[Corpora-List] Corpora containing common English words including slang.

[amsler at cs.utexas.edu]

It would appear the editors at Merriam-Webster have given some thought  
to this. The following is the Synonym paragraph from the Third  
International Unabridged Dictionary for Jargon, Slang (and several  
more related terms).

What I get from this is that there is a strong effort here to put-down  
speech  which one doesn't consider 'educated' or 'intelligible' to  
educated people. The emphasis is on the connotative aspects of the use  
of the words, usually negative connotations, but maybe sometimes  
positive as in the case of words which evoke more vivid imagery than  
ordinary descriptive vocabulary. (i.e., it's certainly more powerful  
to say that a microwave 'nukes' food than that it 'heats' it).

The interesting thing about JARGON appears to be that the dictionary  
makers consider it to be vocabulary which springs up to meet an urgent  
need for words to describe things for a specialized purpose... given  
time, JARGON may become general language, but for the moment it is  
outside regular language because the speakers are in a rapidly  
evolving domain where they need words for things that don't have words  
yet. The derogatory nature of JARGON is that the general public  
doesn't understand it and hence feels excluded. The JARGON users,  
however, feel 'included' which reinforces their use as a mark of  
distinction that they are the 'in' crowd. (e.g, Hacker Jargon).

[From Merriam-Webster's Third International Unabridged Dictionary]

"syn PATOIS, CREOLE, JARGON, LINGO, SLANG, ARGOT, CANT, VERNACULAR,  
PATTER, along with DIALECT, are used in different meanings with  
varying degrees of exactness and with dissimilar value judgements  
involved.  DIALECT is often used to designate the regional forms of a  
language <Yorkshire dialect>, <the dialects of Texas>, <the following  
outline of Anglo-Saxon grammar is restricted to the West Saxon  
dialect--J.W.Bright>. This word may or may not connote marked  
difference from a received standard language or marked preference for  
that received standard language.  PATOIS is likely to suggest a  
regional dialect, esp. one used by the unlettered <the patois of the  
peasantry around Carassonne> The word is of French origin and its use  
is likely to be more common in Romance language areas than elsewhere.   
CREOLE is used mainly in reference to languages that come into  
existence when a politically or economically subordinate group adopts  
the language of a dominant group, usu. with very considerable  
modification <the creole of Haiti> JARGON may apply to a quickly  
evolved mixed linguistic form for simple communication between  
speakers of different languages, like Beche-deMer or pidgin English.  
JARGON may also signify a phase of language containing an undue number  
of words unfamiliar to the average speaker <the technical jargon of  
sport - C.E. Montague> <the proper meaning of jargon is writing that  
employs technical words not commonly intelligible - Ernest Gowers>   
LINGO, a word more common in preceding centuries than now, is often  
derogatory and stresses the incomprehensibility of a strange language  
or unfamiliar phase of one's own language <a lingo that few people  
understand or care about -- C.C. Furnas> SLANG is likely to indicate a  
complex of words and constructions preferred within a limited group,  
esp. an informal one, to the standard language, and often more or less  
forceful or novel in their suggestion.  ARGOT sometimes refers specif.  
to the forms of speech used in criminal groups <the professional  
criminal speaks one or more argots in addition to colloquial English -  
D.W. Maurer>  CANT, which usu. has derogatory implications, may be  
applied to the language of thieves and their companions, or to the  
special languages of artisans or even of learned or professional  
groups, esp. if one wishes to ridicule, although JARGON is perhaps  
more common in designating the language of the latter. <the  
pseudoscientific cant which is talked about the ''Baconian  
philosophy'' - T.H. Huxley> VERNACULAR, with less suggestion of the  
derogatoy than the others in this group, denotes the simple,  
colloquial, everyday speech of the commoner in contrast to more  
bookish and erudite speech <his gumption, to use the vernacular word -  
William James>  PATTER may suggest fast, glib, voluble speech,  
ostensibly spotaneous, to lull or deceive <the dispute resembles a  
conjuror's patter -- its primary purpose is to divert attention from  
what is going on elsewhere - Economist> <the patter of a professional  
guide -H.S. Canby>"







Quoting maxwell <maxwell at umiacs.umd.edu>:

> On Mon, 31 Aug 2009 13:07:31 -0500, amsler at cs.utexas.edu wrote:
>> The Wikipedia entry referenced makes the distinction between slang and
>> jargon. I am not as certain that holds up...
>
> I agree about the failure of the distinction, but we could try--maybe we
> could paraphrase another famous definition: Jargon is slang with a
> conference and a journal.  Or maybe someone here can come up with a better
> X and Y, as in "Jargon is slang with an X and a Y."
>
>    Mike Maxwell
>



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