Abstract:
The article is devoted to the study of the sub-standard vocabulary of the English
language using examples of American slang, which makes up its main part. The
development of language and society entails the constant emergence of new units of
both standard and non-standard vocabulary. Knowledge of this layer of vocabulary is
necessary for a better understanding of native English speakers, modern literature and
mass media.
The definitions and stylistic characteristics of the layers of non-standard vocabulary
are indicated, combining them into a lexico-semantic paradigm based on the principle
of socio-cultural and stylistic determinism of their functioning.
The communicative structure of a literary text as a linguocultural space is determined
to identify the stylistic characteristics of non-standard lexical units. The features of the
conceptualization of the world through non-standard vocabulary are revealed.
In addition, the article describes the communicative and pragmatic techniques of nonstandard vocabulary at the lexical and semantic levels.
At the word-formation level, non-standard compatibility manifests itself, as a rule,
through a language game created with the help of word-formation means, as a rule, it
is affixation, contamination, abbreviation, truncation.
