Specific Semantic Characteristics of Slang Words (From Chinese and Vietnamese Materials on Robbery, Drug, Prostitution and Smuggling Groups)

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“ Flower girl ” is used to mean “ prostitute ” and “ Brown fairy ” is used to mean opium.

Metaphorical transfer: Metaphor is a method of transferring meaning based on the association and comparison of similar aspects, attributes... between objects. Based on the semantic features of the categories that give rise to metaphors, the slang of the social groups under study has the following forms:

- Formal metaphors are formed based on the similarity in form between objects such as: straw, pen, group, pair of grapefruit, twin mountains, hearing, seagull, acacia, grass, American grass, stone, crossbow...

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For example, the word “ weed ” is used by drug trafficking societies to refer to a mixture of various herbaceous plants that are dried, chopped, and seasoned with other substances to create a hallucinogenic mixture, based on the similarity of the type of material (plant).

- Method metaphors are formed based on the similarity in the way of doing things: throwing waterfall, showing goods, planting grass, releasing ice, corner, number, transaction, peeling calendar, holding, catching prey, squeezing, plowing...

The word " em" is a verb with the original meaning of holding in the arms or hugging in the bosom. The group of thieves in the society converted it into a slang meaning by metaphorical means to " the act of taking or hugging someone else's things - stealing ".

- Functional metaphors are formed based on functional similarities: pet, nursing home, good friend, inherent capital...

For example, the word “ chicken” is a noun that refers to an animal (of the bird species) raised for meat, eggs or for entertainment (fighting). The prostitution social group has relied on the characteristics of raising, caring for, training and expanding the meaning by combining words indicating characteristics and properties to create the slang expression: “ pet chicken” .

- Metaphorical transfer: The resulting metaphor is formed based on the

similar in state, emotion, result... of the process: toi, garlic, fall back, fall into the net, die, fall, dizzy, bitter, sour... For example:

The word “ toi ” which usually means death (with a connotation of contempt) is used by the surveyed social groups to refer to unsuccessful work, accomplices being captured/dead…

In addition, many slang words are formed by using proper names in metaphorical speech. These are the names of characters in literary works such as novels , movies, songs... The characters often have specific characteristics and the slang also has semantic content that is that specific characteristic, for example:

“Thi No”: ugly woman; “Hoan Thu”: jealous person;

"So Khanh": a person who is fickle and deceives women in love;

“Chi Dau, Lao Hac”: people with miserable, poor lives; “Chi Pheo”: a person who often begs for money.

Thus, metaphorical transfer is one of the methods of creating slang words. The slang words created by this method are more or less familiar to the majority of society but still have a confidential, in-group and rich image. For example, the social group of drug users relies on the similarity of colors to metaphorically name the slang words they use, for example:

“ Black opium”: black opium; “white balls”: white opium, heroin . The following slang words are formed based on the similarity of a certain characteristic, for example: “ bear/head bear”: a bold, fierce, rough person; “old fox”: a cunning person.

- Metonymy: Metonymy is a method of semantic transfer based on the logical relationship between things or phenomena that are close to each other in space and time. Compared to metaphorical transfer, the slang words of the surveyed social groups established by the metonymy mechanism are few in number. However

However, the words that are metonymically transferred are mostly familiar words and are used quite frequently, for example:

Long legs, beautiful woman, boy, raincoat, potato, black hand, blood 35, yellow shirt,

blue shirt, briefcase, trunk, red face, black face, horns, centipede legs, snake head, navel...

There are many types of metonymy, such as:

Metonymy is based on the part-whole relationship. For example: “ Blood 35 ”: a lustful person.

“ Black hand ”: state officials colluding with merchants to smuggle.

“ underlings ”: a team of underlings involved in smuggling activities.

- Metonymy based on the relationship between clothes and people. For example:

“ yellow shirt ”: police; “ blue shirt ”: armed police; “ capped shirt ”: officer.

5) Thus, it can be seen that, like literary words, in slang words there always appear phenomena: polysemy, synonyms and antonyms.

- The phenomenon of polysemy is expressed as follows:

Polysemy is based on developing the original meaning into slang, for example: chicken, chop, bullet, stab the throat, marry, work, milestone 51, touch, bread, pair of grapefruit, cave, beautiful woman, long legs, knight, handsome guy, rock sugar, button, fly ...

Polysemous because it has many different meanings (not including the original meaning), for example: goods, chicken, import, play, decoy, owl, go, VIP goods, calendar peeling...

The same slang word can have different meanings depending on the social group. Between these meanings we can still recognize a certain connection according to some associative thread.

For example, the slang word “ hang” has different meanings in different social groups:

The prostitution social group uses the word to refer to prostitutes.

The term used by the gang of thieves to refer to weapons.

The drug society uses the term to refer to “ opium, marijuana, ice, ket…

The social group smuggling is used to refer to smuggled goods such as cigarettes, sugar, medicine, clothes, household goods, etc.

Slang word " go":

The thieving social group uses this slang to mean “ go to jail, steal, die”.

Prostitution groups use this slang to mean “ have sex, die, get caught”.

Drug gangs use this slang to mean “ death, arrest”.

The smuggling gang uses this slang term to mean “ bribe, get caught, get thrown in jail”.

A question arises, is there a phenomenon of synonymy in slang? Regarding synonymy, Nguyen Van Tu said: “Synonyms are words that have the same meaning. They are many different words that refer to the same thing, a characteristic, or an action. They are different names for a phenomenon. Synonyms have one thing in common: identification” [68]. With this understanding, there are also synonyms in slang, that is, social groups use different words to refer to and express the same thing or phenomenon. For example:

Slang term for a person belonging to a social group called prostitution such as:

lost cow, small flower, cicada, goldfish, chicken, chicken, strange bird, big sister, swallow, spider, strange thing, tycoon, beautiful woman, long legs, youngest sister, flower girl, call girl…;

prostitute , harvest worker , harvest worker

( rumored bitch), young lady , hostage , charcoal briquette , chicken ,

mistress ( Shanghai dialect: mistress ) , waitress (waitress); neighbor (neighbor),

bar owner (bar hostess), prostitute (prostitute; street girl); hostess (female hostess)

bar).

Slang terms for goods in drug society include:

Rock, handsome guy, ketamine, American weed, candy, pure sugar, brown fairy, alum, white pill, ecstasy, sái, grass, goods, ken nep…;

E仔,亚当,六神丸,劲乐玩,小鸟,忘我,快乐丸: ecstasy; K仔, K他命,

下面,嗨药,强奸粉: Ketamine;丧尸药Methcathinone;仔,四号,开档: Heroin;

可可精,快乐客: Cocaine;嘎嘎,力丸,奶茶,象牙棒: crystal meth;大烟,小果: nha

blade; grass : grass.

Slang for the act of stealing, taking other people's things such as: stealing, stealing, cutting bombs, running shells, stealing, stealing, snatching, flattering....

Slang words for dollars such as: sheet, ticket, curly-haired man, green, second, old man, special gift...; Slang words for Vietnamese money such as: sheet, buffalo, hump, smooth old man, bullet, count, wind, distribute...

Antonyms of slang: compared to polysemy and synonyms, antonyms are not many but not non-existent. For example:

For example: "上山" means going to jail, and "下山" means getting out of jail.

6) Because they belong to the private language of social groups, the meaning of slang words is often " strange " to people outside the group. Accordingly, the meaning of the statements (slang) is often difficult or impossible to understand for those who do not belong to the social group using those slang words. For example: In English

Han, the social group that practiced prostitution used雄西: prostitute ("xi"西means part)

female genitalia).

7) It can be said that in both Chinese and Vietnamese, modern slang in general is colloquial slang which is currently becoming a socio-linguistic phenomenon and can be understood as " a non-standard form of expression with typical characteristics that go against common principles".

slang is a type of language that is rich, diverse, unusually new, and mainly taken from popular language groups in society, very new, trendy ... "[72 ]. Accordingly, in terms of meaning, slang can have positive meanings but also negative or neutral meanings. This range of meaning is determined by the user, the content to be expressed, and the need for use.

8) It can be said that the appearance of slang words all have their origins. For example, in Chinese, there is the appearance of the word “大哥大” (big brother big):

“大哥大” is a word that people used to call a mobile phone or a handheld phone and is used as slang to mean “the head of the state”.

Macau and Hong Kong gangs”: In Hong Kong movies, those who join a gang early are called “大哥(big brother)”, and the leader is called “大哥大” (big brother big). Because, when you turn on the TV, you will see the “big men” in

hand with phone

9) The semantics of slang words have socio-cultural characteristics, specifically the cultural characteristics of social groups. For example:

Smuggling social group:

gangster (social worker): gangster (in terms of dressing style…).

Have money (have ore, mine): have money, rich people.

Carp (carp): luck, opportunity.

send off to death: give up one's life.

Prostitution social group:

Chrysanthemum is just a flower: refers to the male anus used in homosexual relations. For example:爆菊花(chrysanthemum explosion): anal sex.

That is the reason why slang words are often attributed to " black " social groups, so people often think that only " lacking " people

In the "new education " that uses slang, people who use slang are always considered to be people of the " lower class of society (for example, urban commoners, farmers, small traders and gangsters, etc.) ". For example:

The word “侃” means “to speak”, although it is used a lot in English.

Beijing, but “you still won't hear two professors talking to each other”咱俩来侃一侃. The reason is, the intellectuals and the students

Through professional education, it is believed that opening one's mouth to slang and popular social terms is a manifestation of lack of education.

10) The meaning of slang words has social characteristics at each stage.

specifically.

First of all, slang belongs to specific social groups, accordingly, the emergence of social groups, especially "negative" social groups, will have slang of those social groups. This explains why words related to prostitution, drugs, gambling are increasingly diverse. For example, to describe a prostitute, in both Chinese and Vietnamese, there are dozens of names. Among them, there are names taken from the names of characters in popular stories and movies. For example, in Chinese recently appeared:

“苍井空还是处女。 (Aoi Sora is still a virgin). The reason is because, Aoi

Sora is a porn actress in Japanese adult entertainment, so when she says this, it means to mock and look down on those who are promiscuous and immoral but think they are noble. This sentence is also a threat used by prostitution managers when forcing them to serve customers.

二百五 (250): At first glance, this phrase just means the number 250, but

This number has a negative connotation: when someone is called “250”, it means that person is considered stupid, useless, and good for nothing. Therefore, in China, the number 250 is restricted in use.

11) It can be said that the slang of social groups is quite rich. They exist and develop in parallel with the existence and development of social evils. Therefore, while slang words are still existing and being used, new slang words have appeared. The appearance of new slang words contributes to ensuring the safety and confidentiality of social groups.

Below, we will focus on analyzing the specific semantic characteristics of slang words based on Chinese and Vietnamese sources through groups of robbers, drugs, prostitution and smuggling.

3.2. Specific semantic characteristics of slang words (from Chinese and Vietnamese documents on robbery, drug, prostitution and smuggling groups)

As mentioned, although it is based on the literary meaning, the slang meaning of the slang words in the groups of robbers, drug addicts, prostitutes and smugglers always has a negative meaning. The reason is that the activities of these four groups are illegal activities, so the slang words used by these groups also represent the activities and life of these illegal groups.

To clarify this content, we will analyze the basic characteristics of Vietnamese slang from the semantic perspective of some social groups: robbery, drugs, prostitution and smuggling.

3.2.1. Classification of Chinese slang words of groups of thieves

robbery, drugs, prostitution and smuggling based on semantics

In this section, we focus on classifying the meanings of slang words belonging to the four social groups above.

3.2.1.1. Slang of the gang of thieves

Based on semantics, Chinese slang words that represent areas related to robbery activities are divided into the following groups: