Origins of Slang Slang is the use of informal words and expressions to describe an object or condition. Slang is vocabulary that is meant to be interpreted quickly but not necessarily literally, as slang words or terms are often a metaphor or an allegory. First, one use of slang is to circumvent social taboos, as mainstream language tends to shy away from evoking certain realities. For this reason, slang vocabularies are particularly rich in certain domains, such as violence, crime and drugs and sex. An interesting fact about the word slang is that it was originally a slang term for the old French phrase “sale langue”, which translated into English means “dirty language”. Alternatively, slang can grow out of mere familiarity with the things described. Among wine connoisseurs, Cabernet Sauvignon might be known as “Cab Sav”, Chardonnay as “Chard” and so on; this means that naming the different wines expends less superfluous effort. It also serves as a shared code among connoisseurs. Then, even within a single language community, slang tends to vary widely across social, ethnic, economic, and geographic strata. Slang sometimes grows more and more common until it becomes the dominant way of saying something, at which time it is regarded as mainstream, acceptable language (e.g. the Spanish word caballo), while at other times it may fall into disuse. Numerous slang terms pass into informal mainstream speech, and sometimes into formal speech, though this may involve a change in meaning or usage. Besides, slang very often involves the creation of novel meanings for existing words. It is very common for such novel meanings to diverge significantly from the standard meaning. Thus, “cool” and “hot” can both mean “very good”, “impressive” or “good looking”. Slang terms are often known only within a clique or in group. For example, Leet (“Leetspeak” or “1337”), originally was popular only among certain Internet sub-cultures, such as crackers (malicious “hackers”) and online video gamers. During the 1990s and 2000s, however, Leet became increasingly more commonplace on the Internet, and has even spread outside of Internet-based communication and into spoken languages. Another type of slang, with roots in Internet culture, is texting language (txt or chatspeak), which is widely used in instant messaging on the Internet (AOL speak) and mobile phones (SMS language). Certain dialects may be viewed by some people as slang, such as Hawaiian Creole English and African American Vernacular English. Adapted from: Wikipedia free encyclopaedia
Questions 1.
What is slang according to the text?
2.
Why is slang used?
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How does slang sometimes grow?
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What does slang very often involve?
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What happened during the 1990s and 2000s?
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What dialects may be viewed as slang according to the text?
7.
What does the word “it” in paragraph 2 refer to?
Language is a Means of Communication.
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