Luciana Ursu English-Romanian 2nd year

Metaphor In Slang
According to Random House Dictionary slang is the very informal usage of the vocabulary and idiom that is characteristically more metaphorical, playful, elliptical, vivid and ephemeral than ordinary language. This definition sums up the essence of slang: it is represented by the unconventional words or phrases that express either something new or something old in a new way. The metaphor is a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance, as in "A mighty fortress is our God. According to Britannica Encyclopedia the metaphor makes a qualitative leap from a reasonable, perhaps prosaic comparison, to an identification or fusion of two objects, to make one new entity partaking of the characteristics of both. Many critics regard the making of metaphors as a system of thought antedating or bypassing logic. The processes by which words became slang are the same as those by which other words in the language their form of meaning or both. Some of this are the employment of metaphor, simile, folk etymology, distortion of sounds in words, generalisation, specialisation, clipping, the use of acronyms, elevation and degeneration, metonymy, synecdoche, hyperbole, borrowings from foreign language, and the play of euphemism against taboo. The most important of all is the metaphor because slang is, in fact a huge metaphor naming realities in a new way that are related to aspects of life and usually are somehow characterized by the speaker. According to the authors of the Britannica Encyclopaedia in western languages, the metaphor owes its power to echoes of sympathetic magic, and slang utilizes certain attributes of the metaphor to evoke images too close for comfort to reality. For example, to refer to a woman, as a broad is automatically to increase her girth in an area in which she may fancy herself as being thin. Her reaction may be, thus, be one of anger or resentment, if she happens to live in a society in which slim hips are essential to feminine beauty. I think what slang and metaphor have in common is the interpretative side. Both have an initial meaning and a derivate one. Both have a certain social category to use it, and only these people can decode the understatement of the words. To exemplify these realities I have chosen some examples of slang containing words used metaphorically. trip noun: 1. a. journey, voyage; b. a stumble, misstep; c. a slip, mistake, error; 2. a. an instance or period of being under the influence of hallucinogenic drug, especially LSD; b. any stimulating or exciting experience; c. any intense interest or preoccupation.

verb: 1. a. to cause to stumble; b. to cause to fail; c. to cause to make a slip or error; 2. to be under the influence of hallucinogenic drug. dog 1. a domesticated caned 2. a despicable man or youth 3. feet 4. an utter failure, flop

barney 1. a small locomotive used in mining and logging 2. a. an argument; b. a prize-fight; c. a mistake; 3. a heavily padded cover for a room, used to reduce the noise chill 1. a. moderately cold; b. depressing or discouraging; c. unduly, formal, unfriendly Taking into account these examples I observed that usually the slang expressions that are formed by the aid of metaphor are words that have a meaning known and understood by everybody and another one somehow derived from the first due to some connections made by its creator. Nevertheless the two meanings have something similar whether it is the function, the effect, the shape, the size, the position or the behaviour. These similarities are the ones that explain how the meaning of a word evolved to slang.