The study of slang and unconventional English has so far been rather of popular than academic interest, yet there are several publications mostly in the form of dictionaries which deal with slang in an academic way1. Yet slang proves to be a source of new vocabulary and often reflects social and cultural changes2 and the study of slang or unconventional English may reveal the ways in which a language is going to develop in the future because slang is of very high productivity and presents “the most powerful of all the stimulants that keep language alive and growing”3.
In order to show how slang and colloquial language affects a standard language, I thought that a synchronic comparison of the lexicon of a language through corpora may prove to be of high value, which is why I have taken this approach. In this small-scale scientific research paper I will compare a random choice of lexical items from different editions of dictionaries of British and American slang with a corpus compiled by myself making use of plublicly available Internet resources.
The corpus I have compiled was a random choice of news articles from all areas (Politics, Science, Sports...) from the on-line editions of the British newspapers “The Guardian”, “The Sun” and “The Observer” and of the American newspapers “USA Today” and “The New York Times”. A random choice of material is supposed to be of high value in so far as it does not lead to a concentration on certain aspects of speech and is more “readily achievable”4.
By examining whether slang expressions have made their way into the standard language of mainstream English language newspapers I will be able to show in how far slang makes its way into the two most important standard dialects of English, thus showing how innovative slang proves to be and in how far slang is incorporated into the standard language. I hope to be able to show that it is quite common that lexical items or expressions that used to be regarded as slang or “bad English” can make their way into a standard dialect and become socially accepted and that they are not “saboteurs of value” and imperile English as a medium of conversation5. Thus slang or what can often be called the language of the lower classes (it may even be argued that slang is a derogative of expressions that do not fit the middle class pattern of speech) has often been subjected to criticism by those who see the language as “[...] a medium of exchange whose values must be kept fixed, as far as possible, like those of any other reliable currency” in order to prevent language change through the “[...] low, iliterate and unthinking mob”6.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2. The choice of slang dictionaries
2.1 The choice of words and expressions
3. The choice of newspapers
4. Results
5. Quantitative Analysis
5.1. Slang and colloquialisms in internet editions of mainstream newspapers
5.2 Slang and productivity
6. Qualitative analysis
6.1 Sex, drugs and Rock 'n' Roll
6.2 Semantic change of slang
7. Conclusion
Research Objectives and Focus
The primary objective of this research is to analyze the incorporation of slang and colloquial expressions into the standard language by examining news articles from five British and American online newspapers. The research aims to determine the extent of this lexical change and assess how innovative slang expressions gain social acceptance within standard dialects.
- Synchronic comparison of slang lexicons across different time periods.
- Empirical study of slang frequency and usage patterns in mainstream media.
- Analysis of slang productivity in British and American English.
- Categorization of slang usage by semantic spheres (e.g., sex, drugs, crime).
- Investigation into mechanisms of semantic change within slang vocabulary.
Excerpt from the Book
1. Introduction
The study of slang and unconventional English has so far been rather of popular than academic interest, yet there are several publications mostly in the form of dictionaries which deal with slang in an academic way. Yet slang proves to be a source of new vocabulary and often reflects social and cultural changes and the study of slang or unconventional English may reveal the ways in which a language is going to develop in the future because slang is of very high productivity and presents “the most powerful of all the stimulants that keep language alive and growing”.
In order to show how slang and colloquial language affects a standard language, I thought that a synchronic comparison of the lexicon of a language through corpora may prove to be of high value, which is why I have taken this approach. In this small-scale scientific research paper I will compare a random choice of lexical items from different editions of dictionaries of British and American slang with a corpus compiled by myself making use of plublicly available Internet resources.
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: This chapter outlines the motivation for the study, focusing on how slang acts as a catalyst for lexical change and detailing the research approach using online newspaper corpora.
2. The choice of slang dictionaries: The author explains the selection of four specific slang dictionaries to trace semantic shifts and the growth of slang entries over time.
3. The choice of newspapers: This section justifies the selection of five online British and American newspapers as a corpus to analyze how slang is integrated into formal and standard language registers.
4. Results: This chapter presents the concordance results from the initial analysis of slang expressions, focusing on terms beginning with the letter "F" to evaluate their presence in major newspapers.
5. Quantitative Analysis: The author provides a detailed statistical overview of slang frequency, comparing its distribution in British and American media and examining the productivity of different cultural origins.
6. Qualitative analysis: This chapter categorizes slang usage into semantic spheres such as sex, crime, and drugs, and discusses the mechanisms behind semantic shifting in slang.
7. Conclusion: The study concludes that slang is a significant driver of lexical change and that its incorporation into mainstream media reflects broader cultural and societal shifts.
Keywords
Slang, Lexical Change, Corpus Analysis, Unconventional English, Standard Language, Newspaper Corpora, Semantic Shift, Language Productivity, British English, American English, Media Studies, Neologisms, Sociolinguistics, Cultural Change, Pragmatic Shift.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the fundamental goal of this work?
The paper aims to investigate how slang and colloquial language evolve and eventually become incorporated into the standard English language as represented by mainstream online newspapers.
What are the primary thematic fields examined?
The themes include slang usage patterns, the role of mass media as a vehicle for language change, the productivity of different cultural dialects, and the classification of slang into semantic spheres like sex, drugs, and crime.
How is the research methodology structured?
The author employs a synchronic comparison, utilizing a self-compiled corpus of 550 web pages from five newspapers combined with a lexical study based on data from several key slang dictionaries.
What primary scientific method is applied?
The study uses an "ad hoc" corpus analysis, employing concordancers to scan for slang terms within digital news content and comparing these findings across dictionaries of different editions.
What does the main body of the work cover?
It covers the selection process for dictionaries and newspapers, a quantitative assessment of slang frequency, a productivity analysis of English-speaking societies, and a qualitative breakdown of slang by semantic category and semantic shift.
Which keywords best characterize this research?
The most defining keywords are Slang, Lexical Change, Corpus Analysis, Unconventional English, and Newspaper Corpora.
Why did the author specifically focus on slang starting with the letter "F"?
Due to the limited capacity of a seminar paper, the author chose a specific letter ("F" and "FA") as a representative sample in the hope that slang expressions are distributed relatively equally across the alphabet.
Does the author conclude that American English is more dominant in slang production?
The study finds that while the USA produces a significant portion, the historic dominance of Great Britain in terms of slang productivity is still evident, suggesting that globalization is not synonymous with simple Americanization.
- Quote paper
- Timm Gehrmann (Author), 2007, Slang and lexical language change - an ad hoc corpus analysis, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.hausarbeiten.de/document/80263
