Second year students of the Faculty of Accounting and Economics,

Kharechko Tatiana, Veretennikova Valeria

PhD in Philosophy, Petrova Yulia Andreevna

Rostov State University of Economics (RIPE)

PRINCIPLES OF DEFINITION OF SLANG AND ITS USE IN ENGLISH.

English is one of the most popular languages in the world. Its history is inseparably connected to the history of England. That is why the question of studying the origin of language is one of the problematic aspects of linguistics. Linguists, lexicographers, anthropologists and philosophers are concerned in solving the problem of the origin of language.

Slang is an important aspect of linguistics, especially in English. It is known, that English is divided into formal (literary) and informal (nonliterary) language. Letters, reports or essays can be written in formal or informal style. Informal English also includes words and phrases that are used in formal conversations, or other written forms. Informal English, such as «slang» does not belong to literary language, because it may be used in other cases. The person uses slang words and expressions for making the speech more vivid, which brings a new sense and color to the speech. Slang is created mostly by young people for communication among their «tight circle», for better understanding among friends. Also, slang can be used in a certain period and may become a standard word in literary language or pass out of use.

The term «slang» reflects the dynamics of the language and therefore is very obscure and ambiguous. This point of view was improved by Jonathan Lighter and Bethany K.Dumas: «anyone can recognize slang, but no one can define it». Slang is a controversial topic nowadays, and the debate on its definition, classification and linguistic relevance is still heated.

For example, a well-known lexicographer, Eric Partridge (1894-1979) collected many papers and information about slang and published a number of works, including dictionaries. E. Partridge and his successors identified slang as «a very unstable and random phrase that is used in informal conversations». It reflects the consciousness of people, who belong to particular social or professional circles. As all languages, English is changed and developed. Changes occur not only in literary language, but in slang too. Some words such as «trip», «bet», «donkey», «shabby», «chap», «bore», «cab», «kidnap» initially were used as slang, but later became a part of standard or formal English. The English History shows that 2% of Standard English words in vocabularies had been obtained by a similar process. [1]

Another famous English lexicographer, W. William Skeat (1835-1912) wrote that slang («vulgar language») has a Scandinavian origin and descends from Icelandic slyngva («to sling»). This word is compared by the Norwegian verb slengja («to sling the jaw») and the Norwegian noun slengjeord («slang word»), which is used as insulting words.

The Swedish researcher Anna-Brita Stenstrom has an opposite opinion about the origin of slang. In her article «From slang to slanguage: a description is based on teenage talk», she writes that one of the Swedish dictionaries consulted «BonniersStora Lexicon» affirms that the Swedish word «slang» came from English slang, and its origin is unknown. Also she refers to Swedish encyclopedia «Nationalencyclopedin», in which you can find information that the word «slang» was not introduced in the Nordic countries until the middle of the nineteenth century. It means that the word «slang» appeared in English language earlier than in the languages of Scandinavian countries.

The most important way of the slang’s development began from the process of rethinking of the lexical semantic units. According to V.G Vilyuman’s opinion (famous Russian philologist), redefining the word is connected with their portable usage, that is why contraction and expansion of meaning plays a major role in the formation of new slang’s units. For example, such word as «uni» means one of the most famous American studio - Universal Pictures. Also you can replace the word «tattoo» with «ink», or verb «to think» with alternative variant «hmmmm», or phrase «be healthy» with phrase «stay kind» and many others slang’s synonyms. That is why, we may say, that slang can be used for many purposes, but the major one is to express a certain emotional attitude, which can be very different, depending on the purpose of the utterance. And that is why linguists do not have only one viewpoint about the function of slang.

Some scientists write about three main functions, such as communicative, nominative and cognitive, but other linguists add world outlook, signaling and function of psychological relief to nominative, communicative and emotive functions.

Communicative slang’s function is connected with the communication between people. It allows one person «the speaker» to express his thoughts, and other «listener» to understand them. It means that a person can react on the information from his interlocutor and understand it. Communicative slang’s function realize thanks to the fact that slang speech - is a system of signs, because people cannot communicate without it. And that is why signs are intended to transfer information between people.

Cognitive function is manifested in the fact that many of the names in slang carry additional information. You cannot find these names in the standard marking, and that is why people can understand additional knowledge about the outside world.

Nominative slang’s function helps young people to adapt to technical progress, as well as fashion trends. Slang is the second lexical system in which the phenomenon of life are getting own names, which coexist with the standards of literary language.

So, slang carries out different functions. Firstly, slang gives a person an opportunity to become constructive in the use of language. Secondly, slang is used by people for communication in an unusual way. Besides, people who use slang have good chancesto find members of their subcultures. When a new word appears in the slang language and many people start to use it quite often in their speech, after some period of time some slang words or phrases are added into the literary language.[2]

But slang has not only positive meaning, some words are forbidden in the use of modern English language. For example, teachers at Sheffield school sometimes put a veto of use slang words such as «hiya» (hello,hi), «cheers and ta»(thank you), because a director is sure that skills of correct talking can help pupils to get a perspective place at the Universities and a highly paid job.

English slang is changing constantly. And in the modern life, you can find many American slang words in English speech. There are some interesting differences between British and American usage. For example, the adjective «awesome» is a slang word, which is widely used in England and all over the world. Using the word «awesome», you expressyour thoughts about something wonderful or amazing. The verb «to chill out» means to relax. Usually it can be used with or without the preposition «out». The noun «epic fail» is a «big failure» or «complete disaster». You can use this phrase for exaggeration of failure in your plans.

Many people use such unusual words and phrases. But people relate to these words differently. Some people find them useful and others - harmful and pernicious
Followers of slang words may say that this trend is an evolution of language, but Chad Dion Lassiter, the professor of race relations at the University of Pennsylvania, thinks that it is «a dumbing down of culture». Lassiter leads an academic mentorship program for high school students in the Philadelphia area and has observed this broken level of communication. «We're looking at some of these writing skills and what I'm noticing that there is miscommunication due to the fact that their communication is so limited», he says. «The problem is the adults. We have to train adults to work with young people and hold them accountable». [3].

In our opinion, the appearance of slang is the normal development of human language, because slang is required to transmit information to certain groups. Also, people like to change their lives, their surroundings and views towards culture. That’s why people create new words and expressions. Slang makes speech more unusual, bright and interesting. Its use helps to stand out from the crowd and become «special». Slang helps to reproduce the mood of the person. But on the other hand we agree with Chad Dion Lasseter. There is a limit in the use of language. Sometimes people do not understand each other when they speak. Also it is a good opportunity to make the words more simple, obscure and shorter. Sometimes it sounds very rude.

As a result of research, we came to the conclusions that slang is a stable form of language which is necessary for people to emphasize themselves and to resist social and linguistic norms. In use of slang between youth, as in a mirror, reflects the process of change in society and the scope of the use of slang is expanding.

Literature

1.http://www.dissercat.com/ Диссертация. Новый сленг в английском языке XX века: в сопоставлении с литературным английским языком, Сирил Чебюке Нвайгве, 2007.

2.http://litearydevices.net/slang/, Slang Definition

3.U.S. News. Education Rankings & Advice. How Slang Affects Students in the Classroom. Are social media and text messaging negatively impacting high school students? By Ryan Lytle. June 13, 2011