Vocabulary and grammatical characteristics of the British/ American slang

As you know slang is composed typically of coinages (1) or arbitrarily changed words, clipped (2) or shortened forms, extravagant (3), forced (4) or facetious (5) figures of speech, or verbal novelties, fad (6) words, metaphors, wordplay and various figures of speech. Many slang expressions are the

product of matters of social taboo often called swearings (7). There are three categories of taboo words in English: words relating It) Bex, words relating to excretion (8) and blasphemous (9) words. The use of taboo words is extremely shocking if used to a stranger or in inappropriate context. Young people are responsible for a high proportion of the fad expressions and collegiate (10) wordplay. Clever or insulting nicknames for types of people are the major linguistic product of this subgroup.

Slang and colloquial expressions come in different forms: slang words, compound words, simple phrases, idioms and complete sentences. Slang is not all of equal quality, a considerable body of it reflecting a simple need lo find new terms for common ones, such as the hands, head and other parts of the body, e.g. "potato" (head), "biscuit" (head), "can" (head). "wetware" (human brain in contrast to hardware and software), "top storey" or "upper storey" (brain), "scrag" (11) (neck), "ticker" and "tick-tock" (heart), "breadbasket" and "dinner basket" (stomach), "lamps" (eyes), "dog" (leg), "grabbers" (hands), "dukes" (knees), "bottom", "ass", "caboose", "butt", "buns", "differential" (buttocks (12).

The words connected with subjects which people consider not quite respectable, for example crime, drink, sex, drugs, insanity also involve extensive slang vocabulary.

A lot of slang terms express a certain emotional attitude — hostility, ridicule (13), insult, or contempt (14), often with sharp wit. In the Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears (USA, 1989) you may find about eighty different terms for policemen in addition to cop or copper, twenty-live terms for informer, thirteen terms for police equipment, twenty terms concerning traffic law enforcement, fourteen weaponry terminology, about forty for kill and killing, fifteen for prison, twenty-two for the process of searching, five – for police station, forty – for money, thirty – for alcoholism, words concerning drugs and drug usage being the major part of criminal slang vocabulary.

Among the slang terms for policemen there arc such names as "fuzz" (15) "pig", "lard", "oink" (16), "bacon", "hog", "pork", "blislerfoot". "bull", "bear", "dick", "goon" and "goon squad", "pounder", "roach" (from cockroach (17), "skull-buster", "ossifer" and "occifer", etc. which express enough social and linguistic hostility and may cause offence to the police. Most policemen are quite happy to be referred to as "coppers", but are offended by the term "pigs" and the like. Such terms were certainly not created by officers of the law. Others seem less offensive, e.g. "eagle-eye", "black and white" (from the colour of police car), "men in blue" and "boys in blue" (coats), "brass". Some of the nicknames for policemen appear to bear collegiate wordplay, for example – "J.Edgar" (Hoover), "feeby" and "feebee" (FBI), "man", "G-man" (government man), "T-man" (Treasury man), "metros", "the law", "Johny Law", "Uncle Sam", "arm" (long arms of the law), "New-York's finest" (a policeman in New-York), "juvie" (a policeman working with juveniles) and even "mickey mouse".

The similar characteristics concern the term of "a lawyer" with its slangy variant "shark", "ambulance chaser" and the names "lame", "straight" and "square" for a law-abiding citizen.

Not infrequently natural slangy language is ungrammatical or too informal for formal writing, e.g. ain't (is not, am not, are not), agin (against), gimme (give me), gonna (going to), gotta (got to), lemme (let me), wanna (want to), hafta (have to). What's happ? (What's happening?), What say? (What did you say?), Tsup? (What's up?), etc.

N.B.

1. coinage ['kכınıd3] – зд. новообразование. 2. clipped [klıpt] – зд. отрывочный. 3. extravagant [ıks'tra:vigənt] – зд. необычный, модный. 4. forced [fכ:st] – зд. искусственный. 5. facetious [fə'si:∫əs] – шутливый. 6. fad [fæd] – причуда, скоропреходящее увлечение. 7. swearing ['swεərıŋ] – ругательство. 8. excretion [eks'kri:∫ən] – отправление естественных надобностей. 9. blasphemous [blæs'fiməs] – богохульный. 10. collegiate [kə'li:d3ııt] –университетский, студенческий. 11. scrag – тощее животное, баранья шея. 12. buttocks ['b^təks] – ягодицы. 13. ridicule ['rıdıkju:l] – насмешка. 14. contempt [kən'tempt] – презрение. 15. fuzz [f^z] – соотв. русс. ментура, мусор(а). 16. oink [כıŋk] – хрюканье. 17. cockroach — таракан.