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in, tracing back to W. Shakespeare’s time, some slang words were used in his works. As S. B. Flexner, one of famous main dictionary editors writes in the preface of the DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN SLANG, G. Chaucer used it first and W. Shakespeare used it second, and some of them passed into Standard English. There also have been many English writers use slang in their works, such as Charles Dickens, Ben Jonson, and so on. Take Oliver Twist for example, which was written by C. Dickens, one of a character named Fagin, who is a teacher of crime, then, this word means abettor. There is no exception in the USA, for there are a great number of American writers to use slang words in their works, for instance, Mark Twain, who wrote the Adventures of Huckleberry Fin, and many slang words were used in this novel, like“dead broke”means penniless or entirely without money. And this slang also appeared in F. S. Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby (1952.p143) “He came to use dead broke.”And they’ d leant you=they have taught you, learn(slang)=teach; left me aholt of =let me hold; playing hooky(American slang) =cut class .etc(美国文学选读上 p.390~394).Besides this novel, there are other novels like this, e.g. The God Father, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and so on.
D. In newspapers and magazines
Pay more attention to today’s American newspapers and magazines, one will discover slang words, which have mushroomed on many publications, even on some famous newspapers and magazines. Such as, New York Times, Times, etc. Take New York Times for instance, On Language; The Word That Brought Brown the House, this article was written by William Safire, published in Dec. 17.1995 and another one is The Way Forward which was published in Sept. 2. 2007, also was written by him. According to the two articles, we can see slang is gradually accepted by Americans. And take The World Of English for instance, “Then, crushed and confused and now bitterly ashamed of himself, for not having guts enough to go back and….” ( 英语世界,2003.3 p.6 ) Here “gut” is a slang, means courage; “The phone’s been ringing off the hook”(英语世界,2003.1 p.16), what does ring off the hook mean? This is also an American slang used in telephone, refers to the ring could not stop to ring.
E. In all walks of life
1. Teenager group
In the process of teenagers’ education, American schools and families pay particular attention to the development of their personalities, fostering their independent ability of thinking, creativity, habit of self-control and responsibility. Generally speaking, American teenagers including middle school students and college students, have strong personalities. They are not afraid of making mistakes, but ready to explore the unknowing things. They are full of curiosity, pursue and are mad about new things. At the same time, they are ready to challenge traditional conventions and customs. Thus the teenagers and college students are the fashion makers. They are radical in every aspect like their ways of using language. And they are the main consumers and makers of American slang. 本论文由英语论文网 www.51lunwen.org整理提供They tend to make good use of the slang created by the musicians, pop singers, or those engaged in the popular trades. For instance, the word crazy originally means mad, strange and silly, but the musicians of the pop( 流行音乐 ) used this word to mean a completely different meaning beautiful, excellent, exciting. Later on, college students took the word and used it to describe somet