Monday, January 07, 2008

Culture and Slang

During class today we had many references to slang that was from another culture.  There was talk about being included or excluded due to different slang.  Some may argue that this is not in fact slang at all.  The question that I have to pose is:

What is the difference between slang and dialect?  Where is the line drawn?  What does either of these two words mean to you personally?    

-Graham P

2 comments:

Dani said...

I'm not yet completely sure where I stand...but right now the closest I can come is that a dialect is when slang turns into another form of the original language. Sometimes a group of people in a certain clique, or "scene" or even just friends will have a completely different language just through slang and/or inside jokes.

it seems that slang is developping even faster today: http://www.urbandictionary.com/

(I'm sorry, some of them on the site are vulgar, but its the closest I can find to the other time defined slang on the blog)

R_Dong said...

My definition of slang is a word used and understood by a group of people. That being said let me explain my distinction between slang and dialect.

Personally, using experiene as ways of knowing I think that dialect and slang are like two circles of a Venn Diagram.

From personal experience, dialect may become slang for a word. In China, as many of you know there are many different dialects of Chinese. My dad's family speaks one and my mom's family speaks a totally different one. I think that my dad's family speaks tou-san and my mom Mandarin. Sorry I think that I may have mispelled the two. Anyway, both have different labels for the same entity or object, but the two words are exclusive to the dialect.

By using my definition of this dialect has become slang. The individual label or word for the object is used and understood by a group of people. Those that speak tou-san and those that speak Mandarin. This example is the overlap in the circles. Some dialect may never become slang and vice versa; thus the Venn Diagram.