Understanding Slang & Saussure

I just finished doing my assignment on the evolution of slang. After doing the research I found the information to be informative and it was actually kind of fun to look up different slang words that we use in everyday vocabulary and find out the true roots. It made me think of when my friends and I actually started using the terms and it was interesting to see that almost everyone has different variations or definitions/ meanings for the slang that they presently use. It’s funny how a slang word gets passed on per-say to different groups of people and it kind of starts to become a trend or fad in society, also in some instances you don’t even realize that the slang is actually coming out of your mouth.

I also found that I got a better understanding of Saussure’s article, after doing the assignment because when you just read what he says it’s hard to get your mind around it. But when I was finished writing my paper, the key points regarding how language evolves and starting up a new language was a bit clearer. In the lecture last week we talked about Saussure and how he discusses that person-to-person communication revolves around articulating syllables into words. In my opinion, he tries to make it clear that in every language, the people that are well aware of it, can interpret someone even though the words/syllables aren’t exactly proper. In turn it may relate to slang, because with slang comes a different word however there is a general meaning that people associate with the term. As expected some people do have variations but overall there is a common understanding of each individual slang term.