the definition of slang

[Bethany K. Dumas]

On Mon, 1 Jul 2002 RonButters at AOL.COM wrote:

>The problem here for me is that SLANG (and to a lesser extent maybe JARGON)
>is not a discrete, cripsly defined linguistic concept like LABIAL or RELATIVE
>CLAUSE but rather a sort of family of concepts governed by several different
>criteria.
>
>Isn't that basically what Bethany Dumas and J. Lighter said in their landmark
>essay a number of years ago on the definition of slang?

Indeed:

Dumas, Bethany K., and Jonathan Lighter. 1978. "Is Slang a Word for
Linguists?" American Speech 53.1:1Ð5, 17. [revised version of a paper read
at the American Dialect Society, San Francisco, December 1975]

Bethany