Write 5 pages with APA style on Slang and Its Linguistic Significance. Such factors govern the formation of slang and the development of such varieties of languages. Slang also refers to such varieties as may be formed by certain groups to revolt against the hegemonic groups of their society. As such, slang has a secretive quality to it that stems from its political nature. This is what attracts many sociologists to take up the study of this phenomenon. As a side-effect of this, however, the linguistic aspect of slang does not receive the attention that it deserves.

The change that slang undergoes over a certain period of time is interesting to analyze. It changes in meaning, changes in spelling and even changes in the way in which certain words are pronounced. Such changes may be due to the changes that happen in language over a period of time while it is passed from one person to the other. Linguists in the twentieth century have reached the conclusion that language, in the hands of its users, undergoes many changes that ultimately lead to it being a process rather than a finished product. The whole of language is thus, not a static whole but an expanding and fluid medium of communication. This makes slang a very difficult phenomenon to analyze and study as it displays one of the most rapid rates of change amongst the different varieties of language. This is one of the first steps that can be taken in the understanding of slang- the recognition that it changes at the three levels of morphology, semantics, and phonetics. It may also in many cases, change in terms of its syntax. This is to say that the positioning of the words in sentences may differ at different points of time in the same variety of slang (Mattiello, 16).

It is thus, necessary that a distinction is understood between synchronous and diachronic changes in slang.