Computer slang in Modern English: origin and functioning

Abstract

The article deals with an attempt to classify the computer lexicon formation and its correlation with the overall system comprising the vocabulary of Modern English; questions of the origin of computer slang, closely associated with the development of modern technology and their functioning in Modern English are considered; individual examples of slang are analyzed. Modern advances in computer science influences many processes in language, influenced its vocabulary and lead to creation of a separate special terminological system characterized by a large number of technical and professional words. A large number of computer terms previously known to narrow specialists only are now part of vocabulary of a wide range of people who use computers. As a result additionally to the system of computer terms we can speak about a rich and very unusual vocabulary group, i.e. so called slang of computer users and specialists. Modern English and especially its spoken version give a large number of examples of how computer slang is constantly reviewed due to development of computer technologies and due to the development of the language itself as it needs to name various phenomena appearing in the world of computers. Ways in which computer slang is created are quite varied, yet all of them come down to thinking of a new word for a new phenomenon or stretching the semantic of an existing word to accommodate new meanings. Considering the fact that English speaking countries are mostly the place of origin of computer technologies there is basically no borrowing into English from other languages in this field. Computer slang is a relatively young phenomenon. It is a kind of a miniature model of the language itself, and as such it repeats all of its features in vocabulary, phonetics and morphology. Wide usage of imagery at this stage of development of slang will further turn into conventionalization of metaphorical meanings and give it all the grounds to develop into a separate style within the language.

Keywords

• комп’ютерний сленг
• соціолект
• прагматичний підхід
• лексико-семантичний варіант