1. Its presence will markedly lower, at least for the moment, the dignity of formal or serious speech or
writing.
2. Its use implies the user’s familiarity either with the referent or with that less statusful or less
responsible class of people who have such familiarity and use the term.
Mads Holmsgaard Eriksen
Translating the use of slang - A study of microstrategies in subtitling with a view to researching the transfer of the use
of slang from source text to target text with I Love You, Man as empirical example, including a study of the function of
slang
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3. It is a tabooed term in ordinary discourse with persons of higher social status or greater
responsibility.
4. It is used in place of the well-known conventional synonym, especially in order (a) to protect the
user from the discomfort caused by the conventional item or (b) to protect the user from the
discomfort or annoyance of further elaboration.