Module 8: Verbal Art

Slang

    A topic that I found interesting in module 8 was slang in various languages and, being briefly mentioned, made the topic much more interesting to me. Slang is a term to describe phrases or words that aren’t considered professional and that are associated with the youth, criminals or stigmatized careers. Typically, slang is disapproved by authority figures. Despite this being the definition, the term is commonly misused in numerous ways. Slang is a dynamic entity, to an extent that the slang of 10 years ago may not be considered slang today. It is typical that slang words find their way into the dictionary as words used in standard communication (Agha 2015).  Only having lived for a quarter of a century, I have yet to see slang words I used in my life become part of the dictionary but I do expect it will happen in the future. Wouldn’t it be strange to see the word lit end up in the dictionary with the definition “adj. exciting or insane. ‘This party is lit!’”? This is just one of hundreds of possibilities. This idea of adding slang terms to the dictionary over time led me to another idea: Does the acquisition of slang terms into everyday speak contribute to one language becoming two? It seems plausible that in thousands of years, English they speak in the UK will be a completely different language than what we speak in the US as a result of geographic separation and not much exchange of slang. One could imagine the founding fathers of the US would want American English to become a separate language from British English. However, social media has been connecting the entire world and it could prevent or slow this process down because it makes exchanging slang much easier across oceans. It is obvious that slang is a part of our everyday life (it may not be for the older generations) and it is entertaining to postulate how this will shape the English language in the future.

Reference:

Agha, Asif. 2015. “Tropes of Slang.” Signs and Society, 3:2, pp. 306–330