Slang across Societies

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.

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.

Acknowledgements Figures Guide to Abbreviations Transliteration, transcription systems and note on translation Introduction PART 1 Chapter 1: Linguistic data Chapter 2: Non-standard language Chapter 3: Youth and criminal language practices PART II Chapter 4: Invention and borrowing Chapter 5: Semantic change Chapter 6: The role of affixiation Chapter 7: Compounding and reduplication Chapter 8: Phonetics and phonolgy Chapter 9: Clipping and the use of acronyms and other abbreviations Chapter 10: Final comments Index