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Very Short Introductions #465
Slang: A Very Short Introduction
Slang, however one judges it, shows us at our most human. It is used widely and often, typically associated with the writers of noir fiction, teenagers, and rappers, but also found in the works of Shakespeare and Dickens. It has been recorded since at least 1500 AD, and today's vocabulary, taken from every major English-speaking country, runs to over 125,000 slang words and phrases.This Very Short Introduction takes readers on a wide-ranging tour of this fascinating sub-set of the English language. It considers the meaning and origins of the word 'slang' itself, the ideas that a make a word 'slang', the long-running themes that run through slang, and the history of slang's many dictionaries.ABOUT THE The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
144 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 1, 2016
6 people are currently reading
210 people want to read
About the author
Jonathon Green
91 books26 followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
I am a lexicographer, that is a dictionary maker, specialising in slang, about which I have been compiling dictionaries, writing and broadcasting since 1984. I have also written a history of lexicography. After working on my university newspaper I joined the London ‘underground press’ in 1969, working for most of the then available titles, such as Friends, IT and Oz. I have been publishing books since the mid-1970s, spending the next decade putting together a number of dictionaries of quotations, before I moved into what remains my primary interest, slang. I have also published three oral histories: one on the hippie Sixties, one on first generation immigrants to the UK and one on the sexual revolution and its development. Among other non-slang titles have been three dictionaries of occupational jargon, a narrative history of the Sixties, a book on cannabis, and an encyclopedia of censorship. As a freelancer I have broadcast regularly on the radio, made appearances on TV, including a 30-minute study of slang in 1996, and and written columns both for academic journals and for the Erotic Review.
My slang work has reached its climax, but I trust not its end, with the publication in 2010 of Green’s Dictionary of Slang, a three volume, 6,200-page dictionary ‘on historical principles’ offering some 110,000 words and phrases, backed up by around 410,000 citations or usage examples. The book covers all anglophone countries and its timeline stretches from around 1500 up to the present day. For those who prefer something less academic, I published the Chambers Slang Dictionary, a single volume book, in 2008. Given that I am in no doubt that the future of reference publishing lies in digital form, it is my intention to place both these books on line in the near future.
I am a lexicographer, that is a dictionary maker, specialising in slang, about which I have been compiling dictionaries, writing and broadcasting since 1984. I have also written a history of lexicography. After working on my university newspaper I joined the London ‘underground press’ in 1969, working for most of the then available titles, such as Friends, IT and Oz. I have been publishing books since the mid-1970s, spending the next decade putting together a number of dictionaries of quotations, before I moved into what remains my primary interest, slang. I have also published three oral histories: one on the hippie Sixties, one on first generation immigrants to the UK and one on the sexual revolution and its development. Among other non-slang titles have been three dictionaries of occupational jargon, a narrative history of the Sixties, a book on cannabis, and an encyclopedia of censorship. As a freelancer I have broadcast regularly on the radio, made appearances on TV, including a 30-minute study of slang in 1996, and and written columns both for academic journals and for the Erotic Review.
My slang work has reached its climax, but I trust not its end, with the publication in 2010 of Green’s Dictionary of Slang, a three volume, 6,200-page dictionary ‘on historical principles’ offering some 110,000 words and phrases, backed up by around 410,000 citations or usage examples. The book covers all anglophone countries and its timeline stretches from around 1500 up to the present day. For those who prefer something less academic, I published the Chambers Slang Dictionary, a single volume book, in 2008. Given that I am in no doubt that the future of reference publishing lies in digital form, it is my intention to place both these books on line in the near future.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 12, 2019
Given Jonathon Green's status in the field – his three-volume Dictionary of Slang is far and away the definitive one in English – this overview is disappointing. It's perhaps a case of being too close to the trees to see the morning wood. He spends a lot of time talking vaguely about how slang should be defined (an entire chapter on the etymology of the word ‘slang’! Which is unknown!) and where it might be going, and not enough looking at specific examples in their social context.
A few of his characterisations puzzled me. He describes slang as uniformly ‘racist, homophobic, and, of course, both sexist and misogynistic’, a register whose ‘male, heterosexual gaze is unflinching’. Naturally slang includes much that can be described in these terms – but everything? Is there really anything racist or sexist in describing hair as a barnet, knocking back a bevvy, or calling something awesomesauce on Twitter?
It's particularly odd when so much slang nowadays is generated through social media, which is dominated by young women – and Green refers to this, but he seems to see it as a sort of exception that proves the rule, rather than a reason to expand the whole concept of what ‘slang’ represents. (The same could be said for the way he discusses black American slang in terms of slang's ‘natural’ racism, or Polari and other gay slang vs. homophobia.)
I also wonder if more might not have been said about grammatical issues. Slang is the one register of English that regularly uses infixes – as in absofuckinglutely – which, again, Green refers to in a throwaway comment but doesn't follow up on. He doesn't mention, for example, the crazy proliferation of grammatical uses for a word such as like, which can now be intensifying (I was, like, wasted) or approximating (It cost me like twenty quid) or introductory (Like, how are you?) or any number of other things. Hella is another interesting case study which doesn't get a look-in – and that would be fine, if other case studies were used instead. But in fact, very few real examples are adduced, which leaves Green's arguments rather floating in the ether.
He is on firmer ground when it comes to summarising the history of slang lexicography, as you might expect. But even here, it would also have been nice to consider, at least briefly, the role of slang in languages other than English. It may be that some of Green's characterisations of slang (for instance, that it is primarily urban) are true only in the Anglophone world, which would raise questions of its own.
If you just want a new way to think about slang for a day or two, then this makes for a very serviceable introduction and therefore, I suppose, does what it says on the tin. But to be honest, you're probably just as well off browsing through one of the author's actual dictionaries instead – which have the added bonus of presenting the flair, the fun, the shock and the inventiveness of their subject without the intermediary theorising.
A few of his characterisations puzzled me. He describes slang as uniformly ‘racist, homophobic, and, of course, both sexist and misogynistic’, a register whose ‘male, heterosexual gaze is unflinching’. Naturally slang includes much that can be described in these terms – but everything? Is there really anything racist or sexist in describing hair as a barnet, knocking back a bevvy, or calling something awesomesauce on Twitter?
It's particularly odd when so much slang nowadays is generated through social media, which is dominated by young women – and Green refers to this, but he seems to see it as a sort of exception that proves the rule, rather than a reason to expand the whole concept of what ‘slang’ represents. (The same could be said for the way he discusses black American slang in terms of slang's ‘natural’ racism, or Polari and other gay slang vs. homophobia.)
I also wonder if more might not have been said about grammatical issues. Slang is the one register of English that regularly uses infixes – as in absofuckinglutely – which, again, Green refers to in a throwaway comment but doesn't follow up on. He doesn't mention, for example, the crazy proliferation of grammatical uses for a word such as like, which can now be intensifying (I was, like, wasted) or approximating (It cost me like twenty quid) or introductory (Like, how are you?) or any number of other things. Hella is another interesting case study which doesn't get a look-in – and that would be fine, if other case studies were used instead. But in fact, very few real examples are adduced, which leaves Green's arguments rather floating in the ether.
He is on firmer ground when it comes to summarising the history of slang lexicography, as you might expect. But even here, it would also have been nice to consider, at least briefly, the role of slang in languages other than English. It may be that some of Green's characterisations of slang (for instance, that it is primarily urban) are true only in the Anglophone world, which would raise questions of its own.
If you just want a new way to think about slang for a day or two, then this makes for a very serviceable introduction and therefore, I suppose, does what it says on the tin. But to be honest, you're probably just as well off browsing through one of the author's actual dictionaries instead – which have the added bonus of presenting the flair, the fun, the shock and the inventiveness of their subject without the intermediary theorising.
August 22, 2017
I thought about giving this three stars because it did interest me. however the subject itself interested me while the book had many flaws.
The interesting things
-Determining what exactly slang is
-Thinking about the difference between slang and dialect
-Noting slang origins in criminality
-Noting that slang was not always exclusively a young person's thing
-Noting that slang deals mostly with taboos
HOWEVER.
The writing was convoluted and the author is stuck up his own ass. Here is the final sentence to show what I mean:
If it is a thing apart then that exclusion comes with the territory that it has chosen, and the walls are erected not by 'slang' and it's speakers but by those who find that territory-for all that is so very human- problematic.
it could have all been written so much simpler, clearer and more interesting.Very short introductions should be 'pop' writing and this book was definitely not.
The interesting things
-Determining what exactly slang is
-Thinking about the difference between slang and dialect
-Noting slang origins in criminality
-Noting that slang was not always exclusively a young person's thing
-Noting that slang deals mostly with taboos
HOWEVER.
The writing was convoluted and the author is stuck up his own ass. Here is the final sentence to show what I mean:
If it is a thing apart then that exclusion comes with the territory that it has chosen, and the walls are erected not by 'slang' and it's speakers but by those who find that territory-for all that is so very human- problematic.
it could have all been written so much simpler, clearer and more interesting.Very short introductions should be 'pop' writing and this book was definitely not.
April 17, 2022
Chapter 1: 'Slang': the word
Chapter 2: 'Slang' as a linguistic register
Chapter 3: Is slang a language?
Chapter 4: The words of slang: themes and development
Chapter 5: The users of slang
Chapter 6: The components of slang
Chapter 7: Recording slang
Chapter 8: The lexicography of slang: slang's dictionaries
Chapter 9: The future of slang
Chapter 2: 'Slang' as a linguistic register
Chapter 3: Is slang a language?
Chapter 4: The words of slang: themes and development
Chapter 5: The users of slang
Chapter 6: The components of slang
Chapter 7: Recording slang
Chapter 8: The lexicography of slang: slang's dictionaries
Chapter 9: The future of slang
September 29, 2023
i thought this was going to be so much more interesting. there were about 10 sentences where i was completely hooked but otherwise it just repeated the same thing over and over again, very disappointed i wanted to learn about slang!
January 10, 2024
This was deeply disappointing. I picked this up on a whim at the library, motivated by how much I enjoyed "A Very Short Introduction to Child Psychology" from the same series, and excited to learn about the linguistics of slang.
I had hoped for and expected a book about how slang compares across different languages - is it used in the same way? Do we do the same with slang? - small case studies of examples of slang "languages", analyses of how slang works and why people use it - is it inevitable? Do certain societal forces and circumstances make slang more likely?
Instead, this book is like reading a dictionary entry (where does the word slang come from?) and a detailed list of suggested readings (a history of the different dictionaries of slang over time) with very few examples. It feels like the author is trying to make the topic as uninteresting as possible.
I had hoped for and expected a book about how slang compares across different languages - is it used in the same way? Do we do the same with slang? - small case studies of examples of slang "languages", analyses of how slang works and why people use it - is it inevitable? Do certain societal forces and circumstances make slang more likely?
Instead, this book is like reading a dictionary entry (where does the word slang come from?) and a detailed list of suggested readings (a history of the different dictionaries of slang over time) with very few examples. It feels like the author is trying to make the topic as uninteresting as possible.
October 11, 2019
This volume in the A Very Short Introduction series discusses the history of the study of slang as much (or more) as the actual slang itself. Accordingly, it wasn't as useful (for me) as I had thought it would be, although it does point the reader in the direction to go if the reader wants to pursue the subject in more depth.
August 27, 2018
Abso-fucking-lutely amazing
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews