Classification of English Colloquial Vocabulary
Розміщено 13-05-10 у розділі Освіта.
Класифікація англійської розмовної мови
I. V. Arnold notes that the term “colloquial” is old enough: Dr.Johnson, the great English lexicographer, used it. Yet with him it had a definitely derogatory flavor. Johnson thought colloquial words are inconsistent with good usage and, thinking that to reform the English language was his duty, he advised “to clear it from colloquial barbarisms”. By the end of the 19-th century with Neo-grammarians the description of colloquial speech came into its own, and linguists began to study the vocabulary that people actually use under various circumstances and not what they may be justified in using. (A. 1973:273).
As employed in our time, the adjective “colloquial” does not necessary mean “slangy” or “vulgar”, although slang and vulgar vocabulary make part of colloquial vocabulary. (A. 1973:274).
The following classification of English colloquial vocabulary is given by I. Arnold :
- literary colloquial – is used to denote the vocabulary by educated people in the course of ordinary conversation or when writing to intimate friends. A good sample may be found in works of such authors, as S.Galsworthy, E.M.Forster, S.P. Shaw, J.B.Priestly. For a modern reader it represents the speech of the elder generation. The younger generation of writers, esp. those belonging to the Angry young men (Braine, Amis, Wain and others) adhere to
- familiar colloquial. It is more emotional and much more free than literary colloquial. It is also characterized by a great number of jocular or ironical expressions and nonce-words .
- low colloquial is a term used for illiterate popular speech . It is very difficult to establish the boundary between low colloquial and dialect, because in active communication the two are often used together. B. Shaw’s play “Pygmalion” may serve as an example. The chief peculiarities of low colloquial vocabulary concern grammar and pronunciation; as to the vocabulary, it is different from familiar colloquial in that it contains more vulgar words, and sometimes also elements of dialect.
Other vocabulary layers below the level of standard educated speech are the so-called slang and argot. Unlike low colloquial vocabulary they have only lexical peculiarities. Argot also should be distinguished from slang : the first term serves to denote a special vocabulary and idiom, used by a particular social or age group, especially by the so-called underworld (the criminal circles).
Slang
Slang comes to us from movies, novels, newspaper stories, and everyday conversation. Fad words, metaphors, wordplay, and various figures of speech make up the body of slang. Slang is rarely the first choice of careful writers or speakers or anyone attempting to use language for formal, persuasive, or business purposes. Nonetheless, expressions that can be called slang make up a major part of communication in movies, television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and informal spoken conversation.
It is quite difficult to define what slang is.
“There is hardly any other term that is as ambiguous and obscure as the term “slang”. Slang seems to mean everything that is below the standard of usage of present-day English” (G., 1973:104).
I. V. Arnold defines slang words as “expressive, mostly ironical words serving to create fresh names for some things that are frequent topics of discourse. For the most part, they sound somewhat vulgar, cynical and harsh, aiming to show the object of speech in the light of an off-hand ridicule. Vivid examples can be furnished by various slang words for money, such as beans, brass, dibs, dough, chink, oof, wads; the slang synonyms for the word “head” are attic, brainpan, hat-peg, nut, upper storey (A. 1973:285). There are many slang names for food, alcohol drinks, stealing and other violations of the law, for jail, death, madness, etc.
Slang has often attracted the attention of lexicographers. The best known English dictionary is compiled by E. Partridge (E. Partridge, A Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, I-II, L., 1961).
The subject of slang has caused much controversy for many years. Very different opinions have been expressed concerning its nature, its boundaries, and the attitude that should be adopted towards it (A., 1973, p. 285).
G.B. Greenough and C.L. Kitteridge define slang in these words:
“Slang … is a peculiar kind of vagabond language, always hanging on the outskirts of legitimate speech but continually straying or forcing its way into the most respectable company” (G.B. Greenough, C.L.Kitteridge 1929:55).
Another definition of slang made by Erick Partridge:
“Slang is much rather a spoken than a literary language. It originates nearly always in speech. To coin a term on a written page is almost inevitably to brand it as neologism which will either be accepted or become a nonse-word (or phrase), but, except in the rarest instances, that term will not be slang” (Partridge, Erik 1935:36) (G.:105).
V.A. Kukharenko writes that:
“Slang is a layer of words of a highly colloquial character whose expressiveness, novelty and certain coarseness make them emphatic and emotive as compared with their neutral synonyms” ( ).
According to the sphere of usage we may divide slang into
- general and
- special.
General slang includes words that are not specific for any social or professional group, whereas special slang is peculiar for some such groups: university slang, public school slang, Air Force slang, football slang, & so on. This second group is heterogeneous. Some authors, Schweitzer, for instance, consider argot to belong here. It seems, however, more logical to differentiate slang & argot. The essential difference results from the fact that the first has an expressive function, whereas the second is primarily concerned with secrecy: rap – “kill”, shiv – “knife”, book – “a life sentence”.
Slang is a difficult problem. The most important peculiarities of slang concern not the plane of form but the plane of content. The lexical meaning of a slang word contains not only the denotational component but also an emotive component (most often it express irony) and is the marked member of a stylistic opposition (A. : 286 – 287). Citing I. R. Galperin, we may say that “the term ‘slang’ is ambiguous because, to use a figurative expression, it has become a Jack of all trades and master of none” (G.:109).
Теги: in English, дипломні
