Is slang so valid actually?

Lin 211 • Section 2, Part 3

Kevin B McGowan

kbmcgowan@uky.edu

2026-09-23

Read today: Pullum Chapter 2

Where does authority come from in language?

Authority depends on context

One of the biggest problems with prescriptivism is the way it ignores the social and affective meanings of language
When we use a word, we are not only attempting to share its denotation with the listener
We also choose words for their connotations
And we choose words, and sounds, and syntactic structures, etc. that are appropriate to the social situation

Authority depends on context (cont.)

What counts as “good” or “bad” language has to depend on:
- who is saying it?
- who is listening?
- where are you?
- what are you trying to accomplish?

Ling Link

https://www.whatiswiki.com/gen-z-slang-dictionary

Do you hear friends use these?
Do you use them?
Decide as a group which are still okay and which are over.
Which would be worst for your professor to use?

Slang is all about authority! But not in a top-down, mythical “good grammar” sort of way
Slang exists as a way for groups to define themselves (generations, military, subcultures, etc.)
And by defining who we are, we also get to define who is not us
When we say language has social meaning alongside its literal denotation and affect, this is what we mean!
Language is a social practice (and anyone who tells you that slang is ‘wrong’ or ‘uneducated’ simply does not understand what language is.)

Gen Z is the authority on Gen Z slang

Each generation rejects anything older people said that still seems age coded:
- Millenials: the pause, adulting, stan, lit, mood, salty, I can has
- Gen X: stoked, hella, clutch, whack, bogus, fly, fresh, janky, rad
- Boomers: groovy, far out, square, righteous, drag, fuzz (meaning police)
Each generation also tends to reject anything people younger than them say that seems age coded:
- Gen Alpha: skibidi, brain rot, rizzler, sigma, mog?, glaze?

If a slang term escapes containment, it becomes cringe.

and fades out of use (yolo, cheugy, on fleek, 6-7, woke, others?) why?

Because slang can’t serve its social function if outsiders use it.

But slang is also an important way that words enter the lexicon

art, artsy, awful, bad-mouthing, banter, belch, bellhop, bender (drinking), bet (wager), bingo, bomb (fail), bootcamp, bootleg, booze, bouncer, bratty, brunch, bubble, bully, buff, bungee, burp, cheesy, chum, clobber, clueless, cool, cop, cuss, ditch (v), divvy, dork/dorky, dreamy, exam, fake, fan, fave, flick, flog, fluke, flunk, frat, gal, gawky, geek, grouchy, growler (beer bottle), gunky, gym, hack (cope), hairy (difficult) heist, hellacious, hello, hit (kill), hunch, hyper, jay walking, jinx, job, jock, joystick, kid, lag (v), meme, misfit, mob, nasty, nerd, nuke, ok, OJ, pal, patrol, pec (muscle), pinpoint, poke, pub, rave, scram, sender, sham, shenanigan, shuffling, slang, stoner, super, suss out, swag, teenager, varsity, wimp, wonky, etc.

Every word you use –every word you KNOW– has a social history. The only way in which slang is different is that most people are still aware of bits of that social history. We’re still aware, maybe, that ‘chopped’ has gained a new denotation with fresh connotations of youthful and cool and connected in some way to this cultural moment. Maybe we don’t know that ‘chopped’ (like so much slang before it) originated in the Black community decades ago before going viral and becoming part of the broader culture. Right now, in our mental lexicons, ‘chopped’ –meaning janky, unattractive, poorly done– is connected not only to those meanings but to ideas of youth, membership in a particular generation and therefore delineating that generation from the uncool, fugly, nasty people who came before and will come after. iykyk.

The heck is a mental lexicon?

Mental Lexicon

All of this information about words is stored in our mental lexicon
- Structured by pronunciation & meaning (both)
- Includes:
  - lexical category
  - how it works in a sentence
  - pronunciation
  - meaning(s) (denotation, affect, social)
- Words in our mind are linked to other related words

Pragmatics

Pragmatics is the study of language use, in particular, the relationship among syntax, semantics, and interpretation in light of the context of the discourse
- Discourse = sequence of language, joined in situation
- Context = where we are, what came before, etc.
- Differs from semantics in that the focus there is on meanings of words, sentences, and phrases in isolation , without regard to contextual information

Competence

Being a competent speaker of a language requires all three kinds of meaning:

an ability to understand the literal meaning of an utterance (like “can you pass your classes?”)
- we call this grammatical competence
an ability to understand the affective and social meanings of an utterance (like “can you pass the salt?”)
- we call this communicative competence

Sociolinguistics

Together with pragmatics and linguistic anthropology, sociolinguistics is the subfield of linguistics that studies these affective and social functions of language
Language is a social practice
And, as social creatures, much of our social identities are negotiated and maintained through language

Language is not just for communication of ideas

People have at their disposal an entire linguistic repertoire
(the set of language varieties exhibited in the speaking and writing patterns of a speech community)
We adjust to the speech situation = who, what, where, when, why, how, etc.
This is communicative competence!
Languages (and dialects, styles, registers, etc.) can differ in vocabulary, phonology, grammar, semantics, etc. across a variety of speech situations

What’s next?

Come to lecture Monday for “Why are some words bad words?”
Observation Notes #2 = due Friday * 11:59pm
- We saw some AI this time and called it out.
- This is not cool. Check the syllabus. NO AI on this assignment, none.
Quiz 4 Friday!