British slang and its classification - Курсовая работа

2.2 Types of slang. a) Cockney rhyming slang b) Polari c) Internet slang d) Slang of army, police e) Money slangSlang is a language which takes off its coat, spits on its hands - and goes to work.

Carl SandburgSome scholars divide the English language into two different languages: the Standard English language and slang. A nonstandard vocabulary composed of words and senses characterized primary by connotations of extreme informality and usually a currency not limited to a particular region and composed typically of coinages or arbitrarily changed words, clipped or shortened forms, extravagant, forced or facetious figures of speech, or verbal novelties usually experiencing quick popularity and relatively rapid decline into disuse. Slang consists of the words and expressions that have escaped from the cant, jargon and argot (and to a lesser extent from dialectal, nonstandard, and taboo speech) of specific subgroups of society so that they are known and used by an appreciable percentage of the general population, even though the words and expressions often retain some associations with the subgroups that originally used and popularized them. In fact, most slang words are homonyms of standard words, spelled and pronounced just like their standard counterparts, as for example slang words for money such as beans, brass, dibs, dough, chinc, oof, wards; the slang synonyms for word head are attic, brainpan, hat peg, nut, upper storey; drunk-boozy, cockeyed, high, soaked, tight, and pot (marijuana). 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.Today, tabloid newspapers in the UK such as the Sun, the Star and the Sport regularly use slang in headlines and articles, while the quality press use slang sparingly - usually for special effect - but the assumption remains that readers have a working knowledge of common slang terms. General slang includes words that are not specific for any social or professional group, whereas special slang is peculiar for some such group: teenager slang, university slang, public school slang, Air Force slang, football slang, sea slang and so on. While some slang words and phrases are used throughout all of Britain (e.g. knackered, meaning "exhausted"), others are restricted to smaller regions. a) Cockney rhyming slang Rhyming slang is a form of slang in which a word is replaced by a rhyming word , typically the second word of a two-word phrase (so stairs becomes "apples and pears"). Here are some examples of money slang words: archer = two thousand pounds (?2,000), late 20th century, from the Jeffrey Archer court case in which he was alleged to have bribed call-girl Monica Coughlan with this amount. ayrton senna/ayrton = tenner (ten pounds, Ј10) - cockney rhyming slang created in the 1980s or early 90s, from the name of the peerless Brazilian world champion Formula One racing driver, Ayrton Senna (1960-94), who won world titles in 1988, 90 and 91, before his tragic death at San Marino in 1994. bag/bag of sand = grand = one thousand pounds (Ј1,000), seemingly recent cockney rhyming slang, in use from around the mid-1990s in Greater London; perhaps more widely too. bar = a pound, from the late 1800s, and earlier a sovereign, probably from Romany gypsy "bauro" meaning heavy or big, and also influenced by allusion to the iron bars use as trading currency used with Africans, plus a possible reference to the custom of casting of precious metal in bars. bender = sixpence (6d) Another slang term with origins in the 1800s when the coins were actually solid silver, from the practice of testing authenticity by biting and bending the coin, which would being made of near-pure silver have been softer than the fakes. bees (bees and honey) = money.According to the British lexicographer, Eric Partridge (1894-1979), people use slang for any of at least 17 reasons: 1) In sheer high spirits, by the young in heart as well as by the young in years; "just for the fun of the thing"; in playfulness or waggishness. 11) To soften the tragedy, to lighten or to "prettify" the inevitability of death or madness, or to mask the ugliness or the pity of profound turpitude (e.g. treachery, ingratitude); and/or thus to enable the speaker or his auditor or both to endure, to "carry on". 15) To show that one belongs to a certain school, trade, or profession, artistic or intellectual set, or social class; in brief, to be "in the swim" or to establish contact. Firstly, the general ‘flattening out’ of a hierarchical society and the relaxation of linguistic prejudices mean that slang may come to be seen not as something inherently substandard, but as an option among many available linguistic styles. So new slang words will continue to

PLAN

I. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Tasks of the course work

1.2 Definition of slang

II. MAIN PART