Slang
Slang
• What is slang?
• Where does slang come from?
• Why do people use slang?
A formal definition
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Highly colloquial; for speaking
Rude; not polite
Not educated
Words used in some special sense
Special words of a profession
Two less formal definitions
• Slang is the poetry of everyday life (S. I.
Hayakawa)
• Slang is language which takes off its coat, spits
on its hands and goes to work (Carl Sandburg)
Characteristics of slang
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Colloquial
Not standard
Restricted
Imaginative
Variable
Colloquial
• Slang is almost always spoken
o When it is written, it is used to convey the flavor of
spoken language
o For example, dialogues in novels
Not standard
• Informal
• Often not acceptable in formal situations
Restricted
• Small groups of people, e.g., college students
• Subcultures, e.g., drug culture
• People in one profession, e.g., police
Imaginative
• Language that is alive!
o Colorful
o Creative
Variable in 3 ways: By region
• American vs. Australian slang
o Breeder in San Francisco
o Bouncing beef in Sydney
Variable: Gender
• In Australia
• Males use mate, dude or bro to describe other
male friends
• Females use babe or bud to describe other female
friends
• Swearing
• For males using the F word is acceptable in more
situations than for females
Variable: Time
• Most slang disappears quickly
o Groovy (1960s)
o Main squeeze (1950s)
Variable: Time
• One generation’s slang becomes the next
generation’s standard language
o Bus from omnibus
o Zoo from zoological garden
o Piano from pianoforte
o Jazz
Variable: Time
• Some exceptions to slang that quickly disappears
o Pig (policeman) is from 1885 and is still slang
o Beat it was used by Shakespeare and is still
considered slang
Where does slang come from?
• Originates from subcultures in societies
o For example, occupational
groups, teenagers, racial minorities, drug
addicts, criminals
Slang from subcultures
• Pre-stiff = a patient who is close to dying
▫ (from U.S. hospital slang)
• Homey = friend or buddy
▫ (American black slang)
• Pot = marijuana
▫ (1960s drug culture)
• C-note = $100
▫ (criminal slang)
Where does slang come from?
• Mass media
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Movies
TV
Fashion
music
Slang from the media
• A bomb = a really bad movie
• Bucket list = things you want to do before you
die
▫ (from The Bucket List with Jack Nicholson)
• 5 – 0 = police
▫ (American TV show Hawaii 5-0 in the 1970s)
• Top = the ultimate or best
▫ (French slang from the term top
models, e.g., Claudia Schiffer, Cindy Crawford, etc.
• Cabbage = money
▫ (San Francisco hip-hop slang)
Slang is created by playing with words
• Rhyming
o Trouble and strife = wife
o (Cockney rhyming slang)
• Making words shorter
o Brill = brilliant
o (Glasgow, Scotland and parts of the U.S.)
o Fab = fabulous
o (American 60’s slang; the Fab 4 = the Beatles)
Slang is created by playing with words
• Borrowing words from other languages
o Cushy = comfortable
o (From the Hindi Khush; no longer slang)
o Yadda yadda = and so on
o (from Yiddish and made popular by the sitcom
Seinfeld)
• Giving words the opposite meaning
o Bad = good
o (U.S. college slang in the 1990s)
o Sick = good
o (skateboarding slang)
Slang is created by playing with words
(3)
• Changing the spelling of words
o Phat = cool, very good
o (U.S. college slang in the 1990s)
• Being imaginative with words
o Taxed = mugged or robbed
o (Honolulu slang)
o Gimme some skin = let’s shake
o (American 60’s slang)
Why do people use slang
• To play with language
o For the fun of it
o To be different
o To be creative
o To be shocking
• Especially
musicians, poets, writers, screenwriters, etc.
Why do people use slang (2)
• To identify with a group
o To exclude others
o To be secretive
• Especially lower classes, groups that are outside
the main society, subcultures, etc.
Resource for Slang
• Urban Dictionary
o http://www.urbandictionary.com/