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THE CONCEPT OF ARGOT AND THE FEATURES OF USING
ARGOT
Termiz iqtisodiyot va servis universiteti
2-bosqich magistranti
Kurbanova Shoira Abduraximovna
Abstract: this article discusses the features of history and development of
argot and also this article will provide a comprehensive overview of types and
functions of argot that exist in today’s society, and how they are all connected.
Key words: Argot, misery, coded argots, deviant phenomena, functions of
argot, code words and others.
ПОНЯТИЕ АРГО И ОСОБЕННОСТИ ИСПОЛЬЗОВАНИЯ АРГО
Аннотация: в этой статье рассматриваются особенности истории и
развития арго, а также в этой статье будет представлен всесторонний обзор
типов и функций арго, которые существуют в современном обществе, и как
они все связаны.
Ключевые слова: арго, несчастье, кодированные арго, девиантные
явления, функции арго, кодовые слова и другие.
ARGO SO’ZLAR HAQIDA TUSHUNCHA VA ARGO SO’ZLARDAN
FOYDALANISH XUSUSIYATLARI
Annotatsiya: Ushbu maqola argo so’zlarning tarixi va rivojlanishini ko'rib
chiqadi va zamonaviy jamiyatda mavjud bo'lgan argo turlari va funksiyalari va
ularning barchasi qanday bog'liqligi haqida to'liq ma'lumot beradi.
Kalit so'zlar: argo, baxtsizlik, kodlangan argo so’zlar, deviant hodisalar,
argo funksiyalari, kodli so'zlar va boshqalar.
Argot is a secret language used by various groups—including, but not limited
to, thieves and other criminals—to prevent outsiders from understanding their
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conversations. The term argot is also used to refer to the informal specialized
vocabulary from a particular field of study, hobby, job, sport, etc.
Argot is a specialized vocabulary or set of idioms used by a particular social
class or group, especially one that functions outside the law. Also called cant and
cryptolect.
French novelist Victor Hugo observed that "argot is subject to perpetual
transformation—a secret and rapid work which ever goes on. It makes more progress
in ten years than the regular language in ten centuries".
ESL specialist Sara Fuchs notes that argot is "both cryptic and playful in
nature and it is particularly rich in vocabulary referring to drugs, crime, sexuality,
money, the police, and other authority figures".
"The argot of the racetrack is responsible for piker 'small town gambler,' ringer
'illegally substituted horse,' shoo-in 'fixed race, easy win,' and others."
The Argot of Prisoners
"Prison argot, originally defined as the jargon of thieves, is a particular form
of slang—in some circumstances, a complete language—capable of describing the
world from the perspective of the prison. It has been argued that prisoners live, think,
and function within the framework defined by the argot, whose vocabulary may
supply alternative names for objects, psychological states of minds, personnel roles,
situations and the activities of prison life. Experienced inmates use argot fluently and
can switch between regular names and their argot counterparts, and the degree of
familiarity with argot is an important symbol of group membership among prison
inmates."
The Argot of Pool Players
"The poolroom hustler makes his living by betting against his opponents in
different types of pool or billiard games, and as part of the playing and betting process
he engages in various deceitful practices. The terms 'hustler' for such a practice and
'hustling' for his occupation have been in poolroom argot for decades, antedating their
application to prostitutes.
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"Like all other American deviant argots I know of, [hustlers' argot] also
reveals numerous facets that testify against a 'secrecy' interpretation. Some examples:
(1) Hustlers always use their argot among themselves when no outsiders are present,
where it could not possibly have a secretive purpose. (2) The argot itself is not
protected but is an 'open secret,' i.e., its meanings are quite easily learned by any
outsider who wishes to learn them and is an alert listener or questioner. (3) The argot
is elaborated far beyond any conceivable need to develop a set of terms for deviant
phenomena, and even far beyond any need to develop a full-scale technical
vocabulary ."
The Argot of Card Players
"A cardsharp who is out to cheat you may be dealing from the bottom of the
deck and giving you a fast shuffle, in which case you may get lost in the shuffle. You
might call such a low-down skunk a four-flusher. Flush, a hand of five cards all of
one suit, flows from the Latin fluxes because all the cards flow together. Four-flusher
characterizes a poker player who pretends to such good fortune but in fact holds a
worthless hand of four same-suit cards and one that doesn't match.
"All of these terms originated with poker and other betting card games and
have undergone a process that linguists call 'broadening.' A good example of
movement from one specific argot to another is wild card berth or wild card player as
used in football and tennis. In these sports, a team hopes for back-to-back victories—
from a fortuitous ace-down-ace-up as the first two cards in a game of five-card stud."
The Lighter Side of Argot
"A streak of humour runs through the traditional argot. Prisons were often
described as schools, as in the contemporary College of Correction, and the hulks
used to accommodate prisoners were the floating academies. Brothels were convents
or nunneries, the prostitutes who worked in them were nuns, and the madam was an
abbess."
The author Victor Hugo was one of the first to research argot extensively. He
describes it in his novel, Les Misérables, as the language of the dark; at one point, he
says, "What argot is; properly speaking? Argot is the language of misery."
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Under the strictest definition, an argot is a proper language, with its own
grammar and style. But, such complete secret languages are rare, because the speakers
usually have some public language in common, on which the argot is largely based.
Argots are mainly versions of other languages with a part of its vocabulary replaced
by words unknown to the larger public. For example, the term is used to describe
systems such as verlan and louchébem, which retain French syntax and apply
transformations only to individual words (and often only to a certain subset of words,
such as nouns, or semantic content words). Such systems are examples of argots à
clef, or "coded argots."
Specific words can go from argot into common speech or the other way. For
example, "piaf" was a Parisian argot word for "sparrow"; after being taken up by the
singer Edith Piaf, this meaning became well-known in France and worldwide and no
longer serves the purpose of a secret language.
: An often more or less secret vocabulary and idiom peculiar to a particular
group shoved into a taxi by a porter whose argot I couldn't understand.
Examples and Observations:
The Argot of Pool "The poolroom hustler makes his living by betting against
his opponents in different types of pool or billiard games, and as part of the playing
and betting process he engages in various deceitful practices. The terms 'hustler' for
such a practice and 'hustling' for his occupation have been in poolroom argot for
decades, antedating their application to prostitutes.
"Like all other American deviant argots I know of, [hustlers' argot] also
reveals numerous facets that testify against a 'secrecy' interpretation. Some examples:
(1) Hustlers always use their argot among themselves when no outsiders are
present, where it could not possibly have a secretive purpose.
(2) The argot itself is not protected but is an 'open secret,' i.e., its meanings
are quite easily learned by any outsider who wishes to learn them and are an alert
listener or questioner.
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(3) The argot is elaborated far beyond any conceivable need to develop a set
of terms for deviant phenomena, and even far beyond any need to develop a full-scale
technical vocabulary."
The Argot of Card-Players "A cardsharp who is out to cheat you may be
dealing from the bottom of the deck and giving you a fast shuffle, in which case you
may get lost in the shuffle. You might call such a low-down skunk a four-flusher.
Flush, a hand of five cards all of one suit, flows from the Latin fluxes because all the
cards flow together. Four-flusher characterizes a poker player who pretends to such
good fortune but in fact holds a worthless hand of four same-suit cards and one that
doesn't match.
"All of these terms originated with poker and other betting card games and
have undergone a process that linguists call 'broadening.' A good example of
movement from one specific argot to another is wild card berth or wild card player as
used in football and tennis. In these sports, a team hopes for back-to-back victories--
from a fortuitous ace-down-ace-up as the first two cards in a game of five-card stud."
Functions of argot
Argot serves several functions for co-cultures.
First, argot assists in developing a means of self-defense by providing a code
that helps the co-culture survive in a hostile environment.
Second, argot serves as a cultural storehouse for the hostility the users feel
toward the dominant culture. It permits the expression of frustration and hatred
without risk of reprisal, as well as maintains identity and group solidarity.
Third, argot expresses a co-culture’s solidarity and cohesiveness. Because
secrecy is associated with the use of argot, a sense of identity and pride comes from
the realization that one is part of a group that has developed its own language.
The Argot exhibition presents a collection of artworks that examine different
aspects of secretive communication. Probing the reasons behind a need for secrecy,
the joy in identification through style and code words, the mechanisms at work in the
play of camouflage, and the implied outcomes of decoding, it attempts to expand our
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understanding of insider languages beyond a merely anthropological or linguistic
interpretation.
Argot understands insider and private languages as uncommon languages
used by minority groups to express themselves when they have no full guarantee of
free speech. They are practical solutions devised by their users to bypass or combat
specific problems, ranging from homophobia and racism to censorship and
algorithmic control. It is crucial to state that the goal of this project is not to invent a
new utopian language system, or to delve deep into the art of cryptography. It is not
interested in the static, or the orderly, but the fluid, the ephemeral, and the cunningly
deceptive.
REFERENCES
1.
“The Secret Language of Polari,” National Museums Liverpool. Available
online
at
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/maritime/visit/floor-plan/life-
2.
Ben Crewe and Tomer Einat, "Argot (Prison)."Dictionary of Prisons and
Punishment, ed. by Yvonne Jewkes and Jamie Bennett. Willan, 2008
3.
Антрушина Г.Б., Афанасьева О.В., Морозова Н.Н. Лексикология
английского языка: Учебное пособие для студентов педагогических вузов. 8-е
издание М.: Дрофа. 2008.
4.
Голубев А.П., Балюк Н.В., Смирнова И.Б. Английский язык. М.:
Академия, 2010.
5.
https://prezi.com/wct3zrkkahcd/argot/
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/52366c89e4b041a118703288/t/5d56e0b
f32e8a900011b404b/1565974727261/Argot+Catalog+190506.pdf
