X Международная студенческая научная конференция Студенческий научный форум - 2018

Slang, being an integral part of language and, accordingly, speech is one of the main and most problematic aspects of lexicology, as it reflects the linguocultural features of the society that uses it. Slang is that layer of vocabulary that does not coincide with the literary norm. Some researchers consider slang as something alien to the literary language, which is not characteristic of the speech of an intelligent person. Nevertheless, today one can observe the "expansion" of slang vocabulary into all spheres of human activity: slang units are used on radio and television, in the press, literature, on the Internet, not to mention oral communication of people of virtually all ages, social groups and classes .Under the category of slang is a youth language that changes all the time, but which still does not remain without attention. In addition, the study of youth slang is becoming increasingly relevant in the face of expanding international contacts (internships, trips, teaching a number of subjects by English specialists, watching videos, listening to modern songs in English, informal communication with native speakers and so on).

Slang refers to words, phrases and uses that are regarded as very informal and often restricted to special context or peculiar to a specified profession class and the like. Slang words are used in specific social groups, like teenagers, which they use oftentimes in their conversations.

In the English lexicography, the term "slang" became widespread around the beginning of the 19th century. The etymology of this word is controversial. The study of slang was influenced by the English-speaking culture.

Greenow and Kittridge characterized slang as follows: "slang is a tongue-tramp who hangs around in literary speech and constantly tries to punch his way into the most refined society".

The concept of "slang" is mixed with such concepts as "dialectism", "jargonism", "vulgarism", "colloquial speech", "vernacular".

Unlike traditional expressions, slang is actively used in their speech and educated people, representatives of a certain age or professional group. Often this just emphasizes belonging to a certain group of people. A well-known example is youth slang.

Slang are words that are often regarded as a violation of the norms of the standard language. These are very expressive, ironic words that serve to indicate the objects spoken about in everyday life.

It should be noted that some jargon scientists are referred to slang, thus not identifying them as an independent group, and slang is defined as a special vocabulary used to communicate a group of people with common interests.

The very term "slang" in English translation means:

The speech of a socially or professionally detached group as opposed to a literary language;

The variant of colloquial speech (including the expressively colored elements of this speech), which do not coincide with the norm of the literary language.

Slang consists of words and phraseological units that originated and were originally used in separate social groups and reflected the holistic orientation of these groups. Becoming common, these words basically retain an emotional-evaluative nature, although sometimes the "sign" of the assessment changes.

Slang is very informal use of words and phrases for more colorful or peculiar style of expression that is shared by the people in the same social subgroup, for example, computer slang, sports slang, military slang, musicians’ slang, students’ slang, underworld slang, etc. Slang is not used by the majority of native speakers and many people consider it vulgar, though quite a few slang phrases have already come into standard usage. Slang contains many obscene and offensive words and phrases. It also has many expressions that are acceptable in informal communication. Slang is highly idiomatic. It is flippant, irreverent, indecorous; it may be indecent or obscene. Its colorful metaphors are generally directed at respectability, and it is this succinct, sometimes witty, frequently impertinent social criticism that gives slang its characteristic flavor. Slang, then, includes not just words but words used in a special way in a certain social context. The origin of the word slang itself is obscure; it first appeared in print around 1800, applied to the speech of disreputable and criminal classes in London.

Language is the property of a community of speakers. People rarely speak, or write, with only themselves as the audience. It should not be surprising then that some components and forms of language are socially motivated. Slang is one kind of vocabulary that serves the social nature of language. In an important article in 1978 Bethany Dumas and Jonathan Lighter make the crucial point that slang must be identified by its social consequences, by the effects its use has on the relationship between speaker and audience.

Slang is a collection of special words or new meanings of already existing words used in various human associations (professional, social, age groups).For example, "Fan slang" - slang, used by football bully.

The purpose of the appearance of fan slang can be identified as follows: to isolate and isolate the fan movement from the rest of the world, to establish a certain criterion for dividing into "one's own" and "another's". The development of this element of the subculture, however, can lead to the emergence of additional problems and undesirable consequences in the form of difficulties in social acclimatization in the subculture of new participants because of the complexity of communication. Therefore, in conversation, one actively uses what can be called "the language of the streets" - the slang language of communication, which is much wider in this social environment.

Thus, slang is regarded as the deliberate or use of elements of the literary standard in colloquial speech for purely stylistic purposes: to create the effect of novelty, unusualness, difference from universally recognized patterns, to reflect a certain mood of the speaker, to make the utterance concrete, lively, expressive, short, imagery. Means such as metaphor, metonymy, synecdoche, euphemism, help to achieve these goals. This point of view is shared by most of the researchers. These included J. Hotten, who defined slang as a street language saturated with humor; Fowler called slang "the diction that results from playing with words and renaming things"; Greenow and Kittridge sharply defines slang as "a language - a tramp who hangs around in a literary speech and constantly tries to punch his way into the most refined society."

Halperin, in turn, sharply criticizes this definition, arguing that the need to resort to authors' metaphor for its creation was due to the inability to adequately express the thought with the help of logical definitions, and this in turn leads to the nebulosity and ambiguity of the thought itself.

Phonetic peculiarities of slang

While many slang words introduce new concepts, some of the most effective slang provides new expressions-fresh, satirical, shocking--for established concepts, often very respectable ones. Sound is sometimes used as a basis for this type of slang, as, for example, in various phonetic distortions (e.g., pig Latin terms). It is also used in rhyming slang, which employs a fortunate combination of both sound and imagery. Thus, gloves are "turtledoves" (the gloved hands suggesting a pair of billing doves), a girl is a "twist and twirl" (the movement suggesting a girl walking), and an insulting imitation of flatus, produced by blowing air between the tip of the protruded tongue and the upper lip, is the "raspberry," cut back from "raspberry tart." Most slang, however, depends upon incongruity of imagery, conveyed by the lively connotations of a novel term applied to an established concept. Slang is not all of equal quality, a considerable body of it reflecting a simple need to find new terms for common ones, such as the hands, feet, head, and other parts of the body. Strained or synthetically invented slang lacks verve, as can

be seen in the desperate efforts of some sportswriters to avoid mentioning the word baseball-e.g., a batter does not hit a baseball but rather "swats the horsehide," "plasters the pill," "hefts the old apple over the fence," and so on.

In conclusion, so, slang is multifunctional. First of all, it gives an ironic effect - already by the way of word formation it is intended for slang .Slang makes the speech more concise, concrete, emotionally expressive, and also serves as a kind of sign of belonging to a particular social environment. A significant difference between slang and jargon is the increased emotionality of slang, the tendency of "squeezing" in the word, and also the fact that slang "serves" the narrowest circle of people.

As a result of the research, we came to the conclusions: 1) youth slang is a sustainable language education due to the desire of the youth to "stand out", to oppose themselves to the older generation and social norms, including at the language level; because of the characteristics of the activities and hobbies of young people (for example, work on the computer, musical preferences, hobbies, etc.);

2) youth jargon, as in a mirror, reflects the process of changes in society;

3) the sphere of slang usage expands, up to the formation of "state jargon", new groups (SMS-jargon) appear.

Summary

This work was devoted to the study of the problem of perception of the phenomenon of "slang" in its functional aspect. It should be noted that the peculiarity of the phenomenon of slang is that, being an integral part of the language, it develops and evolves with it, and, therefore, will remain an actual problem of lexicology for as long as the language itself.

Key words: slang, lexicology, linguistic, dialect, jargon.

References:

1. Partridge E. Slang // Usage & Abusage: A Guide to Good English. L.: Penguin Books, 1964

2. Kopylenko M.M. On the Semantic Nature of Youth Jargon // Sociolinguistic Studies. M., 1976.

3. Borisova - Lukashanets E.G. Modern youth jargon // IT. 1980.

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