lavrova_n_a_a_coursebook_on_english_lexicology_angliiskaya_l

2. Stylistic Stratification of English Vocabulary.

Slang. Barbarisms

Points to ponder

–What are the earmarks of the neutral, colloquial and literary layers of English vocabulary? Why is it essential to single them out?

–Name the pertinent characteristics of the neutral layer. What accounts for its indispensability?

–Say whether each neutral word has its colloquial and literary counterparts? What does it depend on?

–What are the peculiarities of common literary and common colloquial words?

–Slang has been known to draw both criticisms and scholastic support over the years. Are there any contexts where slang could be appropriate or should it be regarded as a linguistic pariah to be avoided by all possible means? Do you think there are any situations (register) when slang words would be suitable in the speech of an academic?

–What definition of slang do you consider the most exhaustive? In what way does slang differ from colloquial words?

–What is enantiosemy and how is it related to slang?

–Would you advise people who speak a dialect of English to discard their dialect if they are going to study in a London university or if they are required to make a public speech? Why or why not?

–Would you consider a person who knows a lot of bookish words and has an extensive recognition vocabulary as the one who has reached the heights in language learning and who is truly proficient in it?

–Should literary high-flown words be restricted to the printed page or is there any place for them in oral speech?

–What are the spheres of application and usage of archaic, obsolete and poetic words? Can a word be simultaneously archaic and poetic?

–Why is officialese so hard to read, understand and perceive for a foreign language learner?

–What is the difference between slang, jargon and vulgar words? Can these terms be treated as synonyms?

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Slang

Over the years slang has been an ample source of novel lexical items, be it from the structural or semantic point of view. Across different linguistic traditions opinions vary as to how slang should be treated – as a vagabond language, which is insensitive to and negligent of language norms, as well as

referents it tends to downgrade or play down, or as the origin of metaphor, be it poetic or trite. If metaphor it certainly is, the poetic value of slang could be disputed. Poetry in the traditional sense of the word is aimed predominantly at elevating the subject or, in case it deserves censure, at giving its due by revealing some hideous aspects of society. In contrast, slang tends to bring elevated or neutral subject-matter down to earth, performing an anti-euphemistic function, it divests the clad, overfeeds the satiated, makes thin people still thinner and those with receding hairline – bald. In other words, it exaggerates the negative and dishonours the positive. Therefore, one would be well-advised not to resort to it more often than is absolutely indispensible, and when finding oneself in a group of more than two unfamiliar people to avoid it altogether, otherwise the social repercussions of blatantly violating the register may be far worse than apprehended.

One of the most popular means of creating new slang words is semantic readjustment of some existing lexeme, often in such a way that the basis for the transference is hardly traceable, though in most cases it is. Thus, one wouldn’t have much difficulty in deciphering why the affectionate name for woman’s breasts is “girls”. After all, they form part of any “girl” and are deemed by some as one of the most compelling. Seriously speaking (or writing), the two most typical types of semantic transference are not unknown to slang. The above case is an example of metonymy, namely synecdoche, which is a type of transference when the whole represents some part or vice versa. The number of slang synonyms a word may have, seems to depend on the nature of the referent the word denotes: the more general and vague it is, the more slangish counterparts a word is likely to have. Another factor is the relative importance or value of the referent for the speaker – the more relevant the item is the more

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slang names it is likely to develop. By way of illustration, the stylistically neutral lexeme “money” and the stylistically marked, emotionally tinged lexeme “cool” could be furnished. The former seems to have no fewer than a dozen slang synonyms: bank, Benjamins, bread, cabbage, cake, cash, change, cheddar, chips, clams, coin, dead presidents, dough, duckets, flow, loot, moola, paper, rice, scratch, smackers. The motivation behind most of the items is more or less transparent: referring to money with the help of the foodstuffs’ names reflects the relative value thereof during a particular historical period. “Cabbage” seems to have been chosen due to the resemblance in colour. All slang words for “money” are based on some existing vocabulary item, that is, apart from the truncated “mon”, there is hardly any slangish synonym that would twist the phonetic or graphic shape of the word “money”. In contrast, some of the slang words for “cool” do play on the phonetic and graphic shape of the word (at least the first two): kewl, coo, all that, awesome, badass, bangin’, boss, crisp, da bomb, def, dope, far out, fly, fresh, gnarly, groovy, keen, killer, mad, mint, neat, nifty, phat, pimp, rad, radical, sick, solid, sweet, tight, tubular, wicked. Unlike the slang words for “money” mentioned above, some of the “cool” counterparts are based on enantiosemy – the emergence of a positive connotation in a word that usually connotes something negative. This is the case with the cited words badass, dope, gnarly, killer, mad, sick, wicked. The rationale behind the positive meaning is that originally the application of such names was based on irony: evaluating something or a person’s activities as good or laudable, one refers to it using a negative word. It could be explained psychologically, however: consciously or subconsciously one realizes the meanness of some thing and acknowledges it linguistically.

One of the remarkable features of contemporary slang is that, for some reason, one particular word-building pattern (which is best referred to as “word-creative”) is extensively made use of in slang, namely blending (or contamination). R. Cullen asserts that, “some of today’s most inventive neologisms, or new words, have been formed by combining two existing words. These blends, also called “portmanteaux”, include the prefix of one word and the suffix of another. The resulting term incorporates the definitions of both original words, often in clever or amusing ways…The more we talk and text our conversations, the more we seek to distinguish

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and express ourselves with unique and creative vocabulary. When we do, it’s only a matter of seconds before an interesting new coinage makes its way around the world” [Cullen, 2007:37]. Some of the recent slangish portmanteaux are “definotly” (definitely + not: most definitely not), “flabdomen” (flab + abdomen: a flabby midsection), “irritainment” (irritate + entertainment: the annoying and degrading reality-based entertainment and media spectacles one finds impossible to resist), “mancation” (man + vacation: a men’s-only vacation; typically a weekend jaunt during which men bond and relax during rounds of golf, steak dinners, and plenty of beer), “resolutionary” (resolution + revolutionary: a person who makes a New Year’s resolution to join a gym and then quits after a few months), “ringxiety” (ring + anxiety: the panic and fear induced by one ringing cell phone in a crowd, causing everyone to scramble for their phone lest they miss a call). “The Little Hiptionary” by R. Cullen (2007) contains 61 blends out of 300 slang words, which is approximately 20%. The number is suggestive of the popularity of blending as a word-building pattern. There are a number of reasons underlying this popularity, some of them are purely pragmatic, others – psychological, still others are supposedly down to some peculiarities of referents that are designated with the help of blending. From pragmatic vantage point, condensed or compressed information tends to attract more attention and be more memorable. Second, since slang words reflect the distorted picture of the referent, which still bears resemblance to it, it is only convenient to use a model that admits of creating a paronymic lexeme – a derivative word resembling a dictionary unit and containing graphic, phonetic, morphemic and graphemic deformations simultaneously, one deformity entailing another. Due to technological progress and constant inflow of information as well as globalization, new objects develop that are characterized by a complex, previously incompatible properties. The blend “camcorder”, for instance, is just such an example. Although a slang word, by definition, can never be a term, it does not preclude it from lending a dictionary item some additional characteristics that vary on the scale of objectivity, never actually reaching complete objectivity and veering between mildly subjective to highly idiosyncratic. This is small wonder, because slang tends to disregard the usual order of things and sometimes, at least verbally, to distort objects and phenomena, evaluating them either as negligible and despi-

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cable, or elevating the despicable and the negligible. According to “The Little Hiptionary”, the spheres that tend to be a draw for blended slang words are “negative feelings about something”, “poor or unusual quality of some object”.

Another specific feature of modern slang is that converted proper names are used as common nouns, mostly with some negative evaluative connotations: How dare you to Lewinsky your way up the corporate ladder! Her skirt is so short you can practically see her Britney. Rumour has it that guy OJ’d his wife! [Cullen, 2007:35]. As can be seen from the cited examples, most of the proper names that have changed their referential status have a notorious or shameful background and more often than not are associated with pop-culture. Some of them are used as part of a blend: “Stay away from that girl. She’s a total Paris-ite” [Cullen, 2007:34]. Here the dubious celebrity P. Hilton is compared to a parasite.

Sports, forming an integral part of British and American culture, also serve as an ample source of slang words: “Sports slang, and particularly words and expressions from the game of baseball, is so deeply ingrained in our culture that we may not realize the extent to which it peppers our everyday language. We step up to the plate, pitch ideas, drop the ball, and play hardball – all without setting foot on a field” [Cullen, 2007:114]. Some examples illuminated by “The Little Hiptionary” are: 1. nutmeg (v.) in soccer, to kick the ball between the defender’s legs, run around him, and continue dribbling the ball down the field: Kent was mortified when Michael nutmegged him in the first half. 2. Zebra (n.) a referee wearing a black and white striped uniform: Send this zebra back to the zoo! the hockey fans jeered. 3. Can of corn (n.) in baseball, an easy-to- catch fly ball: “C’mon, Mayes!” the coach yelled from the dugout. “How could you miss that can of corn?” 4. Juice (n.) steroids: Three months after starting his juice regimen, Tyrone’s muscle mass noticeably increased.

[Cullen, 2007:117, 119, 123].

Sports slang gave rise to a couple dozen words with the meaning of “to beat” or “to win”: bash, beat, belt, blaze, blister, clip, clock, cork, drill, hammer, house, juice, lace, laser beam, lash, nail, own, paste, pepper, plank, pole, pound, powder, pown, pummel, ram, rap, rip, scald, school, scorch, shellack, slap, slug, smack, smash, smoke, spank, sting, stroke, whack, whang, whip. Some of the expressions referred to as sports slang

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could be regarded as idioms that have become part and parcel of everyday parlance, in fact they could be regarded as sports terms that have developed an idiomatic meaning (for more detailed information see E.A. Nikulina, 2005): Caroline sent out party invitations in an attempt to get the ball

Means of Forming Slang Words

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rolling. Let’s try to get to first base by scheduling a meeting. How will we ever level the playing field? The most popular spheres which seem to have subjective gaps to be filled are subculture, business, technology, on-line slang, sports slang (according to “The Little Hiptionary”).

The research into the percentage contribution of different word-build- ing patterns as well as semantic processes that participate in the formation of slang items, based on “The Little Hiptionary”, revealed the following statistics3:

The given figures demonstrate that semantic readjustment (86), blending (64), and composition (35) are the most wide-spread means of forming slang items. It must be noted that the resultant slang is not necessarily comprised of words, but may also include idiomatic phrases.

To recapitulate, one could say that slang is characterized by a multifaceted nature: in one way it is a repository of metaphors, which when applied in an appropriate way, may serve to embellish the concept or, conversely, to foreground some hideous aspects that may be played down by authorities. In the latter case slang performs a purgatory function, disambiguating some notions that are made to look less repugnant. Slang is born as a result of a highly critical and judgmental attitude towards reality. One could object to this, however, by saying that youths and adolescents, when they resort to slang, are not really critical of reality, but, more often than not, emulate somebody whom they deem as more upbeat, fashionable, or popular with the peers. This indiscriminate usage of slang is traditionally looked down upon, since it shows a lack of discretion, discrimination and selectivity on the part of the speaker. Slang is a double edged-sword – no matter what kind of slang words you use or in what situation (formal/informal register), you have to be prepared to face the consequences of a possible misapplied word or of somebody taking offence.

Exercises:

I

Paraphrase the words and expressions in bold using different stylistic synonyms so that the resultant text belongs to a different register:

3 Some of the cases were left out as they did not lend themselves to easy categorization.

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1.Although he was very loquacious at the defense, it did not transpire from his speech how the defendant had appropriated the effect.

2.Scratch my back, and I’ll scratch yours. – said Oliver.

How do you mean? asked George.

I mean, lend me 5 greenbacks in dough and I leg it.

3.As I arrived, I found a despondent site, the place forlorn, the walls bearing no vestiges of the recent dwelling.

4.Will you be so kind as to elaborate on the point minutely, mentioning the pertaining and salient information only, discarding digressions.

5.The punitive measures are contingent upon your prospective demeanor.

6.Are you in the possession of the wherewithal to purchase the said article?

7.I presume you have a penchant for a more artistic occupation.

II

There are some word forming elements in slang that seem to be more actively used than others. These are, for instance, the lexical units “monkey”, “happy” and “dog”. Say what meaning they lend to the first element and what the resultant compound means.

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