Wednesday May 23rd 2012
Johnson
Language
Slang
Ourselves at our most human
Oct 26th 2011, 22:05 by R.L.G. | NEW YORK
JONATHON GREEN has a new dictionary of slang words, but this is not his first one—he's been at it for his whole career, as he describes in this interview with The Browser. Fun fact: the etymology of "slang" itself is unknown. And it seems that slang lexicographers are an unusual and eccentric subset of their profession. Check it out.
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In this blog, named after the dictionary-maker Samuel Johnson, our correspondents write about the effects that the use (and sometimes abuse) of language have on politics, society and culture around the world
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Doug Pascover,
Funny! What might be of research interest about online pseudonyms? I secretly formulate theories about them myself. :)
But pseudonyms is off topic for this topic. . What I really like about this Johnson post is the title RLG gave it. Slangs truly are, I think, as "id" as it gets (in the Q and A) and therefore at our most human. Some people speak all slangs. They are sort of all id. Some people find it impossilbe to incoporate slangs in their speech. They are kind of repressed.
I agree, Ashbird. Speaking of, I think it's getting near time someone will write a scholarly treatise covering online pseudonyms.
Great subject. Great Q's and A's. Totally worth the reading. Thanks.