The Bloomsbury Dictionary of Rhyming Slangs

by Victor, Terry; Lillo, Antonio

• ISBN13: 9781623562892
• ISBN10: 1623562899
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2050-05-22
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

The Bloomsbury Dictionary of Rhyming Slangs provides a comprehensive and authoritative record of the variant rhyming slangs used in the Anglophone world. The dictionary specifically records social, regional and local variation within the UK alongside an up to date survey of rhyming slangs used in World Englishes at large. It builds upon previous work in the area and establishes a rigorous and authoritative account of the hugely imaginative way that rhyme is used within slangs and argot speech. It stresses accuracy and provability alongside its diversity.

This is an academically rigorous work that is both accessible and scholarly. In the manner of the New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English this is a dictionary with authority and a personality.

Author Biography

Terry Victor is co-editor (with Tom Dalzell) of the first and revised second editions of the New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English and the Concise NPDSUE, Sex Slang and Vice Slang. He is author of the chapter Gestural Slang in Global English Slang: Methodologies and Perspectives.

Antonio Lillo is Senior Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at the University of Alicante, Spain and author of Transcribing English: The Nuts and Bolts of Phonemic Transcription (Comares, 2009) and co-author of Grammar in Gobbets (AguaClara, 2002; 2nd ed. 2011). He has also published numerous articles on word-play and varieties of rhyming slang in such journals as English Studies, English Today, English World-Wide, Journal of English Linguistics and Scottish Language.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction. An introductory essay on the history, spread and development of rhyming slang around the Anglophone world.

2. Body of the dictionary (microstructure). Each entry will feature the following:
(i) Headword and variants.
(ii) Part of speech.
(iii) Geographical label(s).
(iv) Definition (the rhyme word, if appropriate, is part of
the definition; never use a word that itself needs looking up elsewhere and treat all
slang and unconventional English as unknown).
(v) A gloss which (a) may enlarge upon the significance and
social context of the headword; and (b) may enlarge upon the target word with
which the headword rhymes. Where relevant (and where known), the gloss will
include a commentary pointing to the term's origin and usage, as well as a short
consideration of the social circumstance or, and with regard to, the local significance
of dialect and accented speech.
(vi) The gloss or commentary will be supported by at least one written or oral citation
exemplifying the word's usage.