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Common colloquial vocabulary

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  1. Active vocabulary
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  4. Multiplication matrices in common case.
  5. Neutral words and common literary words
  6. The colloquial styles
  7. VOCABULARY
  8. VOCABULARY
  9. VOCABULARY

Common colloquial vocabulary is part of Standard English word-stock. It borders both on neutral vocabulary and on special colloquial vocabulary. Colloquialisms are familiar words and idioms used in informal speech and writing, but unacceptable in polite conversation or business correspondence. Compare standard speech sentence "Sir, you speak clearly and to the point" and its colloquial equivalent "Friend, you talk plain and hit the nail right on the head".

There are some specific ways of forming colloquial words and gram­matical fusions. The most typical of them are contraction (demo = demon­stration, comp = comprehensive school, disco = discotheque, pub = public house, ad - advertisement), amalgamation of two words in a single one (slong - so long, c'mon = come on, gimme = give me, wanna = want to, gonna = going to, don't = do not, he's = he has/is), affixation (missy = miss, girlie = girl, Scotty = Scotchman), compounding, composing and blend ing (legman = reporter, hanky-panky = children's tricks, yellow-belly = coward, motel = a hotel for people who are travelling by car).

The most productive way of building colloquial words in Russian and Ukrainian is derivation. Lots of suffixes and prefixes convert neutral words into conversational: мама = мамочка, мамуля, мамуся, мамка, мамаша, маман, мамища; книга = книжка, книжица, книжонка, книжища.

Many of colloquial words are extremely emotional and image-bearing. For example, the interjections oops, oh, gee, wow, alas are capable of ren­dering dozens of contextual subjective modal meanings, such as gladness, rapture, disappointment, resentment, admiration, etc. Not less expressive are Russian and Ukrainian colloquial words. Compare: пустомеля, скупердяй, одурельїй, чумной, орать, проньїра. Expressive colloquial words form long chains of synonyms: лицо = физиономия, портрет, морда, рожа, харя, рило, будка.

5. Special colloquial vocabulary: slang, jargonisms, professionalisms, dia­lectal words, vulgar words

Jargonisms are non-standard words used by people of a certain asocial group to keep their intercourse secret. There are jargons of criminals, con­victs, gamblers, vagabonds, souteneurs, prostitutes, drug addicts and the like. The use of jargon conveys the suggestion that the speaker and the listener enjoy a special "fraternity" which is closed for outsiders, because outsides do not understand the secret language. Here are some words from American and Russian drug takers' jargon: white stuff = cocaine or morphine; candy = cocaine; snifter = a cocaine addict; boxed, spaced out, bombed, junked up or charged up = being affected by drugs; candy man = drug seller; cap = a capsule with a narcotic; jab-off = an injection of a narcotic; pin-shot = an injection of a drug made with a safety pin and an eye-dropper instead of a hypodermic needle; mainliner = a drug addict who takes his narcotics by intravenous injection; ширнуться = ввести наркотик внутривенно; раскумариться = принять наркотик в период ломки, ломка = постнаркотическое состояние у наркоманов, которое характеризуєшся физическими страданиями. Social contra­dictions of our life gave rise to such word combinations as "отмазать от суда", ftзакосить от армии". Eventually, some jargonisms pass into stan­dard speech. This is the case with the Russian word "беспредел" which penetrated into Standard Russian from prison jargon due to its expressive­ness and topicality of meaning.

Eric Partridge, an authority on the subject, identifies a number of reasons for the creation and use of jargon. In his opinion, people resort to jargon to be different, startling, or original; to display one's membership of a group; to be secretive or to exclude others; to enrich the stock of language; to establish a friendly rapport with others; to be irreverent or humorous.

Professionalisms are term-like words. They are used and understood by members of a certain trade or profession. Their function is to rationalize professional communication and make it economical. This is achieved due to a broad semantic structure of professional terms, which makes them eco­nomical substitutes for lengthy Standard English vocabulary equivalents. Com­pare: scalpel = a small sharp knife used by a doctor for doing an oper­ation; round pliers = a metal tool with round ends that looks like a strong pair of scissors, used for holding small objects or for bending and cutting wire; зачистить населенньїй пункт (воєнний арго); отработать подозреваемого (милицейский арго), прозвонить линию (арго телефонистов). The foreman in a garage does not need to write on a mechanic's worksheet: "Please regulate the device which pro­vides a constant supply of petrol to the inlet manifold of the engine". He writes: "Adjust the carburetor".

Dialecticisms are words used by people of a certain community living in a certain territory. In US Southern dialect one might say: "Cousin, у'all talk mighty fine" which means "Sir, you speak English well". In ethnic-immi­grant dialects the same sentence will sound as "Paisano, you speek good the English" or "Landsman, your English is plenty all right already".

Slang is non-standard vocabulary understood and used by the whole nation. Slang is sometimes described as the language of sub-cultures or the language of the streets. Linguistically, slang can be viewed as a sub-dialect. It is hardly used in writing - except for stylistic effect. People resort to slang because it is more forceful, vivid and expressive than standard usages. Slangy words are rough, often scornful, estimative and humorous. They are com­pletely devoid of intelligence, moral, virtue, hospitality, sentimentality and oth­er human values.

Slang prefers short words, especially monosyllables. Vulgar or obscene words may be viewed as part of slang. The most popular images of slang are food, money, sex and sexual attraction, people's appearances and characters. Because it is not standard, formal or acceptable under all conditions, slang is usually considered vulgar, impolite, or boorish. However, the vast majority of slangy words and expressions are neither taboo, vulgar, derogatory, nor of­fensive in meaning, sound, or image. Picturesque metaphor, metonymy, hy­perbole and irony make slangy words spicy. Look how long, diverse and ex­pressive the chain of slangy synonyms denoting "money" is: ackers, cly, cole, gelt, moo, moolah, mopus, oof spondulicks, queer, boot, chuck, hardstuff, lettuce, lolly, boodle, sea-coal, green goods, hay, shoestring, ante, bread, ducats, dumps, swag, bean, blunt, crap, dough, haddock, ochre, rubbish, salad, soap, splosh, sugar, chink, gob, poke, iron, bal­sam, jack, loot, pile, wad, dust, tin, brass, fat, rocks, chips, corn, red, sand, bundle, oil, shells.

Some forms of slang change very rapidly, for various reasons.

• Teenage slang changes rapidly because people are teenagers for a short period of time. For example, in the early 1990s the term used to express enthusiastic approval was 'Ace'. Now this would be considered rather dated. It has been replaced by 'Sound' — which itself will soon be sup­planted by whatever the current teenage culture decides is appropriate.

• 'Smashing!' and 'Super!' the teenage slang of Enid Blyton stories of the 1930s and 1940s is now used to parody the period and the attitudes from which they sprang. Intrinsically however, it is no different from today's terms.

• One important function of teenage slang is to create an identity which is distinct from the general adult world. Teenagers for this reason do not generally approve of parents or teachers using their slang terms. This defeats the object of what is essentially a group 'code'.

Thus new terms are generated every couple of years. It is interesting that the main slang items are adjectives for extreme approval or extreme disapproval.




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