Slang across Societies by Jim Davie

Slang across Societies by Jim Davie

Slang Across Societies is an introductory reference work and textbook which aims to acquaint readers with key themes in the study of youth, criminal and colloquial language practices.

Focusing on key questions such as speaker identity and motivations, perceptions of use and users, language variation, and attendant linguistic manipulations, the book identifies and discusses more than 20 in-group and colloquial varieties from no fewer than 16 different societies worldwide.

Suitable for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students working in areas of slang, lexicology, lexicography, sociolinguistics and youth studies, Slang Across Societies brings together extensive research on youth, criminal and colloquial language from different parts of the world.

Table of Contents

Chapter One: Linguistic data – varieties, sources and methodologies

Chapter Two: Nonstandard language – concepts and perspectives

Chapter Three: Youth and criminal language practices – attitudes and motivations

Chapter Four: Invention and borrowing

Chapter Five: Semantic change

Chapter Six: The role of affixation

Chapter Seven: Compounding and reduplication

Chapter Eight: Phonetics and phonology

Chapter Nine: Clipping and abbreviation

Chapter Ten: Final Comments

Slang across Societies by Jim Davie - About the Author

Jim Davie pursued an academic career as a researcher and lecturer in Russian at the University of Portsmouth (1993–98) before moving on to work in the civil service. He has written Slang Across Societies as an independent researcher.