Page 83 - 4805

colloquial and dialect, because in actual communication the two
are often used together. Moreover, we have only the evidence of
fiction to go by, and this may be not quite accurate in speech
characterisation. The basis of distinction between low colloquial
and the two other types of colloquial is purely social. Everybody
remembers G.B. Shaw’s "Pygmalion where the problem of speech
as a mark of one’s social standing and of social inequalities is one
of the central issues. Ample material for observation of this layer
of vocabulary is provided by the novels of Alan Sillitoe, Sid
Chaplin or Stan Barstow. The chief peculiarities of low colloquial
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.
Slang is language of a highly colloquial style, is considered
as below the level of standard educated speech, and consists either
of new words or of current words employed in some special sense.
All or most slang words are current words whose meanings have
been metaphorically shifted. Each slang metaphor is rooted in a
joke, but not in a kind or amusing joke, This is the criterion for
distinguishing slang from colloquialisms: most slang words are
metaphors and jocular, often with a coarse, mocking, cynical
colouring. Slang words cannot be distinguished from other words
by sound or meaning. Indeed, all slang words were once cant,
jargon, argot, dialect, nonstandard, or taboo. For example, the
American slang to neck (to kiss and caress) was originally student
cant; flattop (an aircraft carrier) was originally navy jargon; and
pineapple (a bomb or hand grenade) was originally criminal argot.
Such words did not, of course, change their sound or meaning
when they became slang. Many slang words, such as blizzard,
mob, movie, phone, gas, and others, have become informal or
standard and, of course, did not change in sound or meaning when
they did so. In fact, most slang words are homonyms of standard
words, spelled and pronounced just like their standard
counterparts, as for example (American slang), cabbage (money),

82