Slang & jargon/register

The terms

More interchangeability in the past: slang could denote “professional language”

1801 Encycl. Brit. Suppl. I. 723/1 A studied harangue, filled with that sentimental slang of philanthropy, which costs so little, promises so much, and has now corrupted all the languages of Europe.
1802-12 BENTHAM Ration. Judic. Evid. (1827) IV. 306 Giving, in return for those fees, scraps of written lawyer's slang.

Jargon denoted “unintelligible language”

earlier definitions include

warbling of birds

c1425 Seven Sag. (P.) 3148 Thre ravenes hyghte adoun, And made a gret gargoun.

foreign, especially “mixed” language

1755 JOHNSON Dict. Pref. §86 A mingled dialect, like the jargon which serves the traffickers on the Mediterranean and Indian coasts.

now: “the specialized language of a trade, profession, and other group”, “occupational variety”

1717 BULLOCK Woman is a riddle II. 18, I see, Mr. Vulture, you are a perfect master in the jargon of the Law.

Register vs jargon

register is a more neutral term than jargon: “a socially defined variety of language, such as scientific or legal English” (Crystal), “a speech variety used by a particular group of people, usually sharing the same occupation (e.g. doctors, lawyers) or the same interests (e.g. stamp collectors, baseball fans) (Longman dictionary of applied linguistics)
jargon is more pejorative – register from the outside!

Slang is harder to define

nonstandard

“language use below the neutral stylistic level”
“typical of informal situations”

can oppose authority

“typical of spoken language”
but “not a dialect” – can be found “within dialects”

words, not grammar (so, not a “language”)
very creative use of words

o onomatopoeia

o vomit: ralf, barf

o irony

o bad, wicked, killer = “good”

o metaphor

o blitzed, bombed, fried, hammered, polluted, etc.

o ‘deformation’

o “the F-word”, F-ing, fudge

often very conscious
can include swearing and taboo subjects

but isn’t restricted to it

often short-lived

occasionally gets appropriated by mainstream and has to be replaced
just because – it’s the linguistic equivalent of fashion

the grinds of 1900 were the browners of the 70s and the geeks of 1980

15 year study of college slang, 70s to 80s: far out to awesome, cool to sweet, cutting classes -> blowing them off

group-related

marks a group’s cohesion
marks a group’s boundaries?

sometimes groups are socially marginal

early references: to thieves’ language, who use it to hide their intention from their intended victims

1824 SCOTT Redgauntlet ch. xiii, What did actually reach his ears was disguised..completely by the use of cant words, and the thieves-Latin called slang.

or other “marginal” groups: prisoners, drug addicts
or those without political power: teenagers, enlisted personnel in the military

Ask for exx from teen culture?

my friend Becky (mother of three teens): “cool and sex”, but “they are smart enough to keep the more blatantly sexual / scatological stuff out of earshot”

AA: ex of a teacher saying “Does that suck, or what?”

reaction: silence …

What might be a motive for

parent using slang from teen culture

wanting to communicate?
wanting to be liked?
attempt at bonding
sign of bonding!

Jargon / register

can be useful, a kind of verbal shorthand

certain tools or procedures specific to the profession, e.g. in surgery

it’s less mocked when it refers to concrete things
more so when it refers to abstractions

hence why humanities jargon gets mocked more than science jargon

can convey air of importance and sophistication, if it’s associated with a statusful profession
can contain slang

e.g. doctors referring to patients’ reflexes as jerks or to X-rays as sparks

if the occupation or activity is unofficial, peripheral, illegal, can consist largely of slang

e.g. register of narcotics business consists mostly of slang

Zoe’s article: “the lexicon of bicycle messengers in Toronto”

Sources

-personal experience

-online research

-printed research

Finds patterns in data

-e.g. groups to which messengers also happen to belong – not all the same

-students

-under-educated, under-employed people

-professional/career couriers

-use a much larger lexicon than the others

-most are “twenty-something white heterosexual males living in large urban centers and conversant with pop and drug culture”

-use their slang

-which has probably changed since she wrote the article

-nature of terminology

-created and used orally: they primarily talk to each other

-creativity prized

-lots of sites!

-they need to be articulate in registers of the several activities involved in being a bicycle courier

-general bike terms

-bike component names

-bike related trade names

-bike racing terms

-general courier terminology

-e.g. receptionist the hub, clients the calls, couriers instructed by their dispatch

-because of the use of radios to relay calls: some terms adopted from trucking, police, shortwave radio

-because dispatching has to be clear, efficient, there’s

-minimal teasing, profanity

-little creativity

-mostly clipping: dispatch “dispatcher”, pick

-and some acronyms, e.g. POD “proof of delivery”

-courier-company-specific terminology

-e.g. levels of service

-e.g. terms within a city: uptown means something different in Toronto

-terms specific to bike couriers, often have specialized senses (cf. register generally)

-occupational hazards: slide “lean against a moving vehicle while riding beside it”

-civilians, cattle “pedestrians”

-like other in-group slang, show creativity

-affixation: messengerdom

-blending: copsicle: “referring to some officers’ cold-hearted penchant for targeting the frequent traffic violations of couriers”

Discussion

-doesn’t just describe it

-found regional differences

-Ottawa vs Toronto: hub or base?

-Ottawa vs NY: I’m clear vs I’m clean “holding no packages”

-realized that it was ever-changing

-rapid turnover of workers

-oral nature of workplace communication

-admitted that even the most key terms are often undocumented (it was oral)

-e.g. skitching, grinding, waving …

-but it’s ever-changing: the shift to text-messaging and PDAs made it less oral

-and rendering some of the lexicon obsolete