Slang Research Papers - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Монография представляет отдельные этапы развития стилистической системы русского языка и обозначает роль сленговых единиц в размывании границ стилей на рубеже ХХ – ХХI веков. Даёт наглядный пример изменения стилистической системы конкретного языка под воздействием субстандартной лексики в период, когда наплыв единиц сниженного регистра имеет лавинообразный неконтролируемый характер. Воздействие сленга на стандартный
язык представлено в рамках стилистического дрейфа как явление закономерное, повторяющееся в языке через некоторые промежутки времени. Сленг представлен как импульс к трансформации языка, как генератор его обновления. Книга адресована филологам, студентам филологических специальностей, а также всем, кто интересуется вопросами развития сленга и русского языка в целом.

STYLISTIC TRANSFORMATIONS OF RUSSIAN SUBSTANDARDS OR THE SLANG BOOK
Word is for me like a coin for a numismatist.
B. Pilniak
The monograph presents individual developmental stages of stylistic system of the Russian language and points out the role of slang units, transgressing stylistic boundaries at the turn of the 21st century. Its aim is to illustrate examples of stylistic language changes that have occurred under the infl uence of substandard vocabulary at a time when the tide of non-standard units gained avalanche-like, uncontrollable character. The effect of slang on standard language within stylistic drift is evaluated as a natural phenomenon, psychologically and socially induced, which tends to repeat. Slang is presented as an impetus to language transformation, as a generator of renewal. The author demonstrates the diffuse “behavior” of slang units in blurring the boundaries between styles using concrete examples of their use in texts of various styles.
Each epoch is characterized by its style – in fashion, behavior, and of course, in language. Language is a system of various types of signs: lexical, grammatical, stylistic, semiotic, culturological, and others. Lexical units as well as people are subject to aging. Generally, people and languages are living systems and show their tendency to renewal. In the history of
humankind, there are wars and disasters which slow down for a long time, or on the contrary, provide strong impetus for the development of individual nations and their languages. After global turmoil, the man restores his being, lack of conditions for normal way of life raises in him a varied and wide range of emotions, which he expresses by an increase in non-verbal signs
and new (or reborn) words. Construction or reconstruction, designed to improve human life, both in housing and in language, require new construction materials, better adapted to the changing conditions of life. In the decisive moments, the old stereotypical life begins to seem remote, it loses its meaning once important. The terms and words related to it seem naive,
useless and for the next generation insufficient.
The last decade of the 20th century saw a significant uncontrolled transformation of the Russian lexicon. Various ingredients were added to the “linguistic melting pot” and concurrently a process of evaporating the unnecessary took place. There were three major opposing vectors causing
frustration in all areas of communication: English borrowings, Russian lowered substandard, and gradual disappearance of sovietisms. At the end of the 20th century, as well as at its beginning, we see purist tendencies directed against the use of slang: «mutation of the great Russian language unfolds in front of our eyes, its dissolution in the mass of linguistic material that acts like a virus» (Ерохин, I). Penetration of these units into standard language provoked a storm of emotions and a number of evaluating defi nitions of the language state, such as: language junkyard (Грачёв, I). Language emancipation at the turn of the 21st century resulted in the incorporation of slang vocabulary not only in colloquial speech, but also in written form of the Russian language. At best, linguists described this process as innovation,but generally purist evaluation prevailed. Most linguists talked about language irresponsibility and negligence of language users, they greed that slang destroys and disfigures language and reflects the moral decline of the nation and wider social degradation of the Russian language. The general state of Russian society, reflecting its thinking in language, was quite aptly formulated by M. Krongauz in the title of his book The Russian Language on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown. At the end of the first decade of the 21st century, a large part of the reduced lexical-semantic vocabulary entered the stabilization
and normalization stream.
When assessing the substandard units, the author relies on a theoretical basis, designed in the book: (Kalita I. Obrysy a tvary nespisovnosti: ruština vs. čeština. Komparativní pohled. Ruský slang v procesu vývoje. Ústí nad Labem, 2011) and her articles published in the last decade. The author introduces the readers to the functions of slang and talks about its rapid development at the turn of the century. The introduction of slang units to standard language is evaluated as a natural process associated with the concept of linguistic drift, and particularly, in its narrow sense of stylistic transformation – stylistic drift.
The concept of stylistic drift was introduced by E. Sapir. In his view, linguistic drift is the essence of language development, it is difficult to determine its direction, generally speaking – it is an effort of linguistic elements of various levels to balance language system. The nature of modern Russian drift is conditioned by diverse factors:
(1) lexical and psychological Westernization as part of the overall cultural globalization;
(2) general “reduction” of Russian cultural context under the influence of reduced units;
(3) departure of sovietisms and their partial substitution by new politically oriented vocabulary.
Stylistic drift, as well as any other emerging phenomenon, has its own speed and direction. By assessing how quick the Russian language is filled with slang units, we can say that the most powerful wave struck in the last two decades of the 20th century. After that, the number of new units significantly decreased, lexical innovations adapted to all spheres of communication, many of them lost their emotional charge.
Overall, the linguistic drift took place in the 20th century in several specific ways:
- further differentiation of functional styles of Russian language;
- adaptation of a large number of substandard units,
- suggesting a tendency to be economical with resources at various language levels;
- absorption of a large number of loan words;
- existence of alternative accentological norms;
- overall effort at simplification.
The collapse of the Soviet system and the associated political and economic chaos led to significant changes in all existing styles, marginal elements began to move toward the core of the language system. Previously banned lexical reserves of reduced units occupied all language areas and flooded the language, blurring the boundaries of existing styles and stimulating further gradation of functional styles. Besides the five ones, defined in the 20th century: professional, administrative, journalistic, artistic and colloquial, modern Russian stylistics at the beginning of the 21st century defines new styles – religious and ecclesiastical one and the style of advertising.
Stylistic system acquires a structure which was not introduced to the Russian language in its earlier forms, the opposition of high – low loses its point. The ethical component disappears from stylistic system. Stylistic upheavals after 1985 and the new structuring of the Russian discourse probably brought language to the point of no return. (Ревзина, 2012, 250).
The author attempts to analyze the sphere of renewing concepts of the “post-breakdown” (Post-Soviet) period, based on individual definitions of J. Stepanov Constants: A Dictionary of Russian Culture and A. Maslow’s pyramid of a hierarchy of needs. The author analyzes some slang units as concepts, closely related to basic human needs. She emphasizes the impact of social changes on stylistic transformation and clarifies the role of slang units in the process of style regrouping.
The book is intended for linguists, philology students, as well as anyone interested in understanding the development of slang and Russian language in general.