Introduction the theme of the present work is slang

part of the colloquial speech.
There are a lot of debates about this phenomenon. Most of the teachers consider slang
to be the vulgar part of the language. They state that only the uneducated part of the
Americans uses slang words. It results into consideration that slang is not worth
studying at all.
Ignorance of slang causes a great miscommunication between students and native
speakers. All this gives the sense for asking the following question: “Is it worth
studying English for many years in order to understand none of the words of the native
speaker?"
The language of the previous centuries contrasts from the modern language. The life
does not freeze in the same position. It always develops. And it makes the language
develop too.
But almost none of us know even a few slang words. That is why the present work is
devoted to this social phenomenon.
The objective of the work is an attempt to study all the aspects of slang, the cases
of its usage and to analyze the frequency of slang words usage referring to different
social groups in various sources.
To achieve the set aim we determine the following tasks:
1. to search the origin of slang;
2. to study the words' transition through English vocabulary;
3. to study the problem of the definition of slang;
4. to understand the aim of the modern usage of slang;
5. to distinguish different kinds of slang;
6. to study the ways of slang words formation;
7. to analyze literary sources for the presence of slang words referring to
different social groups;
8. to analyze dictionaries for the presence of slang words referring to
different social groups;
9. to compare the results of the analysis.
For writing the present paper a number of scientific sources devoted to the problem of
slang have been analyzed. As the material for our research we used slang words taken from
dictionaries and fiction.
For gaining the mentioned aim we used the following methods:
* descriptive;
* observation;
* critical study of scientific literature;
* comparison and contrast;
* distribution;
* statistic.
The present work consists of the following parts: Introduction, two chapters,
Conclusion and Bibliography. Bibliography comprises 28 sources in English and Russian.
1 THE MAIN ASPECTS OF SLANG
1.1 The origin of slang

The origin of slang is uncertain. It is not really a language since the words spoken

are clearly English; on the other hand, it’s not a dialect either, since the speakers of
this slang are also perfectly capable of not using it /1/.
Slang is believed to have come to prominence in the early to mid 1800’s. It is
frequently suggested that it began its life as a tongue of the street trader, the
costermongers, perhaps in an attempt to conceal their often-illicit practices from the
public or more importantly any illegal activities from the recently established police
force, the Peelers. It may well have begun its evolution many years before then. Another
area of speculation is how from being such a localized dialect it gained so much
prominence; the suggestion here is that slang was adopted by the underworld. It was the
necessity of the police to learn this criminal language and by its subsequent publication
in law enforcement manuals slang became widely known /2/.
Some stories go that slang originated in the market place so that the vendors could
communicate without the customers knowing what was being said - you wouldn’t want your
customers knowing that you were going to lower your prices in ten minutes so you could go
home early. Other stories have it that it originated in the prisons so that inmates could
talk without the guards listening in /2/.
But the scientists consider slang to originate from the Standard English language
itself. Speaking of standards, the most respected standard dialect was Received
Pronunciation. This kind of speech was considered Standard English and was used in
teaching English in all parts of the world. But very soon American English went forward
leaving British, Australian and Canadian one far behind. It came to be the most developed
one. This can be explained with the partaking of almost all of the dwellers of Europe in
the enriching the American English word-stock. But the rest countries of Europe were
inhabited by the British people. As a result, the more or less Standard English was
preserved there.
The lowest class of people immigrated from England and Ireland to the Northern states
of America. The English language was replaced to the position of the official language.
In the 18th century the Yankees parted from Britain and the settlements of the other
nationalities came there. The English phonetics was very complicated for them and the
foreigners simplified some words.
In 1930-s, 40-s, 50-s thanks to the music and cinema the intensive export of words and
word-expressions from America to Europe took place. During 60-s this process turned into
many-sided phenomenon. Any word that happened to come from the lips of the favorite rock-
musician, of the popular actor or actress was picked up by teenagers. Some of the words
entered the everyday use but the rest superannuated. This process proceeded during 70-s
and 80-s when a great number of new words appeared. A great quantity of shortenings waved
Europe /3/.
Recorded slang emerged, as the sketch of dictionaries has shown, from the special
language of subculture, or perhaps should call the more despised of them “undercultures”
/4:3/.
Among the immigrant-ethnic bestowals, the influx from Yiddish continued strong in
spite of the sociological shifting of the Jewish population. The Old Dutch and German
sources dried up. The Italian carried on in modest proportion. The Hispanic was
surprisingly uninfluential, although a heavier contribution is surely predictable. All
these were far outstripped by increased borrowing from black America and this from the
urban ghetto rather than the old Southern heartland /5:8/. Close analysis would probably
show that, what with the prominence of black people in the armed forces, in music, in the
entertainment world, and in street and ghetto life, the black influence on American slang
was more pervasive than that of any other ethnic group in history. The post-War period
was characterized by the speeded process of the social life that traced the language but
the rock’n’roll brought up to the surface of Standard English the language of the lowest
society and spread it over Atlantic. A lot of terms were introduced by the influx of the
other cultures. The resulting mishmash created what academics call “slang” /3/.
The origin of the word “slang” itself is unknown. Its resemblance in sound and
figurative meaning to the noun and verb “sling” and the occurrence of apparently the same
root in Scandinavian expressions referring to language, suggest that the term “slang” is
a development of a Germanic root from which the current English “sling” is derived.
Another conjecture is that “slang” has been formed by shortening from genitive phrases
like beggars’ language or rogues’ language, in which the genitive suffix of the first
noun attaches to the initial syllable of language and then the final syllable is lost
/6:5/.
To fully understand slang, one must remember that a word's use, popularity, and
acceptability can change. Words can change in social level, moving in any direction.
Thus, some standard words of William Shakespeare's days are found only in certain modern-
day British dialects or in the dialect of the southern United States. Words that are
taboo in one era (e.g., stomach, thigh) can become accepted, standard words in a later
era. Language is dynamic, and at any given time hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of words
and expressions are in the process of changing from one level to another, of becoming
more acceptable or less acceptable, of becoming more popular or less popular.
Slang is the words so frequently appearing in lively everyday speech and just as
quickly disappearing from the language.
Slang invades the dominant culture as it seeps out of various subcultures. Some words
fall dead or lie dormant in the dominant culture for long periods. Others vividly express
an idea already latent in the dominant culture and these are immediately picked up and
used. Before the advent of mass media, such terms invaded the dominant culture slowly and
were transmitted largely by word of mouth. Thus a term like snafu, its shocking power
softened with the explanation "situation normal, all fouled up," worked its way gradually
from the military in World War II by word of mouth (because the media largely shunned it)
into respectable circles. Today, however, a sportscaster, news reporter, or comedian may
introduce a lively new word already used by an in-group into millions of homes
simultaneously, giving it almost instant currency. For example, the term uptight was
first used largely by criminal narcotic addicts to indicate the onset of withdrawal
distress when drugs are denied. Later, because of intense journalistic interest in the
drug scene, it became widely used in the dominant culture to mean anxiety or tension
unrelated to drug use. It kept its form but changed its meaning slightly /7:861/.
The events taking place in 60’s and 70’s developed Europe into more democratic, more
perfect and free one. Thanks to the favorite music-groups a great number of new words and
idioms entered the English language. And the words considered to be slang yesterday, are
turned to be a norm today.
“Slang emanates from conflicts in values, sometimes superficial, often fundamental.
When an individual applies language in a new way to express hostility, ridicule, or
contempt, often with sharp wit, he may be creating slang, but the new expression will
perish unless it is picked up by others. If the speaker is a member of a group that finds
that his creation projects the emotional reaction of its members toward an idea, person,
or social institution, the expression will gain currency according to the unanimity of
attitude within the group. A new slang term is usually widely used in a subculture before
it appears in the dominant culture” /8/. Thus slang-e.g. "sucker," "honkey," "shave-
tail," "jerk"--expresses the attitudes, not always derogatory, of one group or class
toward the values of another. Slang sometimes stems from within the group, satirizing or
burlesquing its own values, behavior, and attitudes; e.g., "shotgun wedding," "cake
eater," "greasy spoon."
But in such an “idiomatic language” as English, slang is worth being treated more
accurately, especially the groups of words, which were considered to be slang 30 and more
years ago.
Slang is most popular when its imagery develops incongruity bordering on social
satire. Every slang word, however, has its own history and reasons for popularity. When
conditions change, the term may change in meaning, be adopted into the standard language,
or continue to be used as slang within certain enclaves of the population. Nothing is
flatter than dead slang. In 1910, for instance, "Oh you kid" and "23-skiddoo" were quite
stylish phrases in the U.S. but they have gone with the hobble skirt. Children, however,
unaware of anachronisms, often revive old slang under a barrage of older movies rerun on
television /9/.
Some slang words become respectable when they lose their edge; "spunk," "fizzle,"
"spent," "hit the spot," "jazz," "funky," and "p.o.'d," once thought to be too indecent
for feminine ears, are now familiar words. Some slang items have long lives. Thus, bones
as slang for dice was used by Chaucer in the 14c and is still slang. These words must
have been uttered as slang long before appearing in print, and they have remained slang
ever since. But when slang items remain in the language for years, they often lose their
slang status. Middle English bouse (now booze) persists in informal context, as does
pooped (exhausted), first attested in the 16c. Still other slang items pass into the
general vocabulary and bear little or no association with their earlier lives as slang:
for example, jeopardy from gambling and crestfallen from cockfighting have even acquired
a learned tinge. Many words enter general slang from the taboo words of subcultures.
Through increased use and broad application, they can lose their shock value and become
more positive; the verb jam a century ago had specific sexual referents, but now means
“to dance, play music, have a good time, succeed”. Yet many words in slang remain
negative, especially the large and constantly replenished set of epithets available at
all time in slang: for example, the pejorative boob, dork, dweeb, jerk, nerd, scuzbag,
slimeball, wimp. Normally, slang has both a high birth and death rate in the dominant
culture, and excessive use tends to dull the luster of even the most colorful and
descriptive words and phrases. The rate of turnover in slang words is undoubtedly
encouraged by the mass media, and a term must be increasingly effective to survive.
Let’s imagine American English as a huge city and the words its dwellers. Slang is the
block for poor citizens. Americans call this block a “skid row”. The dwellers of these
blocks leave for the more prestigious ones. Some of them make much money and turn into
the successful businessmen. They are the representatives of the higher society. Just the
same situation can be observed with slang. A great number of new words came to the
English language. Some of the words entered the everyday use but some of them perished.
In ten or fifteen years a part of these words was considered to be the literary norm but
the rest left to be slang /3:14/.

A slang expression may suddenly become widely used and as quickly die (23-skiddoo). It

may become accepted as standard speech, either in its original slang meaning (bus from
omnibus, skyscrapers, taxi, movies, piano, phone, pub mob, dandy) or with an altered,
possibly tamed meaning (jazz, which originally had sexual connotations). Some expressions
have persisted for centuries as slang (booze for alcoholic beverage). In the 20th
century, mass media and rapid travel have speeded up both the circulation and the demise
of slang terms. Television and novels have turned criminal cant into slang (five grand
for $5000). Changing social circumstances may stimulate the spread of slang. Drug-related
expressions (such as pot and marijuana) were virtually a secret jargon in the 1940s; in
the 1960s they were adopted by rebellious youth; and in the 1970s and ’80s they were
widely known. But this must be done by those whose mother tongue is English. They and
only they, being native speakers of the English language, are its masters and lawgivers.
It is for them to place slang in its proper category by specifying its characteristic
features.
Many words formerly labeled as slang have now become legitimate units of the Standard
English. Thus, the word “kid” (=child), which was considered low slang in the 19th
century, is now a legitimate colloquial unit of the English literary language.
It sounds unbelievable but not so long ago the words: of course, to take care, OK, to
get up, lunch were considered to be slang. “Lunch” entered the language after World War I
is not used in some books that prefer “dinner” to “lunch”.
Some books still ignore “OK”. This word came into use in 30’s and was borrowed by the
other countries of the world. But the linguists treated this abbreviation to be the pure
slang and avoided using it for a long time. Some don’t use it nowadays. Americans
consider this word to be the ordinary one. Just the same must be said about the other
words and word-expressions that are treated as vulgar ones.
The word “OK” or okay is familiar to each human being of the world. It is made with
fingers and reminds the letters “K” and “O”. “OK” entered the German and other languages
long ago. But what is the origin of “OK”? The people from Oklahoma state that this word
originated from the shorten name of their state. But the most reasonable theory, that the
word “OK” roots the phrase “all correct”. The English word “correct” begins with “C” but
one German signed all the documents with “OK” meaning “all korrect” with “K”. The people
dealing with him got accustomed to this sign.
“OK” has several meanings:
1. welcome;
2. I’m healthy;
3. all right;
4. good.
“OK” is still avoided to be used in business letters though it appears in quite
serious newspapers. It needs some time to come into business use.
Such words should not be used in print till they have become so familiar that there is
not the slightest temptation to dress them up in quotation marks. Though they are the
most easily detected, they are also the best slang; when the time comes, they take their
place in the language as words, die away uselessly after a brief popularity.
Some linguists, when characterizing the most conspicuous features of slang, point out
that it requires continuous innovation. It never grows stale. If a slang word or phrase
does become stale, it is replaced by a new slangism. It is claimed that this satisfies
the natural desire for fresh, newly created words and expressions, which are to be the
utterances with emotional color and a subjective evaluation. Indeed, it seems to be in
correspondence with the traditional view of English conservatism, that a special
derogative term should have been coined to help preserve the “purity of standard English”
by hindering the penetration into it of undesirable elements. The point is that the
heterogeneous nature of the term serves as a kind of barrier, which checks the natural
influx of word coinage into the literary language. True, such barriers are not without
their advantage in polishing up the literary language. This can be proved by the
progressive role played by any conscious effort to sift innovations, some of which are
indeed felt to be unnecessary, even containing elements in the body of the language. In
this respect the American newspapers may serve as an example of how the absence of such a
sifting process results in the contamination of the literary tongue of the nation with
ugly redundant coinages. Such a barrier, however, sometimes turns into an obstacle, which
hinders the natural development of the literary language.
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 and
expressions known only to comparatively small social subgroups. It can serve as a bridge
or a barrier, either helping both old and new words that have been used as "insiders' "
terms by a specific group of people to enter the language of the general public or, on
the other hand, preventing them from doing so. Thus, for many words, slang is a testing
ground that finally proves them to be generally useful, appealing, and acceptable enough
to become standard or informal. 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, or unacceptable for standard or informal speech. For
still a third group of words and expressions, slang becomes not a final testing ground
that either accepts or rejects them for general use but becomes a vast limbo, a permanent
holding ground, an area of speech that a word never leaves /10/. Thus, during various
times in history, American slang has provided cowboy, blizzard, okay, racketeer, phone,
gas, and movie for standard or informal speech. It has tried and finally rejected
conbobberation (disturbance), krib (room or apartment), lucifer (match), tomato (girl),
and fab (fabulous) from standard or informal speech. It has held other words such as
bones (dice), used since the 14th century, and beat it (go away), used since the 16th
century, in a permanent grasp, neither passing them on to standard or informal speech nor
rejecting them from popular, long-term use.

1.2 The problem of definition

In linguistics, where definitions at best are often imprecise and leaky, that of slang

is especially notorious. The problem is one of complexity, such that a definition
satisfying to one person or authority would seem inadequate to another because the prime
focus is different. Like the proverbial blind men describing an elephant, all correctly,
none sufficiently, we tend to stress one aspect or another of slang /11/.
There is hardly any other term that is as ambiguous and obscure as the term slang.
Slang seems to mean everything that is below the standard of usage of present-day
English.
Much has been said and written about it. This is probably due to the uncertainty of
the concept itself. No one has yet given a more or less satisfactory definition of the
term. Nor has it been specified by any linguist who deals with the problem of the English
vocabulary.
“The first thing that strikes the scholars is the fact that no one European language
has singled out a special layer of vocabulary and named it slang, though all of them
distinguish such group of words as jargon, cant and the like. Why was it necessary to
invent a special term for something that has not been clearly defined as jargon or can't
have? Is this phenomenon specifically English? Has slang any special features, which no
other group within the non-literary vocabulary can lay, claim to? The distinctions
between slang and other groups of unconventional English, though perhaps subtle and
sometimes difficult to grasp, should nevertheless be subjected to a more detailed
linguistic specification”/12:68/.
Slang is informal, nonstandard words and phrases, generally shorter lived than the
expressions of ordinary colloquial speech, and typically formed by creative, often witty
juxtapositions of words or images. Slang can be contrasted with jargon (technical
language of occupational or other groups) and with argot or cant (secret vocabulary of
underworld groups), but the borderlines separating these categories from slang are
greatly blurred, and some writers use the terms cant, argot, and jargon in a general way
to include all the foregoing meanings /13/.
Webster’s “Third New International Dictionary” gives the following definition of the
term:
Slang:
1. Language peculiar to a particular group as:
a) the special and often secret vocabulary used by a class (as thieves, beggars)
and usually felt to be vulgar or inferior: argot;
b) the jargon used by or associated with a particular trade, profession, or field
of activity.
2. A non-standard vocabulary composed of words and senses characterized primary by
connotations of extreme informality and usually a currency not limited to a particular
region and composed typically of coinages or arbitrarily changed words, clipped or
shortened forms, extravagant, forced or facetious figures of speech, or verbal novelties
usually experiencing quick popularity and relatively rapid decline into disuse.
The “New Oxford English Dictionary” defines slang as follows:
a) the special vocabulary used by any set of persons of a low or disreputable
character; language of a low and vulgar type;
b) the cant or jargon of a certain class or period;
c) language of a highly colloquial type considered as below the level of standard
educated speech, and consisting either of new words or of current words employed in some
special sense.”
As it is seen from these quotations slang is represented both as a special vocabulary
and as a special language. This is the first thing that causes confusion. If this is a
certain lexical layer, than why should it be given the rank of language or a dialect of
even a patois, then it should be characterized not only by its peculiar use of words but
also by phonetic, morphological and syntactical peculiarities.
J.B. Greenough and C.L. Kitteridge define slang in the following way:
“Slang… is a peculiar kind of vagabond language, always hanging on the outskirts of
legitimate speech but continually straying or forcing its way into the most respectable
company.”
Another definition of slang, which is worth quoting, is one made by Eric Partridge,
the eminent student of the non-literary language.
“Slang is much rather a spoken than a literary language. It originates, nearly always,
in speech. To coin a term on a written page is almost inevitably to brand it as a
neologism which is either be accepted or become a nonce-word (or phrase), but, except in
the rarest instances, that term will not be slang”/14/.
In most of the dictionaries slang is used as convenient stylistic notation for a word
or a phrase that cannot be specified more exactly. The obscure etymology of the term
itself affects its use as a stylistic notation. Whenever the notation appears in a
dictionary it may serve as an indication that the unit presented is non-literary, but not
pinpointed. That is the reason why the various dictionaries disagree in the use of this
term when applied as a stylistic notation.
Any new coinage that has not gained recognition and therefore has not yet been
received into Standard English is easily branded as slang /15/.
The different and heterogeneous phenomena united under the vague term slang cause
natural confusion and do not encourage scholars to seek more objective criteria in order
to distinguish the various stylistic layers of the English colloquial vocabulary. The
confusion is made still deeper by the fact that any word or expression apparently
legitimate, if used in an arbitrary, fanciful or metaphorical sense, may easily be
labeled as slang /16/.
The term “slang” which is widely used in English linguistic science should be clearly
specified if it is to be used as a term, i.e. it is should refer to some definite notion
and should be definable in explicit, simple terms. It is suggested that the term “slang”
should be used for those forms of the English vocabulary which are either mispronounced
or distorted in some way phonetically, morphologically or lexically. The term “slang”
should be also used to specify some elements, which may be called over-colloquial. As for
the other groups of words hitherto classified as slang, they should be specified
according to the universally accepted classification of the vocabulary of the language
/17/.
Slang is nothing but a deviation from the established norm at the level of the
vocabulary of the language. V.V.Vinogradov writes that one of the tasks set before the
branch of linguistic science that is now called stylistics, is a thorough study of all
changes in vocabulary, set phrases, grammatical constructions, their functions, an
evaluation of any breaking away from the established norm, and classification of mistakes
and failures in word coinage /12/.
Some scholars define standard slang, the slang that is common to all those who, though
employing received standard in their writing and speech, also use an informal language
which, in fact, is no language but merely a way of speaking, using special words and
phrases in some special sense. The most confusing definition of the nature of slang is
the following one given by Partridge: “…personality and one’s surroundings (social or
occupational) are the two co-efficients, the two chief factors, the determining causes of
the nature of slang, as they are of language in general and of style.”
According to this statement one may get the idea that language, style and slang all
have the same nature, the same determining causes /16/. Personality and surroundings
determine:
. nature of the slang used by a definite person;
. nature of the language he uses;
. kind of style he writes.
There is a general tendency in England and to some extent in the US to over-estimate
the significance of slang by attaching to it more significance than it deserves. Slang is
regarded as the quintessence of colloquial speech and therefore stands above all the laws
of grammar. Though it is regarded by some purists as a language that stands below
standard English, it is highly praised nowadays as “vivid”, “more flexible”, “more
picturesque”, “richer in vocabulary” and so on /18/.
Unwittingly one arrives at the idea that slang, as used by English and Americans, is a
universal term for any word or phrase which, though not yet recognized as standard
English, has won general recognition as a fresh innovation quite irrespective of its
nature: whether it is cant, jargon, dialect, jocular or pure colloquialism. It is
therefore important, for the sake of a scientific classification of the English
vocabulary, to make a more exact discrimination between heterogeneous elements in
vocabulary, no matter how difficult it may be /19/.
It is suggestive that there is a tendency in some modern dictionaries to replace the
label “slang” by informal or colloquial. Such a practice clearly manifests the
dissatisfaction of some lexicographers with the term “slang”. This is mainly due to the
ambiguity of the term /1/.
On the other hand, some lexicographers, as has already been pointed out, still make
use of the term “slang” as a substitute for “jargon”, “cant”, “colloquialism”,
“professionalism”, “vulgar”, “dialectal”. Thus, in his dictionary Professor Barnhart
gives the label “slang” to such innovations as “grab - to cause, to react; to make an
impression on”, which should be classified as newspaper jargon; “grass or pot -
marijuana”, which are positively cant words (the quotation that follows proves it quite
unambiguously), “groove - something very enjoyable”, “grunt - US military slang”, which
in fact is professionalism; “guppy tummy, British slang - a common intestinal upset
experienced by travelers”, which is a colloquialism; “hangup - a psychological or
emotional problem”, which is undoubtedly a professionalism, which has undergone extension
of meaning and now, according to Barnhart also means “any problem or difficulty,
especially one that causes annoyance or irritation.”
The use of the label “slang” in this way is evidently due to the fact that Barnhart’s
Dictionary aims not so much at discrimination between different stylistic subtleties of
neologisms but mainly at fixation of lexical units which have already won general
recognition thorough constant repetition on newspaper language.
Slang, according to the American poet, Carl Sandburg is “Language which takes off its
coat, spits on its hands-and goes to work”.
U.M.Skrebnev defines slang as a part of the vocabulary consisting of commonly
understood and widely used words and expressions of humorous or derogatory character-
intentional substitutes for neutral or elevated words and expressions.
M. Goldenkov gives the following definition:
“Slang is everything which is out of the books.”
Slang is also the idiom of the life force. It has roots somewhere near those of
sexuality, and it regularly defies death.
“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”/11/.
The term “slang” is ambiguous because, to use a figurative expression, it has become a
Jack-of-all-trades and master of none.
There are a lot of definitions of slang and all of them seem to be correct. They
characterize this many-sided phenomenon from all the points of view.
The Oxford English dictionary provides a more judicious account: “Language of a highly
colloquial type, considered as below the level of educated standard speech, consisting
either of new words or of current words employed in some special sense”. In a related
definition, it also describes slang as “language of a low or vulgar type” and “the
special vocabulary or phraseology of a particular calling or profession”. This sums up
the paradox of slang very well. People look down on it, but can hardly avoid using it.
Though some scholars ignore slang the English language contains a rich array of slang
words and phrases. This can be particularly seen when examining the day-to-day language
of an average speaker. Some words and phrases are perhaps not suitable for general
consumption and have omitted these. Even so, many of the following will offend some
people and it is worth stating that their inclusion is to provide a realistic
representation of the language, not to be sensational or abusive. It’s the nature of
slang that it is either used to replace taboo phrases or to playfully enhance them.
In some cases slang may provide a needed name for an object or action (walkie-talkie,
a portable two-way radio; tailgating, driving too close behind another vehicle), or it
may offer an emotional outlet (buzz off! for go away!) or a satirical or patronizing
reference (smokey, state highway trooper). It may provide euphemisms (john, head, can,
and in Britain, loo, all for toilet, itself originally a euphemism), and it may allow its
user to create a shock effect by using a pungent slang expression in an unexpected
context.
Slang is used for many purposes, but generally it expresses a certain emotional
attitude; the same term may express diametrically opposed attitudes when used by
different people. People use slang consciously and unconsciously in the course of
ordinary, every day interaction. Essentially, slang allows speakers the freedom to play
with and enjoy the language, make words up, adopt new expressions indiscriminately, and
use language for humor, irony, sarcasm, and irreverence. Also slang allows people to name
things indirectly and figuratively, especially through metaphor, metonymy, and irony.
Many slang terms are primarily derogatory, though they may also be ambivalent when used
in intimacy or affection. Some crystallize or bolster the self-image or promote
identification with a class or in-group. Others flatter objects, institutions, or persons
but may be used by different people for the opposite effect. "Jesus freak," originally
used as ridicule, was adopted as a title by certain street evangelists. Slang sometimes
insults or shocks when used directly; some terms euphemize a sensitive concept, though
obvious or excessive euphemism may break the taboo more effectively than a less decorous
term. Some slang words are essential because there are no words in the standard language
expressing exactly the same meaning; e.g., "freak-out," "barn-storm," "rubberneck," and
the noun "creep." At the other extreme, multitudes of words, vague in meaning, are used.
H.Wentworth and S.Flexner in their “Dictionary of American Slang” write: “Slang is the
unescapable means of communication. Sometimes it is used to escape the dull familiarity
of standard words, to suggest an escape from the established routine of everyday life.
When slang is used, our life seems a little fresher and a little more personal. Also, as
at all levels of speech, slang is sometimes used for the pure joy of making sounds, or
even for a need to attract attention by making noise. The sheer newness and informality
of certain slang words produce pleasure. But more important than this expression of a
more or less hidden aesthetic motive on the part of the speaker is the slang’s reflection
of the personality, the outward, clearly visible characteristics of the speaker. By the
large, the man who uses slang is a forceful, pleasing, acceptable personality.”
The professors of Moscow Gymnasium of Humanities N.V.Pavlova and Y.A.Kuleshova state
that there is something that attracts people to slang. 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;
. to demonstrate the class that one belongs to;
. to be an interesting speaker;
. to enrich the language;
. to induce friendliness.
Slang may appeal, or it may be disgusting. It may be popular, or may be ignored. But
it is really used, so it has to arouse some interest.
It has been claimed that slang is created by ingenious individuals to freshen the
language, to vitalize it, to make the language more pungent and picturesque, to increase
the store of terse and striking words, or to provide a vocabulary for new shades of
meaning. Most of the originators of slang, however, are probably not conscious of these
noble purposes and do not seem overly concerned about what happens to their language
/20/.
In the present paper we stick to the following definition of slang:
Slang is a nonstandard vocabulary, clipped or shortened forms, extravagant, forced or
facetious figures of speech. It is much rather a spoken than a literary language and the
instrument to escape the dull familiarity, to suggest an escape from the established
routine of every-day life.

1.3 The formation of slang words

The vocabulary of Old English differs from the vocabulary of Modern English. Modern

English abounds in the words that were absent in Old English. The language is not a dead
phenomenon, it is alive, and it is always up-to-date. The development of the language is
gained due to the endless appearance of new words.
Slang comes to be a very numerous part of the English language. It is considered to be
one of the main representatives of the nation itself. The birth of new words results from
the order of the modern society. Slang arises due to our propensity for replacing old
denominations by expressive ones. And yet the growing popularity of every new creation
prevents it from remaining fresh and impressive. What was felt as strikingly witty
yesterday becomes dull and stale today, since everybody knows it and uses it. So how do
the slang words come to life? There are several ways of slang words formation:
1. Various figures of speech participate in slang formation.
For example: upperstorey-head (metaphor)
skirt-girl (metonymy)
killing-astonishing (hyperbole)
some-excellent or bad (understatement)
clear as mud (irony)
Slang items usually arise by the same means in which new words enter the general
vocabulary.
2. The slang word can appear thanks to the recycling of the words and parts of words,
which are already in the language.
. Affixation allows limitless opportunities for open-ended sets.

For example: megabucks, megabeers, megawork (for vast quantities of the

item in questions).

. Compounding makes one word from two.
For example: airhead-someone out of touch with reality
homeboy-a person from the same hometown
3. A currently productive process especially in American English is the addition of a