5。1 The embodiment of speaker’s identity and social status 10

5。2 Reinforcement of the relationship between members in the social group 10

5。3 The fulfillment of freshness and the reflection of personality 11

5。4 Achieve politeness 11

6。 Conclusion 12

References 13

1。 Introduction

Slang, as a kind of speech variety, is usually outside of conventional or standard usage and may consist of both newly coined words and phrases and of new or extended meanings attached to established terms。 (Chen, 2006)。 Despite the fact that many intelligent people believe slang as lower acceptability in society, they could not neglect the truth that as the development of USA and American English, American slang as one part of Americanism will become even more international。 源Q于W优E尔A论S文R网wwW.yOueRw.com 原文+QQ75201,8766

American slang comes in various ways。 One of them is from the different subculture groups of society。 Time has witnessed the larger resources of slang and the richer of its contexts。 Ordinary people gradually adopt slang terms from subcultures, and slang terms have become common people’s vocabulary。 Creating slang is a thing that young people keen to。 Slang terms express their attitudes against the society or their own way of thinking。 To sum up, American slang is a product of society。 It is produced and created by society and people who live in it。 American slang can not be separated from social background and social surroundings。 

Scholars have made remarkable contributions to the study of American slang。 Their achievements can be summed up as follows:

Studies on American Slang from Linguistic Perspective

John Witherspoon, who was the first person concerning about American slang in USA, as one of the pioneers, focused on the pure linguistic point of view of American slang, wrote three papers in 1781 to the Pennsylvania Journal explaining slang as cant。 The point of considering American slang as a part of American English was given by Noah Webster, David Humphreys and John Pickering。 John Russell and Whitman followed the steps, they issued Dictionary of Americanism and slang in American respectively。 The latter article mentioned before is one of the greatest documents both in the history of American slang and the general discussion of slang。 “Now it is the duty of slang is to provide substitute for the good words and true which are worn out by hard service” was proposed by Brand Matthew’s The Function of Slang in 1893 。 This article deals with the principles in a totally different way and is of importance。 All the findings and researches on American slang mentioned above are before 20th century, they do not elaborate American slang from linguistic aspect or any other aspects but pore linguistic perspective。

Studies on American Slang from Social-Cultural View Point来自优Y尔L论W文Q网wWw.YouERw.com 加QQ7520~18766

At the beginning of 20th century, Frank Sechrist’s Psychology of Unconventional Language studied slang from psychological aspect, which showed his great insight and broad knowledge on slang。 Eric Partridge’s book, Slang, Today and Yesterday explains English slang thoroughly。

More and more scholars in China realize the importance of English slang in recent years。 The leading figures are Feng Jian, Zheng Lixin, whose contributions on American slang provide valuable sociolinguistic view。 Later, Ding Lantian observed American youth culture through the analysis of American slang and wrote A Study on The Cultural Trend of American Youth Culture。