Brief Discussion about Slang
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I. Introduction
The China students have to learn English as a second language since elementary school now, started at almost the same time as our mother language. But after graduation, how many of them can take it as a language, and use it as a tool of communication, how many of them can communicate with the foreigners freely without any obstacle. Maybe most of them can get a great score in the
exam, pass the CET 4, CET 6, TEM 4 or TEM 8, but only a few can speak English fluently, express their thoughts and ideas freely and fully understand what others mean when in conversation. That is not because they did not learn English hard enough and learn it well, that is because the English they learn is written English, is formal, not colloquial, because they do not know the meaning of slang, and they do not know how to use slang. Slang plays an extremely important role in the fluency of the language.
American English is rich in words that are humorous, vivid and homonymous, which are so-called slang. Such wordplays are not within the legitimacy English teaching, which leads to the English learner’s misunderstanding of some simple conversations. Also if you want to speak like a native, you must learn slang.
Slang is one of the most active and sensitive parts of English language and an effective weapon in communication. There are hundreds of thousands of slang words in The American Thesaurus of Slang. In The Dictionary of American Slang, twenty percent of the common English vocabulary is slang words. It is estimated that there are at least 600,000 English words and 15,000 are slang. The words known by American and English people but may not be wholly used are about 10,000- 20,000. 2,000 of them are slang. Slang accounts for 10%. The figure is a clear manifestation of the wide usage and the popularity of slang in America.
American slang, which originates from the quickly increasing sub-culture, develops quickly and gets popular in modern English as an informal language variety. It mainly adopts the rhetorical devices of euphemism, metaphor and hyperbole, resulting in the stylistic features of being fashionable, humorous and rhythmical. The slang embodies the creative spirit in American people.
American slang constitutes an important part of American English. It is also a symbol of American society and culture. So the study of American slang can surely be quite helpful in our learning of American English and understanding of American society and culture. American slang is widely used by various Americans, which mainly results from its concise, vivid and lively language features. Among many language features, humorous and free style is most distinguishing. Besides the characteristic above, the vocabulary of slang is very large regarding to the same thing or the same concept, so another major characteristic of slang is synonymy. The synonymy of slang is displayed on the field of common life especially as the death, the diet and so on.
The usage of slang increases the richness of language expression, enables the people to express the same thing or the same concept in different kinds of words according to different situation. Since slang belongs to informal and ultra informal language, the usage of the slang words can enliven the atmosphere of the conversation, develop the feelings of intimacy on both sides of the communicators.
Slang is a very informal language; it is not usually acceptable in formal speech or writing and includes expressions that may be impolite or taboo in conventional communication. Though it is conventionally believed that slang expressions are far away from decent social dialects used on formal occasions, they are, in fact, neither ungrammatical nor uncouth, let alone not pollution to a language. They abound in the democratic and highly developed American society, which originate mainly from various sub-cultural groups and their social functions are becoming increasingly important. Slang is the language peculiar to a group or a kind of occupation according to the second definition. Based on this characteristic, this kind of slang can be used as a secret language. It is usually very useful to have this kind of language.
Slang causes a great difficulty in communication and reading, especially for Chinese EFL learners. Nowadays, slang is widely used in many fields. So if you do not know the meaning of the slang in communication, you will have no idea what are the Americans talking or miss the essence of the conversation. If you do not learn slang, you will not understand the English that come out from the native speaker's mouth. If you do not use slang, no matter how fluent your English is, or how accurate your accent is, your English is not well enough. So it is very important and necessary to learn the slang, and make sure you learn it well.
In a word, slang is a very special language. It is hard to have a clear definition for slang. It has a large amount of vocabulary. It’s most remarkable characteristic informality makes the language vivid and humorous, highly concise and succinct. And it can increase the richness of expression; it can enliven the atmosphere and developing the feelings of intimacy. The application of American slang is especially broad, it is estimated that there are ten percent of American slang words in the daily conversation. The reasons why it is so popular in America to use slang are that the informality of slang caters to American people’s life style which cares little about courtesy and its particularity can make it become a secret language. As to the tendency of its development, it increased the proportion of slang in the test of TOEFL in 2005 and the program of slang has attracted 90millin people which indicate that there will be more and more slang in our life. It also manifest that it is important for us to learn slang.
II. The definitions and the characteristics of slang
2.1. The definitions of slang
It is hard to have a clear definition for slang. In The Concise Oxford English Dictionary, there are two definitions of slang. The first definition is: slang is a kind of language occurring chiefly in casual and playful speech, made up typically of short-lived coinages and figures of speech that are deliberately used in place of standard terms for added raciness, humor, irreverence, or other effect. And the second one is: slang is the language peculiar to a group; argot or jargon. Slang is a very controversial language.
Some people think it can enrich the vocabulary. But others think them as dirty words or obscene words.
2 .2.The characteristics of slang
Slang is a very informal language; it is not usually acceptable in formal speech or writing and includes expressions that may be impolite or taboo in conventional communication. However, as a kind of ultra informal language, it’s most remarkable characteristic lies in its informality which makes the language vivid and humorous, highly concise and succinct,
2.2.1. Vivid and humorous
English novelist Gilbert Keith Chesterton said in an article that “All slang is a metaphor, and all metaphor is poetry”. The usage of metaphor makes the slang more vivid.
“Thank you, Captain Obvious.” If someone said that, don’t think that he is a captain. Some people like to talk a lot about their opinions; it obvious that their speech is unnecessary when their arguments are general knowledge which is well known to all the people, Captain Obvious is used as a metaphor for this kind of people. Make a long story short, how wonderful it is.
“Dutch took the cigarette from between his thick lips and extended it toward me, ‘have a coffin nail ’he chuckled”. In this sentence, “coffin nail” is used as a metaphor for cigarette, indicate that cigarette can reduce people’s life, and demonstrate that smoking is harmful to people’s health. It is more humorous and vivid to express the meaning in this way.
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