Riassunto Lingua Inglese 1

(ATM, HTML)

3. Clipping, front-clipping (fiche < microfiche), back-clipping (glam <

glamorous), medial shortening (vegan < vegetarian)

4. Ellipses, a new word has been formed by leaving out one of the two original

words with the remaining part taking on the meaning of the whole, a process

typical of colloquial English (Mobile [phone], Non-profit [organization])

Dispensa 4:

Slang:

Slang is language at its more informal some expressions would be considered

grammatically imperfect and sometimes rude. English slang may be defined as an

ever-changing set of colloquial words and phrases considered distinct from and

socially lower than standard language. It’s a type of sociolect aiming at excluding

certain people from the conversation

It sometimes described as the language of sub-cultures, notable for its

liveliness, playfulness (as slang manipulates words), freshness (as it keeps

language alive), novelty (as it is always up-to-date), changing according to fashion

and taste and it’s characterized by a certain shortness of word’s life, as slang words

are not used more than a year and they tend to either become part of SE or to

disappear

It seems to be a glue to keep insiders together and as a barrier to keep outsiders out,

it’s also group language

“Slang” was a word invented during the sixteenth century in the English Criminal

Cant. It was a kind of speech used by criminals and cheats who usually met in saloons

and wanted to keep their conversations secret. Slang was seen as a taboo language

and nowadays “cant” is associated with the secret language of thieves and beggars

Slang also acquire the meaning of colloquial language, which it shares the feature of

spontaneity but the two different uses of slang and colloquial language can be given

nana: banana,

by the term On colloquial level is an abbreviation for on slang level it

refers to a silly person

Another common mislabelling of slang is “dialect”. Dialect covers:

1. Word choices

2. Syntactic order

3. Grammatical choices

Slang is only vocabulary. Also, dialect is deep-rooted in the past and have a long

ancestry

An interesting variety of slang is back slang, where words are spelled backwards

trying to make a sensible pronunciation, but maybe letters are added or dropped,

sounds are modified and there are extra vowels (kew for week, doog for good, slop for

police). This kind of slang was invented to confound the police

In slang, there are also grammatical rules, that is strange:

1. Neo-Formations, altering, already existing words (back-slang)

2. Entirely invented terms and blends (fabtastic=Fantastic+Fabulous,

flirtationship=A relation that is not taken seriously)

3. Ellipsis (grass=marijuana, later=see you later) and clippings (bro=brother,

biz=business)

4. Coinages and extravagant figures of speech (cool=stylish, booze=alcoholic

beverage) th

5. Old words with new meanings (punk= hoodlum of a certain age in 20 century,

th

in 19 century for ill health)

6. Ordinary words used in a jocular way (tin=money, bags=trousers)

7. Metaphors:

1.1.1. Involving a shift in lexical class (kicks=shoes)

1.1.2. Naming things, person and events figuratively (couch potato=one lazy

people, stress bunny=stressed person)

1.1.3. Deriving some terms from the name of famous people (betty=pretty

woman)

8. Metonyms, designing a thing by one of its components (guts=stomach)

9. Formation of new words with the suffix er (weekender=someone on vacation

during the weekend)

10.Euphemism (resting=actor who is unemployed)

There are two lexical development: Semantic, which is the modification of meaning

and play, Formal that is the creation/modification of words

The greatest production could be seen in adjectives that are often formed through

derivation (foxy=attractive woman). Some adjectives are used with an extra

intensification (beautiful as hell), whereas other expressions for the same idea display

a current noun that is used in a novel sense (to be a magnet)

weirdometer

There are brand new nouns as for the scale of measurement of weird or

emoji tennis texting nothing apart from emoji in a chat

Furthermore, it seems that English slanguage is more productive in idiomatic

verbal phrases used as emphasizers like “to be the man” to be fantastic. These

expressions often create difficulty in comprehension also for English-speaking adults

We can recognise two functions of slang:

1. Creation of new language and new usages by creative informal use

2. Creation of a secret language understood only by those in a group

Cockney:

Another variety of English is Cockney (also to describe a person from London, East

End in particular, and his dialect). A true Cockney is someone born within the sound of

Bow Bells

Cockney means a “small misshapen egg” and it was applied to a “mother’s boy”

1. Stage 1, Misshapen Egg

2. Stage 2, Spoilt Child

3. Stage 3, Dweller of any city

4. Stage 4, A Londoner

5. Stage 5, Londoners and their dialect

Another possible derivation of the word was referred to the Normans. The word

cocaigne was referred to London and its suburbs

Cockney is considered a class dialect and as a mark of low social status and

poor education, because the East End areas were full of poverty and diseases.

Cockney belonged to the working class, and they developed a sense of togetherness

against the upper class. For this reason, they created a set of words that only those

within the Cockney circle would understand

Cockney could be considered as the slanguage of the city of London, a mixture of

words and phrases from the melting pot in London. Es: Monkey=500 Pounds, Pony=25

Pounds, derivated from the Indian Rupee Banknotes

Cockney grammar is considered nonstandard for example for the double negation

(There aint nuffink like it=There is nothing like it) or the use of done and seen (I just

seen her=I’ve just..)

Moreover, the prepositions to and at are frequently dropped in relation to places (I’m

going down the pub=I’m going down to the pub)

In phonetic there is the monophtongization:

1. /ai/ becomes like in time=taam

2. /h/ as the beginning of the words like in house=’ouse

3. /teta/ becomes f like in thin=fin

One of the most distinguishing features of Cockney is rhythmic slang, it works by

replacing a word or a phrase with a word or phrase that rhymes with it (cat and

mouse=house, gates of Rome=house)

The rhyming replacement is often further abbreviated, with the second word dropped

Its origins are uncertain. Maybe in the market place, sellers could communicate

without the customers knowing what they were saying, or maybe in jails or a rhythm

spoken by criminals and thieves

In the last few years hundreds of brand new slang expressions have been invented

and now the rhythmic slang words tend to rhyme with name of famous people

Cockney is also appeared in TV Operas such as EastEnders (BBC), operas, DVD. The

main problem for EastEnders was the American audience that didn’t understand it

Multicultural London English:

MLE is a multietholect, language of young people living in multicultural and

multilingual districts

MLE is considered as modern replacement of Cockney this accent began to develop

around 50s when London became the new multicultural centre and this English started

to influence the speech of British speakers

The linguistic repertoire of White British on one hand and of African-Caribbeans

differed, Anglos and African-Caribbeans spoke Cockney while African Caribbeans only

spoke London Jamaican or Patois

In the early 1980s started a new youth language among young black people in East

End. Often this accent implying negative connotations

However, many linguists state that its origins are more complex and present elements

from:

1. Learners’ varieties of English

2. Varieties of English from the Indian subcontinent and Africa, Caribbean

Englishes, local London and south-eastern varieties of English

There are some distinctive features with regard to grammar, lexicon and phonetics, in

particular grammar is concerned

1. MLE speakers tend to level the forms of the past tense of the verb to be (I was,

you was, he was) and weren’t is used for negative conjugations (I weren’t)

2. Isn’t it realized as Innint?

3. Innit is also used as a follow up (It weren’t like it was an accident, innit) as well

as to mark a topic

4. Man is sometimes used both as an indefinite pronoun and as a form of address

(Where’s man going?)

5. The question Why..for? is used in confrontational contexts instead of the Why?

6. Use of slang words, mostly from Jamaican Creole:

Nouns (Blood=Friend, Bruv=Friend, Creps=Shoes, Wasteman=worthless person)

Adjectives (Bait=Obvious, Clapped=Ugly)

Verbs (Aks=Ask, Cut=Leave)

Interjections (Dun Know=Of Course, Oh my days=Oh my God)

MLE can be considered as a new, mixed variety, it varies to a small extent across

ethnicities but most is shared and may be tied to youth style, therefore it could be lost

in adulthood

In the future, more multicultural accents/dialects can be expected to the continuous

renewal of immigrants populations

American Slang in hip-hop songs:

1. Orality, as slang is usually associated with spoken language and this often

implies sudden change of topic (I know you watchin’ me instead of I know you

are watching me)

2. Informal register, used to reduce the level of discourse to familiar speech (Them

chickens is ash and I’m lotion=Those other women are nothing compared to

me)

3. Vulgarity

4. Offensiveness, due to the presence of insults and expressions implying

disparaging connotations and used to be rude to people (fag=gay men,

nigga=black person, chopped liver=unimportant person). Insults are

sometimes used among friends with a friendly connotation such as bitch used

by men to address each other

5. Musicality, obtained through rhymes

6. Reduplicatives (blah-blah-blah=talk)

7. Onomatopoeic words and expressions (wroom, why-thai-thai=to resemble the

typical sounds of Asian Words)

8. Use of abbreviations (Lil hon=Little Honey, Hood=Neighbourhood, MC=Master

of Ceremonies)

9. Use of neologisms (Boo=Baby/Lover, Fly Gal=Very good, Fellas=Man)

10.Use of rhetorical forms such as metaphors (To break an happy home, we got

ties=relationships, many fish in the sea)

11.Similes (Hot as a teakettle=very exciting)

12.Euphemism (Got weed on the tongue=I’ve been smoking weed)

13.Use of numbers to replace words (9 to 5=Work)

14.Prepositions (I’m crazy over you instead of for)

Regarding the linguistic aspects, the lexicon of American hip-hop songs presents

word-formation processes characterized by some distinguishing features such as:

Play with the sound of the words in order to create new words through onomatopoeic

words and the pronunciation remains the same, except in some cases of exaggeration

(Watah=Wate