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Slang as a Part of the English Language

V. V. Abakumova

Tomsk Polytechnic University

The knowledge of the English language is now not only a part of good education, but a necessity. So English today is taught everywhere, but usually only some standards of the language are learnt. And when a person, who knows only certain standards of English, tries to communicate with an Englishman, he finds it rather difficult. Spoken English is quite different from literary and written standards. Language should be a means of communication, not a barrier. For hundreds of years, English has been continuously changing. Words that were unacceptable 300 years ago are now commonplace. English has always had a trademark of being a comfortable language, the language of the common people. Change in the grammar and diction of a language is natural, and English is always confronted with changes. Among them are the use of slang, clipped word endings, and new dialects.

For example, “Boston rain” means really heavy, pouring rain.

e.g. I got caught in that boston rain last night; think I've got pneumonia now.

Some Conservatives do not like changes because they claim that standard English is a perfect language; they do not want to corrupt it. Others simply do not like change. Neither group of Conservatives has any new arguments, and nothing to fear from change. Colloquial expressions and slang are an inalienable part of spoken English. There is hardly a person who does not make use if them upon occasion. Everyone from teenagers to scientists use it. All countries and periods of history have had slang. It reflects the peculiarities of contemporary daily life in a unique way. All type of a semantic change can be illustrated from that part of the vocabulary.

So the word “ greeting” is a Scottish slang which means “crying.”

e.g. Why are you greeting? I fell over and hurt my knee.

What is slang? Slang (non-standard, unconventional language) is very informal usage of words and phrases for more colorful or peculiar style of expression that is shared by the people in the same social subgroup, for example, computer slang, sports slang, military slang, musicians’ slang, students’ slang, underworld slang, etc. Slang is the use of highly informal words and expressions that are not considered standard in the speaker's dialect or language.

Few linguists have endeavored to clearly define what constitutes slang. Attempting to remedy this, Bethany K. Dumas and Jonathan Lighter argue that an expression should be considered "true slang" if it meets at least two of the following criteria:

• It lowers, if temporarily, "the dignity of formal or serious speech or writing"; in other words, it is likely to be seen in such contexts as a "glaring misuse of register."

• Its use implies that the user is familiar with whatever is referred to, or with a group of people that are familiar with it and use the term.

• "It is a taboo term in ordinary discourse with people of a higher social status or greater responsibility."

• It replaces "a well known conventional synonym." This is done primarily to avoid "the discomfort caused by the conventional item or by further elaboration." [3, p. 14-15]

Slang should be distinguished from jargon, which is the technical vocabulary of a particular profession. Jargon, like many examples of slang, may on occasion be used to exclude non-group members from the conversation, but in general has the function of allowing its users to talk precisely about technical issues in a given field, such as “electric eye” – a photo-cell, “dead end”- an idle end of a coil, “beemer” is A BMW vehicle, e.g. Nice beemer. ”Carbage” is odours emitted by cars, i.e. engine or exhaust, that smell like garbage, e.g. This street smells like carbage. “Kegerator” is a domestic refrigerator that is modifed to chill only kegs of bear.

Who uses slang? Slang is not used by the majority of native speakers and many people consider it vulgar, though quite a few slang phrases have already come into standard usage. Slang contains many obscene and offensive words and phrases. It also has many expressions that are acceptable in informal communication. There is something that attracts people to slang and colloquial expression. They can use slang for different reasons: to make an impression, to be on a colloquial level, to lend an air of solidity, to be novel, to be different, not to be understood by somebody, for the fun of it, in playfulness, to demonstrate the class that one belongs to, to be interesting speaker, to enrich the language, to induce friendliness. Slang worries Conservatives the most because it affects the vocabulary of English. American English, especially, is always adding new words to its vocabulary for social, scientific, or artistic reasons. The scientific and artistic words do not bother these people; only the social, or slang, words do.

The word cinemate is used about people who are well-versed or knowledgeable about movies; a movie fanatic.

e.g. He came off as this really cinemate guy until he told me his favorite movie was Men In Black II.

Slang is usually created by children or teens who seek social status. Because kids are the source of new slang, some adults look down on it with the assumption that kids are unintelligent and simply rebelling against established English grammar and dictionary. It is understood primarily within that group. For the most part, they grew up in the similar neighborhoods, around the similar people, dealing with similar issues. They also share a commonality within taste of music, fashion, and other forms of entertainment.

The word “caf”- a cafeteria, preferably one in a high school or college campus.

e.g. Yeah, let's go to the caf and get some pizza.

”Cheese wagon” means a large, yellow, American school bus. e.g.

Until I can afford a Camaro I have to take the cheese wagon to school.

“Cipher” means ”knowledge”.

e.g. After school was over I gained a lot of cipher. ”

Merlin” is a gifted but lazy student who somehow manages to pass exams without doing any work at all, as if by magic. e.g. - Did Kurt pass his exam? - Yeah, he truly is merlin. “Beereived”- When you have finished your beer. e.g. I'm beereived. Please get me another. ”Kicks” means “ shoes”.

e.g. Check out my new kicks.

“Kill the noise” – “be quiet”.

e.g. Kill the noise. I’m trying to sleep.

Many of celebrities don’t make it easy for the youth to stop the usage of slang, mainly because they use it in their lyrics in which the youth emulate. In this way, slang has enabled them to communicate thoroughly with one another. The dialect that a person uses may make him comfortable, but this is not considered. Conservatives have no reason to bother with whether a person's dialect or diction will be understood in spoken language, because most communication will be typed, not spoken, in a neutral Internet language. Slang is sometimes regional in that it is used only in a particular territory, such as California, but slang terms are frequently particular to a certain subculture, such as musicians. Nevertheless, slang expressions can spread outside their original areas to become commonly used, like "cool" and "jive". While some words eventually lose their status as slang, others continue to be considered as such by most speakers. When slang spreads beyond the group or subculture that originally uses it, its original users often replace it with other, less-recognized terms to maintain group identity.

”Norn Iron” is the name of a small state, a shorter name for Northern Ireland.

e.g. Q. Where do you come from? A. Oh, I come from Norn Iron.

The word “baka” (adj) means Stupid, idiotic, foolish. (n) A stupid or foolish person. From the Japanese “baka”, or foolish,

e.g. My little brother is a baka. It is used mainly for comedic effect.

The word “ caboon” means an intern, particularly in a research project involving hawks. Supposedly from some Malay language where it denotes slave.

e.g. You are the most stupid caboon that I have known.

One use of slang is to circumvent social taboos, as mainstream language tends to shy away from evoking certain realities. For this reason, slang vocabularies are particularly rich in certain domains, such as violence, crime, drugs, and sex. Alternatively, slang can grow out of mere familiarity with the things described. Among Californian wine connoisseurs, for example, Cabernet Sauvignon is often known as "Cab Sav", Chardonnay as "Chard" and so on; this means that naming the different wines expends less superfluous effort.

Even within a single language community, slang tends to vary widely across social, ethnic, economic, and geographic strata. Some people use the expression “brass in pocket “, which means “To have plenty of money. To be wealthy”.

e.g. He's got enough brass in pocket to buy a fleet of Ferraris.

Slang may fall into disuse over time; sometimes, however, it grows more and more common until it becomes the dominant way of saying something, at which time it usually comes to be regarded as mainstream, acceptable language (e.g. the Spanish word caballo), although in the case of taboo words there may be no expression that is considered mainstream or acceptable. Numerous slang terms pass into informal mainstream speech, and sometimes into formal speech, though this may involve a change in meaning or usage. So “ iceman” is a friend who has nerves of steel.

Teenage slang is especially sympathetic to all kinds of neologisms. Such new words are constantly appearing and are connected with new inventions, mainly with computer technology. It can be said that the major part of new vocabulary in the last ten years has started with two groups of people – computer scientists and users, and teenagers. Such words as hacker or bug are widely used by these groups and not only by them.

Slang ”e-buse” means computer dependence, internet over-use.

e.g. I've been online for days, so I'm committing internet e-buse.

The word ”e-conomy”- the Internet economy, used only on the web.

e.g. I'm going to buy the e-conomy size site hosting package.

Why does slang exist? Slang fulfills at least two different functions, depending on whose point of view you take. For the groups that use slang, it is a way to set themselves apart, to express themselves in a distinct and individual way, and sometimes to keep secrets from being known by others. But for the society in general and the development of the language, slang performs another role. For the language, slang is like a linguistic laboratory, where new words and forms can be tested out, applied to a variety of situations, and then either abandoned or incorporated into the regular language. It is like a trial period for new words. If and new dialects they allow people to say something that cannot be said using traditional language, and a majority of people accept them, then these words and expressions join their regular language. Slang items usually aren’t long-lived. But each period of history has its own traits which are wonderfully characterized by these short-lived expressions. Sometimes the life of a slang word is no more than 5 – 6 months. The freshness of slang is appealing. It stems from an instinctive desire for novelty of expression. But there are also long- livers among slang words. Thus “bones” for “dice” was used by Chaucer in the 14 th century, and it is still slang now. It is not typical and may be called unique.

What Happens to Slang Words and Expressions? After a period of between a few months and many years, slang is used by limited groups with something in common. The far majority never reach the popularity and level of use to become regular words, and are soon forgotten and not used. A few reach widespread usage and can be found in each new edition of the popular dictionaries. Many of the words we use everyday and can find in the dictionary began life as slang.

For example, “Butanol” is used in place of beautiful. e.g. It's a butanol day!”

Cable-ten” means “low budget, cheap, shameful, despicable, shoddy, inexpensive”.

e.g. Look at yourself. Could you get any more cable-ten?

“Cheesed”- extremely happy. e.g. Every time I see Julie, I'm cheesed.

”Chumpy”- Slightly overweight. e.g. You're not fat, Momma. You're just chumpy like me.

Slang very often involves the creation of novel meanings for existing words. It is very common for such novel meanings to diverge significantly from the standard meaning. Thus, "cool" and "hot" can both mean "very good", "impressive" or "good looking". Slang terms are often known only within a clique or in group. For example, was originally popular only among certain Internet sub-cultures, such as crackers (malicious "hackers") and online video gamers. During the 1990s and 2000s, however, it became increasingly more commonplace on the Internet, and has even spread outside of Internet-based communication and into spoken languages.

“Hacker” is “one who hacks; a person who performs her tasks with poor quality results”. e.g. Look at Steve's roofing job. It's a terrible wreck, a mess performed by the ultimate hacker.

” Hacktivist” denotes one who possesses computer hacking skills and who embraces a radical cause, using her hacking skills to be noticed or get attention. e.g. The shocking images splashed across the screen when the web site was accessed, obviously the work of hacktivists.

”Electronical”is identical to electronic, only with an added syllable.

e.g. The electronical equipment was running smoothly.

” E-lliterate”- Showing, or marked by a lack of computer sophistication.

e.g. What do you mean you don't have an e-mail address, are you e-lliterate?

”E-shaft”- to ignore someone's email, to not reply. e.g. I'm bored at work today, so please don't give me the e-shaft. or I've emailed her 3 times this week, and she keeps e-shafting me.

The word “Manglish” is the chosen language of most personal web pages. An offshoot of English, Manglish does not capitalize the letter I, uses randomized swapping of letters for their phonetic equivalents (i.e. “kewl” for “cool”), lacks punctuation and interchanges words that sound the same but have different meaning, among other features. Example: The guy who wrote this page has a Master’s degree in Manglish--check out this sentence: i got a D on my Physics test becuz i did’nt study enuff and i was two tired too concentrate.

Slang may appeal, or may disgust. It may be popular, or may be ignored. But it is really used, so it has to arouse some interest. But people should understand a special usage of slang, it seems ridiculous.

References:

1. Mitchell, Anthony (December 6, 2005). "A Leet Primer". Retrieved on 2007-11-05.

2. Zuckermann, Ghil’ad, Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan. “Language Contact and Lexical Enrichment in Israeli Hebrew”, 2003, p 21/

3. Dumas, Bethany K. and Lighter, Jonathan (1978) "Is Slang a Word for Linguists?" American Speech 53 (5): 14-15.

4. Croft, William (2000) Explaining Language Change: An Evolutionary Approach. Harlow: Longman: 75-6.

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