An initial 4A N2...?

[Dennis R. Preston]

>I don't follow this, especially since the "technical vocabulary" you
>cite is then restricted to "with reference to the Xs who use it."
>What about the rest of us?

More importantly, if anyone publishes a book which employees must
learn words or terms from have those items "lost" their slang status
by that means alone?

That "homer" (home-team favoring unmpire) is not slang is very odd to
me. It is not "necessary" in any sense except that those who deal
with baseball must know it. I think there is a confusion here of
slang which is slang but is jargon at the same time technical speech,
or jargon, which is not slang. And history, of course, can always
muddy things.

dInIs



>In a message dated 06/30/2002 1:18:11 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
>preston at PILOT.MSU.EDU writes:
>
>>  Under what definition  of slang are such items (emphatically even) NOT
>slang?
>
>Such terms are not slang, or as I stated, are NOT slang, when they are
>published in a codebook which the employer requires the employees to use
>while on duty.  While I do not know who invented the 10- code, I do know that
>any number of police departments have required their radio-carrying officers
>to use the local variation of the 10- code book.
>
>However, the phrase "home 20" is slang.
>
>I use the word "jargon" to mean "the necessary technical vocabulary of a
>particular activity".  Some jargon terms are officially imposed (e.g. the 10-
>code) and some develop by a slang-like process, but both are necessary to the
>in-group.  Example: the word "homer" in baseball.  With the meaning "home
>run" it is slang.  With the meaning "an umpire who favors the home team" it
>is necessary technical vocabulary, in this case necessary to avoid having to
>use an entire dependent clause to describe an unfair umpire.  (Is there a
>term for an umpire who favors the visiting team?)
>
>The 10- code is therefore an example of officially-imosed jargon, at least
>with reference to police officers who use it.  CB-ers copied it from the
>police and as far as I know use it straight (except for "home 20") rather
>than as an ongoing fountain for new slang.
>
>             - Jim Landau

--
Dennis R. Preston
Professor of Linguistics
Department of Linguistics and Languages
740 Wells Hall A
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824-1027 USA
Office - (517) 353-0740
Fax - (517) 432-2736