Stylistic classification of the english vocabulary

c) Common Colloquial Words

The essential part of common colloquial words cons­titutes common neutral vocabulary which is in every day usage and is the part of Standard English. They may be di­vided into several groups.

In the first group we have words which change their phonetic form. Eg. a) word combinations are shor­tened. E.g. s4ong (so long), lemme (let me), gimme (give me), gonna (going to); b) certain sounds may be omitted: '/m (him), *cos (because), *ud (would), ^yave (have), *eaven (heaven), yeh (yes).

Here we meet the speech of an uneducated person. Instead of "can" one uses "kin", you (yuh), get (git), your (yer), to (tuh).

The violation of grammar rules is also observed: yuh gotta lawyers? (have you got a lawyer?), hain^t yuh? (haven't you?), there hain^t no rules (there aren't any ru­les).

While we speak about the peculiarities of oral speech special attention should be paid to the children's speech in which we have a lot of contracted forms of words. E.g. Doc (doctor), telly (television), fridge (refrigerator); words with diminutive suffixes: beastie (beast), milkie (milk), kissy (cat), titter (sister).

In the second group we have words which change their form and meaning. New words (neologisms) may be formed with the help of suffixes which have negative mea­ning: noddy - a stupid person, wordling - a person who talks much, giglet - a girl who laughs in a silly manner.

Nouns may be formed with the help of suffixes which have positive meaning: dolly - an attractive, fashionably dressed girl or a young woman, nestling - a bird too yo­ung to leave the nest.

The following words constitute the third group of colloquial vocabulary, where words change their meaning in certain contexts. E.g. He was getting along in years - (he was growing old), I like his get up - (I like his way and manner), Let me know have you come out (let me know the results).

Here the words "get", "come" are not used in their dictionary meanings, but have changed the meanings and acquired new (contextual) meanings.