Unless you resort to firearms or fisticuffs (or other unseemly activities), language is your only weapon to get what you want in life. So, better puns than guns. A slangster is someone who uses slang excessively. I thought I had coined the word, but a google search revealed that Merriam-Webster had already filled that vacuum.
CLARIFICATION
Let’s distinguish slang from jargon, the latter used to optimize conversations within a specific group. Every field has its jargon. If its users are considerate, they refrain from using it when speaking with someone outside their field. You can have fun annoying a heavy jargon user by requiring definitions at each instance.
By contrast, “slang” exists to establish group identity, exclude people, or both. How do you want others to respond to your slang? Are you excluding or including? And which humans are you ex/including?
GETTING WHAT YOU WANT …
Ideally, your slanguage will support you in achieving your life’s goals, getting your heart’s desire. If it doesn’t, you may want to consider the arsenal of phrases and words available to exploit the language’s potential to the fullest. For example, when is the last time you heard someone use words such as prevaricate, obfuscate, predilection, acerbic? Do your friends shun you if you use words like these?
Does “well spoken” describe you? Does your vocabulary work to your benefit or your detriment? Your deathless prose may not appeal to all, nor will mine. Can you express yourself succinctly? The “executive summary” exists for a reason.
WHO’S IN CHARGE?
The Wikipedia lists academies for many languages, so clearly the topic matters. Some people think that academy members are a bunch of fuddy-duddies bent on keeping the language pure, but that’s not necessarily the case. It behooves society to have people seriously studying the language and its evolution. We all know that language evolves, but why leave it to this seasons’s hipsters?
Many Americans proudly say that we have no language academy, but we do: Microsoft WORD, our de-facto academy. Unless you deactivate the feature, WORD gleefully interjects its suggestions for phrases and spelling as you write. Of course the people at Microsoft probably rely on a source such as Merriam-Webster. If you go to their website, you’ll find not only definitions but ways to use a specific word in a sentence. Who made any of these folks guardians of the language? And are their suggestions descriptive or prescriptive?
So, we have a self-appointed language academy, as well as others eager to help us write correctly. Familiar to anyone who spends time on the Internet is a cloud-based writing assistant that uses AI to review your grammar, spelling, punctuation, and anything else to help you write clearly. It appears that many people need guidance with language.
“PROPER” SPEECH
“Proper” is one of those labels that irritates, because it assumes superiority, making people defensive. Rarely do you understand what the other means by the label. To make the point more strongly, each of us has a different understanding of words such as racist or feminist, and brandishing these labels never enhances communication. It may even trigger conflict. So let’s drop labels, because they obfuscate.
IN DEFENSE OF OBFUSCATION
There are times, however, when you want to obfuscate, i.e., deliberately confuse things. Lying serves a purpose, and you’ll be relieved to know that it’s an ancient survival mechanism. For example, one tribe might not want a neighboring tribe to know the location of a food source. Who hasn’t observed lying in the work environment? We do what we must in order to survive.
I once met a guy who said that he and a friend created their own language when they were younger. They did so because they were gay (not acceptable at the time), so language served them well. And remember Pig Latin? We kids felt cool learning it but lost interest once we saw the trick, which offered little challenge.
RULES VS. TOOLS
Many students leave school laden with a bunch of rules for language. This is unfortunate. Your English teacher might not have meant to encumber you, but that was the result. Happily, there’s another way: you can choose to view grammar and vocabulary as tools rather than rules. Honing your skills to effectively use words and phrases makes you a tool master.
Paramount is the specific thought you want to convey and whether your listener or reader understands it as you intended. If they do, you need not change your language. But if they don’t, consider a tool kit. Since English draws from German and Latin sources, you can choose to sound Germanic or Latinesque, or some combination.
YOUR AUDIENCE VARIES
Do you have friends whose native language is not yours? “She speaks English” is vague because there are levels of proficiency. While there is no need to “dumb down” your speech when talking to Pierre, don’t make your friend work too hard to intuit your slang. He wants to look cool and may not admit he doesn’t understand your clever nuance.
I recently read “punchy ideas” in a popular publication. I would be hard-pressed to explain the term to one of my language students, or even to a native speaker. And why bother? In a few years, it will sound dated, replaced by something equally trendy. Do you want Fast Fashion or garments you can wear for years? By the way, those writing for international publications know that slang complicates translation, and publishers advise writers to avoid it.
In sum, you can limit or expand your audience by the way you communicate. Whether you’re addressing a gathering of intimates or the entire universe, the challenge is familiarity with the target group. And the best way to know that is by listening, which takes more energy than talking. This is the topic of another article.