3. Colloquialisms as a characteristic feature of informal vocabulary

Colloquial words are charecteristic feature of the informal style of spoken English. We distinguish literary and non-literary colloquial words.

Literary colloquial words are informal words that are used in every day conversational speech both by cultivated and uneducated people of all age groups and also met in written literary texts.They are closer to neutral words, both etymologically and structurally than to bookish words, e.g. pal and chum are colloquial equivalents of friend, bit and snack stand for meal, to have a crush on somebody is a colloquial equivalent of to be in love. Affixation predominates here, especially suffixation forming diminutives like -ie, -y, -kin, -ette, -let, -ish, etc. For example, birdie, kitty, daughterkin, kitchenette, piggish and others. A considerable number of shortenings, post-positional adverbs, hyperbolic expressions are found among the words of this type, e.g. pram, exam, phone, lab, zip (shortenings); put up, put over, make up, make out, do away (post-positional adverbs); awfully nice, terribly sweet, unutterably exotic (hyperbolic expressions), etc.

Literary colloquial words are to be distinguished from familiar or non-literary colloquial words. It is possible to discern slang, jargonisms, professionalisms and vulgarisms.

Slang is a “language of a highly colloquial style, considerd as below the level of standard educated speech, and consisting either of new words or of current words employed in some special sense” (Oxford English Dictionary). All or most slang words are current words whose meaning have been metaphorically shifted. Each slang metaphor is rooted in a joke, but not a kind or amusing joke. This is the criterion for distinguishing slang from colloquialisms: most slang words are metaphors and jocular, often with a coarse, mocking, cynical colouring and figurative, e.g. attic (“head”), beans (“money”), saucers (“eyes”), soaked (“drunk”), etc. The circle of users of slang is more narrow than that of colloquialisms. It is mainly used by young and uneducated. A considerable part of slang may become accepted by nearly all groups of speakers because they are not specific for any social or professional group. Therefore, such terms as “army slang”, “school slang”, “sea slang” and such like are rather inaccurate.

Jargonisms are informal words peculiar for a certain social or professional group, for example such words as a bird (“rocket”, “spacecraft”), to grab (“to make an impression on somebody) are words of newspaper’s jargon; grass, tea, weed (“narcotic”) – drug addicts’ jargon.

Jargonisms should not be confused with the so-called professionalisms which are words connected with the producrive activities of people united by a common occupation or profession. They are understood only by the members of a certain professional group. Thus, for instance conversational expressions peculiar to physicists in M.Wilsom’s “Live with Lighting”, e.g. to shoot holes through means to find drawbacks in the instalment, spark-over – short circuit, to kick up – to shift, a run – an experiment, spotty – unstable, etc.

Vulgarisms are rough words, oaths and curses. Some of them are very stable, established by long use. They include:

1. expletives and swear words of abusive character, e.g. the devil, the hell, damn, bloody, what the hell, go to the devil, etc.

2. obscene (or taboo, four-letter) words which are highly indecent.