On the Origins and Functions of American Slang 美国俚语起缘及其功能分析.docx

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1、On the Origins and Functions of American Slang美国俚语起缘及其功能分析AbstractModern American slang is a non-written language innovation and the crystal of history and culture. Slang is an objective existence which is often used by many people, and has become an integral component of the language and an importa

2、nt communication tool. But it often leaves a vulgar, frivolous impression to people. In fact, as a communication tool for people, it can not be regarded as good or bad. American slang develops rapidly, which has a strong cultural flavor as a special carrier. This paper elaborates the reason of Ameri

3、can slang existence from the angles of history, society, psychology and personality of Americans. On the other hand, this paper analyzes the existence value of American slang from the aspects of refraction function and usage function. The slang refracts the discrepancy of social identity, the trend

4、of oral English and the life of ordinary people. At the same time, it refracts a kind of attitude by which the people treat the reality. Its usage function includes overcoming the communicative barrier and provoking the vigor of language.Key Words: American culture; slang; function摘 要现代美国俚语是一种非书面性语言

5、的创新，是历史和文化的结晶，俚语是客观存在的被许多人经常使用的语言，是词汇中不可或缺的组成部分，已成为及其重要的交际工具。但它常常留给人粗俗，轻佻的印象。实际上，作为人们交际工具的语言，本身没有阶级性。美国俚语发展迅速，它作为美国文化一种特殊的载体，具有浓厚的文化色彩。本文将从历史，社会，心理以及美国人的性格特征等方面分析了美国俚语产生的原因。另一方面，又将从俚语的反映功能和使用功能来阐述美国俚语存在的价值。它反映了一种现实包括语言的身份差异，英语口语的发展方向，普通民众的真实生活。同时它还反映了一种态度：人们通过语言而表明自己对现实的态度。它的使用功能则包括了在使用中克服语言交际障碍，激发语

6、言的活力。关键词: 美国文化; 俚语; 功能IntroductionIn America, more and more people are partial to using slang in their daily life communication and writing technique. In the past, peoples impression of slang may be that slang is rude, dirty, and indecent; but today, as a highly colloquial speech which has become th

7、e most colorful and vivid member of the family of languages. “The vocabulary of an ordinary America generally is estimated at 10,000-20,000 wordsaccording to my conservative estimation about 2,000 words are slang.”(Chapman, R.ed.4) The number shows the important status of slang in American English,

8、therefore we should eliminate the traditional bias of slang. Slang is popular in America because of its freshness, lifelikeness, humor, and it is an effective way of communication; at the same time, it also carries strong cultural implications of America because most slang words come from each sub-c

9、ultural group, which reflect their actual life. “it is impossible to acquire a thorough knowledge of English（or of any other language, for that matter）without being familiar with slang and vulgarism. Whoever is uninitiatedwill be at a loss to understand many of the masterpieces of English literature

10、? Nayhe will scarcely be able even to understand an English newspaper.” (Partridge.73)As it were, an English learner can not communicate with foreigners at their pleasure without much understanding in American slang. From this point, slang is a bridge for English learners to make up the cultural gap

11、, so we should know and treat slang with a correct attitude. There is no such thing as good or bad, right or wrong in language. As a special form of language, its existence is a kind of outcome of culture and history.As a highly colloquial speech, it is especially effective on casual and intimate oc

12、casions. The attitudes toward slang are also very contradictory among common people especially scholars. Nowadays, more and more people begin their research on slang for its widespread. In this paper, the author is trying to analyze the origins and functions of American slang from various aspects, s

13、uch as history, psychology etc. Firstly, the paper will expound the definition of slang, in the authors mind, slang is like jeans which has been widely accepted by most of Americans. Although the jeans can not be worn into the magnificent party, it is pleasurable, comfortable, free and has been popu

14、lar in the whole America even the world. It is the myth in the capricious fashion circle. Slang is the myth in the language kingdom just as jeans. Secondly, the paper will expound the origin of slang; scholars differ in their descriptions of the origin of slang. But most of them focus on one aspect,

15、 such as Dai Xiaobin and Wei Zhizhong(2003) analyze the origin of slang on the base of society but ignore other factors. The author tends to analyze the origin of slang from various angles, history, society, psychology. Similarly, on the functions of slang, the scholars Hu Jiaying(2003), Liu Jinmei（

16、2005）expound the function of slang from social functions. The author will analyze the existence value of American slang from the aspects of refraction function and usage function. The slang refracts the discrepancy of social identity, the trend of oral English and the life of ordinary people. At the

17、 same time, it refracts a kind of attitude that the people treat the reality. Its usage function includes overcoming the communicative barrier and provoking the vigor of language.So the author wander more and more people can eliminate their abuses of slang and draw up how vivid, poetic, convenient a

18、nd colorful slang is. A better understanding of American slang and some new and deep impression of it may be achieved. The Definition of SlangAs for slang, it is nearly impossible to be defined clearly and there has been different definitions and many controversies. We can refer to some of them to g

19、ive us a special insight into our understanding of slang. The more authoritative and objective definition is offered by The oxford English Dictionary, “language of a highly colloquial type, considered as below the level of standard educated speech, and consisting either of new words or of current em

20、ployed in some special sense.”; “language, words or phrases of a vigorous, colorful, facetious, or taboo nature, invented for specific occasions, or use of the standard vocabulary” is defined by the SCD. At the same time, some scholars give us many more vivid and impressive descriptions. “Slang is l

21、anguage which takes off its coat, spit on its hands-and goes to work (Carl. 23 ); “ slang is the speech of him who robs the literary garbage cans on their way to the dumps” (Ambrose Bierce. 4) “A peculiar kind of vagabond language, always hanging on the outskirts of legitimate speech, but continuall

22、y straying or forcing its way into the most respectable company is what we call slang.”(Greenough and Kittredge. 55). In the face of many various definitions, its difficult to give us an accurate definition of slang; meanwhile, there is no criterion for us to distinguish slang. Some people will thin

23、k slang is the synonym of vulgar and unmeaning language, which is commonly used by low social groups and uneducated people, and the upper class should refuse using slang; another people may think slang is easy to say and convenient to communication for its free, humorous, relaxed styles, even some p

24、eople hold that take American slang in place of American English for its popularity. The feature of informality distinguish slang from the standard English and writing language, the wide usage tells slang from jargon, cant, argot which are only used among some special social groups. Although many pe

25、ople and English learners tend to think slang is a language wastes, we can not judge that slang is good or bad just as we can not come to conclude a man is an angel or a devil. A good man also has some shortcomings; on the contrary, a bad man has his own merits. In fact, it is also hard to distingui

26、sh whether a word belongs to slang or not from the angles of linguistics and pragmatics. For example, bread means a kind of food as a standard English, but refers to money as a slang word; sweat becomes trouble as a slang word from its original meaning liquid which comes out through your skin when y

27、ou are hot or frightened as a standard English; the former slang ok becomes the standard English for its high- frequent usage. Mostly, some words have two characters, they are standard English in some context, but express another different meaning as a slang under some given situation; this is the m

28、ain reason for us to have no standard definition of slang, even in the authoritative dictionaries. Sometimes, there is a little distance between slang and other language forms. Anyway, our attitudes to slang should be tend to more objective, moderate, considerate, which is beneficial for us to have

29、a good grip of slang. As for me, slang comes from the usual life, is the reflection and mirror of the subculture groups, the ordinary people, the special communities ; it is the products of social culture in specific period, the innovation of language speech; slang just like the jeans which has been

30、 widely accepted by most of Americans. Although the jeans can not be worn into the magnificent party, it is pleasurable, comfortable, free and has been popular in the whole America even the world. It is the myth in the capricious fashion circle. Slang is the myth in the language kingdom just as jean

31、s.The Origin of SlangA HistoryIn the Westward Movement of 19 century, many Americas moved to the west which caused large-scale migration. The American government pays less attention to the standard English and standardizes the English. The history of America is not as long as other countries, so it

32、has not traditional restriction to the peoples language form, which is different from British people who stress on the so-called the kings English. Therefore, the dialect and the jargon of each level are mixed together, and which spread quickly among the majority. Such dialect and jargon evolved the

33、 slang little by little for their wide usage.B Society America is called the melting pot. To the polarize America opinion, there is nothing quite like subject of immigration. America is a newly emerging country which is composed of many various races. The co-existence of multi-culture, special socia

34、l groups and various subculture communities offer the oxygen for the birth, renewal, and development of American slang. Many American slang words are borrowed-words, the immigration of each race could create many new vocabulary which add a large number of slang words. For example, pronto comes from

35、Spanish, nix originates from German. Meanwhile, special social groups provide a cultural greenhouse for the breath of American slang. The main creators of American slang are prisoners, floating workers, gipsy, soldiers, policemen, drug addicts, prostitutes, sailors, gangsters etc, who would not like

36、 to be understood by others and thus created a lot of slang words because of their special social status. The prisoner called the jailer to chaster; the drug addicts named the drug as bloke, cap, nose candy, grass, heaven dust; the policeman was called pig, cop, flat foot by gangsters. Hence a lot o

37、f slang words came into existence, but this origin is also the main reason why a lot of scholars refuse to accept slang for which come from the subculture groups. This kind of slang derived from special environment. Finally, the penetration of culture and language between various social groups becom

38、es the motivation of slang, and which caused the slang to have spread quickly and being popular. The intercommunication of cross-culture prompts the renewing and development of slang. big one refers to the stake of 1000 dollars which comes from the slang of gambler, and nowadays which becomes the po

39、pular slang in the whole society for its high frequency; sack out (sleeping) and suck time (the rest time) were the popular slang among American army during the World War; by the end of the war the two words were brought into daily life and became commonly used words with the veterans. The co-existe

40、nce of multi-culture caused the first socialization of American slang.C PsychologyThe identical or similar outlook on life and society causes slang, and these slang words are widely used among those people who have the same standard for social value. American soldiers who station in foreign land oft

41、en use liberate (to free a person, an animal, or a country) as the meaning of to find a local woman as their paramours; finally, this word was popular with this meaning among the whole America army. It turns out that slang is the inevitable product of interpersonal communication. The feature of this

42、 kind of slang has the function of unity and exclusion among associates. If a person creates a new word, in that way, the word will be circulated among the whole associates. People want to have a good interpersonal relationship, so they usually use the same language style and language speech. The la

43、nguage compromise finally comes about a lot of slang words. The similar compromise also turns up among the groups of consanguinity or intimate relationship. Such kind of psychological interpersonal communication enlarges the vocabulary of slang.D National Spirit and Character Features of AmericansTh

44、e national spirit and character features of Americans are also embodied by their talking style and language speech. Most Americans stress such characters as ceaseless change, innovation, receptivity, optimism, free, open, which is close to the creation and usage of slang. America people are full of

45、passion, strong curiosity, and adventurous spirit; meanwhile, it is an active race. Their personality is showed by their language. According to Partridge, four features present in all slang, whatever the period and whatever the country, are: the search for novelty, volatility and light-headedness as

46、 well as light-heartedness; epheme-reality (19). Otherwise, American slang is widely used by various Americans mainly for its vivid, concise and lively features and humorous and free style. All its features are in agreement with the personality of Americans. Americans tend to accept new things and r

47、efuse to the restriction of the Standard English, especially the America youth. They often rebel the traditional notions and dont surrender to the authority. On the hand of language, they are eager for new things and feel bored with the old daily language, and can be satisfied by slang. They are gla

48、d to challenge old customs and old language form, so they create a lot of slang words, which replenish the vacancy of the normal English. For example, they use sawbones, mouthpiece, foxtrot in place of doctors, lawyer, dance; the cats pajamas instead of fantastic etc. Another hand, they often use ol

49、d words to express new meaning. Take the simple word cool as an example, it originally means slightly cold, pleasantly cold, but now more people use the word to describe somebody who is extraordinary. In the end, the individuality and national spirit of Americans give rise to slang word.E New Things and New ConceptsAt last, the emergence of new things and concepts give a huge impetus to the expanding of slang. New objects, ideas require ne