_____________________________________________________
English 41- 60p
_____________________________________________________
The Use of Slang in British English
- A Study of the Slang used in Football Factory and Little Britain
Tim Pedersen
C-paper, 10p Supervisor: Maria Estling Vannestål The University of Kalmar School of Human Sciences
3
Abstract
Spring 2007
The languages of the world are constantly changing and slang intrudes the vocabulary of many people all over the world. But what is slang and where does it come from? Are there differences in the slang that men and women use? And what is the point of using slang? It seems that the slang that was used by previous generations has either gone out of use or has now become a part of accepted standard language; basically, the youth of today reject the slang that their parents used. This would indicate that it is not “cool” to use the same slang as one’s parents did and to avoid this, new slang is invented to replace old slang aiding the youth of today to be able to be shocking or amusing by speaking in a certain way.
In this essay the focus lies on the slang of British English and this is investigated by an analysis of a contemporary film and a TV-show to see how common the use of slang is in these kinds of medias. The intention is also too see if slang differs according to gender and in what different areas slang is used.
The film “Football factory” and the TV-show “Little Britain” were closely watched and all slang was noted down and categorized in terms of users and areas of use. To make this easier and to make sure not to lose any parts of the dialogues scripts were found on the internet and used as aids when analyzing. “Football factory” is a movie about British football hooligans which is a very male-dominated world. “Little Britain” is a TV-show consisting of many small sketches with very different characters of both genders but mostly played by male actors.
The results were somewhat surprising as the expectation was to find some slang in the chosen material but the amount of slang use exceeded the expectations. Slang seems to be something that people use in many different areas of use, such as, when talking about sex, drugs or other things that might be taboo. It seems that slang is a big part of the language that both men and women use. However, in the material used for this study, young men were the ones who used slang the most.
4
Table of contents
1. Introduction ... 5
2. Background ... 6
2.1 The creation of slang...6
2.2 Slang and gender...7
2.3 Functions of slang ...8
2.4 Where do we find slang?...9
2.5 Cockney Slang ...9
3. Method and Material ... 10
3.1 Method ...10
3.2 Material ...11
3.3 Problems and limitations...12
4. Results ... 13
4.1 Football factory...13
4.1.1 Areas of use ...14
4.1.1.1 Talking to or about someone ...14
4.1.1.2 Talking about sex and other taboos...15
4.1.1.3 Talking about drugs and alcohol...15
4.1.1.4 Talking about violence ...16
4.1.1.5 Talking about mood ...16
4.1.1.6 Talking about ethnicity...16
4.1.1.7 Miscellaneous ...17
4.1.2 Users...17
4.2 Little Britain ...18
4.2.1 Areas of use ...19
4.2.1.1 Talking to or about someone ...19
4.2.1.2 Talking about sex and other taboo areas ...19
4.2.1.3 Talking about mood ...20
4.2.1.4 Miscellaneous ...21 4.2.2 Users...21
5. Conclusion ... 22
6. References ... 24
Appendix 1... 26
Appendix 2... 31
5
1. Introduction
-“Slang is language which takes off its coat, spits on its hands- and goes to work.” – Carl Sandburg
Slang has, whether appreciated or not, always been a part of our everyday language. Even before the birth of Christ, ancient Greek writers wrote about slang. But, as pointed out by Partridge (1970:1) “Slang is easy enough to use but very hard to write about”. This is a true statement as most people use slang, but if asked to define slang, would probably have a hard time in doing so. Slang is used in many different types of media and situations. In computer medicated communication, such as instant messaging, a lot of the language used is slang, such as writing “lol” instead of “laughing out loud” or “C U” instead of “see you”. However, slang occurs in oral communication all over the world. But where does this slang come from? It is likely that some of it comes from loanwords from other languages such as the word guzz which is Turkish and means “girl” and which many Swedes would know because of the Turkish immigrants in Sweden.
Another important part in the development of slang is the invention of new words; this phenomenon is very obvious within the hip-hop-culture, but it can also be words that are substitutes for already existing words such as pub, which originated from “public house”, but when used frequently enough and by an increasing amount of people gains status (Andersson & Trudgill 1990:70). Today, as slang is used by more and more people one can even find dictionaries of slang on the internet to aid in the understanding of these new words.
Why is slang so popular then? Many groups use slang as a way of defining who they are and what group they belong to. Also in music, slang is very important for many artists to show which genre, be it hip hop or rock, they belong to. Another possible reason can be the film- and television-industry. Actors who are role-modals to many people use this “new cool” language all the time and wanting to be like them many people copy this language and take it “to the street”.
Slang is just like any other part of language changing over time. Slang has a very definite expiry date and the slang of one generation is very often replaced with new slang by the following generation.
6
Aim
The overall aim of this essay is to investigate British slang as it is reflected in a contemporary film and TV-show. More specific research questions are:
- What different areas of use are represented in the slang that is being used? - What differences are there between the way men and women use slang?
2. Background
According to Andersson & Trudgill (1990:80), slang can be traced as far back as 385 BC when Aristophanes was the first writer to use slang extensively. Also Shakespeare used a lot of slang in his plays, such as, clay-brained instead of stupid. In the sixteenth century the English word blockhead was first used, and it is still in use today. Some words originate in Latin, since slang versions of Latin words have become standard versions in other languages, such as tete which means “head” in French but origins from the Latin word testa which means “pot” or “bowl”(Andersson & Trudgill 1990:70). The term “slang” itself was used by British criminals to refer to their own language whereas “cant” was the word used by the outside world (Ibid: 77).
2.1 The creation of slang
Andersson & Trudgill (1990:143) claim that slang is often considered to be bad language usage and the decay of language, rather than a necessary change. A phenomenon typical of language, however, is that the people has the power and if enough people choose to use certain words then these words gain status and are soon accepted parts of our everyday language e.g. pub and phone which were once slang versions of “public house” and “telephone”. Geographical location also matters in deciding what is slang or not. The word
lad (meaning “boy” or “son”) is accepted in the northern parts of England but is considered as
slang in the southern parts. Even journalists are beginning to use slang in their writing (Ibid: 70) which of course aids in the acceptance of such language. Slang is mainly a question of vocabulary usage as there are not many grammatical features of slang (Ibid: 73).
Hip-hop is a culture that has a language of its own (jargon) which is very hard to understand if you are an outsider, e.g. shackles and Seatown which means “handcuffs” and “Seattle” (hip-hop dictionary [www]). Within the hip-hop culture, a lot of newly invented
7
words can be found, such as, for shizzle or bling, which means “for sure” and “jewellery”. This invention of new words is called “coinage” by linguists. To fully conform to the style and exclude outsiders it is also very important how to dress and what music to listen to.
Very often, however, slang is not so much about the invention of new words as it is about coming up with new meanings for already existing words, such as hot, which originally was a word to describe temperature but now has various different meanings like “sexy”, “stolen”, “wanted by the police” or “popular” (Andersson & Trudgill 1990: 81).
What is slang to one generation may not be slang to the next generation, since language is constantly changing, and words and expressions can move from one form of it to another. Different forms of slang quickly grow old and are replaced by new ones. For example, super,
groovy and hip which all mean “really good” have been replaced by dope, kickass and phat
(Yule 2006: 211). This is a very natural evolution as most adolescents do not want to sound like their parents and therefore need new slang words to distance themselves from that which was “cool” when their parents were young.
2.2 Slang and gender
Traditionally, slang has been a male dominated area. According to Stanley (in Grossman & Tucker, 1997:102), the use of slang has traditionally been a male dominated domain which is indicated by the fact that there are “220 expressions for a promiscuous woman compared to merely 22 expressions to describe the male counterpart”. However, a decade later, Chapman (in Grossman & Tucker,1986:103) found an increasing use of vulgar and taboo slang amongst women which he attributed in part to the feminist movement. In 1992, de Klerk (in Grossman & Tucker, 1997:103) found that the amount of slang used by sixth- and ninth graders amongst English speaking students in South Africa did not differ between sexes in the extent of their slang vocabulary. However, both sexes still believed that slang was more appropriate for males than females. Grossman and Tucker (1997:108) proved that the gap in slang used by males and females is still closing and that it is more legitimate for females to use slang frequently in their everyday language.
8
2.3 Functions of slang
Another very important aspect to consider when discussing slang is the different situations where we are most likely and most unlikely to use slang. Most people know the standard form of their first language and in formal situations such as job interviews most people tend to speak as formally as possible, avoiding slang usage to give a good first impression. Another example is that most people tend to speak in a more formal way the first time they meet new people whereas their language tends to loosen up after a while (Andersson & Trudgill 1990: 71). So the conclusion must be that when a boss speaks more informally to an employee for the first time the employee has probably advanced in the company. Even though many people use a lot of slang in their everyday language there is also awareness that it is not “correct” language usage. Style-shifting from non-standard to standard language is referred to as overt
prestige and is according to Yule (2006: 209) most likely to be used by men and women from
the middle class; women also use it more than men. The opposite of overt prestige is covert
prestige and refers to the phenomenon that especially adolescents of lower society classes use
non-standard language consciously. According to Yule 2006: 210, it is used to show solidarity with their social group by not shifting language-style to sound like another social group. And according to Eble (in Moore 1996:61), three of the most typical functions of slang are to express informality, identify group members and oppose established authority.
The point of slang is often to be amusing or shocking (Andersson & Trudgill, 1990: 78). This is also why the invention of new slang words or coming up with alternative meanings for already existing words is crucial. When words lose their shocking or amusing effect they need to be replaced with new words. This often goes hand in hand with other groups accepting these words and beginning to use them in everyday-language usage. Slang does not differ from other trends but is often invented in big cities and then spreads out to the rest of the country (ibid, 1990: 78).
It seems that slang is often a substitute for swearing or a substitute for other words that are taboo, a phenomenon referred to as euphemisms (Andersson & Trudgill, 1990: 82). Instead of saying “I have to piss” which is not very polite there is a vast number of slang words that can be used instead, such as, drain the spuds, visit the sand-box, answer nature’s call or go and
look at the crops. Similarly, many forms of slang for defecating or using drugs can be found.
To many drug dealers slang usage is even a must; an entire conversation about drugs can take place without any outsiders knowing about it. To make this further effective the slang words
9
used change constantly, making it hard for the police to infiltrate these groups (Andersson & Trudgill 1990: 79).
2.4 Where do we find slang?
According to Andersson & Trudgill (1990: 72), people use a lot more slang when speaking than when writing. However, in novels, many authors are likely to use slang, especially in dialogues as this is a good way of showing what the characters are like. Consider the following example, Well now, I be ding-busted. This is a line from The adventures of
Huckleberry Finn where the run-away black man Jim is talking to Huck saying “well now, I’ll
be damned”. By consciously writing in this way, Twain gives life to the character Jim as a poorly educated slave using a far less formal language than other characters in the book (Andersson & Trudgill 1990: 72). In other forms of written media one is more likely to see slang in tabloids than in broadsheets, and perhaps there is a connection with the fact that broadsheets are considered to contain more legitimate news whereas more gossip-like news are found in tabloids?
People who are admired will often be copied by others so a lot of the slang used is spread via, for instance, the film or music industry. Others who are likely to be influential when it comes to slang usage are comedians, talk-show hosts, politicians and sport-stars. TV-shows that become very popular and are aired for many years are most likely to influence their audience, such as Seinfeld (Battistella 2005: 8). For instance, the expression regift (meaning “to take an unwanted gift and give it to someone else”) from the TV-show Seinfeld seems according to Battistella (ibid), very likely to become standardized slang.
2.5 Cockney Slang
The perhaps most commonly known British dialect due to the export of British films such as,
Snatch, Lock stock and two smoking barrels, Football factory and Mean machine is the
Cockney dialect which is spoken in the London-area. According to Holmes (2001: 214), these Cockney TV and film heroes help to promote a positive attitude towards the dialect as it spreads all over the world. A characteristic of Cockney is rhyming slang such as saying bees
and honey instead of “money” or Apples and pears instead of “stairs” (Ibid: 127). There are
pre-10
knowledge, such as, can I have a butcher’s, which means “can I have look” and has originated from butcher’s hook which rhymes with look. However, there was no such slang usage in the material investigated.
3. Method and Material
3.1 Method
To collect the data necessary to successfully study the use of slang in British English, and especially in the Cockney dialect, the TV-show Little Britain and the film Football factory were watched and analyzed. All slang used was written down and the situations in which they occurred were noted. The slang was then categorized according to areas of use in order to investigate whether the slang words occurred more frequently in particular areas. The categories used were, talking about sex and other taboo areas (for example, “blowy” which means to give someone oral sex), talking to or about someone (for example, “nutter” which is the same as calling someone an idiot), talking about drugs and alcohol (for example,
“boozer” which is a slang word referring to a public house), talking about violence (for
example, “clump” which means to hit someone) , talking about mood (for example, “buzz” which means a state of excitement), talking about ethnicity (for example, “darkies” referring to someone with dark skin) and miscellaneous (for example, “dodgy” which means someone or something that is fake). Coming up with these categories was not easy and knowing in which area of use a certain slang word was to be placed was even harder. The miscellaneous group proved to be most necessary to place the words that did not belong within a certain area or perhaps could be used in many different areas depending on in which context a certain slang word is used. The material had to be reviewed many times to see some of the slang usage again in order to be able to place them in the correct area of use. In the aid of translating the slang, as most slang can not be found in ordinary dictionaries, a dictionary of slang on the internet was used (Urban Dictionary [www]). The gender of the people using slang in the material was further analyzed to see if the usage of slang differed between the sexes.
11
3.2 Material
The film Football factory was released in September 2004 and directed by Nick Love. The film is about British football hooligans and is based on a documentary by John King who managed to infiltrate “Chelsea Head-hunters” which is the firm of hooligans supporting Chelsea FC. A firm is a gang of football hooligans supporting a certain team and the point of a firm is to meet other firms and fight them before and after matches. After having infiltrated the firm, John King is now forced to live under a hidden identity as there is a price put on his head by the firm (International Movie Database [www]). Firms have unfortunately become a world wide problem and football has become more an more about violence. There are very few women in the film so most of the language is produced by men. The main character is Tommy Johnson who is a thirty-year old florist who loves violence, sex and football. The film mainly revolves around him, his best friend Rod and the worst hooligan of them all, Billy Bright. Billy, who wants to become leader of the firm, is the most racial of them all. His father was a racist and brought Billy up to be on as well. His devotion to his right-wing convictions can however be discussed as he also deals drugs to a Turk who happens to be the leader of their rival firm of Millwall. It seems that when money is involved politics can be set aside.
After having been aired on radio, Little Britain was adapted into a TV-show in 2004 and aired by the BBC (The British Broadcasting Corporation). So far, 25 episodes of the TV-show have been produced and there is also an Israeli version and an American version being planned. Episodes one and two from the first season of the TV-show are analyzed in this essay. The show is written and also starred by Matt Lucas and David Williams, amongst others. The show has similarly to other shows become well-known for its catch-phrases connected to the characters. Like other popular TV-shows, many celebrities have guest-starred on the show, such as Elton John and Robbie Williams (Lucas & Williams [www]). Two of the best known characters of the show are Vicky Pollard who is an adolescent school girl and Daffyd who according to himself “is the only gay man” in his Welsh village. Almost all of the actors are men and most of the female characters are also played by men.
12
3.3 Problems and limitations
When one analyzes just one film and one TV-show, no matter how much slang they contain, it is still just the creation of a few people and their view upon the world that is reflected. However, to analyze more than this would have yielded too much information for a study of this kind. Also the setting of “Football Factory” limits a lot of the slang use to the world of football and violence. On the other hand it is often in these environments that slang is used particularly frequently. Categorizing the slang into different areas of use was not easy. The group miscellaneous represented more than half the words in the material at first which forced the creation of other categories. However, this group is still a very large category (indeed the largest one in terms of types, although not tokens). Furthermore, some slang word/expressions could belong to more than one category such as bollocks (testicles/talking rubbish), nut (something you eat/head) or cunt (referring to female genitals but used in “Football Factory” to address someone) which made these words harder to categorize. The movies had to be revised again and much attention was paid to the context in which the words were being used to correctly be able to categorize them. From a gender perspective, the film “Football Factory” is a male-dominated film which makes the material generally uneven. Even though there are female characters in “Little Britain” they are mostly played by men and more importantly the scenes are written by men so the slang usage of the women in the show is from a man’s point of view. This makes the second research question difficult to answer, and it would have been better to use material with more even gender representation. Finally when analyzing a film and a TV-show without the scripts there is also a risk that some of the information is lost and can therefore not be processed. For the analysis of Football factory this became an issue as the entire script was not to be found on the internet.
13
4. Results
The results of this essay will be presented in tables summarizing the findings and examples of some of the most frequently occurring slang words and phrases from “Football factory” and
“Little Britain” will be provided and compared to previous research on slang.
4.1 Football factory
The table below shows the distribution of the slang words found in Football factory according to gender and different areas of use: talking to or about someone, sex and other taboo areas, drugs and alcohol, violence, mood, ethnicity and a miscellaneous group. Type refers to the different slang words and phrases that are being used in absolute figures and percentages.
Token represents the occurrences of words and phrases in absolute figures and percentages (A
table of all slang words used in the film can be found in Appendix 1).
Table 1. Distribution of slang according to gender and areas of use (Football factory).
Men
Women
Areas of use
Types
Tokens
Types
Tokens
Talking to or about
someone
17% (14) 39% (75) 100% (2) 100% (2) Talking about sex and
other taboo areas
10% (8) 7% (13) --- --- Talking about drugs and
alcohol
11% (9) 7% (13) --- ---
Talking about violence 10% (8) 6% (12) --- ---
Talking about mood 11% (9) 8% (17) --- ---
Talking about ethnicity 4% (3) 2% (3) --- ---
Miscellaneous 37% (32) 31% (56) --- ---
Total 100% (83) 100% (191) 100% (2) 100% (2)
The table shows that the slang words and phrases are distributed into different areas of use. Much of the slang was hard to categorize and was therefore placed in the miscellaneous group. Talking to or about someone, was the largest group in terms of types as it seems that coming up with different names for people is a big part of slang. Sex, drugs and violence, which are all areas that are somewhat tabooed to discuss depending on the situation, occurred just about evenly.
14
4.1.1 Areas of use
4.1.1.1 Talking to or about someone
“See you cunt! I will cut you first!
This is a type of language use that the film is filled with, provoking people and then threatening them. As the film is about football hooligans many of the slang words used are demeaning words used to provoke other people. The word cunt (referring to female genitals) which is a very condescending word seems to be used both to offend other people but is also used frequently amongst friends. It seems that calling someone you do not know a cunt is very offensive and provoking but when acquainted with someone it is quite acceptable. This is something that is not exclusive in this type of social groups. Many young people today use these strong words about each other and it seems that being able to call someone by certain names is ironically somehow the proof of being very good friends. According to Eble (in Moore 1996:61), one of the most typical functions of slang is to identify group members which apparently can be done by fowl name-calling. In one scene in the film the main character asks his best friend what he thinks of his new shirt, and when his friend does not like it he calls him a horrible cunt but this is in no way said to start a fight. And as mentioned above, Stanley (1977) stated that there are 220 expressions referring to female genitals and only 22 referring to male genitals. It seems that using demeaning words about female genitals when addressing males is quite popular in the world of football hooligans.
“Come on soppy bollocks, you are more confused than Scooby Doo you poof”
With this sentence, one of the main characters in the film is trying to provoke a member of a rival firm into a fight at their sons’ football match. When trying to provoke someone, cunt is not the only demeaning word that is being used in the film. Words like mug, soppy bollocks,
scum, poof (means gay), nutter, spives, lemon or nutter are also used to provoke. According to
(Andersson & Trudgill, 1990: 78), the point of slang is often to be amusing or shocking. To have a wank means for a man to masturbate and this verb has be transformed into a noun when calling someone a wanker. Other derogatory ways of giving someone slang names are to call them pal, geezer, mate, bloke or son, which are all substitutes for friend, and girlfriends are called birds.
15
4.1.1.2 Talking about sex and other taboos
“I can not wait to see your fanny. I am going to smash the granny out of you”.
The line above does not sound very romantic, but this is the way sex is talked about in the film. The film contains a lot of slang words in this area, such as saying helmet instead of penis, tits meaning breasts, fanny referring to female genitals and boat being used instead of
butt. A woman in the film is describing a man with a large penis as being hung like a pike. To
have sex with someone is to smash the granny out of someone or to slip into someone and when a man masturbates it is called wanking off.
4.1.1.3 Talking about drugs and alcohol
“What are you serving mate? I got whites and browns, which ones do you want?
This is the way that one of the characters in the film purchases drugs, without once mentioning the word drugs. When talking about drugs it becomes even more important to disguise the language use. Police officers are referred to as gavvers and never are any names of drugs used. Instead, whites or browns, joint and tools are used when talking about these things. In one scene in the film, the main character wants one of his friends from the firm to come out partying with him so he calls him at home. As he is with his wife and children he answers, “See you tomorrow at seven, I will bring my tools” which basically means, “I will see you in one hour and I will bring the drugs”. By using certain gang-slang the speaker conceals the message from outsiders. According to (Andersson & Trudgill 1990: 79) many drug dealers must use slang to be able to have conversations about drugs without any outsiders knowing about it.
By using certain gang-slang the speaker conceals the message from outsiders. Furthermore, instead of using the words “drunk” or “intoxicated”, words like battered, smashed out of my
tree, lashed or mullered function as substitutes. And going to the pub is described by one
character in the film as the boozer. People who sniff a lot of drugs are referred to as hoovers.
16
4.1.1.4 Talking about violence
I pinged that geezer so hard that his legs went like a baby giraffe.
The film deals a lot with violence but not once are the words hit or beat used. Instead, phrases and words like clump, crack, ping, open you up, bashing people up or kick the shit/fuck out of
you are used frequently. Before fighting with other hooligans in the film in order to get the
aggression up and the adrenalin pumping the two firms involved in a fight have a verbal fight which is called having a row. These are all examples of words that are common in the world of football hooligans in the film. It seems that whatever is the essence of the life that people live it is also in this particular field that slang is used most frequently. In one scene in the film one of the characters gets annoyed by another man in a public house and tells him:
“I think I should take you outside and Open you up”
4.1.1.5 Talking about mood
I am fucking buzzing!
Before going into a huge fight with their archrivals this is how one of the main characters describes his mood. It means to be very excited and buzzing is a word which is used frequently. Other ways to describe excitement and readiness to fight is to be well up for it or to be over the moon. Freaked out is used to describe to feeling of being afraid. The film contains a lot of violence and for some of the hooligans that is beginning to affect them. When questioned about their lifestyle they defend themselves by saying, “I’m just having a
laugh” and it seems to be done to take some of the seriousness off the matter.
4.1.1.6 Talking about ethnicity
You watch out for them Darkies!
These are the words of a taxi-driver in the film trying to convince two older gentlemen that coloured immigrants are dangerous. The film contains a lot of racism as well. Immigrants from Pakistan are called Pakis and people with dark skin are called darkies. One boy who is a
17
gypsy is referred to as the pikey kid. Giving names to people of other ethnicity seems to be a way to be further demeaning to them.
4.1.1.7 Miscellaneous
Are you trying to mug me off?
The film also contains many examples of slang that do not fit into any of the above mentioned categories. Much slang can be used in many different contexts and therefore does not belong to a specific category of slang. The characters in the film pull a lot of practical jokes on each other which in slang is called to mug someone off, have a bubble or wind someone up. If revealed that it is just a joke the answer would be that it is just bollocks (meaning that it is just nonsense). However, bollocks mainly refers to male genitals but not once in the film is the word used in that specific context. One slang word used in the film may be hard to understand for an outsider and might therefore need some explaining. When being in someone’s house or apartment this is called their gaff. It seems that some slang words are easier to understand than others depending on how different they are from the original meaning of the word. To bell
someone, is to call someone on the telephone and to watch the telly means to watch the
television.
4.1.2 Users
Even though the majority of examples of slang used in Football factory are used by male hooligans, slang usage is not limited to this group. In the first scene a female passer-by who has nothing to do with hooligans is caught in the middle of a big fight walking with her pram and responses by yelling “You are no football supporters, you are fucking muggy little cunts” at them. It is however reasonable to say that men in this film use this kind of language much more than women do. But it must also be pointed out that the film is dominated by male characters. However, it is very rare to see this kind of behaviour at a women’s football match. Most people in the film use slang but the slang that is used varies vastly according to the social group in which it is used. The fact that it is now accepted within certain groups to call each other cunt may just indicate that in a near future this word will be used by more and more people in everyday language and be replaced by new demeaning words.
18
The film also has a side-story which is about the main character’s grandfather and his best friend. These two older gentlemen do not use a lot of slang and this just proves what was mentioned in the theoretical background, that slang has an expire date and the slang that they used when they were young is no longer considered as slang and has been replaced by new slang-words. This side-story provides a most necessary contrast to the extreme language and violence of the film. There is also an awareness of when to use certain language. The most violent hooligan of the firm is married and has children and when talking to his wife his language changes dramatically to adapt to the very different social context.
4.2 Little Britain
The table below shows the distribution of the slang words found in Little Britain according to gender and areas of use: talking to or about someone, sex and other taboo areas, drugs and alcohol, mood and a miscellaneous group. Type refers to the different slang words and phrases that are being used in absolute figures and percentages. Token represents the occurrences of words and phrases in absolute figures and percentages. (A table of all slang words used can be found in appendix 2)
Table 2 Distribution of slang according to gender and areas of use (Little Britain).
Men
Women
Areas of use
Types
Token
Types
Token
Talking to or about
someone
27% (14) 25% (19) 31% (11) 40% (17) Talking about sex and
other taboo areas
24% (12) 39% (30) 26 % (9) 24% (10) Talking about drugs and
alcohol
2% (1) 1% (1) 3% (1) 2% (1)
Talking about violence --- --- --- ---
Talking about mood 10% (5) 6% (5) 3% (1) 2% (1)
Talking about ethnicity --- --- 3% (1) 2% (1)
Miscellaneous 37% (19) 29% (22) 34% 12) 30% (12)
Total 100% (51) 100% (77) 100% (35) 100% (42)
Again, much of the slang was hard to categorize and was therefore placed in the miscellaneous group. But similarly to Football Factory much of the slang in Little Britain was used to addressing people or talking about them. There were no words used to describe ethnicity or violence in Little Britain which is why there is no numbers or percentages for those areas of use. When it comes to slang dealing with drugs and alcohol only two examples
19
were found in Little Britain, I need to go and powder my nose, which means to “sniff cocaine” and Would you like some bubbly? which means “champagne”. This means that the categories in focus in the rest of the presentation will be Addressing someone, Talking about sex and other taboos, Talking about drugs and alcohol, Talking about violence, Talking about mood, Talking about ethnicity and miscellaneous.
4.2.1 Areas of use
4.2.1.1 Talking to or about someone
I feel like a pillock.
In one scene in the show one of the characters is dressed up like a smurf and his caretaker asks him how he feels and he replies: I feel like a pillock.
A lot of other strong names are used about other people, such as bitch, shit-stirrer, snotty,
gypos, bastard, wanker or she is a bit of a Judas. Using strong words to address other people
is not restricted to young people in the TV-show but amongst the adult characters there seems to be much more awareness of the inappropriateness of doing so. In scenes with middle-aged people the language used is of a very polite character such as saying thank you dear.
Also family names such as mother and grandmother have been replaced by slang when using mum and nan as substitutes. And a boy is referred to as a bloke or a lad.
Furthermore, in one scene, a husband calls his wife a cow to her face which is not a very nice word to use about one’s life partner. This strong word is used as he feels that his wife is
bleeding him dry which basically means that she is costing him a lot of money.
In one scene in the show, a character named Vicky Pollard describes someone she does not like in these words: “That bitch is a bit of a Judas anyway”. As mentioned above, Grossman and Tucker (1997:108) proved that the gap in slang used by males and females is still closing and that it is more legitimate for females to use slang frequently in their everyday language.
4.2.1.2 Talking about sex and other taboo areas
“Shelley Sherman gave Craig Sherman a blowy in the shallow end”
This is how Vicky Pollard, one of the many characters of Little Britain explains to a lifeguard that two people had oral sex in the shallow end of a swimming pool. The slang that this character uses is slang that is very typical of young people and much of it is related to sex
20
such as fingered, blowy, get off with or go to third base with. As sex is still a bit taboo to many young people there seems to be a need to disguise the language when referring to sex. The word gay is used several times in Little Britain and almost all of the time it is used it is done so by a character who is homosexual, whereas other characters who are not gay use the word homosexual instead. This may indicate that using the word gay about someone is not considered polite and is often replaced by referring to someone as a homosexual, but if someone is homosexual it is more accepted for them to use the word gay. The word queen is also used when talking about homosexuals, but in this case it is only used by the character
Daffyd about another homosexual man.
There seems to be no limitations to the development of slang. The noun poof, which was mentioned above, has been translated into an adjective when calling someone poofy referring to them acting like a homosexual. Other examples of slang taking new forms are out gay man (openly homosexual), gaywise (acting like a homosexual) and blowy, which originated from the word blowjob and means for a woman to give a man oral sex.
As mentioned above, when something is taboo to talk about, slang words seem to be used as substitutes. In this case, when talking about people who are overeaters and have weight problems, they are called gluttons or people who are scoffing.
Also talking about using the toilet is an area of slang which is much developed when using phrases like; having a wee, do toilet, off for a slash or to do one’s dirty business. As mentioned above, slang is often a substitute for swearing or a substitute for other words that are taboo, a phenomenon referred to as euphemisms (Andersson & Trudgill, 1990: 82).
4.2.1.3 Talking about mood
It was such a Hoot.
This is how an exciting event is described in the film and it means that something is a lot of fun. Having a laugh is also used to describe similar excitement. The opposite of having a lot of fun is to be upset and to describe this state of mind one character uses the phrase, “she had
21
4.2.1.4 Miscellaneous
“Getting him into the water is not really a kerfuffle, it is getting him out that might be a bit of a kerfuffle”
As always with slang, some of the slang used is hard to understand for an outsider. In this case the word kerfuffle has replaced the word “trouble”. Other miscellaneous words and phrases used in Little Britain are: jot down “write down”, a hoot “lots of fun”, grub “food”,
snotty “rude”, popped “went”, nicked “stole”, in the pipeline “coming soon” or saying good bike which means “good bye”.
4.2.2 Users
In this TV-show, the use of slang becomes even more important to give life to the many different characters. Some of the characters of the show, like scenes with the prime minister or the teacher and pupils of Kelsey Grammar School (a joke referring to the actor Kelsey
Grammar who plays a snob in the American TV-show Frasier), do not use slang at all which
gives credibility to the show as it is very unlikely that slang would be used in these specific environments. In these scenes the language is very formal and the humour is not at all connected to the way the characters speak but rather to what happens to them.
Similarly to Football Factory it is mostly men who use slang. Most of the female slang comes from the same character (Vicky Pollard) who is a school girl and according to research upon this subject young girls do use a lot of slang but this language usage decreases with age (Yule 2006: 209).
Slang is often used to be amusing or chocking. In one scene between a gay man and an old lady selling magazines the word rimming (to give someone anal stimuli with ones tongue) is used by the old lady when talking about the content of a gay magazine and it would probably be shocking to most people to hear such a word from an old lady. The slang of today is mostly used by young people but in TV-shows and films having old people using contemporary slang has a shocking effect and often creates laughter. This is one way for comedians to test the limits of what is fun and what is not. Using certain slang with different characters that are not expected to use slang is an easy way of being fun.
22
5. Conclusion
The aim of this essay has been to analyze the use of slang in the British dialect as reflected in the film “Football factory” and two episodes of the TV-show “Little Britain” in terms of areas of use and from a gender perspective. Slang is a world wide phenomenon that was used even by the ancient Greek writers and is still used in the everyday language of most people. Slang is used for many different functions but mostly to show which social group, social class, music genre etc that people belong to. It can also be used to exclude outsiders from understanding what is being said and in this way slang becomes jargonized. One important aspect of this essay was to determine if slang is more likely to occur in certain situations and in the material slang was often used for addressing people or talking about them (often in derogatory terms) and in conversations dealing with sex, drugs and other things that are taboo to talk about, such as, using the toilet. A way of taking this study further could be to find material that is set in totally different environments and see what kind of slang is used and to compare if it is used as frequently as it is in the material used for this essay.
The slang that people use may differ vastly according to age, gender, social class, social groups and context. Young males seem to be the most frequent users of slang and males are also the ones who are most unlikely to avoid the use of slang no matter what situation they find themselves in. This was also the case in Football factory and Little Britain where most of the slang that occurred was used by young men. However, there is a problem in the fact that in the film and the TV-show that was analyzed most of the characters were men. A natural step from here would be to analyze material with mainly female characters and compare the use of slang in such material to the findings of this essay.
Slang is often used to be shocking as in the case of cunt or wanker but it is also used to be amusing such as when we come up with different names or phrases for things that are normally taboo to talk about, such as slipping into “to have sex with someone” or to do ones
dirty business “going to the toilet”. Slang also seems to develop when creating new forms of
already existing slang such as taking the noun poof which means “gay” and transforming it into an adjective when describing someone as being poofy. Some slang is easy to understand such as calling a television-set, a telly, whereas other slang is very hard to understand if you are not acquainted with it. An example of this would be gavvers, which means “police-officers”.
Slang is usually short-living, meaning that the slang of one generation is unlikely to be used by the next one. There is no shocking value in using the same words as one’s parents or
23
grandparents once used. The slang of the contemporary youth will mostly be replaced within a couple of decades as a new generation creates slang of its own.
TV-shows, films and music help promoting the spreading of slang as much of these contemporary media contain a lot of slang. People who are admired are also very likely to be copied and the slang of music and the film- and TV-industry are copied by many people. Some TV-shows even become famous for certain catch-phrases such as I am the only gay man
in this village which is the catch-phrase of Daffyd, one of the characters in Little Britain. But
it is not just phrases but also certain slang words that catch on from these medias and become popular with their audience such as the language of hip-hop artists.
It seems that slang constitutes a large part of people’s language usage. For instance, in the film Football factory and in the TV-show Little Britain a great deal of the language used is slang replacing standard forms of language. Perhaps some of this usage will be part of our standard language in the future?
24
6. References
Primary sources
Love, Nick. 2004. Football Factory. Columbia Tristar Films.
Lucas, Matt & Williams, David. Little Britain. 2004. British Broadcasting System.
Secondary sources
Andersson, Lars-Gunnar & Trudgill, Peter. 1990. Bad Language. London. Penguin.
Battistella, Edwin L. 2005. Bad Language: Are Some Words Better than Others? Oxford. Oxford University press.
Grossman, Aryn L & Tucker, Joan S. 1997. Gender Differences and Sexism in the Knowledge
and Use of Slang. Brandeis University.
Hip-hop dictionary
http://www.anthonyvitti.com/hiphopdictionary.html
Holmes, Janet. 2001. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics, second edition. Harlow. Longman.
International Movie Database (IMDB) http://www.imdb.com/
Moore, Robert L. 1996. We’re Cool, Mum and Dad are Swell: Basic Slang and Generational
Shifts in Values. Rollins College.
Partridge, Eric. 1970. Slang Today and Yesterday. London. Routledge & Kegan.
Twain, Mark. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Reading, Berkshire. Cox & Wyman Limited
25
Urban dictionary
http://www.urbandictionary.com/
26
Appendix 1
Slang of Football factory
Males to males Slang words and Phrases
Area of use Frequency of
slang
Translation of slang
A row Talking about
violence
1 A verbal fight
Have a bubble Miscellaneous 1 Make fun of someone
Bash people up Talking about violence
1 Hit people
Battered Talking about drugs and alcohol
1 Very drunk
Bell Miscellaneous 1 Call someone on the
phone
Bird Talking to or about
someone
1 Girlfriend
Blanked Miscellaneous 1 To be ignored
Bloke Talking to or about
someone
2 A guy
Boat Talking about sex
and other taboo areas
1 Rear end
Bollocks Miscellaneous 5 Talking nonsense
Boozer Talking about drugs
and alcohol
2 Pub (Public house)
Brief Miscellaneous 1 Identification
Buzz Talking about mood 9 Anything that creates
excitement
Canister Miscellaneous 2 Head
Clump Talking about
violence
1 Hit
Crack Talking about
violence
27
Crack on Miscellaneous 1 Go on with something
Cunt Talking to or about
someone
28 Demeaning word
referring to female genitals
Darkies Talking about
ethnicity
1 Coloured immigrants
Dodgy Miscellaneous 1 False/fake
Fancy? Miscellaneous 1 Would you like to?
Fanny Talking about sex
and other taboo areas
3 Female genitals
Firm Miscellaneous 2 Name for a gang of
football hooligans
For a laugh Talking about mood 1 Do something for fun
Freak them out Talking about mood 1 Scare them
Fuck about Miscellaneous 1 Joking
Fuck off Miscellaneous 2 Get out of here
Fuck this up Miscellaneous 1 Mess something up
Gaff Miscellaneous 3 Apartment/house
Gavvers Talking to or about
someone
2 Police officers
Geezer Talking to or about
someone
3 A guy
Get off Talking about sex
and other taboo areas
1 Have sex with someone
Get your skates on Miscellaneous 2 Hurry up
Going begging Miscellaneous 1 Left over
Have a laugh Talking about mood 2 Have fun
Helmet Talking about sex
and other taboo areas
2 Penis
Hoover Talking about drugs
and alcohol
1 Someone who uses a lot of drugs
Hung like a pike Sex and other taboo areas
2 Someone who has a big penis
28
Joint Talking about drugs
and alcohol
2 Marijuana
Jog on Miscellaneous 4 Move on
Kick the shit/fuck out of someone
Talking about violence
3 Beat someone badly
Lashed Talking about drugs
and alcohol
2 Drunk
Lemon Talking about mood 1 Someone who is angry
Lot Talking to or about
someone
4 A group of people
Mate/mates Talking to or about someone
10 Friend/Friends
Mug Talking to or about
someone
7 Idiot
Mug me off Miscellaneous 3 Trying to make me look
like an idiot Mullered Talking about drugs
and alcohol
1 Drunk
Nick Miscellaneous 3 Steal
Nut Miscellaneous 2 Head
Nutter Talking to or about
someone
1 Idiot
Nutty skunk Talking to or about someone
2 Idiot whore
Open you up Talking about violence
3 Beat someone up
Over the moon Talking about mood 1 Excited
Pakis Talking about
ethnicity
1 Immigrants from
Pakistan
Pals Talking to or about
someone
29
Pikey Talking about
ethnicity
1 Gypsy
Ping Talking about
violence
1 Hit someone
Pissed off Talking about mood 1 Angry
Poof Talking to or about
someone
3 Gay
Rodder Talking to or about
someone
1 Slang for the name “Rod”
Scum Talking to or about
someone
1 Someone of low social status
Shine Miscellaneous 1 To do well
Shut your noise Miscellaneous 1 Be quiet
Skint Miscellaneous 1 Poor
Slip into Talking about sex and other taboo areas
1 Have sex with
Smashed out of my tree
Talking about drugs and alcohol
1 Very drunk
Smash the Granny out of her
Talking about drugs and alcohol
2 To have rough sex with someone
Son Talking to or about
someone
2 Friend
Soppy Miscellaneous 6 Man acting like a girl
Sort you out Miscellaneous 1 Help you
Spives Addressing someone 1 Idiots
Stone me Miscellaneous 1 What a surprise
Streak of piss Talking to or about someone
1 Person with low
credibility
Telly Miscellaneous 3 Television
Tits Talking about sex
and other taboo areas
2 Breasts
Tools Talking about drugs
and alcohol
30
Wank/wanker Talking to or about someone
3 To masturbate/some
who masturbates
Well up for it Talking about mood 1 Ready for it
Wind me up Miscellaneous 2 Try to make a fool out
of me
Wires crossed Miscellaneous 1 Got different
information
Narration of main character
Bollocks Miscellaneous 1 Talking rubbish
Buzz Talking about mood 1 Excited/Full with
adrenaline
Clump Talking about
violence
1 Hit someone
Cunt Talking to or about
someone
1 Demeaning word about
someone referring to female genitals
Fuck that for a laugh Miscellaneous 1 What a joke/something that someone does not want to be part of
Still game Miscellaneous 1 Still a lot of fun
Wank off Talking about sex and other taboo areas
1 Masturbate
Female to males
Cunts Talking to or about
someone
1 Demeaning word about
someone referring to female genitals
Muggy Talking to or about
someone
31
Appendix 2
Slang of Little Britain Males to males
Slang words and phrases
Area of use Frequency of slang Translation of slang
Bitch Talking to or about
someone
1 Demeaning word
referring to a woman
Boost Miscellaneous 1 Energy
Bastard Talking to or about someone
1 Demeaning word
referring to someone born without married parents
Do toilet Talking about sex and other taboo areas
1 Go to the toilet
Gay Talking about sex
and other taboo areas
16 Homosexual
Has a crush Talking about sex and other taboo areas
1 Is in love
Heavy Miscellaneous 1 Something that is very
good
Have a laugh Talking about mood 1 Have fun
I am so down Talking about mood 1 Feeling unhappy
Kerfuffle Miscellaneous 3 Trouble
Lad Talking to or about
someone
1 Boy, common in the
northern parts of Britain
Mate Talking to or about
someone
2 Friend
Nan Talking to or about
someone
1 Grandmother
Off for a slash Talking about sex and other taboo areas
32
Off you pop Miscellaneous 1 Off you go
Powder my nose Talking about drugs and alcohol
1 Do drugs, cocaine
Popp in Miscellaneous 1 Come in, come to visit
Poofy Talking about sex
and other taboo areas
1 Acting like an
homosexual, after the word poof which means homosexual Pillock Talking to or about
someone
1 Idiot
Queen Talking about sex
and other taboo areas
1 A homosexual man
Soppy Talking to or about
someone
1 Man acting like a
woman Screw you Talking to or about
someone
1 Cursing someone,
older version of Fuck
you
Telly Miscellaneous 2 Television
What do you reckon?
Miscellaneous 1 What do you think?
Males to females Slang words and phrases
Area of use Frequency of slang Translation of slang
Bleed me dry Miscellaneous 1 Cost someone a lot of
money
Cow Talking to or about
someone
1 Demeaning word for
man to say about a woman
Fancy? Talking about mood 1 Would you like?
Gay Talking about sex
and other taboo areas
33
I will give it a miss Miscellaneous 1 I will not go
Mum Talking to or about
someone
4 Mother
Mate Talking to or about
someone
1 Friend
Nan Talking to or about
someone
2 Grandmother
Reckon? Miscellaneous 1 Guess/suppose
Up for it Talking about mood 1 Ready for it
Wanker Addressing someone 1 Someone who
masturbates
Females to males Slang words and phrases
Area of use Frequency of slang Translation of slang
Bitch Talking to or about
someone
1 Demeaning word to say
about a woman
Bubbly Talking about drugs
and alcohol
1 Champagne
Bloke Talking to or about
someone
1 Man
Blowy Talking about sex
and other taboo areas
1 Give oral sex to a man
Cock Talking about sex
and other taboo areas
2 Penis
Do ones dirty business
Talking about sex and other taboo areas
1 Go to the toilet
Eppy Talking about mood 1 Get very upset
Fingered Talking about sex and other taboo areas
1 To get fired or to pleasure someone sexually with ones fingers
34
Full of shit Miscellaneous 1 Talk nonsense
Give someone evils
Miscellaneous 1 Be mean to someone
Gay Talking to or about
someone
2 Homosexual
Go to third base Talking about sex and other taboo areas
1 Sex using fingers
Go off with Talking about sex and other taboo areas
1 Have sex with
Gypos Talking about
ethnicity
1 Gypsies
Have a wee Talking about sex and other taboo areas
1 To urinate
In the pipeline Miscellaneous 1 Coming soon
Ma Talking to or about
someone
1 Mother
Mum Talking to or about
someone
1 Mother
Nicked Miscellaneous 1 Stole
Nasty Miscellaneous 1 Unpleasant
Nan Talking to or about
someone
1 Grandmother
Popped Miscellaneous 1 Went
Reckon Miscellaneous 1 Guess/suppose
Rimming Talking about sex and other taboo areas
1 Stimulating of anal with tongue Someone who is a Judas Talking to or about someone
1 Someone who betrays
Snotty Miscellaneous 1 Rude
Tits Talking about sex
and other taboo areas
35
Females to females Slang words and phrases
Area of use Frequency of slang Translation of slang
Bitch Talking to or about
someone
1 Demeaning word to say
to someone
Give me evils Miscellaneous 1 Be mean to me
Grub is up Miscellaneous 1 Dinner is served
Mum Talking to or about
someone
6 Mother
Nan Talking to or about
someone
1 Grandmother
Rip-off Miscellaneous 1 Being fooled/a con
Scoff Miscellaneous 1 Overeat
Shit-stirrer Talking to or about someone
1 Troublemaker
Narration
Slang words and phrases
Area of use Frequency of slang Translation of slang
A hoot Talking about mood 1 Lots of fun
Bomb Miscellaneous 1 Splash water by
jumping into a pool Gluttons Talking to or about
someone
1 Overeaters
Good bike Miscellaneous 1 Good bye
Gaywise Talking about sex and other taboo areas
1 Do it like a
homosexual
Gay Talking about sex
and other taboo areas areas
1 Homosexual
Half past René Miscellaneous 1 A time of day
36
Jot down Miscellaneous 1 Write down
Julia O’clock Miscellaneous 1 A time of day
Out gay man Talking about sex and other taboo areas
1 Someone who is
openly homosexual
Outlet Miscellaneous 1 Escape
Pop down Miscellaneous 1 Go down
Popp into Miscellaneous 1 Go into
Petting Talking about sex and other taboo areas
1 Touching in a sexual
way Who do they? Talking about sex
and other taboo areas
1 Who do they sleep
