The pervasiveness of slang in Standard and Non-standard English

Abstract

The phenomenon of slang constitutes an open question for lexicography and sociolinguistics. Unfortunately, there is little agreement on the identification and definition of slang, so that the phenomenon is currently controversial. The concept of slang has been inaccurately defined by many lexicographers who tend to restrict it to informal or bad language, and the term ‘slang’ has been improperly used by many socio-linguists who conflated it with such language varieties as cant, jargon, dialect, vernacular or accent. This is mainly due to the sheer pervasiveness of slang, since it is constantly moulding the standard language and also extending across a number of non-standard ‘lects’ with its fresh and innovative vocabulary. \nThe present paper is an attempt to explore slang and hopefully give some contribution to its identification and interpretation. The notion of slang I discuss here is not concerned with the sociological aspects of slang, at least not as a focal point (cf. Eble 1996, Munro 1997, Allen 1998), nor is it concerned with the perception of slang as a stylistic level (cf. Partridge 1947, Flexner 1960, Andersson and Trudgill 1990, Stenström et al. 2002). It is rather concerned with the dominant position of slang within genuine conversations, and the high potential of morphological and semantic innovation which it is capable to achieve and spread across varieties. An example of slang innovation is offered by the word yob, which is the back-slang of boy having the new sense of ‘a lout or hooligan’ . In this paper I will consider yob as both an extragrammatical word and a neo-semanticism, and I will explain why it and similar terms are sometimes used instead of standard words.

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