Colloquial Words

Colloquialisms are used by everybody, and their sphere of communication is comparatively wide. These are in­formal words that are used in everyday conversational speech both by the cultivated and uneducated people of all age groups.

Here are some examples of literary colloquial words; g irl, when used colloquially, denotes a woman of any age; bite and snack stand for meal; hello is an informal greeting, and so long a form of parting; start, go on, finish and be through are also literary colloquialisms; to have a crush on some­body is a colloquial equivalent of to be in love. A bit (of) and a lot (of) also belong to this group. A considerable number of shortenings are found among words of this type. E.g.: pram, exam, fridge, flu, prop, zip, movie. Verbs with post-positional adverbs are also numerous among colloquialisms: put up, put over, make up, make out, do away, turn up, turn in, etc.

Slang

The Oxford English Dictionary defines slang as "language of a highly colloquial style, considered as below the level of standard educated speech, and consisting either of new words or of current words employed in some special sense";

Thus, slang words are identified and distinguished by contrast­ing them to standard literary vocabulary. They are expressive, mostly ironical words serving to create fresh names for some things that are frequent topics of discourse. For the most part they sound somewhat vulgar, cynical and harsh, aiming to show the object o f speechin the light of an off-hand contemptuous ridicule e.g. blinkers (eyes), trap (mouth), mug (face), flippers (for hands).All these meanings are certainly based on metaphor, yet they strike one as singularly unpoetical.

All or most slang words are current words which have been meta­phorically shifted. Each slang metaphor is rooted in a joke, but not in a kind or amusing joke. This is the criterion for distinguishing slang from colloquialisms: most slang words are metaphorical and jocular, often with a coarse, mocking, cynical colouring.