What is slang?

МОУ Восточно-Европейский лицей

What is slang?

Что такое сленг?

Творческая работа

Анниковой Анастасии,

ученицы 10 гуманитарного класса

Руководитель: Блинова Е. Г.,

учитель английского языка

Саратов 2007

CONTAINS

Introduction…………………………………………………………………..2

Chapter 1. A mixed-up Language……………………………………………3

Chapter 2. Spoken English …………………………………………………..6

Chapter 3. What is Slang?  …………………………………………………..7

Chapter 4. Where does Slang Vocabulary Come from? ……………………..9

Chapter 5. Slang and Teenagers. ……………………………………………14

Conclusion. ………………………………………………………………….17

Bibliography...……………………………………………………………….18

Supplementary ………………………………………………………………19

Supplementary ………………………………………………………………23                                                  

INTRODUCTION  

Many years ago only warriors, travelers and merchants had an opportunity to communicate with people from other countries. Different countries lived for centuries without contacting one another. This was the world of the past. Today countries and continents are becoming closer and closer. They are connected with transport routes, radio and television and the Internet. Every year thousands of people travel from one country to another either on business or for pleasure. The knowledge of languages opens the door to any foreign country and gives travelers a possibility to communicate, to understand people and to be understood. Languages are helpful in establishing friendly relations between peoples and nations. Children and adults can understand each other better if they speak one language. So the attitude to foreign languages has changed. Now the knowledge of foreign languages is not only a part of good education, but a necessity.

The English language has already achieved world status.  It is the most widespread language in the world. For approximately 400 million people speak English as a native language. More than 200 million people speak English as a second language. People learn English in all countries as a language of world communication. It has become a world language in politics, science, business and culture. Hundreds of words borrowed from English can now be found in other languages. No other language is so popular in information technology, advertising and popular music. It is certain that English is accepted everywhere around the world.

CHAPTER 1

A MIXED-UP LANGUAGE

English is a language that has a lot of different variants. There are hundreds of dialects and accents. It is a very mixed-up language. The cause of this diversity lies in the history of English. “The English language arrived in Britain on the point of a sword ” [1]. The dawn of English was about 2500 years ago, when a tribe called the Celts arrived in the British Isles. They spoke the Old Celtic language. Then the Romans invaded the British Isles. The Romans spoke Latin, so a great many Latin words, such as discuss, picture, library, formal, history, intellect, desk, depression, include, interest, popular, private, quiet and many others, found their way into the English language. Then the Angles and the Saxons came from Germany and spoke Anglo-Saxon, or the Old English language. They pushed Celtic speakers into Scotland and Wales. Till today some people in Wales, Scotland and Ireland still speak Celtic languages.

In 1066 AD the Normans invaded the British Isles. They came from Normandy in France, and brought the French language with them. While common people continued to use English, the King and the aristocrats spoke French. Slowly, Old English and Norman French united together into something we call Middle English. The result was eventually Modern English. The grammar (including word order) was mostly Anglo-Saxon, and a lot of words were French. The words chair, colour, mountain, appetite, dinner, fruit, salad, sugar, supper, taste, curtain, lamp, towel, beauty, dance, literature, melody, music and many others have their origin in French. Since the time of Shakespeare the English language hasn’t changed greatly. Its vocabulary has grown, but its grammar hasn’t changed greatly.

In the last two centuries technology has had great influence on the language. Newspapers, mass-published books, libraries, films, radio, television and the Internet have all contributed to the language. New words for new inventions have come from all over the world.

Sometimes English people say “the English language does not exist” [1]. They say the language which is taught by the whole world is the artificial language of the BBC. They say if a new announcer comes to the BBC, first of all, he or she is taught this special language. The English permanently learn English. To change one’s social class it is necessary to learn to speak in another way. In each region of England they have their own dialect. Even the Royal Family has invented “its own dialect”. People say that when Princess Diana became part of the family, first of all she started to learn … English: the Royal version.

Language used by the BBC is considered Standard English. The most respected standard dialect of Britain is Received Pronunciation, or RP. RP is the form of British English pronunciation which is used by educated people in every part of Britain and is typical of many people in the south of England. This kind of speech is used in teaching English in all parts of the world.  Received Pronunciation (RP) or the BBC English (so called because it is used by the BBC announcers) is the accent of the Southeast of England.  It has been associated with power and high social class since the 14th century. It is used by the Royal Family, and has a kind of authority. Since the days of Shakespeare, the English of Southeast has been treated as standard, for the reason that the Southeast is the region of economic and political power. The site of the King, the government and the Royal Court was London. The universities of Oxford and Cambridge, both only about sixty miles from London, also taught this kind of speech. It became fashionable and rather popular among upper classes. People who wanted to join this powerful world had to use the same accent and language. In the 19th century RP was used in public schools and universities, the government and the army to form small groups who would run the Empire. It was often impossible to get any kind of high position if you did not speak in the right way. RP is the dialect of the national elite.

Nowadays, through radio and the BBC, RP is becoming a more widely spoken accent, but it is still spoken by less than 5 per cent of the British population. Those who speak it mostly belong to the upper class. They are thought to be lawyers and managers. But even in conservative Britain, there are some changes in this sphere. The new National Curriculum for schools contains no requirement to teach RP. It requires only that children are taught to speak in an accent which is clear and comprehensible. In spite of these changes RP is still fashionable. As long as RP remains suggestive of authority, some job advertisements demand “well-spokenness”, and some ambitious politicians will hide their regional accents with RP.                                    

CHAPTER 2

SPOKEN ENGLISH

It is common knowledge a well-educated person should know at least one foreign language. Each country, each culture and each language has something unique to offer. Some ideas can be expressed only in a foreign language. It also helps to understand your own language. Goethe said: “A man, who does not know any foreign language, doesn’t know his native one either”.

So English today is taught everywhere. But usually only some standards of the language are learned. And when the 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. So to simplify communication, the spoken language should be also learnt.

Colloquial expressions and slang are a part of spoken English. There is almost no person who doesn’t use it from time to time. Actually everyone from teenagers to scientists use it. All countries and periods have had slang. Slang words do not live long, but each period of history is reflected in these short-lived expressions.

Language in general is not homogeneous. There are different types of it. First, there is a literary (or written) standard – the language used in literary works. The spoken standard is the language of conversation between educated people. Spoken and written standards may differ in vocabulary, structure, and idioms. Vulgar speech is especially rich in neologisms and slang. There are also local and class dialects, technical and professional vocabularies, argot (a secret, specialized vocabulary), jargon (vocabulary which preserves secrecy within one or another social group) and other forms of speech.        

Slang as a part of spoken English may appeal, or it may disgust. It may be popular, or may be ignored. But it is really used.

CHAPTER 3

WHAT IS SLANG?

There are different ideas of what slang is. The Encyclopedia of Britannica defines it as:

“nonstandard vocabulary composed of words or senses characterized primarily  by connotations of extreme informality and usually by a currency not limited to a particular region. It is composed typically of coinages or arbitrarily changed words, clipped or shortened forms, extravagant, forced or facetious figures of speech, or verbal novelties. Slang consists of the words and expressions that have escaped from cant, jargons, argot (and not to a lesser extend from dialectal, non-standard and taboo speech) of specific subgroups of society so that they are used by an appreciable percentage of the general population, even though the words and expressions often retain some associations with the subgroups that originally used and popularized them. Slang fills a necessary niche in all languages, occupying a middle ground between the standard and informal words accepted by the general public and the special words known only to comparatively small social subgroups. For many other words, slang is a testing ground that shows them to be too restricted in use, not as appealing as standard synonyms, or unnecessary, frivolous, faddish, unacceptable for standard or informal speech”.

The definition of the Oxford Dictionary of 1911 is very different:

“…language of a high colloquial type, below the level of standard educated speech and consisting either of new words or of current words employed in some special sense”.

In Webster’s Dictionary of 1993 we read:

“Slang.  Informal language that contains made-up words or common words used in a different or uncommon way”.

According to the American poet Carl Sandburg (1878 – 1967) slang is the language “which takes off its coat, spits on its hands and goes to work”. Slang has also been characterized as “an ever-changing set of colloquial words and phrases generally considered distinct from and socially lower than the standard language. It occurs in all languages, and the existence of a short-lived vocabulary of this sort within a language is probably as old as language it self”.

Slang can also be called “a peculiar kind of vagabond language, always hanging on the outskirt of legitimate speech, but continually strays or forcing its way into the most respectable company”[3].

We can see, these definitions are different, they show different attitudes to slang. But there is the same idea in all of them. They characterize slang as the language which is lower than standard educational speech. Slang is considered to be vulgar and rude, as the language of lower social classes. That is obviously right; slang belongs to the so-called “vulgar speech”.

But there is something that attracts people to slang and colloquial expressions. They can use slang for different reasons:

1. to make an impression
2. to be on a colloquial level
3. to lend an air of solidity
4. to be novel, to be different
5. not to be understood by somebody
6. for the fun of it, in playfulness
7. to demonstrate the class that one belongs to
8. to be an interesting speaker
9. to enrich the language
10. to induce friendliness

The origin of the word slang itself is unknown. Though some think that the word slang was formed by shortening from the phrases like beggars’ language or rogues’ language, in which the suffix of the first noun attached to the initial syllable of the word language and then the final syllable was lost.  

CHAPTER 4

WHERE DOES SLANG   VOCABULARY ORIGINATE FROM?

Slang belongs to the spoken part of language. But not all conversational expressions are slang. For example, such expression as shut up (for “be quiet”) is not used in books, except in dialogue, but it is not slang. Slang is often confused with jargon, but they are different. Webster’s Dictionary gives the following definition of the word “jargon”: “Jargon n. The technical or specialized vocabulary used among members of a particular profession.” Besides, jargon is itself a loaded word.

Sometimes slang is treated as the language of the underground, but this is a mistake. Only a part of slang vocabulary comes from the underground. The sources of slang change from time to time. Many slang words come from the language of groups that do not belong to the underground, such as college students, sports fans, musicians,  military personnel. Slang words are used by the young, or those who see themselves as distinct or different from the rest of society. There are many differences between the slang of previous years and the slang of nowadays. If we characterize slang in two words, the first would be “non-standard” and the second would be “changeable”. Slang words fall out of use much more quickly than words of standard language. Slang is constantly renewed and is always modern. Such slang items as vamoose, skedaddle, beat it, scram, buzz off (for “run away”, “get off”) were popular in the 20th century. They express the idea of getting away. They are used in imperative forms. For example:

“Buzz off, you children, I don’t want you in my garden!”.

- Так, дети, а ну- ка  вон из сада! (LingvoUniversal  En-Ru).

Sometimes the life of a slang word is no more than 5 – 6 months. The freshness of slang is appealing. It comes from a desire for novelty of expression. But there are also long-livers among slang words. Thus bones for “dice” was used by Chaucer in the 14th century, and is still slang now. It is not typical and may be called unique. In modern English the word “bone” is also used as slang in some other meanings:

Bone – доллар

Be on one’s bones – в трудном положении, на мели          

Bonehead – тупица, балда

A lot of words and expressions have interesting stories. This is one of them. The colloquial expression cock- and- bull story is used to describe untrue or highly exaggerated information. It came from pub names. A century ago there was a fire in a London pub called “The Cock”. Its guests left it in panic and were given shelter at a nearby inn called “The Bull”. The guests told exaggerated stories of their escape from the fire. Those stories became known as “cock-and-bull stories”.

Talk cock – нести чушь

The word cock is used as a shortening to this expression.

 What he usually improvised was just a load of cock.

- Обычно то, что он выдумывал, бывало абсолютной чушью. (LingvoUniversal En-Ru).

Many words formally labeled as slang have now become legitimate words of Standard English.      

The expression what on earth is an idiomatic intensive and may be heard in the cultural speech of today. But earlier it was condemned   as slang. The word row in the sense of disturbance or commotion was slang in the 18th century, and was described as “very low expression”, but today it can be found in works of reputable writers. The word kid which was considered low slang in the 19th century is now a legitimate word of the English literary language. Many other words (fad, crank, slum) have acquired an exact meaning in becoming reputable. Even the harmless word joke was once slang.

On the one hand slang words may become “legal”. On the other hand a lot of standard words find their ways into slang. Sometimes it is difficult to define the precise quality that makes an expression slang. It is often not in the word itself, but in the sense in which it is used. When speaking of soldiers who put down a rebellion, “put down” is proper enough. But it is slang when we speak of a remark which “puts someone down”.

In fact, most slang words are homonyms of standard words. Slang items usually arise by the same means – by recycling words and parts of words which are already in the language. Limitless opportunities are allowed by affixations. Slang often uses

abbreviated words and phrases, like VJ from “video jockey” – an announcer for music videos and ‘Sup from “What’s up?” Unlike the general vocabulary, English slang has not borrowed heavily from foreign languages, although it does borrow from dialects of ethnic minorities. Words can change their status and cross the borders of different types of speech. What is slang today may be accepted in the standard speech of tomorrow. It is hard to draw the line, where the vulgar speech ends and the spoken standards begin. Thousands of words and expressions are in the process of changing from one level to another at any given time. So slang can be regarded as a lexical supplementary of the language, because all neologisms first find their life in colloquial expressions and only then develop into literary speech.  

London gave birth to the standard form of English. But it is also home of Cockney, the dialect associated with the working class of that city. Cockney is a way of speaking English that is typical of people who live in the eastern area of London. It is often called the London dialect. It appeared at the same time as RP, and it was the dialect of almost all Londoners who were not part of the Court. But then the speech of the working class began to grow apart from standard or “polite” English. It began to be treated as vulgar or low. The word “cockney” began to mean East End working class.

Cockney has another system of pronunciation of vowels and consonants, and is especially famous for its silent h. It drops letters and slurs words, so “haven’t” turns into am and “old” becomes ol. “You” turns into yer. “That’s an edgeog” means “That’s a hedgehog”. The g is often missing from –ing endings like: eatin’ and drinkin’.  Th are pronounced like f, as in “barf” for  “bath”, or v, as in bruvver for “brother”. They neglect the t in words like “butter”, “bottle”, rotten”, which in Cockney can best be represented by bu ! er, bo ! le, ro ! en; didn’t becomes didn and haven’t turns into arn.

 “That ain’t got nothing to do with it” (Cockney) = “That has nothing to do with it” (Standard English)  

There are different types of slang. Perhaps the most interesting of them is “rhyming slang”. There are at least two versions of the appearance of this unusual language. The first is that in the 19th century East End criminals developed a special

kind of slang or language, which made it difficult for the police to understand them. The second version holds that cockneys were the inventors of rhyming slang. The heartland of London cockneys was the East End. Like many other small communities, cockneys had a large number of words and phrases which had special meanings for them, but they took this to extremes by inventing a whole new dialect – rhyming slang. It has been in use since the middle of the 19th century.

This slang is called rhyming, because words are replaced by other words or phrases which rhyme. Thus “phone” becomes “dog and bone”, “word” becomes “dickу bird”, “mouth” – “north and south”.

Hat – tit for tat              

Wife – trouble and strife

Table – Cain and Abel

Money – bees and honey

Head – loaf of bread

Nose – I suppose

Fight – read and write

Suit – whistle and flute

Lodger – artful dodger

House – flea and louse  

House – cat and mouse

Fail – sorrowful tale

The rhyming part of the expression is often dropped. Thus, daisies are “boots” (from “daisy roots”), “whistle” means “suit” (form “whistle and flute”). In fact, it is difficult to understand a man or a woman who asks where dog and bone is. If you don’t know anything about rhyming slang, you won’t even imagine that he or she is asking about the telephone.

However, some colloquial expressions derive from rhyming slang, and have been heard in use in the House of Commons, e. g. Let’s get down to brass and tacks means “Let’s talk facts”.

The second and more graphic source of cockney slang is descriptive, for example: Claret for blood, twirl for key, hooter for nose, whiz mob for a gang of pickpockets and shooter for gun. To complete the picture there is also a smattering of Jewish words like: Schwartze, schtook, schpieler and schtoom which translated mean – black, trouble, gambling, den and quiet – respectively.

CHAPTER 5

SLANG AND TEENAGERS

It is generally known that the most sensitive population to any novelty are young people. Teenage culture uses a lot of slang expressions, which quickly become popular among older people, too. Teenage slang has existed for a long time. Unusual expressions, fantasy, and irony – these are the main traits of teenage slang. Natural and free, slang aspires to leave this dull and boring world of adults. It results from a wish for change, for creating a new world. Slang is like an original sign, which shows membership in this special social class – the young generation. It may be vulgar and rough, but is expressive, distinct and capacious. It can say the whole sentence in only a word: this is how we talk, this is how we live.

Teenagers don’t talk, but rap. They have not troubles, but aggroes. Teens don’t know, what’s excellent or bad, because for them it is crucial and dodgy. They don’t spend time, but hang out with their friends. One may think that their language is horrendous (terrible), naff (in bad taste) and is only for divs (idiots), but it’s theirs, so easy, wonderful, and unusual.  

British teenagers talk and text using a language that puzzles their parents and teachers. Sometimes adults don’t understand a single word! But that is the whole point of it!

This is a scrap of teen conversation:

‘Crumbs! That girl is choong, blud’

‘Safe, man! You’re looking buff in your fresh creps.’

‘Homework? Nah, that’s long, man.’

‘Wanna cotch down my yard?’

‘I can’t find my chops!’

Grime is big on the ends.’

Crumbs!: Wow!

Choong : attractive

Blud: friend

Safe: hi

Buff: attractive

Creps: trainers

Long: very difficult and boring

Wanna: want to

Cotch: to relax at home alone or with close friends, to do as little as possible.

Yard: house, home, neighborhood.

Chops: jewellery

Even more confusing for parents is that teenspeak changes all the time and it’s not the same from teen to teen. A lot depends on what kind of music they like. If they are into hip hop, for example, they’ll be more influenced by American slang.

And then there’s the language of texting. According to a survey, the most popular words among teenagers are:

BF/GF: boy friend / girlfriend

G2G: got to go

LOL: laughing out loud!

MOS: Mum’s over the shoulder!

PAW: Parents are watching!

PIR: Parents in room.

CD9: Code 9 (means that parents are around).

Teenage slang is especially sympathetic to all kinds of neologisms. Such new words are constantly appearing and are connected with 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. Computer technologies have already entered our lives. The majority of people have computers at home, computer technology is studied at schools, and computers can be used even by a five-year child. It’s highly possible that developing

special computer slang will be the next step towards natural communication with the PCs.

In general, teenage culture and its slang are the main source of new words in the language. They give the language another opportunity to change and to develop.

Speaking of non-standard English we should also mention regional accents. They are all below RP in ranging, but they have their own hierarchy. The most popular among them are Scottish, Welsh and Irish. Then come northern, Yorkshire and west county accents, and at the bottom of the list come the least popular ones of the great conurbations, such as Liverpool, Birmingham, and the West Midlands.

CONCLUSION

In our high speed epoch language is simplifying. Short and abbreviated words are preferred to long and complicated. And perhaps that is why we use slang. Because of its brevity, capacity and exactness it makes conversation easier. It can hardly be denied that some slang expressions, while they are current, express an idea that would be difficult to convey by other means. There is the paradox of slang: people look down on it, but they can hardly avoid using it. There is no person who has never used it upon occasion. Slang is vivid and natural in speech. There is the slang of doctors, of lawyers, the slang of football fans and philatelists, as well as the slang which cuts across social classes and occupations, available to anyone as a colloquial variety of language. Using special slang is demonstrating membership of a particular social group.

Slang shouldn’t be ignored or dismissed, even by those who don’t like it. It is impossible to shut our eyes to the prominent part which it plays in the language. It is a part of the language and can’t be treated as non-existent. We should develop a more objective and scientific attitude towards this feature of language. It also has its own right to exist, though it doesn’t belong to cultural speech.

Slang should be learned in order to simplify communication, because the spoken language differs from literary standards. But people should understand the special usage of slang. When somebody doesn’t know English well, but uses its slang, it seems ridiculous.

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