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This article was selected as the article for improvement on 15 April 2013 for a period of one week. |
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 27 August 2020 and 18 November 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Vincjp20.
Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT ( talk) 09:27, 17 January 2022 (UTC)
Someone crammed in the unsupported etymology 'shortened language' -> 'slang' as a prank during a reddit.com discussion. Backing out the change unless there's someone who actually thinks it's appropriate. Reference: http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/eozhj/til_slang_is_short_for_shortened_language/c19sfbp —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.5.239.5 ( talk) 01:32, 21 December 2010 (UTC)
Craig Ferguson has for some time been using "slang term" (or, maybe sometimes -- or all the time, for all i'm sure about -- "slang expression") in situations where the only context is his (presumably) just having just used some form of profanity, which someone
bleep-censors out (using a pre-recorded fake-foreign-language expression instead of a bleep). He uses it in a brief communication to his producer, such as "Oh, isn't that a slang term?", "[Whassa-comin-a-goin?] is a slang term, isn't it?", or "Oh, c'mon, that's a slang term!" It seemed merely cryptic to me until tonite when he started a robot-dialogue about vampire apes, and speculating that they would eat "blood bananas" (which eventually he paid off by reminding me and perhaps others that
blood oranges are real), but, immediately, pointed out that " 'blood banana' is a slang [whatever]". Oh, OK, an erect penis is full of blood and banana-shaped, and suitable to a vampire ape; i get it now. And this enhances the convention that Craig is a perverse, or free, spirit engaged in a constant struggle with
Standards and Practices in order to show the audience a good time -- which requires him to constantly push the limits to learn what counts as overly explicit and what as socially acceptable use of slang.
So, i'm out of it, never mind that. Is "slang term" or "slang expression" currently often used to label a superficially neutral phrase as a vivid double entendre that you'll get with a moment's thot? I haven't thot thru whether anything about that would be encyclopedia-worthy, and my perusal of the previews of the first 100 Google hits on
merely gave me a concrete definition of "badonkadonk". Anyone have any thots?
--
Jerzy•
t
06:10, 27 June 2012 (UTC)
I don't understand this. Is caballo used in English? Meaning what? Or are you meaning the Spanish slang ( cheli?) caballo (i.e. " wiktionary:horse", heroin? -- Error ( talk) 00:46, 17 April 2013 (UTC)
This page is being improved by a group of UC Berkeley undergraduate students. Overall, the page lacks a definite analysis of slang's social function. Our focus will be to bring sociolinguistic notions into our analysis of slang. Since the current page lacks an updated understanding of the sociolinguistic factors that influence slang, we feel that this effort is necessary and "chill". -- Warrenmcbieber ( talk) 23:51, 10 October 2013 (UTC)
When you explain the formation of slang, to me the paragraph is a little bit too short. It is said: "it seems that slang generally forms via deviation from a standard form". Does that mean that slang terms are generally undergoing a change in meaning once they appeared or are they formed including the very different meaning? E.g., you mentioned the word foxy, that it is a synonym for sexy. But is the slang word formed to express the "concept of sexy" just by a different word? Or was the term "foxy" initially used to express something else and changed its meaning over a certain period of time? If it was chosen to have that meaning from the very beginning, why did someone choose it? Isn´t there any semantical or social reason behind to form the slang word like that? And when does a slag word become a colloquial term? In both cases a certain group of speakers uses this term, but when does it stop being slang and when did it become colloquial? Sahara2005 ( talk) 23:56, 21 October 2013 (UTC)
Nicely done! Only one point that I thought could use some clarification- in the criteria for "defining slang," the last bullet point seems ambiguous. It says that slang forms are used to avoid discomfort or "by further elaboration" I'm not sure what this refers to, so perhaps you could add an explanation or link another article if it's a technical term that's just not immediately familiar. Tinydancer.egreen ( talk) 17:00, 22 October 2013 (UTC)
Solid page. I would change this sentence: “Additionally, a speaker's agency in selecting slang variants can convey covert prestige, indicating group membership or delineation from "outsiders". It feels like a value judgment and out of place for the intro paragraph. I’m not sure History belongs as a subsection under Defining Slang. I think it needs to be expanded and then maybe made into its own section or combined with Formation of Slang. I feel like there should be more sources under Defining Slang. It seems a bit strange that such a broad topic would only have one definition from one source. More examples of specific instances of slang would be nice too. Yaylinguistics ( talk) 06:13, 23 October 2013 (UTC)
Very cool page! It is well-structured, and it clearly and concisely delineates what slang is. I like that you included a link to the Cooperative Principle/Grice's Maxims page! I also think that the distinction drawn between slang, colloquialisms, and jargon is crucial and very effective, so great job including that (I personally found it very helpful). The history section is cool. There also seems to be a good number of links to other pages here, which is great. I would maybe change the order of the "History" and "Distinction from colloquialisms and jargon" sections, just because I think that the history section provides more background. I also think that more detail/explanation in the "Formation of slang" section would be good. Overall, great page! I enjoyed reading it and learned from it. Jacksoncato ( talk) 18:04, 26 October 2013 (UTC)
This page was enjoyable to read because it had a distinct encyclopedic quality: the definitions were clear and concise, and the amount of speculative prose was minimal. (While you effectively explain the difference between slang and both jargon and colloquial terms, you do explicitly define jargon but not colloquial terms.) I was a bit confused by the section on subcultures, though, as I felt you touched upon the general theme earlier in the article. Perhaps you wanted to have a separate section for examples? If that is the case, including "Specific" in the section title might help. Also, I might get rid of the distinct "Speaker/Hearer-Oriented Implications" sections and place that information directly after the sentence, "The social implications of these variations can be classified as speaker- or hearer-oriented." That way, the explanations are closer to the words in question. Danielle.a.bells ( talk) 06:06, 28 October 2013 (UTC)
Good job. Concise and to the point. It's great to see all the comments from non-150ers! My suggestions: for the comment "Few linguists have endeavoured to clearly define what constitutes slang," maybe back that up with another source, if you can find it. Usually on Wikipedia, when there are more general/subjective comments made by sources such as this one, it looks better when there are multiple citations (i.e. multiple academic minds that agree). Also, it might not hurt to go through the list of links you've provided and make sure they're linking back to the main Slang page (some of them are, and some of them aren't). Jeffbutters ( talk) 05:34, 31 October 2013 (UTC)
You have taken on the somewhat more difficult task of working on a page that already exists, so kudos for that. I think that the page still needs quite a bit of work, and in addition to the comments above (most of them spot on, in my opinion), I'd like to add some points:
All in all, a good start, with more to do. Ldmanthroling ( talk) 14:14, 29 October 2013 (UTC)
Chinese people use the term "slang", sometimes in a countable form, e.g. "slangs" to describe the differences between Chinese "dialects" such as Cantonese and Minnan / Hokkien and Written Chinese. These are words like copula words, pronouns, negations, and even grammatical constructions that extend from the basilect all the way up to the acrolect in the spoken language, but are not used in Standard Written Chinese. I would add a section about this, but as I am not a scholar, I do not have good reputable sources to back up my statement. Any linguists want to fill this in? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:8:3F80:DCF0:642D:85AD:6314:3AB7 ( talk) 17:40, 19 April 2015 (UTC)
In school, one of our English teachers told us that the word “slang” was short for “sloppy language.” (See “shortened language” in article.) Felicity4711 ( talk) 07:12, 22 October 2016 (UTC)
Another explanation has been argued by linguist and etymologist Anatoly Liberman, who strongly disagrees with the common hypothesis connecting it to words like sling ("throw"). See https://blog.oup.com/2016/09/slang-word-origin/ There is also a counterargument in the comments at that page. Maybe someone better than I would be at editing, and summarizing, could review those arguments and see if they are worth adding to the article? I am just an interested reader. KenGCL ( talk) 20:41, 25 October 2018 (UTC)
They were non sequiturs and poor examples of jargon and slang, not least because "down size" should be the closed compound "downsize," and the etymology for "gnarly" was incorrectly given as off-roading; all evidence points to it arising in surfing.
🤷🏻♀️ idk 2601:600:C87F:DBD0:0:0:0:6B45 ( talk) 04:46, 22 December 2022 (UTC)
Anong balbal ng ama 222.127.223.135 ( talk) 02:15, 2 December 2023 (UTC)
This is the
talk page for discussing improvements to the
Slang article. This is not a forum for general discussion of the article's subject. |
Article policies
|
Find sources: Google ( books · news · scholar · free images · WP refs) · FENS · JSTOR · TWL |
Archives: 1 |
This
level-4 vital article is rated Start-class on Wikipedia's
content assessment scale. It is of interest to the following WikiProjects: | ||||||||||||||
|
This article was selected as the article for improvement on 15 April 2013 for a period of one week. |
This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 27 August 2020 and 18 November 2020. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Vincjp20.
Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT ( talk) 09:27, 17 January 2022 (UTC)
Someone crammed in the unsupported etymology 'shortened language' -> 'slang' as a prank during a reddit.com discussion. Backing out the change unless there's someone who actually thinks it's appropriate. Reference: http://www.reddit.com/r/reddit.com/comments/eozhj/til_slang_is_short_for_shortened_language/c19sfbp —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.5.239.5 ( talk) 01:32, 21 December 2010 (UTC)
Craig Ferguson has for some time been using "slang term" (or, maybe sometimes -- or all the time, for all i'm sure about -- "slang expression") in situations where the only context is his (presumably) just having just used some form of profanity, which someone
bleep-censors out (using a pre-recorded fake-foreign-language expression instead of a bleep). He uses it in a brief communication to his producer, such as "Oh, isn't that a slang term?", "[Whassa-comin-a-goin?] is a slang term, isn't it?", or "Oh, c'mon, that's a slang term!" It seemed merely cryptic to me until tonite when he started a robot-dialogue about vampire apes, and speculating that they would eat "blood bananas" (which eventually he paid off by reminding me and perhaps others that
blood oranges are real), but, immediately, pointed out that " 'blood banana' is a slang [whatever]". Oh, OK, an erect penis is full of blood and banana-shaped, and suitable to a vampire ape; i get it now. And this enhances the convention that Craig is a perverse, or free, spirit engaged in a constant struggle with
Standards and Practices in order to show the audience a good time -- which requires him to constantly push the limits to learn what counts as overly explicit and what as socially acceptable use of slang.
So, i'm out of it, never mind that. Is "slang term" or "slang expression" currently often used to label a superficially neutral phrase as a vivid double entendre that you'll get with a moment's thot? I haven't thot thru whether anything about that would be encyclopedia-worthy, and my perusal of the previews of the first 100 Google hits on
merely gave me a concrete definition of "badonkadonk". Anyone have any thots?
--
Jerzy•
t
06:10, 27 June 2012 (UTC)
I don't understand this. Is caballo used in English? Meaning what? Or are you meaning the Spanish slang ( cheli?) caballo (i.e. " wiktionary:horse", heroin? -- Error ( talk) 00:46, 17 April 2013 (UTC)
This page is being improved by a group of UC Berkeley undergraduate students. Overall, the page lacks a definite analysis of slang's social function. Our focus will be to bring sociolinguistic notions into our analysis of slang. Since the current page lacks an updated understanding of the sociolinguistic factors that influence slang, we feel that this effort is necessary and "chill". -- Warrenmcbieber ( talk) 23:51, 10 October 2013 (UTC)
When you explain the formation of slang, to me the paragraph is a little bit too short. It is said: "it seems that slang generally forms via deviation from a standard form". Does that mean that slang terms are generally undergoing a change in meaning once they appeared or are they formed including the very different meaning? E.g., you mentioned the word foxy, that it is a synonym for sexy. But is the slang word formed to express the "concept of sexy" just by a different word? Or was the term "foxy" initially used to express something else and changed its meaning over a certain period of time? If it was chosen to have that meaning from the very beginning, why did someone choose it? Isn´t there any semantical or social reason behind to form the slang word like that? And when does a slag word become a colloquial term? In both cases a certain group of speakers uses this term, but when does it stop being slang and when did it become colloquial? Sahara2005 ( talk) 23:56, 21 October 2013 (UTC)
Nicely done! Only one point that I thought could use some clarification- in the criteria for "defining slang," the last bullet point seems ambiguous. It says that slang forms are used to avoid discomfort or "by further elaboration" I'm not sure what this refers to, so perhaps you could add an explanation or link another article if it's a technical term that's just not immediately familiar. Tinydancer.egreen ( talk) 17:00, 22 October 2013 (UTC)
Solid page. I would change this sentence: “Additionally, a speaker's agency in selecting slang variants can convey covert prestige, indicating group membership or delineation from "outsiders". It feels like a value judgment and out of place for the intro paragraph. I’m not sure History belongs as a subsection under Defining Slang. I think it needs to be expanded and then maybe made into its own section or combined with Formation of Slang. I feel like there should be more sources under Defining Slang. It seems a bit strange that such a broad topic would only have one definition from one source. More examples of specific instances of slang would be nice too. Yaylinguistics ( talk) 06:13, 23 October 2013 (UTC)
Very cool page! It is well-structured, and it clearly and concisely delineates what slang is. I like that you included a link to the Cooperative Principle/Grice's Maxims page! I also think that the distinction drawn between slang, colloquialisms, and jargon is crucial and very effective, so great job including that (I personally found it very helpful). The history section is cool. There also seems to be a good number of links to other pages here, which is great. I would maybe change the order of the "History" and "Distinction from colloquialisms and jargon" sections, just because I think that the history section provides more background. I also think that more detail/explanation in the "Formation of slang" section would be good. Overall, great page! I enjoyed reading it and learned from it. Jacksoncato ( talk) 18:04, 26 October 2013 (UTC)
This page was enjoyable to read because it had a distinct encyclopedic quality: the definitions were clear and concise, and the amount of speculative prose was minimal. (While you effectively explain the difference between slang and both jargon and colloquial terms, you do explicitly define jargon but not colloquial terms.) I was a bit confused by the section on subcultures, though, as I felt you touched upon the general theme earlier in the article. Perhaps you wanted to have a separate section for examples? If that is the case, including "Specific" in the section title might help. Also, I might get rid of the distinct "Speaker/Hearer-Oriented Implications" sections and place that information directly after the sentence, "The social implications of these variations can be classified as speaker- or hearer-oriented." That way, the explanations are closer to the words in question. Danielle.a.bells ( talk) 06:06, 28 October 2013 (UTC)
Good job. Concise and to the point. It's great to see all the comments from non-150ers! My suggestions: for the comment "Few linguists have endeavoured to clearly define what constitutes slang," maybe back that up with another source, if you can find it. Usually on Wikipedia, when there are more general/subjective comments made by sources such as this one, it looks better when there are multiple citations (i.e. multiple academic minds that agree). Also, it might not hurt to go through the list of links you've provided and make sure they're linking back to the main Slang page (some of them are, and some of them aren't). Jeffbutters ( talk) 05:34, 31 October 2013 (UTC)
You have taken on the somewhat more difficult task of working on a page that already exists, so kudos for that. I think that the page still needs quite a bit of work, and in addition to the comments above (most of them spot on, in my opinion), I'd like to add some points:
All in all, a good start, with more to do. Ldmanthroling ( talk) 14:14, 29 October 2013 (UTC)
Chinese people use the term "slang", sometimes in a countable form, e.g. "slangs" to describe the differences between Chinese "dialects" such as Cantonese and Minnan / Hokkien and Written Chinese. These are words like copula words, pronouns, negations, and even grammatical constructions that extend from the basilect all the way up to the acrolect in the spoken language, but are not used in Standard Written Chinese. I would add a section about this, but as I am not a scholar, I do not have good reputable sources to back up my statement. Any linguists want to fill this in? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2601:8:3F80:DCF0:642D:85AD:6314:3AB7 ( talk) 17:40, 19 April 2015 (UTC)
In school, one of our English teachers told us that the word “slang” was short for “sloppy language.” (See “shortened language” in article.) Felicity4711 ( talk) 07:12, 22 October 2016 (UTC)
Another explanation has been argued by linguist and etymologist Anatoly Liberman, who strongly disagrees with the common hypothesis connecting it to words like sling ("throw"). See https://blog.oup.com/2016/09/slang-word-origin/ There is also a counterargument in the comments at that page. Maybe someone better than I would be at editing, and summarizing, could review those arguments and see if they are worth adding to the article? I am just an interested reader. KenGCL ( talk) 20:41, 25 October 2018 (UTC)
They were non sequiturs and poor examples of jargon and slang, not least because "down size" should be the closed compound "downsize," and the etymology for "gnarly" was incorrectly given as off-roading; all evidence points to it arising in surfing.
🤷🏻♀️ idk 2601:600:C87F:DBD0:0:0:0:6B45 ( talk) 04:46, 22 December 2022 (UTC)
Anong balbal ng ama 222.127.223.135 ( talk) 02:15, 2 December 2023 (UTC)