Semantic Change in African American Slang

• Authors: Maciej Widawski
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Semantic change is an important part of African American slang and involves two mechanisms: figuration and shifting. Both are enormously productive and account for numerous slang expressions based on standard English. This paper presents these processes in detail. Partially drawing from the author’s earlier publications, the presentation is based on lexical material from a sizable database of citations from contemporary African American sources collected through extensive fieldwork in the United States in recent years.

Keywords

EN

semantic change; figuration; semantic shifting; American slang

• Publisher: Sciendo
• Journal: Studia Anglica Posnaniensia
• Year: 2013
• Volume: 48
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 29-44

Dates

published

2013-06-01

online

2013-11-09

Contributors

author

Maciej Widawski

• University of Social Sciences, Warsaw

References

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Identifiers

DOI

10.2478/stap-2013-0002