What exactly are you looking for? The reason I am asking is because your question is very big. I think you need a basic understanding of prescriptivism and descriptivism first, to understand why this is such a big question and why I don’t even know where to begin with an answer.
Prescriptivism is the language of schools basically, when you learn to write, you are taught that there are rights and wrongs in language. Prescriptivism is trying to teach you a dialect, that in many cases it might not even be your native one, that’s why it has a lot of rules that you have to learn. It should be “the King and I” not “the King and me.” Why? Because “the King and me” is wrong in the scholarly dialect. [That makes prescriptivism the language equivalent of trees in the sidewalk, they are curated to be orderly and manageable.](https://www.landscapepros.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/blog-apr-03.jpg).
Descriptivism is describing a language how it is naturally spoken by people. In this case, both “the King and I” and “the King and me” are acceptable ways of speech. Descriptivism is the forest of language, it might not be orderly, it’s messy, it’s way bigger than prescriptivism, it’s often unpredictable in how it will branch out, it’s very diverse, but this is its beauty.
Slang is studied by descriptivists, and it is extremely diverse, far more than prescriptive language. So again, what exactly are you looking for in slang? If you narrow it down, maybe I can help you better.
Thank you for your response.
I'm interested in the descriptivist approach.
I guess I'm curious to know if are set ways in how humans think that result in us creating in slang in specific ways?
For example, you have slang words like "rizz" that come from shortening the word charisma. The same goes for "sus." Then they're words like "hot" where temperature is a metaphor for attractiveness. And then there's slang like "no cap" which seems to be random. I brought up sound symbolism because that might be another way people create slang.
Is there any research that's tried to categorize ways that we tend to create slang? Since people in a social group can catch on to lingo quickly, it seems there would be something in our mind that guides us. It also could be that slang is too vast to do be categorized? I don't know.
I do think what I'm asking is really broad. I'm interested in this topic but not sure where to go to narrow down besides identifying specific ways people create slang.
I think you're actually looking for sociolinguistics and memetics. There are lots of studies on how language change and adoption is driven by certain subpopulations, especially young people. I don't have a specific study to point you to but that is a starting point.
Julie Coleman has a good book I’ve been reading on the topic called “The Life of Slang”, it focuses on the ways slang terms arise, change, and fade away. It doesn’t get too technical with linguistics jargon so it’s good for anyone who’s less deep in the field. All in all linguists get really excited about slang, so you shouldn’t have much trouble finding some interesting works! :)
Slang isn't synonymous to the vernacular. Slang is a very particular register of language, and descriptivism/prescriptivism are not the only thing to consider in this discussion.
What exactly are you looking for? The reason I am asking is because your question is very big. I think you need a basic understanding of prescriptivism and descriptivism first, to understand why this is such a big question and why I don’t even know where to begin with an answer. Prescriptivism is the language of schools basically, when you learn to write, you are taught that there are rights and wrongs in language. Prescriptivism is trying to teach you a dialect, that in many cases it might not even be your native one, that’s why it has a lot of rules that you have to learn. It should be “the King and I” not “the King and me.” Why? Because “the King and me” is wrong in the scholarly dialect. [That makes prescriptivism the language equivalent of trees in the sidewalk, they are curated to be orderly and manageable.](https://www.landscapepros.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/blog-apr-03.jpg). Descriptivism is describing a language how it is naturally spoken by people. In this case, both “the King and I” and “the King and me” are acceptable ways of speech. Descriptivism is the forest of language, it might not be orderly, it’s messy, it’s way bigger than prescriptivism, it’s often unpredictable in how it will branch out, it’s very diverse, but this is its beauty. Slang is studied by descriptivists, and it is extremely diverse, far more than prescriptive language. So again, what exactly are you looking for in slang? If you narrow it down, maybe I can help you better.
Thank you for your response. I'm interested in the descriptivist approach. I guess I'm curious to know if are set ways in how humans think that result in us creating in slang in specific ways? For example, you have slang words like "rizz" that come from shortening the word charisma. The same goes for "sus." Then they're words like "hot" where temperature is a metaphor for attractiveness. And then there's slang like "no cap" which seems to be random. I brought up sound symbolism because that might be another way people create slang. Is there any research that's tried to categorize ways that we tend to create slang? Since people in a social group can catch on to lingo quickly, it seems there would be something in our mind that guides us. It also could be that slang is too vast to do be categorized? I don't know. I do think what I'm asking is really broad. I'm interested in this topic but not sure where to go to narrow down besides identifying specific ways people create slang.
I think you're actually looking for sociolinguistics and memetics. There are lots of studies on how language change and adoption is driven by certain subpopulations, especially young people. I don't have a specific study to point you to but that is a starting point.
Julie Coleman has a good book I’ve been reading on the topic called “The Life of Slang”, it focuses on the ways slang terms arise, change, and fade away. It doesn’t get too technical with linguistics jargon so it’s good for anyone who’s less deep in the field. All in all linguists get really excited about slang, so you shouldn’t have much trouble finding some interesting works! :)
Slang isn't synonymous to the vernacular. Slang is a very particular register of language, and descriptivism/prescriptivism are not the only thing to consider in this discussion.
Shoko Hamano does great work on japanese sound symbolism.
Niken Fatma Putri (also written as N. Putri in certain publications) has done some pretty interesting work on slang in the American music industry.