American Slang and Subculture Groups’ Usage.doc

American Slang and Subculture Groups UsageAbstract: Slang plays a very important role in American daily life. By studying slang, we may know much about culture, including American subculture, and in turn get better understanding of slang by learning the cultural background behind them. Key words: American slang; American culture, subculture groupsI. Slang and CultureSlang in different languages is derived from different origins, also demonstrate cultural differences. Different languages and different groups of people may have different slang, owing to different living environments, social conventions and literature tradition, etc. So, slang as part of language are naturally indispensable to culture. English abounds in slang which are characterized by their colorful and thought-provoking expressions, involving history, religion, social customs etc. Slang as a special form of language exists in both of them and carry a large amount of cultural information such as history, geography, religion, custom, nationality psychology, thought pattern , etc, and therefore are closely related to culture. They are the heritage of history and product of cultural evolvement. Slang varies not only according to the social characteristics of different groups of people (such as age, sex and occupation,), but also according to the social setting in which he finds himself. II. American Subculture Groups SlangAs for subculture group, it is defined in Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary as: "an ethnic, regional, economic, or social group exhibiting characteristic patterns of behavior sufficient to distinguish it from others within an embracing culture or society". While the definition, in The World Book Dictionary, is "a group of people with distinct cultural traits within a culture or society" (Wang Zhongyan, 1993). From the above definitions we know that a subculture group refers to a group of people with common distinct traits in status and concept, code of conduct and living style, hobby and taste. The cants and argots of subculture groups are the main sources of American slang. Slang can be used to indicate to which culture group the speaker belongs and subculture members often use the so-called primary slang which is their pristine speech, so natural to its speakers that it seems they might be mute without it. To generate slang, a group must either be very large and in constant contact with the dominant culture or be small, closely knit, and removed enough from the dominant culture to evolve an extensive, highly personal, and vivid vocabulary. Teenagers are an example of a large sub-group contributing many words. Criminals, politicians, drug addicts and Beat Generation are examples of the smaller groups. Because small groups vocabulary is personal and vivid, they contribute to our general slang out of proportion to their size. 1. Teenager GroupIn the process of teenagers' education, American schools and families pay particular attention to the development of their personalities, fostering their independent character, creativity, habit of self-control and responsibility. Generally speaking, American teenagers, including middle school students and college students, have strong personalities. College students often take a word to describe something that is very interesting. They call diligent students worms, slow students birdbrain. Excellent students are called curve killers, but the students who are kicked out for failure in their courses or violation of school regulations the flunk out. They name male teachers bears and students' flattering action to their teacher ass kissers. If a fresher (newcomer) doesn't pass a comp (a professional comprehensive test for getting a higher diploma), he will not jive and juke (have a good time) in the whole day. When boy students coast (easily pass an exam in school) their exams, they will probably chill out (relax) in their dorm or fish (woo) the super-duper (pretty) girls. They call economy econ, psychology psyche, and the period without class dead hour. 2. Beat GenerationIn the 1950s and 1960s, there appeared several subculture groups dominated by young people. They had a strong indignation to reality and secular customs. To begin with, they tried to change the dominant trend by means of showing love and individuality, and holding non-violent "Beat Movement". After awaking to their weakness in the face of the strong, deep-rooted traditional prejudice, they began to indulge themselves in drugs and strange clothes. They were called beatniks. Hippy or hippie group was the typical representative of the generation. Many slang terms were coined during the period. Flower children in the 60s referred to the young hippies wearing flowers on their chests as symbol of love. Yuppies were the young urban professionals who were born after World War II. They had good jobs with good salary and behaved gracefully. They enjoyed their job and wished to be successful. Here are some derivatives of “yuppies”: Bluppies: black urban yuppiesGuppies: gay urban yuppiesPippies: people who inherited parents' property;Suppies: Southern yuppies; Yappies: young yuppies professionals who live near the Arctic circles.At present there popularized some slang words in the United States which are also nicknames to certain social groups:Dink: double-income-no-kid couple Fiks: families with kidsOinks: one-income family without kidsSunks: unemployed single without kids(Guo Jiulin, 2001)3. Political GroupIt is known that American government and most influential politicians are likeliest to lose confidence of the public due to their old dirty tricks in political struggles. The public prefers boys to statesmen in referring to political figures, because boys imply a bad image with lies, bad conduct and no responsibility in the minds of the public. The boys in the backroom refer to political craftsmen conspiring together. Badger game referred to the sex-trap in 1920s, but now it broadens to refer to all kinds of tricks for political purposes. Big lie, originally used in Hitler's autobiography, later was popularized in the United States. Now it means the political behavior which confounds right and wrong. Americans name the statesmen who want to gain more votes baby-kissers. Because the candidates, after speeches, usually like to get into crowds and kiss children with affection to gain good impression. Many slang terms related with animals refer to a certain political group; this political “zoo” is descriptive and vivid:Elephant: Republic PartyDonkey: Democratic PartyDove: peace-loving politicianBald eagle: politician with a baldheadLame duck: politician who has no opportunity for another term but waits for his expiration.Paper tigers: outwardly strong but inwardly weak politicians4. Homosexual and Drug Addiction GroupIt is worth noticing that, in the United States, poverty, political turmoil, unemployment and potential economic crisis were threatening common people, and some unfortunate young people became victims of family violence, parents' divorce and abuse. Thus, they tried to escape from the reality by turning to alcohol or drugs. On the other hand, some upper-class groups driven by money plunged into the world of illusion and gave a bad image to the public. Among them, there were well-known artists, actors, pop singers and influential VIPs in political and business circles. Sometimes they wandered in the world of hatred, regret, fear and even despair and behaved badly, especially homosexuality and drug addictions. However, they were unwilling to expose their ugliness to the public, so plenty of slang emerged as the times require. They called heroin antifreeze and its dealer candy man or fixer. Drugs were beautified as God's medicine (elixir) , upper (stimulant, particularly amphetamine)， coke (cocaine), grass (marijuana) . A drug addict, who was called hooked, often felt high or turned on or stoned. Switch on referred to the excitement after drug taking and an addict party was called a blast party or a pot party. They had many special terms to name the ways of drug shots. 5. Criminal GroupThe slang terms that the subculture group uses are unique. Though they are generally called slang, of them, quite a few actually belong to cant or argot. Criminal slang is usually unintelligible to outsiders, because it is only used within the intragroup. Thus, it often serves as identification code. The high percentage of crimes is directly related to illegal sale and use of drugs. Large quantities of drugs are smuggled into America by organized criminal groups despite of great efforts made by the government in prohibiting the illegal drug trade. As a result, crimes are on the rise, because the highly concealed slang of criminals or those who are involved in the illegal activities is unintelligible to the ordinary people and often leaves no evidence for the police to accuse them.Even though, criminal slang is disclosed to a certain extent. If a criminal dies in the jail in a natural way, they call it a back-gate parole (freed from back door). They call those who take bribe for others bagmen (to contain money with bag). If they plan to kill or murder someone, they just blot someone out. They name electric chair the baker and call prison the big house. If they stay in the jail, they say they are out of town, as we know, jails or prisons are usually located far from urban district. If they want to escape from jails, they have many ways such as bush parole, crush out, cop a heel or crash out. If a knockover (robbery) is blowout (unsuccessful) and a robber is arrested by an eagle (police), they would say the policeman puts the claw on him (Wang Zhongyan, 1993) As mentioned above, all the subculture groups have their favorite language slang to describe their spiritual activities. Those Americans who do not belong to these groups also have their own slang to show their attitude to reality, the only difference is that slang can be accepted and understood by most common Americans III. Reasons for Using SlangSometimes slang are used to escape the dull familiarity of standard words, to suggest an escape from the established routine of everyday life. When slang is used, its life seems a little fresher and a little more personal. Also, as at all levels of speech, slang is sometimes used for the pure joy of making sounds, or even for a need to attract attention by making noise. The sheer freshness and informality of certain slang words produces a pleasure. But more important than this expression of a more or less hidden esthetic motive on the part of the speaker is slang's reflection of the personality, the outward, clearly visible characteristics of the speaker. By and large, the man who uses slang is a forceful, pleasing, acceptable personality. Generally speaking, the reasons for using slang could be summarized in the following five aspects:1. To be "different", to be novel.2. To escape from cliches, or to be brief and concise3. As an exercise either in wit and ingenuity or in humor. (The motive behind this is usually self-display or snobbishness, emulation or responsiveness, delight in virtuosity.)4. To be unmistakably arresting, even startling.5. To show that one belongs to a certain school, trade, or profession, artistic or intellectual set, or social class; in brief, to be "in the swim" or to establish contact.References:1. Crystal. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of language.2nd edition. A. Cambridge University Press, 19972. Harold Wentworth & Stuart Berg Flexner. Dictionary of American Slang Second Supplemented Edition M. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Publishers, 19753. Philip Babcock. Websters third new international dictionary of the English language unabridged A. Encyclopedia Britannica, 19864. Robert L. Chapman. American Slang M. HarperCollins Publishers, 19875. Wang Fengxin. English Culture M. Beijing: Peking University Press, 2004