XXI CENTURY RENAISSANCE IN THE PARADIGM OF SCIENCE,
EDUCATION AND TECHNOLOGY INNOVATIONS
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SOCIOLINGUISTIC PECULIARITIES OF AMERICAN SLANG
Kuandikova K.
Nukus, Uzbekistan
4th year Student, English Language and Literature Department
Berdakh Karakalpak State University
Seytjanova L.T.
Nukus, Uzbekistan
Scinetific advisor, Berdakh Karakalpak State University
Abstract:
Slang is widely used by people from all walks of life. American slang is formed
and developed with American history. It has its unique characteristics and functions.
American slang reflects American culture. A sociolinguistic study of American slang
helps people know more about American culture and society. This paper discusses
American slang from the following perspectives, features of American slang, individual
factors influencing American slang, social factors influencing American slang as well as
the social functions of American slang.
Key words:
Аmerican slang, sociolinguistics, American culture
Introduction
An informal style of speech often sees the frequent occurrence of slang, which
may be a single word, a group of words or a sentence. Slang is highly informal and is
often used in colloquial speech. It is a part of a language that is usually outside of
conventional or standard usage and that may consist of both newly coined words and
phrases and of new or extended meanings attached to established terms (Chen Linhua,
2006, p.260). Slang is kind of speech variety.
Speech variety, or language variety, refers to any distinguishable form of speech
used by a speaker or a group of speakers. Linguistic features of a speech variety can be
found at the lexical, the phonological, the morphological, or the syntactical level of the
language (Dai & He, 2010, p.111 Variety is considered a more neutral term than terms
such as standard or non-standard language and dialects. American slang as one part of
Americanism will become even more international as the development of USA and
American English. Although many intelligent people consider slang is of lower
acceptability in society, the trend is more obvious that the use of slang expressions in
movies, television, newspapers, and magazines is noticeably increasing. From the trend,
we can see American slang is becoming more and more widely used and plays an
increasingly influential role in everyday discourse of American English.
As for American slang, it comes in various ways. One of them is from the different
subculture groups of society. As time passing by, the developing society enlarges the
resources of slang and enriches its contexts. The slang terms from subculture groups are
adopted by common people, and become common people’s vocabulary. Also young
people are quite active in creating slang. They employ slang terms in their conversation
to show their attitude against the society or their own way of thinking. Therefore we can
see American slang is a product of society, it is produced and created by society and
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people who live in it. It is one of linguistic varieties, which we cannot separate it from its
social background and social surroundings.
Features of American slang
What is it exactly that differentiates slang from the standard vocabulary? Because
most slang terms are simply old words given additional new meanings, slang cannot
usually be distinguished on the basis of its formal or grammatical features.
A. Humor
American slang is considered as «comedy» by Americans because of its humorous
effect. The humor of American slang first represented in terms of its phonetic humor. A
great amount of American slangs take advantage of the euphony to achieve the aim of
being easily to be understood and remembered and to get the purposes of being readable
and vivid.
Rhyme is a common phonetic method in American slang to get its humorous
effect. There are many examples: the bee’s knees (outstanding people or thing); fender-
bender (a trifle); razzle-dazzle (carnival) and so on. The usage of rhyme in American
slang can make people feel a sense of rhythm in sounds.
The characteristic in humor can also be shown through lexicon. NATO is an
acronym, which is short for the famous North Atlantic Treaty Organization but now
American people develop NATO into a slang which has a quite different meaning with
the original one, that is, the new meaning of NATO is used to describe somediv or
something that only says something but not puts their plans to practice.
B. Conciseness
Conciseness may not be the soul of American slang, but it is perhaps the chief
feature. This is attained either by apocope, as in vamp for vampire, molt for muttonhead,
fan for fanatic (apparently), etc., or by the substitution of an expressive monosyllable or
compound of monosyllables for a longer word or description. Simp (stupid person), veep
(vice president), classy (fashionable), etc. are brief and easy to speak out. When they
defined a Communist as either a crank or a crook, the subject is really exhausted. It is
difficult now to imagine how we got on so long without the word stunt, how they
expressed the characteristics so conveniently summed up in dope-fiend or high-brow, or
any other possible way of describing that mixture of the cheap pathetic and the ludicrous
which is now universally labeled sob staff.
The social functions of American slang
In surveying American slang, not only do we have to consider the social factors
which influence slang, but we must recognize the part played by slang in its own
character. However, the complexity of slang is immediately apparent when we examine
its function. People find it not easy to give a comprehensive and satisfying answer when
facing the natural question «Why is slang used at all?» or «What are the functions of
slang?» Sociolinguistically speaking, the interpersonal function is the most basic function
of language. Speaking of the social functions of slang, the most important point lies in
that language is for communication between people. Hence the discussion of the
interpersonal function of American slang is in the coming part.
A. Pursuit of Self-identity
Since different social and professional groups have different slang, thus it is
considered as the symbol for dividing the professional groups in society. If somediv
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uses the words and expressions within a certain social group or professional group, he
will blend with the group members from mentality. That is to say, if a student says a
sentence containing the special college slang, he must want to get the result of showing
and strengthening the emotion that he is belonging to the inside of the teenager group .
The American scholar P. Roberts once pointed out that the reason people constantly use
slang is that they want to show they are one of the qualified members among a certain
distinct groups.
B. Emotive Feeling of the Slang Users
The emotive function reveals the speaker’s attitude towards his subject. The
emotive function is one of the most powerful uses of language because it is so crucial and
important in changing the emotional status of an audience for or against someone or
something, the emotive function help us get rid of our nervous energy when we are under
stress.
Psychologically, slang helps people to express their strong feeling, like group
identification and so on. «Slang also has this usefulness, and I suspect that profanity is a
subcategory of slang, the more elemental phenomenon». It is like dream that relieves us
and takes away our psychological burden, also discharges our tension of the great burden.
When people use it, they want to show them against the reality, and set them free
psychologically. As Allen suggests «Slang is a class of language, among other social and
psychological uses, to deny allegiance to genteel, elite, and proper society and to its
standard linguistic forms». No wonder, why so many people use slang in their
conversation, from common people to intellectual groups, such as doctors, lawyers, and
politicians.
C. Achieving Politeness
To conduct this discussion, the notion of register needs to be mentioned. Register
refers to «manner of speaking or writing specific to a certain function, that is,
characteristic of a certain domain of communication» The choice of register is affected
by three factors, occasions (formal or informal), addressee (age, gender, occupation, the
degree of familiarity) and the content of the conversation. And the use of slang is
restrained by the three factors as well. Either the use of slang in improper occasions or
the use of slang not to the right addressee, or the improper content in one’s speech may
ruin the friendship and good relationship with your interlocutors. Therefore, the proper
use of slang facilitates setting up a certain atmosphere or maintaining social contacts.
Slang is often used in informal occasions and is of importance in playing the phatic
function. The use of slang can maintain the friendship and intimacy between our friends.
When slang serves the phatic function, it contributes to maintain our positive face.
As with politeness in general, greetings can be analyzed within the framework of theories
of `face’. When making proper slangy greetings, friendly atmosphere may be achieved
for proceeding conversation, slangy greetings such as, how’s it going? What does it look
like? What it is? What’s going down? What’s happening? What’s jumping? What’s
shaking? What’s the deal? What’s up,etc, or slangy farewell expressions like, catch you
later, check you on the flip side, catch you on the flip flop, check you, smell you later,
smell you, are frequently used among young people. Both the slangy greetings and
farewells used signal that the speaker wishes to establish a good relations or a non-
threatening atmosphere with his or her friends that he or she wishes to be accepted by
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their peers and his or her positive face will not be threatened. In daily talks, slang plays a
big role and the communications between us would not go smoothly as they are expected.
Conclusion
American slang is one of the language varieties in American English. It is the
product of American culture and American society.It is a kind of sociolect.The paper
discusses American slang from sociolinguistic point of view. It makesstudyof the features
of slang: humor, conciseness, originality and stability. Those features make American
slang different from other variety of language.The paper also analyzesthe factors
influencing American slang, including individual factors and social factors. Then the
paper focuses on thesocial functions of American slang. The first social functionis the
pursuitof self-identity which is the symbol for dividing the professional groups in society.
The second one is to expressemotive feeling of the slang users for the psychological
need. And the third one is to achievepoliteness which means slang serves the phatic
function and it contributes to maintain our positive face in daily communication. The
paper presents some examples which arefrom current American slang textbooks, some of
them from the original American movies, novels and contemporary American slang
dictionaries. The development of slang cannot be separated from the society.
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