Lexical Innovation

Download or read book Lexical Innovation written by Karl Sornig and published by John Benjamins Publishing. This book was released on 1981-01-01 with total page 127 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In addition to borrowing from various foreign sources, the main origins of slang terms are the activation and revitalization of existing morphological and lexical material. Metaphorical manipulation of lexical items, as the main device used for the production of slangisms, shows remarkable similarities in languages otherwise quite different from each other. Slang is analyzed as a kind of substandard language variation which any full-fledged language is bound to develop because it is experimental in that it is born from insubordination and protest against the stress experienced in the speech communities of large cities and is always characterized by that element of playfulness which is the hallmark of creative language in general.