Hue University Univerisity of Foreign Languages Faculty of English FINAL ASSIGNMENT IN SOCIOLINGUISTICS Topic Sociolinguistic Background for language variety (sociolect) of slang throu[.]
Hue University Univerisity of Foreign Languages Faculty of English FINAL ASSIGNMENT IN SOCIOLINGUISTICS Topic: Sociolinguistic Background for language variety (sociolect) of slang through media means in the British/ U.S.A and Vietnam Instructor: Truong Bach Le Student full name: Lê Thúy Diễm ID: 18F7511058 Class: Sociolinguistics- Class 03 Hue, 2021 h TABLE OF CONTENT A INTRODUCTION B CONTENT I.Definition 1.1 Social media 1.2 Slang II.Characteristics of slang through social media The British/ U.S.A Slang 1.1 Phonology 1.2 Morphology 1.3 Semantics The Vietnamese slang 2.1 Semantics 2.2 Morphology III The functions of slang in the British/ U.S.A and Vietnam through social media Pursuit of self-identity Emotive feeling of the slang users Slang helps people connect the relations C.Conclusion References h A INTRODUCTION In recent years, in almost all cities of Vietnam, the trend of using slang among people is becoming more and more popular from kinds of media means such as television, Internet In particular, it is common on social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Whatapps Compared to the slang of other groups, Vietnamese adolescent slang has many characteristics of youthful, fun, witty, and intelligence As for British/ American slang, it comes in varying purposes when use it One of them is from the different subculture groups of society As time passing by, the developing society enlarges the resources of slang and enriches its contexts Also, young people are quite active in creating slang in many contexts on social media They use slang terms in their conversation to show their attitude towards society or their own way of thinking It is one of the linguistic varieties, which is important so they cannot separate it from its social background and social surroundings Slang can be used with the purpose of concealing the expressive meaning Gradually, it is not only used with the meaning of hiding information but also used to imply other meanings on social media and social networks Because it is popular and widespread using on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter that has created a diversity of slang That is also the reason why I discuss the topic “Sociolinguistic background for language variety (sociolect) of slang through media means in the British/ U.S.A and Vietnam” This text on purpose elaborates more about the variety (sociolect) of slang, its characteristics and its function through social media in the British/ U.S.A and Vietnam Then, concluding with a result and comment on this variety of slang h B CONTENT I Definitions 1.Social media The term social media refers to a computer-based technology that facilitates the sharing of ideas, thoughts, and information through virtual networks and communities Social media is internet-based and gives users quick electronic communication of content, such as personal information, documents, videos, and photos Social media originated as the way to connect with friends and family The facility of social media is that the ability to attach and share information with anyone on Earth, or with many of us simultaneously Slang Slang can be considered to be “very informal words and expressions that are more common in spoken language, especially used by a group of people, for example, children, criminals, soldiers ”(p.125) Slang is an informal nonstandard variety of speech characterized by newly coined and rapidly changing words and phrases In terms of social media such as Facebook, What apps, Instagram, there are many examples of slang that many youths frequently use in common conversations In Vietnamese: - cà khịa : mocking - người tối cổ :people who not catch up trend, new news - #:đi , nơi khác - go out, or go to other place - toang: vỡ kế hoạch, dự kiến - express a breakdown, a broken plan, an irreparable mistake - GATO: ghen ăn tức ở- jealous - Xu cà na: xui xẻo- unlucky In British/ U.S.A: - 2: hi or to h - Ex: ex-girlfriend, ex-boyfriend - “bae”: nickname of girlfriend, boyfriend, husband, or wife -“yall” : you all, and many more (Fathonah, E L.,2018) - “Bro” is slang for a close call for a friend or interlocutor (male) It is a fragment of the English word, brother - LOL is interpreted as laugh out loud, lots of laughter, laughing out loud, lots of love - TGIF means Thank God it is Friday II Characteristic of slang through social media The British/ U.S.A Slang In British and USA, slang is one of the most interesting and at the same time difficult phenomena of language Slang – the complex, difficult, and inevitable language social and cultural tendencies of life of this or that language It is the territorial, temporary or social kind of language and popular in social media Especially, social networks such as Facebook, Whatapps, Twitter, where slang develops in a variety of aspects Slang is the diction that results from the words and renaming things and actions; some invent new words, or mutilate or misapply the old, for the pleasure of novelty, and others catch up such words for the pleasure of people in using slang for communication through social media Slang also plays an important role in expressing a certain emotional attitude towards problems or simply expressing viewpoints of the youth The contribution of slang in enriching language is also short of a real representation of the dynamism of language In general, we can classify them into some linguistic properties of slang: 1.1 Phonology At the phonological level, slang plays with sounds and manipulates word pronunciation through onomatopia, echoism, jocular mispronunciation of words, assimilation, Cockney rhyming slang (coursebook, p.128) h For example: +2: to + the gram means Instagram + Friendversary :friendship anniversary + Bestie : best friend + Doge: dog +Mishu: miss you + Fit: outfit 1.2 Morphology - At the morphology level, Eble (1996) claimed that “the same ordinary word-building processes that give rise to the general vocabulary also shape slang expressions” (coursebook,p129) - Create a variety of symbols to faster and easy understand for those in conversation Examples: + BFF: Best Friend Forever +LOLOL: Lots of laughs out louds + thx: thanks +BTW: by the way +nvm :nevermind + Dm: direct message - Using their own symbol to communicate with each other Examples: +143: I love you +l8r: later +2l8: too late - Removing syllables in a word: Examples: +Mem: member h + Sus: suspicious +lil: little + Favs: favorites + Pls: please - Magnetization of word-forming elements + back2school: return to school + 2hand: second hand + 2H2H: too hot to handle 1.3 Semantics The semantics of slang has attracted the attention of almost all pertinent studies In particular, Eble [1996, as cited in Mattiello, 2008) underlines the tendency of slang to name things indirectly or figuratively, especially through metaphor, synonyms, polysemantic (coursebook, p.129) For example: +Twitterstorm: a quick rise of activity about a specific topic on Twitter +Troll: makes fun of teasing others +Swag: skills or style +Selfie: picture of yourself +Ermahgerd: Oh my gosh +Wig: incredible +Crush: you fond of somebody + Bussin: Really good Vietnamese Slang As well as slang in the British/ United States Slang, Vietnamese slang has some characteristics that just fit for specific groups or Vietnamese young age Slang on social media is some kind of word created by the youth and only understood by them If we use it in another context, the minority of people will understand its significance h It can be said that slang is a good language to hide the real meaning and also to express other meanings in an indirect way There are more and more slang words these days created in order to make daily conversation more fun and humorous Slang is different from the official language Slang has a limited number of users over time and will not be recognized as a language However, it always arises to many kinds of different slangs together with the development of social networks Especially, in this modern era, people day by day quickly catch up on trends on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, In reality, Vietnamese slang words are formed on the basis of Vietnamese words and according to available word-forming methods or using available lexical units of Vietnamese Vietnamese slang is also divided into two parts: semantics and morphology 2.1 Semantics -Using synonyms, polysemantic, metaphors or using inherent lexical units of Vietnamese: Examples: + khoai: khó thực được- difficult to carry out + chất: ngầu, có phong cách đẹp lạ - have a cool style + say nắng, cảm nắng: phải lòng quý mến : you tend to like someone + khủng: to lớn- large, huge + Bánh bèo: gái yểu điệu, làm nũng, tính tình tiểu thư- gentle, sensitive, weak girls + chấm bi: nốt ruồi - mole 2.2 Morphology - Using homophones which has an available word or word combination that contains a homophone unit and has the same meaning as the word you want to say Examples: + rau mùi: mùi ( thể) - smell of body + chim ưng : ứng ý : fancy something + chim cút : cút : told someone get out of here h + (hai) means hi : xin chào +9 (night): chúc ngủ ngon + ngất ngây gà tây : ngất ngây - Using or creating symbols: + ATSM: ảo tưởng sức mạnh -illusion + GATO: ghen ăn tức - jealous + qtqd: trời đất + cnn: chúc ngủ ngon - good night + scd: - whatever + k(1000) : đơn vị tiền- money unit + lít (trăm): đơn vị tiền- money unit III: The functions of slang in the British/ U.S.A and Vietnam through social media Through the characteristics of slang, we consider that we not only consider those characteristics in social media which influence slang but we recognize the role of slang in its own character In addition, we can not indicate clearly what the functions of slang through social media is, the most important point lies in that language is for communication between people We finally classify the functions into three main points Pursuit of self-identity Slang is different from others so that if somebody uses the words and expressions within a certain social network group, he/she will blend with the group members Also, they can get the result of showing and strengthening the emotion that they are belonging to the inside of the young people society Emotive feeling of the slang users The emotive function in communication reveals the speakers' attitude towards the topic Thence, it is one of the most important functions for slang in express their strong feeling Many people use slang in their conversation to stress their emotional status or against someone or something on a controversy Slang helps people connect the relations h Slang can make the atmosphere fun and humorous, however, it may ruin the friendship if we not use it in the right situation, and context The use of slang can maintain the friendship and intimacy between our friends For instance, in informal conversation, we always greeting like that "how's it going? ", "What's up", or give farewell expressions like"catch you later!" "see ya", These all show that the speaker wishes to establish a good relation to their friends C Conclusion In conclusion, it can be said that the British/ U.S.A and Vietnamese slang words have certain characteristics They are different, but they all clearly show their own characteristics of youth slang That's the language slang has a youthful, witty, reflecting an active life and trends "passionately inventive and creative" in adolescents on social networks The increasing appearance of slang on the British/ U.S.A and Vietnamese social networks proves that youth slang is part of the inevitable law of language development, contributing to rich language for daily communication In the future, maybe slang will be more varied in not only social media communication but also daily life because of its positive bring to people If we use at the right time, in the right place, kind of this form of language can actually bring about positive meanings such as bringing the pursuit of selfidentity, the emotive feeling of the slang users and helping people connect the relations on social phenomena References Trần, P V., & Nguyễn, B T (2018) An Introduction to Sociolinguistics (A coursebook) [125-131] Dollarhide, M., & Drury, A (n.d.) Social Media Definition Investopedia https://www.investopedia.com/terms/s/social-media.asp Nordquist, R (2018, November 7) Definition and Examples of Slang in English.ThoughtCo https://www.thoughtco.com/slang-english-1692103 h Fathonah, E L (2018) Word formation and meaning of Slang Words on" Meme" picture of Group" Shitpostbot 5000" on social media" Facebook" (Doctoral dissertation, UIN Sunan Ampel Surabaya) http://digilib.uinsby.ac.id/25565/ Linguistic and Social Features of Slang https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325386957_Linguistic_and_Social_Feature s_of_Slang Social Media Slang Terms (n.d.) Slangit https://slangit.com/terms/social_media Tiếng lóng gì? Ý nghĩa tiếng lóng giới trẻ Việt Nam (2021, November 9) Mayruaxemini.vn https://mayruaxemini.vn/tieng-long-la-gi/ 20 từ lóng mạng xã hội phải biết cho người học tiếng Anh online (Kỳ 1) (n.d.) 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