expression, formed according to the productive structural patterns or borrowed from another language and felt by the speakers as something new.”4
The intense development of science and industry caused a great number of new words and changed the meanings of old ones: computer, cosmonaut, laser printer, mobile phone, etc. The word “smog“ is also neologism. It was invented in Great Britain. “Smog“ is used to describe a mixture of smoke and fog.
A few words about the structure of some neologisms may be interesting. Prefix re- is one of the most productive prefixes: re-elect, reopen, re-read, re-write, reappear, re-export, resell. “ Dick read and re-read the verse till his turn come …” (R.Kipling, ” The Light That Failed “). The other prefixes are anti- (antiwar, anti-aircraft, anti-fascist, anticyclone, anti-imperialist, etc.), de-, un- (unofficial, undress, unpack); self-, ultra- (ultra-microscopic, ultra-short, ultra-violet); mini- (miniskirt). In John Osborn’s play we may found the following example of using the prefix un-: “ …contemporary un-hero, the desperately unfunny Archie Rice “. The word “ automation “ is very interesting example of forming neologisms. In Arnold’s “ The English Word “ we can found: “ Automation ‘ automatic control of production ‘ is irregularly formed from the stem “ automatic “ – with the help of productive suffix – tion “.
It is difficult to estimate the exact number of words in language because of the constant appearing of so-called nonce-words. Lewis Carroll is one of the most famous writers of nonsense. He wrote the whole nonce poem “Jabberwocky “ in his world-famous book “ Alice In Wonderland“. Carroll used different ways to create nonce words, but the most successful are so-called “ portmanteau “ words.5 They consist of two or more words and include meanings of these words. For example, “slithy “ consists of “ lithe “ and “ slimy “ ; “ mimsy “ is “flimsy “ and “ miserable “. There are also a lot of other very amusing nonce words, e.g. “gyre “ according to Humpty-Dumpty’s explanation is means“ to go round and round like a gyroscope “, and “ gimble “ is “ to make holes like a gimlet “ 6, etc.
Obsolete And Archaic Words
Sometimes a few words may drop out of the language altogether. Such words are called obsolete words. The disappearance of these words is caused by appearing new words that name the old notion that continue to exist. For example in Russian: “очи – глаза, отрок – подросток“, etc. When the word is outdate and no longer used we deal with historisms. There a great number of historisms that name objects of material culture in the past. They are the names for different types of weapons, clothes, dishes, musical and agricultural instruments. Arnold offers very good examples of such things: “archer, baldric ‘belt for a sword, horn‘; battering ram ‘an ancient machine for breaking walls‘; battle-axe; blazon ‘coat of arms‘; blunderbus ‘an old type of gun‘; braugham ‘a closed carriage having one seat‘.
Archaism is a word that is no longer in use but not absolutely obsolete, e.g. an Irish word “rath“ means “fortress“. It is very difficult to find out if a word should be considered as still belonging to the present-day English vocabulary or if it is obsolete.
Colloquialisms
The most obvious trend of style in present-day English has been towards the informal and colloquial. At all levels, from written prose to the advertisement, writing has become nearer to casual speech. Speech itself has become more colloquial and informal. It admits slang readily, and is little concerned with precision and correctness. But we should not think that the adjective colloquial necessarily means “slangy“ or “vulgar“, although slang and vulgar vocabulary is a part of colloquial vocabulary.
The vocabulary of educated people when they write letters or speak to their friends is called literary colloquial. A good examples may be found in the works of such authors as J. Galsworthy and W. S. Maugham. These authors represent the speech of the elder generation to the young people.
“Caister? It is ! Haven’t seen you since you left the old camp. Remember what sport we had over “Gotta-Grampus“? By love! I am glad to see you. Doing anything with yourself ? Come and have lunch with me.” (J. Galsworthy “ The Broken Boot “).
“I don’t know what your idea of a wife’s duty is. I never have known!”
“I have tried to do what you want; it’s not my fault that I haven’t been able to put my heart into it.“
“Whose fault is it then?“
“Before we were married you promised to let me go if our marriage was not a success. Is it a success ?“… (J.Galsworthy “The Man Of Property“).
One more example taken from W. S. Maugham’s work “The Moon And Sixpence“:
“You see, I was interested in him because he was a painter … We don’t get many painters in the islands, and I was sorry for him because he was such a bad one.“
“I can’t imagine that he was a very satisfactory overseer“ …
There is also familiar colloquial, that is represented by writers of younger generation. Familiar colloquial is more emotional and much more free and careless. Such speech is characterized by using a great number of irony expressions, slang and nonce words.
With literary and familiar colloquial speech there is also lowcolloquial. Lowcolloquial
is a term used for illiterate popular speech.
It is very difficult to find the boundaries between lowcolloquial speech and dialect,
because in every day speech they almost used together. The basis of distinction
between lowcolloquial and two other types of colloquial is purely social.
Slang and argot are the other vocabulary layers that according to Arnold are situated “below the level of standard educated speech“. Unlike low colloquial, they have only lexical peculiarities. We should distinguish argot from slang, because it serves to name a special vocabulary idiom, used by a particular social or age group. It is very difficult to distinguish one colloquial type from another. That is why it is more convenient to characterize them in whole. “If we realize that gesture, tone of voice and situation are almost as important in an informal act of communication as words are, we should be able to understand why a careful choice of words in every day conversation plays a minor part as compared with public speech or literature, and consequently the vocabulary is much less variegated.”7
We use a great number of colloquialisms and words or phrases which express our opinion, feelings, emotions, e.g. as far as I know, as for me, you see, etc. Such phrases as: to have a smoke, to drop in somewhere, to have a snack are also frequently used in our speech. Words: absolutely, lovely, pretty, great are also characteristics of colloquial speech. They make it more emotive, lively and vivid.
An increasing number of colloquialisms find their way into print today in quite serious, even academic writings. The movement of written English towards colloquial speech is now going faster and faster. Much serious writing today still avoids the colloquial features mentioned here, but they are no longer considered objectionable, and they may be found in many sorts of writing, not only in popular journalism. Thus the style of any period is the result of a variety of complex and shifting pressures and influences.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
- И.В. Арнольд. Лексикология современного английского языка. – М.: Высшая школа, 1973.
- В.Г. Лактионова, Е.Ю. Шамлиди. Краткий лекционный курс по лексикологии английского языка. – Пятигорск, 2002.
- L. Carroll. Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland And Through The Looking-Glass. – London: Wordsworth Classics, 1993.
- Let’s Read and Discuss. Сост.: Н. Самуэльян. – М.: Менеджер, 2001.
- В.К. Мюллер. Новый англо-русский словарь. – М.: Русский язык, 2001.
- Английский язык для школьников и поступающих в ВУЗы. Сост.: И.В. Цветкова, И.А. Клепальченко, Н.А. Мыльцева. – М.: Глосса, 2000.
1 “Краткий лекционный курс по
лексикологии английского языка“. Лактионова
В.Г., Шамлиди Е.Ю. стр. 77
2 Лактионова, Шамлиди. “Краткий лекционный
курс по лексикологии английского языка “ , стр. 77
3 Arnold “The English Word“, p. 230
4 Arnold “The English Word“, p. 232.
5 M. Irwin. Introduction to “Alice Adventures In Wonderland“.
6 L. Carroll “Through The Looking-Glass“.
7 Arnold “The English Word“ p. 225.