4. Special colloquial vocabulary

a) Slang

There is hardly any other term that is as ambiguous and obscure as the term slang. Slang seems to mean everything that is below the standard of usage of present-day English.

Much has been said and written about it. This is probably due to the uncertainty of the concept itself. No one has yet given a more or less satisfactory definition of the term. Nor has it been specified by any lin­guist who deals with the problem of the English vocabulary.

The first thing that strikes the scholar is the fact that no other Euro­pean language has singled out a special layer of vocabulary and named it slang, though all of them distinguish such groups of words as jargon, cant, and the like.

Webster's "Third New International Dictionary" gives the following meanings of the term:

Slang [origin unknown] 1: language peculiar to a particular group: as a: the special and often secret vocabulary used by

class (as thieves, beggars) and usu. felt to be vulgar or inferior: argot; b: the jargon used by or associated with a particular trade, profession, or field of activity; 2: a non-standard vocabulary coin-posed of words and senses characterized primarily by connotations of extreme informality and usu. a currency not limited to a partic­ular region and composed typically of coinages or arbitrarily changed words, clipped or shortened forms, extravagant, forced or facetious figures of speech, or verbal novelties usu. experiencing quick popularity and relatively rapid decline into disuse.

The "New Oxford English Dictionary" defines slang as follows:

"a) the special vocabulary used by any set of persons of a low or disreputable character; language of a low and vulgar type. (Now merged in c. /cant/)', b) the cant or jargon of a certain class or period; c) language of a highly colloquial type considered as below the level of standard educated speech, and consisting either of new words or of current words employed in some special sense."

As is seen from these quotations slang is represented both as a spe­cial vocabulary and as a special language. This is the first thing that causes confusion. If this is a certain lexical layer, then why should it be given the rank of language? If, on the other hand, slang is a certain language or a dialect or even a patois, then it should be characterized not only by its peculiar use of words but also by phonetic, morphological and syntactical peculiarities.

The term 'slang', which is widely used in English linguistic science, should be clearly specified if it is"to be used as a term, i. e. it should refer to some definite notion and' should be definable in explicit, simple terms. It is suggested here that the term 'slang' should be used for those forms of the English vocabulary which are either mispronounced or distorted in some way phonetically, morphologically or lexically. The term 'slang' should also be used to specify some elements which may be called over-colloquial. As for the other groups of words hitherto classified as slang, they should be specified according to the universally accepted classification of the vocabulary of a language.

But this must be done by those whose mother tongue is English. They, and they only, being native speakers of the English language, are its masters and lawgivers. It is for them to place slang in its proper category by specifying its characteristic features.

Slang is nothing but a deviation from the established norm at the level of the vocabulary of the language. Here are some more examples of words that are con­sidered slang:

to take stock in—'to be interested in, attach importance, give cred­ence to'

bread-basket—'the stomach' (a jocular use)

to do a flit— 'to quit one's flat or lodgings at night without paying the rent or board'

rot—'nonsense!'

the cat's pajamas—'the correct thing*

It is suggestive that there is a tendency in some modern dictionaries to replace the label slang by informal or colloquial.

1 Such a practice clearly manifests the dissatisfaction of some lexicographers with the term 'slang'. This is mainly due to the ambiguity of the term.

On the other hand, some lexicographers, as has already been pointed out, still make use of the term 'slang' as a substitute for 'jargon', 'cant', 'colloquialism', 'professionalism', 'vulgar', 'dialectal'. Thus, in his dictionary Prof. Barnhart gives the label si to such innovations as "grab— to cause (a person) to react; make an impression on", which, to my mind, should be classed as newspaper jargon; "grass or pot—mari-juarta", which are positively cant words (the quotation that follows proves it quite unambiguously); "groove—something very enjoyable," "grunt— U.S.^ military slang", which in fact is a professionalism; "gyppy tummy, British slang,— a common intestinal upset experienced by travellers", which is a colloquialism; "hangup—a psychological or emotional prob­lem", which is undoubtedly a professionalism which has undergone ex­tension of meaning and now, according to Barnhart also means "any problem or difficulty, especially one that causes annoyance or irritation."

The use of the label sl in this way is evidently due to the fact that Barnhart's Dictionary aims not so much at discrimination between different stylistic subtleties of neologisms but mainly at fixation of lexical units which have already won general recognition through cons­tant repetition in newspaper language.

The term 'slang' is ambiguous because, to use a figurative expression, it has become a Jack of all trades and master of none.

b) Jargonisms

In the non-literary vocabulary of the English language there is a group of words that are called jargonisms. Jargon is a recognized term for a group of words that exists in almost every language and whose aim is to preserve secrecy within one or another social group

Thus the word grease means 'money'; loaf means 'head'; a tiger hunter is 'a^gambler'; a lexer is 'a student preparing for a law course'.

Jargonisms are social in character. They are not regional. In Britain and in the US almost any social group of people has its own jargon. The following jargons are well known in the English language: the jargon of thieves and vagabonds, generally known as cant; the jargon of jazz people; the jargon of the army, known as military slang; the jargon of sportsmen, and many others.

Jargonisms do not always remain the possession of a given social group. Some of them migrate into other social strata and sometimes become recognized in the literary language of the nation.

Here are some further examples of jargon:

Piou-Piou—'a French soldier, a private in the infantry'. According to Eric Partridge this word has already passed from military jargon to ordinary colloquial speech.

Humrnen—'a false arrest* (American)

Dar—(from damned average raiser)—'a persevering and assidu­ous student'. (University jargon)

Matlo(w)—'a sailor' (from the French word 'matelof)

Man and wife—'a knife' (rhyming slang)

Manany—'a sailor who is always putting off a job or work' (nautical jargon) (from the Spanish word 'mamma'—4o-morrow')

Jargonisms, like slang and other groups of the non-literary layer, do not always remain on the outskirts of the literary language. Many words have overcome the resistance of the language lawgivers and pur­ists and entered the standard vocabulary. Thus the words kid, fun, queer, bluff, fib, humbug, formerly slang words or Jargonisms, are now considered common colloquial. They may be said to be dejargonized.

c) Professionalisms

Professionalisms, as the term itself signifies, are the words used in a definite trade, profession or calling by people connect­ed by common interests both at work and at home. They commonly designate some working process or implement of labour. Professional­isms are correlated to terms. Terms, as has already been indicated, are coined to nominate new concepts that appear in the process of, and as a result of, technical progress and the development of science.

Professional words name anew already-existing concepts, tools or instruments, and have the typical properties of a special code. The main feature of a professionalism is its technicality. Professionalisms are spe­cial words in the non-literary layer of the English vocabulary, whereas terms are a specialized group belonging to the literary layer of words. Terms, if they are connected with a field or branch of science or tech­nique well-known to ordinary people, are easily decoded and enter the neu­tral stratum of the vocabulary. Here are some professionalisms used in different trades: tin-fish (^submarine); block-buster (= a bomb especially designed to destroy blocks of big buildings); piper (=a specialist who decorates pastry with the use of a cream-pipe); a midder case (=a midwifery case); outer (=& knockout blow).

Some professionalism, however, like certain terms, become popu­lar and gradually lose their professional flavour.

Professionalisms should not be mixed up with jargonisms. Like slang words, professionalisms do not aim at secrecy. They fulfil a socially useful function in communication, facilitating a quick and adequate grasp of the message.

d) Dialectal words

This group of words is obviously opposed to the other groups of the non-literary English vocabulary and therefore its stylistic, func­tions can be more or less clearly defined. Dialectal words are those which in the process of integration of the English national lan­guage remained beyond its literary boundaries, and their use is gener­ally confined to a definite locality. We exclude here what are called social dialects or even the still looser application of the term as in ex­pressions like poetical dialect or styles as dialects.

Of quite a different nature are dialectal words which are easily rec­ognized as corruptions of standard English words, although etymologically they may have sprung from the peculiarities of certain dialects. The following words may serve as examples: hinny from honey; tittie appar­ently from sister, being a childish corruption of the word; cutty meaning a 'testy or naughty girl or woman.

Most of the examples so far quoted come from the Scottish and the northern dialects. This is explained by the fact that Scotland has strug­gled to retain the peculiarities of her language. Therefore many of the words fixed in dictionaries as dialectal are of Scottish origin.

Among other dialects used for stylistic purposes in literature is the southern dialect (in particular that of Somersetshire). This dialect has a phonetic peculiarity that distinguishes it from other dialects, viz. initial [si and [f] are voiced, and are written in the direct speech of char­acters as [z] and M, for example: 'volk (folk), 'vound (found), 'zee (see), 'zinking (sinking).

e) Vulgar words or vulgarisms

The term vulgarism, as used to single out a definite group of words of non-standard English, is rather misleading. The ambiguity of the term apparently proceeds from the etymology of the word. Vulgar, as explained by the Shorter Oxford Dictionary, means a) words or names employed in ordinary speech; b) common, familiar; c) commonly current or prevalent, generally or widely disseminated.

These two sub meanings are the foundation of what we here name vul­garisms. So vulgarisms are:

1) expletives and swear words which are of an abusive character, like 'damn', 'bloody', to hell', 'goddam' and, as some dictionaries state, used now as general exclamations;

2) obscene words. These are known as four-letter words the use of which is banned in any form of intercourse as being indecent. All of these words are of Anglo-Saxon origin.

Vulgarisms are often used in conversation out of habit, without any thought of what they mean, or imitation of those who use them in or­der not to seem old-fashioned or prudish.

f) Colloquial coinages (words and meanings)

Colloquial coinages (nonce-words), unlike those of a literary-bookish character, are spontaneous and elusive. This proceeds from the very nature of the colloquial words as such. Not all of the colloquial nonce-words are fixed in dictionaries or even in writing and therefore most of them disappear from the language leaving no trace in it whatsoever.

Unlike literary-bookish coinages, nonce-words of a colloquial na­ture are not usually built by means of affixes but are based on certain semantic changes in words that are almost imperceptible to the linguistic observer until the word finds its way into print.

Nonce-coinage appears in all spheres of life. Almost every calling has some favourite catch-words which may live but a short time. They may become permanent and generally accepted terms, or they may re­main nonce-words, as, for example, hateships used by John O'Hara in "Ten North Frederic."

Most of the words which we call here colloquial coinages are newly-minted words, expressions or meanings which are labelled slang in many modern dictionaries. But we refrain from using the term so freely as it is used in dictionaries firstly because of its ambiguity, and secondly because we reserve it for phenomena which in Russian are known as про­сторечье, i. e. city vernacular bordering on non-literary speech.

LECTURE 7 VARIANTS AND DIALECTS OF THE ENGLISH LANGYAGE