On the Characteristics and Reasons of American Slang Development

Abstract：Slang is an important language form and plays an essential role in daily life. American slang shows its national characteristics and social culture. This text researches the characteristics and reasons of American slang development. And it will be of use to get to understand more of American society and culture.

Key words：American slang； subculture； characteristic

中圖分類號(hào)：H319 文獻(xiàn)標(biāo)識(shí)碼：A 文章編號(hào)：1672-1578（2015）09-0004-01

1 Introduction

In recent years， as cultural qualities of Americans improve and all social classes communicate more frequently， a lot of slang emerges as the times require. It has become an important part of American English and plays a significant role in American life. Some linguists declare that it is impossible to acquire all knowledge of English or even to read English newspapers if one can not master slang. Therefore， in modern English learning， it is very essential to comprehend and study American slang， because it will be helpful not only in understanding the development of modern English on the whole， but also in promoting understanding of society and culture of America and other English-speaking countries.

2 Historical and Developmental Characteristics

Material shows that slang was already used in ancient Roman times. For example， the Latin word caput means head， French word latete and Italian word latesta originate from testa and mean earthern pot in English. The Italian word la gambe originate from gamoba and means hoof in English. Romans use formal words to express head and leg in written English but use the pot and hoof in spoken English.

More than 2000 years ago， Plato and Aristotle classified Greek words by meanings. Plato even condemned the ruling class for applying words used by slavers， soldiers and sidewalk artists， which indicates Greek at that time already absorbed some slang from taboo and folk adages.

In about the middle of 18th century， slang was considered as a kind of cant spoken by scholars of low social status and thus was excluded by dictionaries. Until the late 18th century， it was considered as argot in the same profession. In the early 19th century， as the differences of cant， argot and slang become distinguishing， the roles and functions of slang rise continually.

Nowadays， slang is used far beyond a certain special profession or community. It has made a major part of informal spoken English. Furthermore， some slang that are previously wiped out of standard language have become fashionable standard words and some have been elevated into formal spoken English or informal words. In a word， it is a typical characteristic of modern Americans to speak and use slang.

3 Reasons of Production

3.1 Infiltration of subculture into dominant culture

Only slang is frequently used in culture can it last for a long time and then infiltrate into other fields. For example， buck and big one are employed by gamblers to refer to stakes of 100 Yuan and 1000 Yuan respectively. Because of its high frequency， bulk is used to refer to 100 Yuan and big one 1000 Yuan out of gambling circle.

3.2 Appearance of new things and new concepts

More often than not， people have to employ slang to express new things and concepts， such as， cold war used in 1940s， hot line in 1950s and afro in 1960s. Also， think tank is an old slang item and means brain previously， but later it means a research community to provide advice and proposals for American government and agencies. Hang out means to reveal hidden facts and is popular among black people， but it was largely applied to investigation of “Watergate” in media. Thus it can be seen that newly created words appear successively in slang and standard words of common use are imparted with new meanings at the same time so that the number of slang words enlarges.

4 Conclusion

In a conclusion， the fact that slang items can be accepted by people is the result of many factors. On one hand， and it shows the similar or same standard of social value. Obviously， large quantities of American soldiers agree with this word so the item is very popular， which reflects similarities and common standard of social value between them and surroundings. On the other， slang also shows their desire for keeping a good relationship with other people.

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作者簡介：桂紅梅，女，河南羅山人，安康學(xué)院外語系教師，碩士研究生，研究方向：英語語言學(xué)，教學(xué)法等。