Thursday 27 april 2006
Slang (1)
Prepared by
Sami El-Shahed
Slang is a philological phenomenon that is hard to define. However, many have tried to define it. For Homer it is 'winged words', while for Carl Sandberg it is "language which takes off its coat, spits on its hands and goes to work". For others it is 'the plain man's poetry', 'the self-expression of the individual, a clique, a profession, a trade, or a class'. Etymologically, slang is 'language slung about' as may be deduced from a certain quotation:
"The bolde words that he did sling".
Unconventional English affords several parallels: sling words and sling language meaning to talk; to sling the bat meaning to speak the vernacular; to sling off at meaning to jeer or taunt. The Oxford English Dictionary (OED), however, gives an admirable definition of slang: "Language of a highly colloquial type, considered as below the level of standard educated speech, and consisting of either new words, or current words employed in some special sense." Another definition, inadequate by itself yet complementary, describes slang as "The diction that results from the favourite game among the young and the lively of playing with words and re-naming things and actions."
Only since 1850 has slang been the predominant name for 'illegitimate colloquial speech'. It usually meant the language of the underworld. In the 19th Century at least three other synonyms were used: lingo among the lower classes; jargon in the middle and upper classes; and argot among the cultured and pretentious, and they are still so used.
As it originates, slang flourishes best in unconventionality. Among the impulses that lead to the invention of slang the two most important are: the desire to secure increased vivacity, and the desire to secure and increased sense of intimacy in the use of language
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