American Slang and Its Social Functions.doc

american slang and its social functionsslang used to be regarded as indecent, vulgar language. however, today people have realized its value; more and more people widely use such language form in their daily communication. even some slang terms and expressions have been drafted into the dictionaries. as one of the most powerful countries in the world, the u.s.a is more and more influential. for english learners, learning slang can help them to avoid misunderstanding and enhance language competence. this thesis discusses american slang from the relations among society, culture and language. the examples cited in this paper will deepen the understanding of the importance of american slang.slang takes up an indispensable part in american english. according to the statistic by american linguists wentworth & flexner, the number of the words an average american people has is ranging from 10,000 to 20,000, of which 10 percent are slang terms (flexner xx). slang is widely used by people from different fields. and where is slang from? who have created it? the following will discuss them.most of slang words are created or formed by the same ways as other kinds of words in english. here are several ways of word-formation.one way that we often use is clipping. “slang delights to curtail words, as in monk for money, flu for influenza, biz for business, varsity for university, vent for convert or pervert.” (partridge 26). clipping can be divided into four methods: the first one is clipping the front part of the word, e.g. amp for ampere or amplifier, champ for champion, bro for brother; the second is clipping the middle part, e.g. flu for influenza, tec for detective; the third is clipping the front part of the first word in a phrase, e.g. pop for popular music, intercom for intercommunication system; the last one is clipping the front part of each word, e.g. bs for bull-shit, id for identification card, g-man for government man, etc.blending also is a popular way to form slang words, which invents a word by gathering parts of other words: one is combining the initial part of the first word with the end of the second one, for example, mingy (mean + stingy) means “mean, stingy or narrow-minded”; smog (smoke + fog) means” mixture of smoke and fog”. the other is combining the initial parts of two words, for instance, sitcom (situation + comedy) means” the radio or tv series that are very humorous”; brunch (breakfast + lunch) means “late morning meal eaten instead of breakfast and lunch ” and sci-fi (science + fiction).another way is reduplication. we can see many slang words are formed in such way. however, reduplication is different in various situations. some slang words are invented by combining two words of the same spelling, e.g. dum-dum (stupidity, fool), no-no (taboo, prohibition). some are created by two words different in one letter, e.g. tip-top (great or excellent), fiddle-faddle (nonsense, uselessness). the words created by reduplication are very rhythmic and easy to be remembered.the last major way is compounding, a process of word-formation, by which two independent words are put together to form a word (lu 309). there are many slang terms formed by compounding, such as baby-sit from baby, sit; feedback from feed, back; baby-kisser from baby, kisser; career boy from career, boy; dropout from drop, out; awesome from awe, some; copycat from copy, cat (someone that copies the words or behavior of others). many young people like to call their friend homeboy or homegirl, which is formed in the same way, too. some popular ones also are without exception, for example, party-pooper from party and pooper means “the person who refuses to enthusiastically take part in some recreational activities of a group”. “the reason why many englishmen tend to equate slang and american english is that american slang is often more picturesque and striking than british and it has therefore been freely introduced into england” (brook 129). actually, why american slang is so popular is that it is not only picturesque and striking but also very practical and unique. analyzing american slangs features informality, brevity, newness, rhetoric must be included. flexner remarked that brevity is perhaps the chief feature of slang (xxi). compared with the asian people, americans are more direct and open-minded. they like to do everything quickly and effectively, including communication. and american slang is very concise and vivid to achieve message exchanging and feeling expression. in the formation part, clipping has been introduced. many american slang words are abbreviation, e.g. v.i.p stands for very important person; vamp for vampire; mutt for muttonhead; fan for fanatic (apparently); snafu for situation normal, all fucked up. however, the standard english is too formal, too long and too inflexible in communication. some brief slang has been directly used as standard english. in 1940s, wac (womens army corps), cold war had no synonym in the standard english. in order to save time and be convenient, these word entries have been adopted as standard words. therefore, we can see that the brevity of american slang may be one of the reasons why slang is used so frequently and widely.above, we have discussed that the structure of slang is very brief. furthermore, the meaning of slang is also very concise and vivid. even a person who has received several-day education can understand it easily. for example, people use cabbage head, flathead, meathead, fathead, muscle head, pumpkin head to suggest that somebody is stupid or foolish in mind; call fire fighter smoke-eater and someone with a low mood sad apple. all these show the brevity in meaning. how to use slang correctly is very important. the basic knowledge of slang is very fundamental to nonnative speakers understanding of the language that native speakers actually use in their daily life. therefore, the regularization of american slang study is very necessary, which can help learners not only understand the language but also improve the comprehensive ability on english. additionally, we can find slang in movies, literature works, newspapers and magazines and even listening materials. if a learner knows some knowledge of slang, he or she can avoid mistakes in real communications. besides, studying the figures of speech is part of college english study. studying slang can help learners master some rhetorical devices, which can reinforce the language ability. finally, learners can grasp the formation of words by studying slang, which is good for memorizing words.now that studying slang is so important, how to study slang is a task for english learners. actually, learners can get some slang terms in classroom. as cooper suggested that “a nonnative speaker does not posses the native speakers intuitive knowledge of the when-and-where suitability of slang. a certain awareness of and sensitivity to the appropriateness of slang use, however, can be developed in the classroom through carefully designed activities focusing on situational analysis” (77). so english teachers can introduce some slang terms together with american culture by using some modern teaching methods or media such as computers, powerpoint, movies, pictures to introduce foreign custom and cultural tradition.studying american slang can help us know the change of society and peoples attitudes and ideas towards the society; studying slang can avoid pragmatic failure in cross-culture communication and improve learners language competence. therefore, the regularization of slang should be part of english study.though slang used to be regarded as indecent speech, the greatness of slang can not be neglected. as a kind of the essence of the different l