THE CONDITIONS OF DESLANGIZATION OF A SLANG UNIT AND THE SELECTIVITY OF THE LITERARY NORM

Bednyakov Evgeny Evgenievich

The purpose of the study is to derive the conditions under which a slang unit enters the literary norm from the functional-genetic nature of the unit. The tasks of the study include the genetic qualification of slang units by the environment of their origin, the comparison of this qualification with the actual destiny of a word, the explanation of the middle of the scale and of the exceptions, and the assessment of the role of media recirculation. The study tests the hypothesis that the destiny of a unit is predetermined by its original pragmatic task rather than by its expressiveness. The material comprises diachronic evidence on the destiny of Russian and English slang units, from nineteenth-century school vocabulary and the argot of itinerant traders to familiar English clippings and the lexicons of twentieth-century youth subcultures. The methodology combines functional-genetic reconstruction of a unit and a diachronic verification test. The study establishes that instrumental genesis substantially raises the probability of deslangization, whereas a simulative dominant restricts the path of a unit into the norm. The findings replace the static description of slang with a dynamic model of its functional phases and provide a theoretical foundation for applied tasks, including translation.

Keywords:deslangization of slang units; diachronic verification; functional phases; instrumental genesis; literary norm; media recirculation; nominative lacuna; primary slang; simulative slang