Stylistic classification of the english vocabulary

b) Jargonisms

In the non-literary vocabulary of the English language there is a group of words that are called jargonisms.

Traditionally jargon is defined as the language difficulty to understand, because it has a bad form and spoken badly. The vocabulary of jargon are the words existing in the language but having new meanings.

Jargonisms are of social character. They are not regi­onal. In England and in the USA almost any social group of people has its own jargon.

There are jargon of thieves and vagabonds, generally known as can; the jargon of the army, known as military slang; the jargon of sportsmen, the jargon of students, etc. people who are far from that profession may not under­stand this jargon. Here are some examples from students jargon: exam (examination), math (mathematics), trig (tri­gonometry), ec (economics), a big gun (an important per­son), an egg (an inexperienced pilot).

Almost any calling has its own jargon. Jargonisms are a special group within the non-literary layer of words. Jargonisms easily classified according to the social divi­sions of the given period.

There is common jargon and special professional jargons. Common jargonisms have gradually lost their special quality. They belong to all social groups and there­fore easily understood by everybody. That is why it is dif­ficult to draw a line between slang and jargon. Slang, con­trary to jargon, need no translation.

It must be noted that both slang and the various jar­gons of Great Britain differ from those of the United Sta­tes and Canada.

Jargonisms, like slang and other group of non-literary layer, do not always refer to the speech of a given social group, they do not always remain on the outskirts of the literary language. There are hundreds of words, once jar­gonisms or slang, which have become the members of the English literary language. Thus, the words "kid", "fun", "queer", bluff", "humbug", formerly slang words or jargo­nisms, are now considered common colloquial. They may be said to be dejargonized.

Here are some further examples of jargon: such words as "soup" and "flannel" meaning "bread" and "cheese" are scarcely understood by the language community. Therefo­re they can be classed as jargonisms.

Many of jargon words are based on the use of the transferred meanings of words: I'll brain you (I'll break your head); to put on a bag (to kill); don't be such a drip (don't be such a dull person).