Chapter 1 computer slang as a language phenomenon and translation changes

1.1 Computer slang as a language phenomenon

The rapid development of computer industry and information technology during the last two decades gave rise to a large amount of neologisms. Most of them were exceptionally professional words but then they became almost widespread among computer users. Professional terms were simplified and abbreviated turning into the so-called computer slang that was originally the way of communication for “devoted” people. Because of growing amount of people related to computers, slang passes into common usage.

Computer slang is a method of typing long words and phrases as short one-to-four letter words and is used by people who have difficulties in spelling. For example, instead of typing out "are", someone may only type "r". Although computer slang can be easier for you and sometimes faster to type, it makes it difficult to read and most people will ignore you (are you smart because I need someone smart — r u smart bcoz i need some1 smart).

Internet slang consists of terms which users of the Internet have developed and utilized. Many of its terms originated with the purpose of saving keystrokes. Internet slang came from many different sources — typical environments that placed value on brevity of communication.

Slang became an integral part of the social sphere and the most problematic objects of lexicology research. Different aspects of slang were studied by such researchers as E. Partridge, G. L. Menken, S. V. Pirkalov, M. M. Makovsky and others. However, slang was considered mainly in terms of lexical-stylistic characteristics by the end of the first half of the XX century [28, p.10].

An important step in solving this issue was the definition of IV. Arnold: "Slang is a spoken-language vocabulary that is believed to be lower than the generally accepted standard; these are the words that are in the standard language or are not used, or have a special lexical and semantic content". However, insufficient attention was paid to slang as a translation problem. The features of the American slang reproduction by means of the Ukrainian language require further linguistic research [2, p. 130].

Slang is something that everybody can recognize. The literal meaning of slang according to the Oxford dictionary is a type of language consisting of words and phrases that are regarded as very informal, are more common in speech than writing, and are typically restricted to a particular context or group of people. Finegan said that slang is particularly popular among teenagers and college students in general. Akmajian also added that slang has some salient features, first slang is part of casual informal styles of language use, second slang is like fashions in clothing and popular music, changes quite rapidly, third specific areas of slang are often associated with a particular social group, and hence one can speak of teenage slang, underworld (criminal) slang, the slang of the drug culture and so on [28, p. 100].

The speaker uses slang in order to achieve social dynamics with the people to whom he/she is speaking and slang outlines social spaces, and attitudes towards slang helps identify and construct social groups and identity [25, p.57]. It means that when you use slang, you expose your ideas, your feeling, your attitude as how you want to perceive the people that talk to you and how you want those people to perceive you, to infer what you mean. Adams believe that slang can just as well be playful and a joking way of rebelling against standard language to mark the difference between e.g. parents and children (in-crowd versus out-crowd), but the children do not necessarily have wicked intentions with the use of slang. He also mentions that slang is not slang until someone recognizes it to be slang [29, p. 62]. It means that the addressee must be able to recognize the speaker’s intent and to determine that what they are hearing is slang.

Slang is probably the most famous register if compared with jargon or argot. The different function between slang and jargon is that slang is used to show speaker’s attitude while jargon is used by speakers and addressee who have the same profession in communicating about their profession for example two doctors in hospital talking in medical terms. Besides, argot is a type of secret or code language because it is used to hide speaker’s intention.

M. Alfredo Niceforo, a widely travelled Italian, believes that slang is employed because of one (or more) of fifteen reasons, as quoted Partridge in Slang To-Day and Yesterday (1979) [26, p.80]:

1. In sheer high spirits, by the young in heart as well as by the young in years; “just for the fun of the thing”; in playfulness or waggishness.

2. As an exercise either in wit and ingenuity or in humor (the motive behind this is usually self-display or snobbishness, emulation or responsiveness, delight in virtuosity).

3. To be “different”, to be novel.

4. To be picturesque (either positively or — as in the wish to avoid insipidity — negatively).

5. To be unmistakably arresting, even startling.

6. To escape from cliches, or to be brief and concise (actuated by impatience with existing terms).

7. To enrich the language (this deliberateness is rare save among the well educated, Cockneys forming the most notable exception; it is literary rather than spontaneous).

8. To lend an air of solidity, concreteness, to the abstract; of earthiness to idealistic; of immediacy and appositeness to the remote.

9. To lessen the sting of, or on the other hand to give additional point to, a refusal, a rejection.

10. To reduce, perhaps also to this perse, the solemnity, the pomposity, the accessive seriousness of a conversation (all of a piece of writing);

10. To soften the tragedy, to lighten or to “prettify” the inevitability of that or madness, or to max the ugliness or the pity of profound; and/or to enable the speaker or his author or both to endure, to “carry on”.

11. To speak or write down to an inferior, or to amuse a superior public; or merely to be on a colloquial level with either one’s audience or one’s subject matter.

12. For ease of social intercourse (not to be confused or merged with the preceding).

13. To induce either friendliness or intimacy of a deep or durable kind (same remark).

14. To show that one belongs to a certain school, trade, or profession, artistic or intellectual set, or social class; in brief to be “in the swim” or to establish contact.

15. Hence, to show or prove that someone is not “in the swim”.

16. Not to be understood by those around one (children, student lovers, members of political secret societies, and criminals in or out of prison, innocent persons in prison, are the chief exponents).

Slang words formed by linguistic process that is found in morphology study such as: coinage, compounds, clipping, back-formation, abbreviation, blends, cockney, public-house slang, workmen’s slang, commercial, and also standard slang.

According to Khomyakov language represents the systematic means of communicating ideas or feeling by the use of sounds and symbols that have commonly understood meanings. In human communication, language is a way to deliver our ideas or feeling. Communication is a process between people to share information, ideas and feelings, Hybels and Weaver said that it involves not only the spoken and written word but also body language, personal mannerisms, and style-anything that adds meaning to message. The process of communication is made up of various elements, which are sender and receiver, messages, channels, noise, feedback, and setting [24, p. 128].

There are two ways to make a conversation in communication, formal and informal. Conversation is an interactive process involving speaker and listener. As a tool of social interaction, it is essential to be able to converse well in both informal as well as formal situation. Formal conversation is the type of conversation that we have in formal situations, it may include making inquiries and exchanging information at public offices, shopping, and other official work. While informal conversation involves exchanges of personal information with friends and relatives including greetings and general inquiries during social interactions and everyday informal situations [26, p. 146].

Tab.1.1

Differences between formal and informal conversation

Formal Conversation	Informal Conversation
Formal content	Personal and emotional content
Always factual	May be emotional or factual
Formal words and expressions	Colloquial words and expressions
Accepted rules and customs	No accepted rules
Fixed norms of behaviour associated with the conduct of official matters	No fixed norms
Formal elements of conversational interactions	No formal elements
Structured transition and turns	Abrupt transition
Always formal in style	Both formal and informal style
Objective approach	Both objective and subjective
Logically organised and structured	Not always structured

An Internet writer usually does not think about the process of creating new words, or word-formation process, and creates them by chance to improve the expressiveness and attract more attention. As a consequence of this process, more and more new words appear. Due to the speed and capabilities of the Internet the new words spread around the world and get into other languages, mutating again and again under the influence of different grammars to new words, acquiring a new meaning.

Internet communities, which develop the culture of Internet slang and memes, become the creators of hundreds of different words without even knowing it, by what they leave an impact on the language. In order to examine how Internet slang is changing, how new words are created, it is first necessary to find out what the definition of word-formation is, and why it has recently become so interesting.