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2

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………….3

CHAPTER I. Slang as a Linguistic Notion………………………………...5

1.1. The Notion of Slang as Viewed by Scholars…………………………………….5

1.2. The Distinction between Slang and other Lexical Units in Informal Layer of

Language……………………………………………………………….7

1.3. Different Approaches towards the Classification of Slang…………………...10

1.4. The Reasons for the Usage of Slang……………………………………….13

CHAPTER II. Linguistic and Stylistic Analysis of Slang Units on the Basis of

Episodes Found in the Script…………………………………………………....15

CONCLUSIONS…………………………………………………………..24

LIST OF REFERENCES………………………………………………….25

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Introduction

The present research paper is focused on the usage of slang units as a peculiarity of

characters’ speech in the TV show “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”.

The overall aim of the paper is to analyze the peculiarities of slang units, the ways

of their classification and the reasons for usage. In order to achieve this aim the following

tasks should be realized:

to discuss different classifications and approaches towards the notion of slang;

To identify social and stylistic boundaries of slang units; for this process the

distinction between slang words and jargonisms, argots, colloquialisms is

needed;

To analyze slang units and identify its functions in the TV show;

To suggest the equivalences for the examples of particular interest;

The subject of this research is the usage of slang units in the TV show.

The object of this research paper is the lingual structure of slang units and its

pragmatic function in the characters’ speech.

The research was carried out on the basis of approximately forty examples selected

from the script.

The methodology of the research has a complex character because of the

polyaspectual nature of the problem. Such methods as componential analysis, structural

and semantic analysis (description of the semantic structure of a linguistic phenomenon

as they function in speech) as well as method of dictionary definitions are used in the

course of the research.

The present research paper consists of the introduction, two chapters, conclusions

and list of references.

The introduction represents the choice of the topic, the aim of the present research

paper; its actuality and novelty; it defines both the object and the subject of research.

The first chapter focuses on theoretical aspects of slang units. It outlines different

approaches towards the very notion of slang, the ways of classification as viewed by

different scholars. Also it provides the distinction between slang units and jargonisms,

argots, dialects and colloquialisms.

4

The second chapter is a practical part of the research paper. It provides the analysis

of slang units used in the script.

The work ends with the conclusion and list of references.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer was voted number three in TV Guide's Top 25 Cult TV

Shows of All Time and included in TIME Magazine's 100 Best TV Shows of All Time.

It was nominated for Emmy and Golden Globe awards, winning a total of 3 Emmys. The

series' narrative revolves around Buffy and her friends who struggle to balance the fight

against supernatural evils with their complex social lives. Though elements and

relationships are explored and ongoing subplots are included, the show focuses primarily

on Buffy and her role as an archetypal heroine.

5

Chapter I. Slang as a Linguistic Notion

1.1. The Notion of Slang as Viewed by Scholars

The word-stock of any given language can be roughly divided into three uneven

groups, differing from each other by the sphere of its potential usage. The largest

subdivision consists of neutral words, possessing no stylistic connotations and suitable

for any communicative situation; two smaller ones are literary and colloquial strata

respectively [14, p.19].

Literary words, both general (also called learned, bookish, high-flown) and

special, contribute to the message the tone of solemnity, sophistication, seriousness and

gravity. They are used in official papers and documents, in scientific communication, in

poetry, in authorial speech of creative prose.

Colloquial words, on the contrary, mark the message as informal, non-official, and

conversational. Apart from general colloquial words, widely used by all speakers of the

language in their everyday communication (e.g. “dad”, “kid”, “crony”, “fan”, “to pop”,

“folks”), such special subgroups may be mentioned: slang, jargonisms, vulgarisms and

dialectal words.

There is hardly any other term that is as ambiguous and obscure as the term slang.

Slang seems to mean everything that is below the standard usage of present-day

language.

The notion of slang has been causing much controversy for many years. Much has

been said and written about it. A lot of different opinions have been expressed

concerning its nature, its boundaries and the attitude that should be adopted towards it.

This is probably due to the uncertainty of the concept itself. No one has yet given a more

or less precise definition of the term. Nor has it been specified by any linguist who deals

with the problem of the English vocabulary.

Longman’s dictionary of contemporary English suggests the following definition:

slang is very informal, sometimes offensive language that is used especially by people

who belong to a particular group, such as young people or criminals [21, p.1550].

According to I.V. Arnold there are several definitions of slang. One of them implies

the idea that slang is a word or phrase with specific emotional coloring, which is not

6

accepted in literary language [1, p.15]. The scholar considered slang to be the corpus of

lexemes with specific connotations of evaluation, expressiveness and emotionality, which

make slang unit different from its neutral synonyms [1, p.114].

V.O. Khomyakov believed that slang is specific periphery lexical layer which

does not relate to the literary language and dialects. Professor included professional lexis

and phraseology of social jargonisms, argots on the one hand and emotionally-expressive

units and phraseology of non-literary lexical units on the other hand. Due to this

distinction, he identified two groups of slang – special and general [12, p.76].

According to I.R. Galperin, slang is an integral part of the colloquial layer of

language as well as vulgar words, professionalisms, jargonisms and dialectal words. His

point of view was that all of these word groups are used in emotive prose to stress certain

locality, breeding or education of the speaker. They also possess divergent features which

help to distinguish among them [3, p.109]. I.R Galperin believed that the notion of slang,

which is a deviation from literary norm, can occur on phonetic, lexical, morphological

and syntactic levels [18, p.108]. The scholar stressed the idea that nowadays American

variant of the English language is more open to lexemes which are not characterized by

literary norms than before [4, p.9].

O.D. Shveitser and his theoretical ideas were of great importance in the process of

researching the notion of slang. The scholar described American slang in the

sociolinguistic aspect, paying attention to lexico-semantic and morphological forms of

word-building and functional peculiarities. He separated components of special slang -

vernacular elements of professional lexis on the one hand and jargonisms, argots on the

other hand, and pointed that these two groups differ from each other by functional

characteristics. Lexical units of the first group are alternative equivalents of normative

lexis with colouring, but the elements of the second group are ‘coloured signs’ [13,

p.158].

M.M. Makovskyi yet provides another definition: slang is a special variant of

lexical, phonetical and grammatical norms of the English language, established

historically on the basis of a colloquial dialect [5, p.106].

As can be seen from above-provided examples slang is an ambiguous notion, and

a single definition has not been yet accepted.

7

The definitions and the perceptions of the notion of slang are different, yet they

have something in common: slang is the layer of language which embraces everything

that lies beyond the neutral vocabulary [7, p.109]. Further analysis of the slang units will

be based on such a broad definition.

1.2. The Distinction between Slang and other Lexical Units in Informal Layer of

Language

Apart from slang colloquial strata of language embraces such lexical elements as

dialects, jargonisms, argots and vulgarisms. All subgroups mentioned stand close to

slang. In order to understand the essence of slang we need to penetrate deeper into the

related notions.

Dialectal words

Dialect is a variety of a language, which prevails in a district, with local

peculiarities of vocabulary, pronunciation and phrasing. They are normative and devoid

of any stylistic meaning in regional dialects, but if used outside them a strong flavor of

the locality where they belong is felt [14, p.32].

Regional or social lingual variant is characterized by the range of specific features

on phonetic, grammatical and lexical levels. If the dialect is considered to be a part of

non-standard English language, then regionally restricted slang is almost the same since

it possesses similar characteristics. I.V. Arnold suggests that the dialect is connected with

the vernacular language (commonly spoken language or dialect of the particular people

or place), but R.I. Rosina considers “slang” to be “expressive vernacular”. Thus there is

no significant difference between these close lexical layers. It is the notion of time that

makes two concepts divergent: the main dialects, especially geographical which have

their phonological, grammatical and lexical peculiarities, exist in language for a long

time on the contrary to slang words, which are not characterized by the durability. One

convergent feature between a slang word and a dialect is that they are used in speech and

rarely are used in the written form [2, p.256].

Jargonisms and argots

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Jargonisms and argots are rather close to slang, also being substandard, expressive,

and emotive. However, unlike slang they are used by limited groups, united either

professionally (in this case we deal with professional jargonisms, or professionalisms) or

socially (here we deal with jargonisms proper). Jargonisms of both types cover a narrow

semantic field. In the first case it is connected with the technical side of some

professions: in oil industry, e.g., for the term “driller” (буровик) there exist other words:

“borer”, “digger”, for “pipelayer” (трубоукладальник) – “swabber”, “bender”, “cat”,

“old cat”, etc. On the basis of examples provided above two points are evident:

professionalisms are formed according to existing word-building patterns or presently

existing words in new meanings, and, covering the field of special knowledge, which is

semantically limited, they offer a wide variety of synonymic choices for naming one and

the same professional item. When compared with jargonisms, slang is not used only by

this or that social group and does not preserve secrecy.

According to I.R. Galperin, professionalisms are characterized by technicality and

are considered to be special words of non-literary layer of English word stock. But they

should not be confused with jargonisms. As well as slang words they do not aim at

secrecy, but perform the communicative function [18, p.109].

Jargonisms proper have the same linguistic features, but differ in function and

sphere of application. They originated from the thieves’ jargon and served to conceal the

actual significance of the utterance from the uninitiated. Their major function was to be

cryptic, secretive. This is why among them there are cases of conscious deformation of

the existing words. The so-called “back jargon” (or back slang) can serve as an example:

in their effort to conceal the machinations of dishonest card playing, gamblers used

numerals in their reverse form: “ano”, for “one”, “owt” for “two”, “erth” for “three”.

Rarely are these lexemes distinguishable due to the historical circumstances. For

example, slang is a word or phrase that is regarded as very informal and is often

restricted to special contexts or is peculiar to a specified profession, class, etc. Other

scholars consider slang to be the language peculiar to a specific group, special

vocabulary or phraseology of a particular calling or profession.

Anglo-American tradition, starting with Eric Partridge does not differentiate

between slang and jargonisms, and regards these groups as one extensive stratum of

9

words, which can be divided into general slang (used by all or most speakers) and

special slang (limited by the professional or social standing of the speaker).

Argots are words or phrases which have the function of separating one group from

society for hiding the aim of communication. This is a special language of restricted

social group which uses transformed or artificially created words. “Argot” is a

professional subculture. For example, the notion of “computer” is widely-spread in

various spheres of our life and its users created special language which is completely

different from professionalisms (“чайники” – somebody who only start using computer,

etc.) [6, p.81].

Vulgarisms

Vulgarisms are coarse words with a strong emotive meaning, mostly derogatory,

normally avoided in polite conversation. Nowadays words, which were labeled vulgar in

the 18th and 19th centuries, are considered such no more. In fact, at present we are faced

with the reverse of the problem: there are practically no words banned from the use by

the modern permissive society. Such intensifiers as “bloody”, “damned”, “cursed”, “hell

of”, formerly deleted from literature and not allowed in conversations, are not only

welcomed in both written and oral speech, but due to constant repetition, have lost much

of their emotional impact and substandard quality. What concerns vulgarisms, the

scholars classified them into several groups. I.R. Galperin’s point of view was that some

of them are not to be included in dictionaries. They are called euphemistically “four-

letter” words. On the other hand, those vulgarisms with less degree of vulgarity, like

“damn” are represented by expletives (an exclamation or swearword; an oath or a sound

expressing an emotional reaction rather than any particular meaning). These words, as the

scholar considered, function almost as interjections, and express strong emotions [18,

p.107].

Colloquialisms

Slang words and colloquialisms are the most difficult to distinguish. They are very

close to the slang words, but on the other hand are stylistically neutral lexemes. It means

that the very separation is made by the everyday speech, one part of which belongs to the

standard language and the other to the non-standard. Eric Partridge expressed the idea

that colloquial words are those belonging to that speech which is less respectable than

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standard but more respectable than slang. It is the term “low colloquial” which is to

differentiate between these two notions. In fact, “low colloquialisms” are group of words

which define a message as informal, something spoken and which contain “slang words”,

“jargonisms”, “vulgarisms”, “dialects”. The colloquial is difficult to confine with

practicable limits. Some lexicographers, especially S. Fleksner, were trying to find the

ways to distinguish these two notions in the sphere of sociopsychology (slang displays

that participants enjoy a special familiarity and colloquialisms only mention the very

situation as informal).

Slang

Slang forms the most extensive layer. Slang words, used by most speakers in any

informal communication, are highly emotive and expressive, denoting one and the same

concept. So, the idea of a “pretty girl” is worded by more than one hundred ways in slang

(“cookie”, “bird”, “cutie”, “sugar”, etc). The word language has such slang equivalences:

lingo, bafflegab, doublespeak, doubletalk, gobbledygookese and psychobabble [24,

p.228].

The substandard status of slang words and phrases, through universal usage, can

be raised to the standard colloquial: “pal”, “crony”, “chum” for “friend”, “dough” for

“money”, “beat it” for “go away” and many more are examples of such a transition.

Slang words as well as jargonisms and argots may change their meaning. Thus translator

should take into account the time factor while he is in the process of finding the

equivalent [2, p.255].

1.3. Different Approaches towards the Classification of Slang

Since the notion of slang is very extensive and embraces a huge amount of words

and phrases it would be useful to classify it.

Several attempts to classify slang have been made. V.O. Khomyakov, for instance,

supports the idea of several other scholars that slang should be subdivided into two

groups:

1. General slang

2. Special slang [10, p.38].

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General slang includes figurative and expressive words and phrases with

emotionally-evaluative connotations, which serve as synonyms to the words of the

literary language.

Special slang includes the so-called “secret languages” of a criminal world, jargons

and various words and phrases belonging to any professional or social lexical system.

In English lexicography these “secret languages” are called argot. Argot is a

prearranged, secret language of declassed elements (paupers, vagrants, thieves, gangsters

etc.) [10, p.43]. Eric Partridge supports this idea and states that argot is largely a secret

language which has a number of terms for its own private use, but in its general structure

and its everyday vocabulary it is a mixture of slang and colloquialisms. Taking into

consideration that argot stands close to slang also being substandard, expressive and

emotive, it is difficult to draw a distinction between these two elements. John Farmer

suggests that limits and place of argot in the world of philology are well-defined. In the

first place slang is universal, whilst argot is restricted in usage to certain classes of the

community: thieves, vagrant men and their associates. Argot is frequently more enduring,

its use continuing without variation of meaning for many generations [23, p.140].

One more colloquial language element which is similar to slang is rhyming argot.

The traditional term for it is rhyming slang. It is also intentionally cryptic [10, p.49]. The

rhymed form consists rarely of one, generally of two, sometimes of more than three

words:

bag with a sag – a girl with unattractive shape;

loose as a goose – very loose indeed;

Gypsy’s warning – morning;

Charley Howard – coward;

box of toys – noise [23, p.276].

Apart from that there is a notion of Cockney slang. Cockney rhyming slang is not

a language but a collection of phrases used by Cockneys and other Londoners. A true

Cockney is someone born within the sound of Bow Bells (St Mary-le-Bow Church in

Cheapside, London).

However the term Cockney is now loosely applied to many born outside this area

as long as they have a “Cockney accent” or a “Cockney heritage”.

12

The Cockney accent is heard less often in Central London these days but is widely

heard in the outer London boroughs, the London suburbs and all across South East

England. Rhyming Slang phrases are derived from taking an expression which rhymes

with a word and then using that expression instead of the word. For example the word

“look” rhymes with “butcher's hook”. In many cases the rhyming word is omitted - so

you will not find too many Londoners having a “butcher’s hook” at this site, but you

might find a few having a “butcher's”.

The next type of special slang is jargon. As well as argot jargon is a substandard,

expressive language used by limited groups of people. Yet the difference between these

two terms should be made clear. The main objective of argot is to make your language

conspirational and incomprehensible for others. We cannot assimilate jargon with agreed

code since it does not aim at secrecy. Jargon is terminology which is especially defined

in relationship to a specific activity, profession or group. In other words, the term most

often covers the language used by people who work in a particular area or who have

common interest. It can develop as a kind of short-hand, to express ideas that are

frequently discussed between members of a group, though it can also be developed

deliberately using chosen terms. A standard term may be given a more precise or unique

usage among practitioners of a field. In many cases this causes a barrier in

communication with those not familiar with the language of the field. As an example, the

conversation between British military pilots may be provided:

“The erk muttered that he wasn’t carrying the can for anybody, that he wasn’t Joe,

that he couldn’t care less about scrambled eggs, and that anyway he was browned off.”

It is difficult to understand the idea of their talk unless we know the meaning of

the highlighted elements:

erk – a new R.A.F. (Royal Air Force) recruit;

to carry the can – to accept the blame;

Joe – any officer from Group Captain upwards;

to be browned off – to be depressed, disgusted.

And also:

kite – an airplane;

the gen – information, instructions;

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Groupy – a Group Captain [10, p.53].

R.I. Rosina suggests that slang units are always new word-formations, which

appeared on the basis of the words of the literary language [9, p.37]. Thus the researcher

classified slang into two groups.

The first one includes words, the outer form of which was changed, thus differing

from its initial form, but the inner form (the meaning) of which was preserved.

Words, where the outer form remains the same, but the meaning is changed belong

to the second group of slang units.

V.A. Khomyakov further subdivides slang units based on the same idea. His

classification includes formally-motivated slang units and unmotivated [11, p.96].

Formally-motivated slang units appeared as a result of contamination of the outer form of

the words. Unmotivated slang units are words and phrases, the outer form of which

coincides with those of the literary standard, but where one can trace metaphoric,

metonymic and other semantic shifts.

Robert Chapman introduced the notions of primary and secondary slang [15,

p.16].

Primary slang is the pristine speech of subculture members, so very natural to its

speakers that it seems they might be mute without it. Of course they would not be, since

we know that slang is by definition always an alternative idiom, to be chosen rather than

required. Much of teenage talk, and the speech of urban street gangs, would be examples

of primary slang.

Secondary slang is chosen not so much to fix one in a group as to express one’s

attitudes and resourcefulness by pretending to be a member of a street gang, or a

criminal, or a gambler, or a drug user, or a professional football player, and so forth. It is

used to express one’s contempt, superiority, and cleverness by borrowing someone else’s

verbal dress. Secondary slang is a matter of stylistic choice rather than true identification

[15, p.13].

1.4. The Reasons for the Usage of Slang

Eric Partridge was the greatest collector of slang and the annus mirabilis of slang

proved to be 1937, the year of publication of the first edition of his Dictionary of Slang

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and Unconventional English. According to British lexicographer people use slang for any

of at least fifteen reasons:

1. As an exercise either in wit and ingenuity or in humor (the motive behind this is

usually self-display or snobbishness, emulation or responsiveness, delight in

virtuosity).

2. In sheer high spirits, by the young in heart as well as by the young in years; just for

the fun of the thing; in playfulness or waggishness.

3. To be “different”, to be novel.

4. To be picturesque (either positively or negatively (as in the wish to avoid

insipidity).

5. To be unmistakably arresting, even startling.

6. To escape from clichés, or to be brief and concise.

7. To enrich the language.

8. To lessen the sting of, or on the other hand to give additional point to, a refusal, a

rejection, a recantation.

9. To reduce, perhaps also to disperse, the solemnity, the pomposity, the excessive

seriousness of a conversation (or of a piece of writing).

10.To soften the tragedy, to lighten or to “prettify” the inevitability of death or

madness, or to mask the ugliness or the pity of profound turpitude (e.g. treachery,

ingratitude); and/or thus to enable the speaker or his auditor or both to endure, to

“carry on”.

11.To speak or write to an inferior, or to amuse a superior public; or merely to be on a

colloquial level with either one’s audience or one’s subject matter.

12.For ease of social intercourse (not to be confused or merged with the preceding).

13.To induce either friendliness or intimacy of a deep or a durable kind.

14.To show that one belong to a certain school, trade, or profession, artistic or

intellectual set, or social class; to establish contact.

15.To be secret – not understood by those around one (children, students, lovers,

members of political secret societies, and criminals in or out of prison, innocent

persons in prison, are the chief exponents) [23, p.42].

15

Chapter II. Linguistic and Stylistic Analysis of Slang Units on the Basis of

Episodes found in the script

The characters’ speech in the TV show “Buffy the vampire slayer” proved to be

highly informal and abound in slang and colloquial words of different types. It is fresh,

easy to understand and contemporary. The show is based on the student life of teenagers,

their relationships with each other etc. Since the usage of slang is peculiar to young

people many examples of these language elements were identified in the script.

Example 1

Willow: Two Veruca shows in two nights. Are you sure you wanna share

your groupie? [25, p.7].

The Robert Chapman’s Dictionary of Slang provides two definitions of the word

groupie:

1. A young woman who seeks to share the glamour of famous persons, esp. rock

musicians, by offering help and sexual favours;

2. An ardent (intensely enthusiastic, eager) devotee and votary. The synonym to the word

fan; usually refers to Hollywood’s young trendies.

As can be seen from above provided definitions the slang word groupie has rather

negative meaning denoting the person who lacks self-confidence or devotes herself to

another person too much. The neutral word for such notion is fan. The Longman

Dictionary of Contemporary English gives the following definition of this word:

Fan – someone who likes a particular sport or performing art very much, or who

admires a famous person [21, p.569].

If to compare the slang unit and its neutral equivalent it will become obvious that

the latter is less expressive and no negative meaning is implied in it. Moreover it acquires

even more positive meaning since there is a widely-held opinion that the person

interested in sports and arts cannot possess negative features. Thus the character used this

particular word to emphasize the negative meaning of the notion.

A lot of interesting slang equivalences for the word fan can be found in the

Thesaurus of Slang:

16

Wannabee, skeezer (denoting a person who is interested in hip-hop), junkie, buff,

bug, freak, crazies, nut, trendoid, punker (denoting a person, who likes punk rock), B-

boy, B-girl (both refer to people enjoying rap music), head banger (heavy metal), frenzie,

crank, culture-vulture, fiend, flip, hound, rooter, booster, alligator, gate, gator, cat, help

cat, prophet, stargazer, blue farouq, flunky, stooge, eager beaver, demon, filbert etc [24,

p.156].

Example 2

Xander: And you know I've always had a problem calculating the tip and you guys

being so dapper and brain, maybe you can help me out. [25, p.8].

According to the Longman dictionary the denotative meaning of the word brain is

the organ inside the head that controls how you think, feel, and move [21, p.173].

Therefore it is obvious that all derivatives and collocations with the word brain will

inevitably imply the person’s ability to think, make some conclusions or being intelligent

and knowledgeable in some particular sphere.

The dictionary of slang suggests that brain is an intelligent person, intellectual, good

scholar. Since in the given example the word brain is used in the form of adjective it can

be assumed that the speaker wants to emphasize some particular abilities and skills of the

person he refers to. The word clever, which is the neutral equivalent for the slang word

brain, definitely will not serve the aim of the speaker. Some kind of jealousy can be

found in Xander’s words. For a person, possessing no particular skills in mathematics it

turned out to be extremely difficult to calculate big numbers. Thus those people who

actually can do such things are considered by Xander to be outstanding intellectuals. The

word clever would not produce such vivid effect.

Rather interesting collocations with the word brain are given in the dictionary of

slang:

brain bucket – a steel helmet;

brain drain – the loss of useful educated persons, especially professionals, from a

place because they can find better conditions elsewhere;

brain-fade – stuporous boredom;

brain one – the most elementary intelligence; a minimum of sagacity;

17

not have brain one – to be very stupid;

brain-picker – a person who explicit the creative notions of others;

not have brains enough to come in out of the rain – to be lacking the most elementary

intelligence.

The Thesaurus of slang suggests substitution of neutral clever by such slang

equivalents:

Savvy, slick, fly, crack, crackerjack, brain, brainy, egghead, got the smarts, have a

head on one’s shoulder, have one’s head screwed on right, have savvy, have the smarts,

nobody’s fool, no dummy, no dumbbell, not born yesterday, not so dumb, on the ball,

sharp, sharp as a tack, smart as a whip, cute, hot tamale, neat, nifty, foxy, crazy like a

fox, phenom etc. [24, p. 68].

Example 3:

Hey, are you alright in there, buddy? [25, p.8]

According to the dictionary of slang the word buddy has three meanings:

1. A diminutive form of the word bud, which means either a friend or a fellow or

very close friend. The synonyms are guy and pal respectively.

2. A man’s closest male friend. During World War 1 this term took on a particularly

sentimental value.

3. A male’s partner in work or sport (probably influenced by brother).

These three meanings slightly differ from each other. Still they have something in

common. First of all, buddy is someone who is rather close to you, someone particularly

dear. Secondly, the gender is specified – it is male.

While speaking about bosom friends only pleasant feelings are immediately evoked

in our mind. Thus the Longman dictionary defines friend as someone who you know and

like very much and enjoy spending time with [21, p.645]. According to the context the

person who these words refer to is not the speaker’s close friend. Moreover he does not

even know him. In this case the speaker tries to convince another person of sharing his

problems with him. Xander wants to help but first of all he needs to make the person trust

him. Therefore he uses the word buddy which aims to establish a social contact between

the speakers.

18

The following slang equivalences for the word friend are given in the dictionary of

slang:

Amigo, brother, brah, bra, bro, sister, homes, homies, homeslice, dog, G, bosom

buddy, buddyroo, biscuit, road dog, matie, pal, sidekick, Billy, captain etc. [24, p.173].

Example 4:

Xander: Where the hell is Giles? [25, p.10]

The word hell is very wide-spread slang unit which forms a huge amount of

collocations and phrases.

Longman dictionary provides the following definitions of the word hell:

1. The place where the souls of bad people are believed to be punished after death,

especially in the Christian and Muslim religions.

2. A place or situation in which people suffer very much, either physically or

emotionally.

3. A situation, experience, or place that is very unpleasant [21, p.759].

The word has rather long history. According to the etymological dictionary

in the Old English the word hell, helle meant the nether world, abode of the dead or

infernal regions. In Old Norse language this word had familiar meaning denoting the

underworld. Since at least 1374 it has been used figuratively for “any bad experience”.

As an expression of disgust, etc. it first appeared in 1678.

As may be seen from above provided explanations the main meaning of the word

hell is something very unpleasant and disgusting.

Thus, according to Robert Chapman’s Dictionary of Slang the word hell has three

meanings:

1. An exclamation of disgust, regret, emphasis, etc.

2. Strong rebuke or punishment.

3. A bad experience [16, p.210].

Eric Partridge agrees with these definitions suggesting that the word hell is widely

used in oaths and to reinforce imprecations and questions (often rhetorical) of impatience

and irritation.

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It can be clearly seen from the example taken from the script that the speaker is

very much irritated. Most probably Xander has some urgent news or wants to discuss

something very important with Giles, but he cannot find him. The word hell is very

suitable for this case since it achieved its main target and helped to understand the

speaker’s feelings.

As it was already mentioned the word hell can be found in various collocations and

phrases:

blue hell – an extremely nasty and trying situation;

to catch hell – to be severely rebuked or punished or to be severely damaged or

injured [16, p.63];

come hell or high water – no matter what happens, in any event [16, p.78];

excuse me all to hell – I apologize. Most often sound ironically, when one thinks

an accusation has been undeserved or too strong [16, p.126];

for the hell of it – for no definite or usefull reason, for fun, casually [16, p.146];

give someone hell – to rebuke or punish severely [16, p.169];

like a bat out of hell – very rapidly;

like hell – in an extravagant way; very forcefully [16, p.266];

play hell with something – damage or destroy [16, p.336].

Example 5:

Jack: Neat, huh? My brother-in-law is a warlock. He showed me how to do it. [25, p.8]

Longman Dictionary provides us with the following definitions of the word neat:

1. Tidy and carefully arranged.

2. Someone who is neat likes to keep things tidy.

3. Something that is neat is small and attractive [21, p.1097].

While analyzing these definitions some positive images emerge in our mind. No

negative meaning is implied.

Eric Partridge’s dictionary suggests that neat is something pleasant, something

very good. According to the scholar the word was found as early as 1808. Nowadays it is

used mostly by teenagers. Robert Chapman yet was more expressive stating that neat is

something excellent and wonderful [16, p.296].

20

The thesaurus of slang provides more than two hundred slang equivalents to the

neutral word excellent:

Sweet, tasty, ace, twitchin’, def, rad, fly, bomb, filthy, mint, cherry, deffest, dope,

fresh, zero cool, gilt-edged, nose cone, the cat’s whiskers, etc. [24, p.146].

Example 6:

Cordelia: Well, Xander, I could dress more like you, but, (in mock sympathy) oh,

my father has a job.

Xander: So, life beyond high school. Anyone, please... chime in! [13]

According to the Longman dictionary the word chime has the following meanings:

1. If a bell or clock chimes, it makes a ringing sound, especially to tell you what

time is.

2. To be the same as something else or to have the same effect [21, p.257].

Robert Chapman’s dictionary yet provides such definitions for the phrase chime in:

1. To interrupt and intrude one’s counsel.

2. To offer comment [16, p. 68].

If to compare the definitions of the neutral word chime and slang phrase chime in

the obvious correlation will appear between them. The ringing sound of the clock, for

instance, very often irritates and bothers us since we cannot control it as well as a person

who interrupts you while you are talking to someone else. Thus the phrase chime in

acquires quite a negative meaning. It can be clearly seen in the example from the script.

Xander was talking to his friend Oz and suddenly Cordelia interrupted him.

His invitation please chime in has rather ironical meaning in the context.

Example 7:

Jack: you know I've been taking abuse from snot nosed kids for twenty years.

They're always coming in here with their snotty attitude, drinking their fruity little micro

brews and spouting out some philosophy like it means a damn thing. [25, p.8].

Out of this speech we can understand that the speaker is rather irritated. Such

effect was produced by slang units the main task of which (as was discussed in the

previous chapter) is to make your speech colorful and expressive.

21

Eric Partridge suggests that snot nose is an arrogant person, a snob [22, p.600].

The Longman dictionary provides the following definition of the word snot:

Snot – an impolite word for the thick liquid produced in one’s nose [21, p.1567].

Thus Jack used the phrase snot nosed kids to refer to the people who claim to be

highly intelligent but in fact do not possess any particular knowledge or have not gained

enough experience yet.

Being the derivative from the word snot the adjective snotty possesses a similar

meaning describing a person who is conceited, arrogant or aloof [22, p.600].

The word damn is one of the most widely-used slang units. Therefore Eric

Partridge provides us with the following definitions:

Damn – something of little or no worth. It is usually used in phrases like not

worth a damn, not care a damn or not give a damn. There is a strongly fought historical

argument that this derives from dam (an Indian coin of little value).

As an adjective damn’ or damn is used for implying anything ranging from

distance to hate for whoever or whatever is so described.

Very often damn is an inflexion used as intensifier [22, p. 185].

There are many interesting collocations with damn:

Damn! Damn it! – used for registering annoyance or irritation.

Damn all – nothing.

Damn and bastardly! – used as a mild oath.

Damn and blast – the last position in the race. An example of rhyming slang.

Damn and blast! – used for expressing anger or frustration.

Damned tooting – used for expressing emphatic agreement.

Damn fool or damfool – foolish or silly.

Damn skippy – absolutely without a doubt; an intensive affirmative.

Damn well – certainly, assuredly, very much.

Example 8:

Buffy: Faith, wait. Look, I know this new guy's a dork, but... Well, I have nothing

to follow that. He's pretty much just a dork [25, p.15].

22

The Longman dictionary suggests that dork is someone who you think is or looks

stupid [21, p.486].

With Eric Partridge’s dictionary of slang the word dork has slightly different

meaning denoting a person who is socially inept, unfashionable and harmless [22, p.

214].

According to Robert Chapman the word dork acquires even more offensive

meaning referring to a despicable person, while the adjective dorky describes a person as

stupid and awkward [16, p.111].

The aim of the speaker was to offend a person she referred to and the slang word

dork fulfilled this task completely.

The thesaurus of slang gives more than three hundred slang equivalents for the

word stupid. Among the most interesting are:

Exceptional, dorf, droid, chili bowl, birdie, yo-yo, nobody home, Barbie and Ken,

troll, pod people, dodo, dummy, four-letter man (dumb), dye-job, Gumbeyhead, oofus,

doofus, helium head, buckethead, low-walt bulb, minus some buttons, one sandwich short

of the picnic, goop, stoop, stupe, loogan, schlump, stiff [24, p.383].

Example 9:

Buffy: Oh, that would be tragic, taking the fun out of slaying, stabbing, and

beheading.

Faith: Oh, like you don't dig it! [25, p.16]

According to Robert Chapman the verb dig has the following meanings:

1. To study very diligently; exert oneself;

2. To interrogate or inquire vigorously;

3. To understand, comprehend;

4. To like, admire, prefer [16, p.101].

After analyzing the context it becomes understandable that the fourth meaning is

actualized here. The phrase to dig it possesses more expressive meaning than like or

enjoy. Therefore the speaker opted for this particular choice.

Some more examples of phrases which contain the word dig:

Dig catch – the cool senses;

23

Take a dig at someone – to make an irritating or contemptuous comment [16, p.

440].

Since in the given context the word to dig means to enjoy slang equivalents provided

below denote the same notion:

Groove on, have a ball, ball, funke, grok, get some grins, get it on, be big on, get off

on, get high on, get naked (not necessarily sexual), flip, flip for, flip over, freak out on,

get a charge out of, get a bang out of, get one’s rocks off, get one’s cookies, drop the

bomb, just for kicks, just for laughs, knock oneself out, hit the high spot.

As can be seen from above provided examples the aim of the slang units is either to

make one’s speech colourful and expressive or to offend somebody. The usage of slang

appeals to the young since language is considered to be a mean of expressing one’s

individuality. Therefore, by analyzing the slang units used by some particular character it

becomes possible to create some image, to understand what kind of person he or she is.

24

Conclusions

In the present research paper an attempt was made to analyze the informal language

used by characters in the TV Show “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”.

The analysis was made on the basis of two episodes of the show. The present

research is based on forty examples of the usage of slang units which were found in the

script and nine of them were analyzed in the chapter two.

In the course of research were precisely discussed the notion of slang, principles of

its classification and the reasons for its usage.

Examples of the most interesting slang units from the point of view of etymology

and stylistics were provided.

On the grounds of the analysis of the slang unit’s usage in the TV show “Buffy the

Vampire Slayer” the following conclusions can be drawn:

The informal layer of language is considered to be the means of conveying

expressiveness. It is used to make the characters’ speech more emotive and

stylistically coloured.

To understand the meaning and the reason for the usage of any particular

slang unit one should take into consideration the cultural peculiarities of the

bearers of language he is dealing with.

Nowadays slang is not frowned upon and is not considered to be the “dustbin

language” any longer and even vice verse is widely used not only in oral

speech but in mass media and in the TV shows in particular.

25

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