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okay we're going to look very closely at
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slang today and in particular slang in
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English in the United States so first
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we'll look at the meaning of slang and
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then we'll look at to a number of
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reasons why people use slang and then I
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want to talk a bit about how the slang
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is created
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so how slang is made in fact most slang
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in any language is created by young
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people so the first thing is what is
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slang okay slang is the term for new and
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informal words and phrases and these
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words and phrases tend to come from
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different groups within society let me
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say that again for you
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slang is new and informal words or
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phrases which tend to come from certain
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groups in a society let me move on to
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describe slang for you now in general we
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use slang to say something new or to say
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something old in an unusual way so a
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quick example is well when people say
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I'm pumped up or I'm psyched both of
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these expressions someone might say to
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mean I'm really excited now slang as you
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probably know can either be playful and
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funny
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you know it's something you can use with
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friends but on the other hand it can
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sometimes be impolite and offensive so
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it can have many different effects
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alright so let's move on to why people
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want to use slang well there are a
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number of reasons one important reason
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people use slang is that slang makes
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people feel connected to or part of a
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peer group so for instance let's say
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there's a group of friends who spend a
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lot of time together
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maybe they go to the same school they
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use more slang with each other because
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it makes them feel connected it's like
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they have their own language so in
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essence when they use their slang
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together they're showing their group
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identity like wearing the same jackets
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they're showing that they belong to the
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same group also and this is a key point
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people use slang to show that they're
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friendly and can be casual with each
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other this is especially common in the
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workplace now some people use slang to
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make their speech more colorful or to
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make a certain kind of impression on
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other people so these are a few reasons
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why slang is used now let's move on to
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discuss how slang is created what I want
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to look at is how people create new
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slang expressions and often change the
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spoken language okay now slang is
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created in a variety of different and
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interesting ways one way slang is
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created is by taking an old word and
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giving it a new meaning like the slang
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word wired
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wired so let's look at how this works
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you know the word wire like the wire in
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an electrical cord to be wired is an
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adjective
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means the way you feel when you've had
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too much coffee you feel too excited and
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maybe even a little crazy you feel wired
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you feel full of energy so that's an
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example of a new slang word created from
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an old word okay there's another way
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that slang is made and that's by
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creating a new word a word that didn't
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exist before and the interesting thing
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here is is that these words usually come
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from subcultures or smaller groups from
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inside a culture a really good example
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of creating a new word is the slang word
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bling-bling
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this is a slang word that means shiny
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jewelry it's a noun most people first
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heard bling bling in a hip-hop song some
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years ago and suddenly many young people
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began using this expression in their
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regular conversations so for example
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someone might say look at that bling
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bling she's wearing so we've talked
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about creating slang by using old words
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in new ways by creating new words and
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now let's look at a third way that slang
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enters the language
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the third way slang is made is by
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borrowing a word from another language
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or by borrowing from another culture
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this is what I'm interested in slang in
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the United States incorporates hundreds
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of words from languages of the people
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who have come to live here like German
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people Italian Chinese just to name a
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few okay now it's important to note that
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not everyone who speaks English speaks
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the same slang there are a few factors
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that create differences in slang so
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right now let's take a look at a couple
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of these factors and the first important
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factor is region meaning the part of a
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country where a person is from so for
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instance you might hear a person from
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the southern states say hey y'all which
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means hello everybody but a person from
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California might say what's up guys so
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different regions different slang that's
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the bottom line there okay here's
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another factor it's people's occupation
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jobs jobs can have different slang to a
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great deal of job specific slang is also
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relevant to others so eventually it
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becomes popular in regular society in
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other words it eventually becomes
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general slang are there any questions
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excellent okay well so far I've only
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talked about slang in a positive way but
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believe it or not
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slang can sometimes be controversial
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that's right
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not everyone has a positive opinion
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about slang for instance some people
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think that if people use too much slang
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eventually it might destroy the English
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language let me illustrate this remember
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I said that a lot of slang is created by
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and used by young people a lot of the
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slang in style today and used by young
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people is not grammatically correct it
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breaks the rules of the language of
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course young people want to break the
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rules of the language they want to do
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things differently because this shows
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that they are new a new generation they
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don't want to follow the traditions of
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society a good example of youth slang
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that is ungrammatical is the popular
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expression my bad my bad my bad it's
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what you say when you want to show that
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you are responsible for a mistake
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like if you forget to bring your friend
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his book but it's not correct grammar we
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should say my mistake but we say my bad
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so what I'm saying here is a lot of
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slang goes against the rules of the
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language and some people are concerned
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about this some people are also
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concerned when slang is used in a formal
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situation like when someone is giving a
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speech they think that slang is too
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informal for a speech they're also
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concerned when slang is used for writing
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because as you may know slang is used
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more in speaking than in writing and so
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as you've probably been told by your
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teacher
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generally slang is unacceptable in
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academic essays so that's a big part of
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the controversy about slang so to finish
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up I want to make one final point when
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you're thinking about slang keep in mind
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that languages are living things they're
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changing all the time a new slang helps
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the language grow and change all right
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I'm afraid we're out of time I'll see
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you next week
