ABSTRACT
Although there are many kinds of slang, e.g., Cockney, public-house, commercial, society, military, there is also a Standard Slang just as there is a Standard English: Standard Slang is that which is employed by the users of Standard English. Manifestly we could not speak of commercial or society or military slang unless there were such a standard; no less manifestly, we could not even begin to attempt to map the areas occupied by those various slangs unless we had a norm by which to chart the boundaries. Obvious? Oh, quite! So obvious is the importance of recognizing that there is a standard slang, " Received Standard, variety 2," as a wag has described it, that it has been almost completely overlooked, so completely indeed that, while I do not pretend to have read and very well know that I have not in fact read by any means all the accounts of slang, I cannot cite a single noteworthy passage (and of what value are the others? mere exhaustiveness being but stiff-necked pedantry) in which either the existence of an argotic norm or the relationship of well-known and in some instances remarkable slangs to the central body of slang is adequately posited, much less notably or even satisfactorily indicated.
