Formal and informal language, Colloquialism, Slang and Vulgar Language

Informal Language includes:

• Personal Form – instead of using the 1st person, we use the following:
  • Passive form
  • Impersonal It
  • Impersonal One
  • Personifying the study itself
• Contractions
• Vague Language
• Colorful Language

Identifying COLLOQUIALISM, SLANG and VULGAR language.

Colloquialism is the use of casual, ordinary, familiar or informal conversation instead of formal speech and writing. This is a relaxed form of speech that is used on occasion by any speaker in a specific region but is not limited there because it might spread through usual communication or migration of a speaker to another area. However, colloquial terms are distinct from place to place.

Examples:

Y’all, gonna, wanna, ain’t nothing, soda, tonic, pop, biweekly, “what’s going on?”, kid, kinickers, etc.

Slang is the use of very informal words and expressions which are not considered as standard in one’s language or dialect. You will know if a word or a group of words is slang if it has any two of these attributes: (a) it lowers formal language through misuse of a word by giving it another meaning; (b) group specific; (c) considered taboo in terms of formal standards of using the language; and, (d) displaces a common and widely accepted term. Reasons why slang is used range from replacing a difficult term, secrecy from other groups of people and among others.

Examples:

breadz, dropping the kids off the pool, groovy, radical, smokin’, etc.

Vulgarisms, though commonly understood to be profanities, is actually a kind of language that is colloquialism of a low or unrefined character and substitutes a coarse word where the context might lead the reader to expect a more refined expression.

Examples:

objets d’art, home, among others

4 categories of vulgar language

• Representation of ominous concepts
• Terms related to the sex organs of human beings
• Terms related to sexual intercourse
• Terms related to body fluids