What’s Basic about Basic Slang?
Longevity, Pervasiveness and Key Cultural Models
Though slang is commonly described as serving a variety
of social and psychological functions, it is not generally noted that these
different functions imply the existence of different categories of slang.
This paper outlines one particular kind of slang, what I call basic slang,
and identifies the functions that shape its use and longevity. To illustrate
the significance of basic slang and the semantic structure that underlies
it, I will present here a review of the American slang terms “swell,” and
“cool” and the new Mandarin term “ku.”
Briefly, a basic slang lexeme is a slang expression that
emerges when a young generation or cohort takes on a set of values starkly
opposed to the values of its elders and begins to use a positive slang expression
that is semantically linked to its new value orientation. It differs
from most slang in that it typically endures for one or more generations,
is used pervasively and is applied to a wide array of referents as a general
term of approval roughly meaning “good.” A basic slang lexeme will
be linked to one or more cultural models which themselves are linked to the
values adhered to by the emerging generation.
Basic slang terms are counterwords, expressions whose
applicability has been extended beyond their core referents. The semantic
structure of counterwords makes them appropriate as basic slang terms and
accounts for their unique qualities: their pervasiveness, their endurance
and their key functions of (a) expressing approval, and (b) aligning their
users with cultural models linked to values characterizing their generation.
This linkage allows their users to employ them tirelessly and not “wear them
out.” It also makes basic slang terms comparable to basic lexemes identified
for such semantic domains as colors, life forms and furniture.
Robert Moore
Rollins College
Department of Anthropology
http://www.rollins.edu/anthropology/robert_moore.htm
rmoore@rollins.edu