Ôèëîëîãè÷åñêèå íàóêè / 3 Òåîðåòè÷åñêèå ïðîáëåìû èññëåäîâàíèÿ ÿçûêà

 

A.Saduova, R.U.Latanova

 

L.N.Gumilyov Eurasian National University, Astana, Kazakhstan

 

Borrowings in the English modern youth slang

 

With the possible exception of technology-related jargon, young people’s coinages are now probably the richest source of new language in the English-speaking world. The slang of pre-teens, teenagers, students and young adults uses all the techniques of the world’s most influential language in a riot of creative exuberance. Their codes are used to create in-groups and to keep out the too-old and the terminally uncool, but also just to celebrate being young, gifted - and slack. Youth’s poses, fads and fashions are not just comical, provocative and innovative, but since the 1950s have been a sort of ‘social laboratory’ in which new ways of thinking and behaving are experimented with.

While speaking, reading literature, listening to the texts and dialogues we realize that there are certain words and phrases that have not been learned seriously in compulsory school yet, but are used actively by speakers, especially by young people. They are slang words.

 Nowadays slang is more frequently used by native speakers and new words are permanently appearing in the languages. Very often, the translation of the text, containing slang, is difficult for the students of school, that is why we think it is urgent to study this type of language more thoroughly. Moreover, when we use slang in our speech, it becomes less scientific and more distinct, it approaches to the natural teen’s communication style.

The history of the twentieth century was really one of quick changes and many important events. For instance, the two World Wars that took place in that very century, particularly in the first half of it. There took place no military action in the land of the USA, but the country participated in both of them, and that brought a lot of changes in all the aspects of life. Many Americans went to the front, and those who were lucky enough, came back bringing new phenomena with them. These events also were connected with the language, new words, new expressions, new ways of pronunciation, etc.

      Another way of the influence of the African culture was the appearance of jazz music in New Orlean. Actually, its formation has started long ago, but its final definition as “jazz” was in the twentieth century. That’s why we often meet the phrase “Jazz age”, used instead of the twentieth century. Jazz was influenced by both American and African cultures, and this was also a means for formation of a “new” type of language, called the slang. The twentieth century is known to be one of the flourishing times for the USA (called the time of progressism), so, the social improvement also did its work in changing the culture, as well as the, shall we say, technical production. So, we see under what circumstances was formed the American slang of the twentieth century. Here is the chronological history of the slang during the previous century. In the years of 1900-1919 the term “23 Skidoo” was introduced into the language, and this is believed to be the first national slang term. This phrase was used to mean “ok; good; See you later” and so on. This age is thought to be the “Flappers” age: flappers were women, who wore fashionable clothes, had short hair and were interested in modern music and new ideas. So, in 1920-1930-s the flappers’ age lets its place had by the jazz age. In1920-s times were really good for the US. Literature was captured by Fitzgerald. The early1930-s were depression years, times were tough. But the second half of it is known as the age of swing and big-band jazz. America was flourishing, and good cheer was needed, people began “singing and dancing”. That is the reason of the first appearance of the bands, made up by the Black people. So, slang was greatly influenced from the Blacks culture [2, p.121].

       Much slang was based on male war interactions. But after the World War II, America experiences good times (“Happy Days Are Here Again”-number one song of those times). In this period such terms as drooly, pappy, swoony, BTO (big-time operator), PC (prince charming), appeared to mean an attractive man. 1950-s were actually happy times, though, we can say that young were “restless”. They rejected parents and this found its way to the literature (Salinger “The catcher in the rye”, Brando “Wild One”, Dean “Rebel”, Elvis “Jailhouse rock” and so on). Slang was generally used by the young ones, and this fact also can convince that slang was a way of understanding the youth. Then, the Beatnick movement exploded. They wore black, drank coffee and read poetry. Terms like “hipster; daddy-o, cat, dig” came along. In 1960-s people ceased to think conservatively. Rock music peaked, and the so-called “Hippie” style came along. New terms like “to chill; hang; veg; jell; kick it; ease” are found mentioning “to do nothing” [3, p.77].

1990-2000s are the times that have been good-strong economy, no world wars, high college rates. Three major influences in this age were pop culture (TV & movies), computers/technology, hip-hop. Terms like “biscuit; burner; heater; joint; steel; toast” to mean “guns”. New types of greeting came along: “How you doing,” hats up”. New terms were admitted also for money: bones, Franklins, G’s, jacks, yard, clout. As rap began airing, new words appeared for rap-singing: break, bust, chat, comp, freestyle, kick, rip, etc. So, summing up what is said above, we should stress that many words are cyclical and reincarnated. This fact comes to prove that all generations are alike, as they are interested in the same things, when young.

       The slang formation is connected with the history of the country. In the 1930s the language of jazz-musicians influenced the American youth slang. 

Axe - a jazz musician’s instrument;           

Ear candy - pleasant music; 

Sax – saxophone.

There were some changes in the language after the World War I, for example:

Cap – a bullet;

Bust a cap – shoot with a gun; 

Loaded with lead – shot by gun.          

       In the 1950s and 1960s, the slang of American teenagers was shaped in large part by fast-talking AM radio disk jockeys. In the 1980s, hip-sounding video-jockeys on MTV joined the ranks of slang instructors; their language was also heavily influenced by the African-American street. In recent decades, much of middle class white adolescent slang has been adopted from both African-American speech (often rap or hip-hop). Another source for youth slang is, surprisingly, the slang graveyard of generations past. When teenagers in the mid-1960s jumped onto “groovy” and “boss” as primary adjectives of strong approval, they were simply recycling rejects — from the 1940s in the case of “groovy” and the 1970s in the case of “boss.” When the youth of the seventies embraced “sweet” as their adjective of praise, they unknowingly harkened back to teenage slang of the 1930s [1, p.175].

        In some cases slang may provide a needed name for an object or action (walkie- talkie, a portable two-way radio; tailgating, driving too close behind another vehicle), or it may offer an emotional outlet (buzz off! for go away!) or a satirical or patronizing reference (smokey, state highway trooper). It may provide euphemisms (john, head, can, and in Britain, loo, all for toilet, itself originally a euphemism), and it may allow its user to create as hock effect by using a pungent slang expression in an unexpected context. Slang has provided myriad synonyms for parts of the body (bean, head; schnozzle, nose), for money (moola, bread, scratch), for food (grub, slop, garbage), and for drunkenness (soused, stewed, plastered).

        Slang is a core element and an inalienable feature of a youth culture. It is an international phenomenon so there is a certain interrelation and interpenetration of it throughout the world. For example, American and African-American slang differ from each other, but they have some things in common. So young people widely use slang in their speech. The youth slang is a password to all members of the referent group. This phenomenon is very interesting from the linguistic point of view, because it is like a laboratory of the language formation.

Considering all the points of the research the basic emphasis is to be made on the followings:

          1.      Young persons, with the help of slang, feel that they belong to the same social group.

           2.     Slang promotes development of a language; enriches it by borrowing from other linguistic spheres and languages.

           3.     Slang words and word combinations become gradually the norm of a language.

          4.      Slang has clear expressed humor features. Not one a single humorous story could exist without slang.

To sum it up, slang and especially youth slang, brings verities into our speech; makes it more expressive and vivid. But we should keep in mind that slang ought to be used carefully, we should know what, where, when and how to use it. So we hope this work will help students understand the meanings of some slang words and expressions and use them correctly.

 

References:

1.     Dictionary of contemporary slang - Tony Thorne

2.     Stupin L.P. Dictionaries of modern English language. Ë., 1984.-121c.

3.     Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English, 7-th edition, 2008