美国俚语的社会功能_英语论文

A Sociolinguistic Analysis of American Slang

摘要

美国俚语历史悠久，从它的来源来看，主要是亚文化对主流文化的渗透到名人推广再到大量的新事物的和新的概念的出现从而产生了大量的俚语。在美国初期，俚语是一种非正式的语言。在发展的过程中，美国俚语逐渐形成了自己的风格特点：幽默，生动，简洁明了等等。同时，美国俚语在社会中很多领域体现出它的价值。俚语作为美国俚语的一面镜子折射出美国不同阶层人们的现实生活，它也反映了一种态度，人们使用语言展示自己对现实的态度。美国俚语在人际交流中起着很大的作用，比如增加人们之间的亲昵感。

对于俚语这个备受争论的语言，学者的看法不一，但不可否认的是美国俚语的产生和发展应是时代和社会的要求。也是学习了解美国文化的重要途径。本文主要从社会语言学视角下分析美国俚语的语言特征和美国俚语的社会功能。

关键词：美国俚语; 语言特征; 社会功能

Abstract

American Slang has a long history,from the historic perspective, the sub-culture of the mainstream culture of celebrity endorsements appear to infiltrate and then a lot of new things and new concepts resulting in a lot of slang. Slang is a kind of dirty and informal language in the early United States. In the course of development, American slang has its own unique characteristics: humour, dynamic and concise with having a good development. Meanwhile, American slang achieve its self-worth in many social groups.   American Slang could be a mirror of America culture and it reflects people's real life in different social groups, it also can reflect an attitude, people use language to show their attitude toward reality. American slang plays an important role in interpersonal communication, such as increasing a sense of intimacy between people.

Slang is controversial language in the United States, scholars have different views, but it can not be denied the American slang is the demand of the times and society. English learners can learn America culture through American slang. This paper mainly from the sociolinguistic perspective to analyze linguistic characteristics of American slang and social factors influencing American slang as well as the social functions of American slang.  

Key words: American slang; Linguistic Characteristics; Social Functions

Contents

Introduction 1

1 Origin and Development of American Slang 2

1.1 Historical Activity 2

1.2 Penetration of Culture and Language 2

1.3 Establishment of Interpersonal Relationship 3

1.4 A Huge Impetus of New Things and New Concepts 3

2 Definition of American Slang 4

3 Linguistic Characteristics of American Slang 4

3.1 Morphological Characteristics of American Slang 4

3.1.1 Monosyllabic Words 5

3.1.2 Acronyms 5

3.1.3 Rhymes . 5

    3.2 Pragmatic Characteristic of American slang 6

3.2.1 Degradation of Meaning 6

        3.2.2 Elevation of meaning 7

4 Social Functions of American Slang 7

4.1 Persuit of Self-identity 7

4.2 Emotive Feeling of the Slang Users 7

4.3 Achieving Politeness 8

Conclusion 10

References 11