Introduction the theme of the present work is slang

parting salutation”.
“He swore he wouldn’t mark if they caught him”/17/.
In this case the slang word “mark” is used in the meaning of “to inform”.
“I got mega homework tonight”/4/.
Here the slang word “mega” means “much”.
“Fold the table down, and generations of crud and mung apper”/28/.
In the present example the slang word “mung” has the meaning of “anything nasty”.
“I pigged out on a runny Brie”/4/.
Here the slang word “pigged out” is used in the meaning of “overeat”.
It is very interesting to mention that the slang words referring to the teenagers and
college students groups of slang have nothing in common with the real meaning of the
words. They come to be very interesting groups because slang words express casual
attitude of the young people to the world, they add laughing effect to a sentence where
they happen to be used.
The present research proves the statement of professor L. Kuleshova that the major
part of slang originates from criminal world of drug addicts, robbers, burglars,
criminals, killers, etc.
2.2.2 The use of slang in emotive prose
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. It is worth stating
that their inclusion is to provide a realistic representation of the language. Every
slang word refers to this or that group of slang that represents different social groups.
The groups studied most persistently are criminal underworld, narcotics, teenagers,
college students, police. Slang words of these social groups come to be the object of the
present research.
Every day and every moment people use slang words referring to different social
groups. Some of the groups are used rarely but some of them-very often. What does it
depend on? To investigate the frequency of usage of slang words referring to different
social groups in emotive prose we studied fiction. The analysis of fiction proves that
slang words are freely used in every-day life. Having a great thematic range the books
reflect all spheres of social life. By definition the fiction deals with social
conflicts, i.e. it has a stylistic ground and takes a special place in language. The
language material has been selected from the following books: “Generation”, by Douglas
Campbell Coupland and “The Death on a Casual Friday”, by Sharon Duncan. Both books come
to be the modern representatives of the up-to-date usage of slang words.
The first book is devoted to the young generation and demonstrates the wide usage of
slang words referring to the college students’, teenagers’, and drug addicts’ groups of
slang.
Being a very popular detective the second book contains a great amount of slang words
that refer to the police and underworld groups of slang.
For our research we used 102 examples of slang words usage. Then we selected them in
accordance with the social groups. The results are represented in the table 2.

Table 2. The frequency of slang words usage in emotive prose

|№ |Group of Slang |Absolute Number |Relative number% |

|1 |Police |25 |25 |
|2 |College Students |18 |18 |
|3 |Teenagers |15 |15 |
|4 |Underworld |5 |5 |
|5 |Narcotics |39 |38 |
|Total | |102 |100 |
According to the statistic results slang words referring to narcotics (38%) are used
more often than slang words referring to other social groups. They are used to name
different kinds of drugs: Marijuana, Heroin, Ecstasy, etc. They also help to name the
physical and psychological condition of people who are under the influence of drugs. For
example there is no the suitable standard word to describe the person who is out of touch
with reality. The slang word “freak” gives the sufficient information about such a person
in short. This is one of the main reasons of using slang words in emotive prose. Slang
words of the present social group are mostly used by young people because they go under
the influence of drugs more than other age groups. Some of them come to be buyers and
some of them are suppliers but all of them are in close contact with narcotics. They
widely use slang words referring to narcotics in every-day speech in order to understand
and be understood by their mates.
Here we can present the most colorful examples of usage slang words referring to
narcotics.
“Martin was horrified that an employee had called the inspectors, and I mean really
freaked out”/26:20/.
In this case the slang word “freak out” has the meaning of “to go out of touch with
reality.” Here the slang word helps to describe the psychological state of the hero. The
reader can understand that s/he behaves as a drug addict.
“…now she phones friends and relatives at 2:30 in the morning and scares them silly
with idle, slightly druggy chat”/26:23/.
In the present example the slang word “draggy” has the meaning of “a narcotic user.”
Due to this word we can understand that the girl takes drugs. The word helps to imagine
the way she talks and behaves.
“…he is in London, England this Christmas, doing ecstasy and going to
nightclubs”/26:54/.
Here the slang word “ecstasy” means “a variety of amphetamine narcotics.” It is used
in order to name the special kind of drugs because there is no the suitable standard word
to name this narcotic.
“He was weeping and I could only place my chin on his heart and listen-listen while he
blubbered that he didn’t know what happened to his youth, and that he had become a
slightly freaky robot”/26:45/.
In the present example the slang word “freaky” is appeared in the meaning of “having a
qualities of a freak-out”. Due to the usage of the present slang word the reader can
imagine the behavior of the man. He seems to be unemotional, dependant person.
“…simply stood beside me while I spoke with the juggler”/27:5/.
The slang word “a juggler” means “a drug supplier, connector.” This word is used in
order to give direct name to the seller of drugs. It also happens to be a code word in
the conversations of drug addicts.
“The scent of freshly brewed coffee waved up from below and Elyse sniffed”/27:46/.
In the present example the slang word “to sniff” is appeared in the meaning of “to
inhale a narcotic powder.” The slang word helps the reader to imagine the way the girl
smells freshly brewed coffee. She smells it with pleasure as if drug addict smells
narcotic.
“They all preferred to spend this night in this acid pad than to return in the mom-and-
pop motel”/26:57/.
Here the slang word “Acid-pad” means “a place (flat) where LSD is taken.” The slang
word helps to imagine the place the heroes spend night. Due to its usage we can imagine
this place as a very terrible one.
Slang words referring to police group of slang are also widely used (25%) in every-day
communication. The book “The Death on a Casual Friday” is devoted to the life of police.
This kind of words is mostly used by the people related to police.
Here are some interesting examples of the usage of police group of slang.
“As I remember, Karen was spooked about the Sick Building business more than any of
us”/26:18/.
The slang word “to spook” is used in the meaning of “to spy, to investigate.”
“But before I get a lawyer I need evidence: photos, recordings of his phone
conversations, a bug or something”/27:43/.
In the present example the slang word “a bug” has the meaning of confidential
information, which is got with help of electronic surveillance by installing hidden
microphones.” Policemen use this word in order to be short.
“Either way, boss, looks like you got your work cut out for you”/27:65/.
Here the slang word “cut out” is appeared in the meaning of “main business, purpose.”
The slang word is used in the conversation between two policemen.
“He looks squeaky clean for the first few pages”/27:65/.
In this case the slang word “squeaky clean” is used in the meaning of “perfectly
clean, white.” It comes to be a specific name for the police term.
“I told him about you and he thinks spooks are cool”/26:68/.
In the present example the slang word “spook” is used in the meaning of “a spy”.
“He is furious that the feds might have a file on him”/27:87/.
The slang word “fed” is used in the meaning of “a federal government worker”.
“Nope, he got a booster rabies shot today”/26:76/.
In this case the slang word “booster” is used in the meaning of “a shoplifter”. This
word comes to be a specific name for this kind of criminals.
Slang words that are contributed by underworld are not in wide use (5%). Such social
groups as robbers, burglars, killers, etc. can be referred to this subculture. These
words are supposed to be code words. The people use these words in order not to be
understood. So, it is not a surprise that an average speaker does not understand slang
words referring to underworld. That is why these slang words are rarely used in the text.
But there are some examples of slang words usage referring to the underworld.

“Oh, My God! It is plutonium! You brought plutonium into my house. This place is a

waste dump now”/26:43/!
Here the slang word “a dump” has the meaning of “shabby or ugly place”.

“Check out the Vegas housewife on chemotherapy,” whispered Tobias to me and Dug,

misguidedly trying to win our confidence through dump wisecracks”/26:41/.

In this case the slang word “wisecracks” is appeared in the meaning of “a joke”.

“His normally pink cheeks are a dove gray, and his chestnut hair has the demented

mussed look of a random sniper poking his head out from a burger joint and yelling, “I’ll
never surrender”/27:68/.
In the present example the slang word “poke one’s head” has the meaning of “to show
up”.
“…and their biker-bitch chicks with pale green gang tattoos…”/26:96/.
Here the slang word “chick” is used in the meaning of “a woman”.
“Half the guys were either dead now or in a federal pen somewhere.” In the present
sentence the slang word “pen” has the meaning of “a penitentiary prison”/27:64/.
Slang words referring to college students (18%) and teenagers (15%) groups of slang
are in the middle. They are mostly used by young people. These words usually name the
subjects somehow related with college, streets, pubs, relationships between young people.
People who do not contact these things do not use such words and sometimes do not get
acquainted with them and their meaning because the life of these slang words is usually
short. These facts prove the low frequency of slang words usage referring to these social
groups.
Here some colorful examples of usage of slang words referring to teenagers group of
slang.
“Hi, Andy,” Elvissa whispers, bending down to peck me on the check.”/26:34/
In this case the slang word “peck” has the meaning of “to kiss”.
“… the buzz-cut love child, spoiled little monster who hands a microwaved dish of
macaroni back to mum and commands, “There is a patch in the middle that’s still cold.
Reheat it”/26:51/!
Here the slang word “buzz-cut” is appeared in the meaning of “nice, lively”.
The word is usually used when speak about something with pleasure.
“I spied Matt Petersen. Looking like a bearded Norseman, stomping down the other side
of the wide ramp, red toolbox in hand”/27:61/.
In the present sentence the slang word “stomp” is used in the meaning of “to move
quickly”.
“But then, hey! Come 5 o’clock. I’d go nuts”/26:75/!
In this sentence the slang word “go nuts” is appeared in the meaning of “to have fun”.
“Her advisor was a dork”/27:43/.
Here the slang word “a dork” is used in the meaning of “an idiot”.
“Her brown stable boots were dusty, the kind my daughter Melissa wore for a year when
she was eleven and horse-crazy and just before she discovered boys”/27:42/.
In the present example the slang word “Horse-crazy” has the meaning of “very young,
girlish”.
The following examples demonstrate the usage of slang words referring to the college
students’ group of slang.
“Chill, boy. This sort of things is misdemeanor”/27:42/.
In this example the slang word “chill” is used in the meaning of “to relax”.
“Elvissa gathered the pooch after leaving the college”/26:48/.
Here the slang word “pooch” is appeared in the meaning of “information”.
“Thanks, god. I’m working tonight. Creepy as it may be, dreary as it may be,
representative as it may be, work keeps me level”/27:26/.
In the present example the slang word “creepy” has the meaning of “disgusting,
loathsome”.
“At Thanksgiving two years ago, after dinner my mother was bagging all of the dinner
trash into a huge nonbiodegradable bag”/27:63/.
In this case the slang word “bag” means “to get rid of”.
“The staff were all bitching about commuting time”/26:57/.
Here the slang word “bitch” is appeared in the meaning of “to complain”.
“She shook her head, then hesitated, “Well, I’ve been hanging out with Gregg”/27:24/.
In the present example the slang word “Hang out” is used in the meaning of “to pass
time.”
“She was dating a hot guy from Brazil who was in her math class; she hated economics
and would probably flunk it”/27:53/.
In the present case the slang word “flunk” is used in the meaning of “to fail an
examination”.
So, according to the present data we can conclude that slang words referring to
narcotics and police groups of slang are used by everybody, while such slang groups as
college students and teenagers are used by the limited part of society. Slang words
referring to the underworld are rarely used because they commonly name the things related
with criminals.

2.2.3 The comparison of slang words usage in the dictionary and emotive prose

The object of the present research is to analyze the frequency of slang words usage in

different styles. To achieve the set object we selected slang words according with the
different social groups from the dictionary and fiction. We analyzed the frequency of
slang words usage within each of the styles. Here we try to compare the obtained results
that are presented in the table 3.

Table 3. The comparison of slang words usage

|№ |Group of Slang|Dictionary |Emotive Prose |

| | |Absolute |Relative |Absolute |Relative |
| | |number |number |number |number |
|1 |Narcotics |789 |35 |39 |38 |
|2 |Police |210 |9 |25 |25 |
|3 |Teenagers |365 |16 |15 |15 |
|4 |College |400 |17.5 |18 |18 |
| |students | | | | |
|5 |Underworld |522 |23 |5 |5 |
|Total |2286 |100% |102 |100% |

From the table 3 it is clearly seen that in the dictionaries the slang group of

narcotics (35%) is the most numerous one. It happens because nowadays the quantity of
drug addicts grows every day, new kinds of narcotics appear. That is why this class of
people needs new words in order to give names to new narcotics. It is well-known that
slang words referring to the narcotics group of slang are widely used by the drug addicts
in order the police not to understand them. We can suppose that drug addicts create new
slang words when the existing words become well-known. So, this group of slang comes to
be the main source of slang words. In emotive prose the words referring to the social
group of narcotics (38%) are also used oftener than slang words referring to the other
social groups. It also can be explained with a great amount of people somehow related
with the world of narcotics. It does not matter if the person is a buyer or supplier s/he
uses slang words referring to this social group in order to be on the colloquial level,
understand his/her mates and be understood. In the other words these slang words are
widely used in order to be the means of communication in the world of narcotics. At the
same time some slang words referring to the group of narcotics help to describe
psychological and physical states of the heroes.
In the dictionary the second place is taken by the slang group of the underworld
(23%). This slang group also comes to be one of the main sources of slang words. This
also can be explained with a great amount of killers, robbers, etc. Slang words referring
to this social group come to be their code words that help them to be on the colloquial
level and not to be understood by the others. But it is very interesting to mention that
in emotive prose slang words referring to the underworld (5%) group of slang are used
very rarely. Though there exist a lot of slang words referring to the social group of the
underworld there are only few people who use them. The representatives of the underworld
are not acceptable in the society and slang words referring to this group are not
understandable for an ordinary speaker. That is why these slang words are rarely used.
Slang words referring to the teenagers and college students groups of slang take the
middle position in both dictionary (16%), (17,5%) and emotive prose (15%), (18%). It is
known that these kinds of slang words are created by the representatives of youth. Young
people take a half of the society. These slang words usually name the subjects related
with study, entertainment, relations between young people, their attitude to the world,
etc. The people who are not in a close contact with the mentioned things cannot
understand these words.
It is very interesting to compare the usage of slang words referring to the social
group of police. In the dictionary these words appear very rarely (9%). Policemen are
well-educated people and they have no need to create slang words. But in emotive prose
the usage of these slang words is on the second place (25%). But it is necessary to
mention that slang words referring to the present social group are mostly used in the
conversations of policemen or when the things related with police are described.

CONCLUSION

In the present paper we attempted to investigate slang as a very complicated linguistic

phenomenon. To achieve the mentioned object we studied the main aspects of slang: the
origin of slang, the problem of definition, the ways of slang words formation, different
kinds of slang and practical use of slang words.
The problem of definition of slang comes to be one of the main problems for those who
study slang. There is a great number of definitions that define slang from different
points of view. Summarizing all of them we can conclude that slang is a non-standard
vocabulary, an extravagant part of language; it is the spoken form of the language and
something, which cannot be met in the books but can be heard on the streets; it is also
the instrument to escape the dull familiarity of the every-day life.
The present work proves that slang must be treated very accurately because the life of
slang words is not very long. Usually when slang items stay in the general language, they
become standard vocabulary. So slang may become "legal", but there is, of course, the
reverse side. 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".
Slang is used in all spheres of language: conversations, books, songs, and mass media.
But the origin of slang is still uncertain. There are a lot of ideas about the place and
reason of its appearance. Some scientists believe that slang originates from the
underworld; some sources give the information that slang was created by the traders as
the means to deceive the customers. But actually each social group contributed and still
contributes slang.
In our research we studied the frequency of appearance of slang words referring to
different social groups in the dictionaries and fiction. For this reason we selected
slang words according to the social groups of narcotics, teenagers, college students,
underworld, police. Having analyzed the obtained results we came to the conclusion that
slang words referring to the narcotics group of slang appear in the dictionaries and
fiction more frequently (35%); (38%) than the words referring to the other social groups.
The second place is taken with the social group of the underworld (23%). Though in the
every-day speech slang words referring to the present social group (5%) can be rarely met
because this kind of slang words is hardly understandable by an average speaker. But the
high frequency of appearance these two groups of slang words in the dictionaries proves
the idea of professor Y.A. Kuleshova that a great part of slang originates from the world
of burglars, killers, drug addicts, etc./1/. The social group of the police (9%)
contributes the least amount of slang words. It also proves the fact that slang is mostly
created by the representatives of the uneducated part of the society. But in fiction
slang words referring to the present social group (25%) are in wide use. Slang words
referring to the teenagers and college students groups of slang take the middle position
in the dictionaries (16%), (17,5%) and fiction (15%), (18%). It happens because these
slang words are created and used mostly by the representatives of these classes of the
society.
In the present paper different reasons of slang words usage are presented. Slang words
can be used to replace taboo phrases. Some people use slang to impress the others.
Teenagers use slang words to seem cool, novel and not to be understood by adults.
Sometimes due to the usage of slang words we can determine the social status of the
speaker. The majority uses slang words just to enrich the language, to make their speech
more colorful.
Slang is now socially accepted not just because it is slang, but because, when used
with skill and discrimination, it adds a new and exciting dimension to language.
So slang should not be ignored or dismissed, even by those who do not like it. It is
impossible to shut our eyes to the prominent part, which it plays in the language. It is
the part of the language and cannot be treated a non-existent. We should develop a more
objective and scientific attitude towards this gesture of language.
The results of the present research were successfully probated at the student
conference in Pavlodar University and can be used for writing the reports and course
papers on this topic. Also the present material can be used at the lessons of stylistics,
lexicology, and speech practice in both: universities and advanced English classes at
schools. This paper can help to create the teaching aids, textbooks, etc. Teachers and
students might use the results of the present work for the further investigations.

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