The main groups of special colloquial vocabulary

Slang, jargon, vulgar words, professionalisms, dialect words. They all

possess common properties. These words and expressions are:

1.non-literally, below the level of Standard English,Their expressivenessranges from humorous and jocular to rude and vulgar. Some of them have derogatory connotation and sound offensive

2 Extremely unstable, fleeting.

3 mostly used in the intimate, casual registers of oral communication.

4 in the speech of personages in books of fiction they have a stylistic

function of creating speech characteristics (речевые портреты).

5.The most striking differ-s between the national variants of the English language (British English, American E., Canadian English, Australian and New Zealand can be observed in the domain of special colloquial vocabulary.

6.The means of word-formation are very much the same:

1. neutral words developing new meanings, in most cases on the basis of metaphoric or metonymic mechanism of forming new words.

Coffin nail (the literal meaning гвоздь в гроб)developed the figurative meaning of bad habit(cigarette) on the basis of its metaphoric usage. Wheels – car (metonymic: part of smth implies the whole of it)

Other examples: Bag - a plain, unattractive woman (now an offensive and insulting word) Cool – excellent.

nut, loaf – head) dosh – money, bag(woman, esp about an old woman)

2. affixation - er, - or; - o, - oo. Fiver – (5) a pound-note. Tenner – ten pounds. Cooler – prison. Kiddo – kid, oldo – old (special coll. words)

3. reduplication boo-boo – an embarrassing mistake

Woop,Woop – in Australian informal English- a place that is far from any towns or cities

4. rhyming nitty-gritty (the base, main thing) of the question, boob tube –TV set,to party-hearty – to have a great time, funny money – money whose value changes often= illegal money (infml)

5. shortening, Various kinds of clippings., Doc, fridge, fella, hubby (husband), telly-TV set, ret –cigarette. Half a mo. Just a sec.

This type of word- formation is very popular in Australian English: – uni – university, journo – journalist. Example: She‘ll become a journo when she leaves the uni. Some clippings quickly become old-fashioned: fab (fabulous).

“Fab” is now old-fashioned.

Now let us concentrate on some peculiarities of each group.

(Eric Partridge, Маковский …

Some linguists use the term “slang” to refer to jargons and other groups of special colloquial vocabulary. It s important to distinguish between them.

There are several points of difference between slang and jargon.

1. While slang can be used by all social groups, j argon is restricted in its usage to particular social groups of people, such as young people, well-off people and on the other hand pickpockets, thieves, drug addicts, prisoners, etc.

2. Besides, slang words are understood by everybody, whereas jargon is aimed at preserving secrecy within a particular social or age groups of people.

Slang is used to denote those concepts that we come across in everyday life everyday (man, woman, girl, boy, money, work, etc...)

It is a level of vocabulary phenomena which is extremely unstable. It does not live long.

For example: Awesome – extremely good (mainly used by young people now).

In the 40 ties	wizard
60 ties	groovy, fab(ulous)
70 ties	cosmic
80 ties	brill, wicked
90 ties	Cool – impressive because it is fashionable or attractive

It is important to remember that slang words in Britain, the USA, Australia do not always coincide.

Cockney rhyming slang (there are special dictionaries of rhyming slang

It is as a rule a combination of two or three words North and south in which the terminal component rhymes with the word which it can replace this highly idiomatic combination. Here it is the word MOUTH For example, He opened his North and South); apples and pears – stairs, china plate – mate; mince pies – eyes; bacon and eggs – legs, battle and strife – wife.

They are ex tremely idiomatic, humorous, expressive and very popular in Australia. Not so much in America or Canada. In Britain rhyming slang was popular in the 1930ies. At present it is in the process of revival in humorous genres, in comedies, musicals and plays staged in theatres.

Example the play Me and My Girl (in Adelphi Theatre, London 1990ies)

We must always remember though that “slang is never respectable, when it becomes respectable it is no longer slang”.

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