African American Slang
African American Slang
In this pioneering exploration of African American slang - a highly informal vocabulary and a significant aspect of African American English - Maciej Widawski explores patterns of form, meaning, theme and function, showing it to be a rule-governed, innovative and culturally revealing vernacular. Widawski's comprehensive description is based on a large database of contextual citations from thousands of contemporary sources, including literature and the press, music, film and television. It also includes an alphabetical glossary of 1,500 representative slang expressions, defined and illustrated by 4,500 usage examples. Due to its vast size, the glossary can stand alone as a dictionary providing readers with a reliable reference of terms. Combining scholarship with user-friendliness, this book is an insightful and practical resource for students and researchers in linguistics, as well as general readers interested in exploring lexical variation in contemporary English.
- Explores in detail patterns of form, meaning, theme and function in African American slang, illustrated with thousands of contextual examples
- The book is based on a sizeable database of authentic material from contemporary sources
- There is an extensive alphabetised glossary of African American slang expressions, which can stand as a dictionary, serving as a practical and reliable reference
Reviews & endorsements
'This book fills a real need for an up-to-date, substantive, scholarly book on African American slang. The glossary itself is impressive, and the detailed description that precedes it, with discussions of the forms, meanings, themes and functions of slang words, is invaluable.' John Rickford, Stanford University, California
'Maciej Widawski has created a marvelous book about African American slang that exceeds expectation. Readers from diverse backgrounds, be they scholars or not, will find meticulous accounts of Black American slang described in cultural contexts that have heretofore been unavailable in a single volume.' John Baugh, Washington University, St Louis
Product details
March 2019Paperback
9781107424401
312 pages
230 × 151 × 12 mm
0.45kg
Available
Table of Contents
- Abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1. Foundations
- 2. Forms
- 3. Meanings
- 4. Themes
- 5. Functions
- Conclusion
- Glossary A-Z
- Bibliography
- Sources
- Index.
