European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 1, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Leading Edge Slang Here s the rap on How Slang leaps into the Lingo by Beth Ann Krier los Angeles times hardware. Wetware.  latest Yuppie Kitchen utensils fall fashions irom Silicon Valley a three course synthetic to dinner to Slang experts hardware Walwaie and malware Are All computer terms one old. Two freshly minted. Hardware computes machinery is now so familiar it s in the dictionary As Standard usage. Wetware the brain end its Dan code and malware a hip reference to the human Bod seen As a Bunch of meat and Timothy a Earls writing an interactive computer program featuring glossaries of along. Juices Are leading Edge Slang from cyberpunk High Lech enthusiasts known for their futuristic ideas and outlaw natures. How do such now words wind up being spoken by the Law Lech enthusiasts among us and How soon might we Lind them served up mid cocktail in party conversation ready for digestion with the sushi and Stu led Snow peas according to those who create catalogue and Analyse Slang terms Are being created at such a dizzying Pace these Days that it s virtually impossible Lor anyone to remain current with All of them. The reason Slang develops is that it identifies people As an in group. We have Many More groups in american society now said University of California los Angeles linguistics professor Victoria Fromkin former president of the linguistics society of America. At one Tims in higher education there were Only seven Liberal arts. Now at Urcla we have 92 . Programs and 68 departments. In my own held linguistics there Are a number of different sub specialities. Each  develops its own technical terms and  observers also suspect that the lag Lime Between the creation of Slang and its appearance in the mass Media is growing Shorter. Consider for instance a frustration of Esther and Albert Lewin co authors of 7"ns thesaurus of Slang. The los angelas couple spent six years on their manuscript and made fast minute additions to it about seven months ago. Since then they be nearly tilled a shoe Box with 3-by-s-Lnch cards listing hundreds of new Slang terms chiefly irom Media sources All discovered too late for inclusion in their just published Book. Thus among the Book s 150,000 entries readers will Lind such teen age synonyms for vomiting As the technicolor Yawn but not talking to the seals or calling Earl  Timothy Leary the drug guru Futurist turned socialite and stand up philosopher has found new Slang appearing so rapidly that he s writing an interactive computer program featuring glossaries of Slang from several groups to help people keep up with shifts in the language. He has Long been fascinated Wilh those groups in society who Are challenging the old order and creating Tho new especially cyberpunk and teen agers. And he observes that such groups typically create their rep musicians a weft � . Jazzy  Pronco bring my Tang to the language own languages almost As an act of Power. Tor example to be a body builder he said referring to a group whose Slang is just beginning to spill Over to the mainstream you have to Lake charge of your body and write your own script. You be got to be a special take charge sort of person to do that. Groups thai come out with their own languages Are on the new frontiers of cultures. They re doing something very very new where there s not been 500 years of sacraments and  while Many new language Are coming irom such Slang producing groups As rap musicians body builders skateboarders stockbrokers and others not even the language pros who study How words Are coined and passed into Genera circulation Are willing to predict which new Slang Are Likely to move into Standard usage. There s no Way to Lell no clues at All. You never know what s going to catch he Public s imagination or a generations said lexicographer Stuart Berg Flexner editor of the i conary of american Slang and considered by Many to be the Foremost authority on . Stang. Thus language watchers will have to Wall to see ii society at Large picks up on the Lingo  the recent political conventions at the rep Bucan gathering democrats were accused of practising pastel patriotism Lor not decorating their Arena with traditional red while and Blue. At the democratic convention after Arkansas gov. William Clinton s overing speech any politician making a career trashing Blunder was described As doing a  in Flexner s experience Slang lends to Spring from social groups that Are the first to confront new objects new situations and new concepts lot which there May be no adequate words in addition he said each new generation typically invents its share of new words to describe the same old things. The author of i hear America talking and listening to America Flexner has observed thai Slang is most Likely Dink relationships by Mark r Horowitz for United press International in today s world of acronyms for everything from prolonging the planet by limiting nuclear weapons Start to aging Giac Lully in spite of nuclear weapons Hardink stands out As representative Ota new state of economic affairs. The double income no kids Dink couples often Are envied by both the unmarried and the very married. After All there s All that discretionary income that never departs for the never ending landscape of disposable diapers paediatricians and new shoes every three months. Yet dinks Are people too despite their two cars two lobs and probably two different views of marriage since there is so Little Lime for discussion and a meeting of the minds. Dinks no doubt quarrel divorce cheat on each Othef and commit the other unpardonable that All married couples Are susceptible to kids or no kids this marital Anan Emend of course is hardly new. Nor is it As harsh or Down Reghl dangerous As it could be. A Dink relationship during the Kroe of the Vikings a thousand years ago would have been open to Many perils since customs were very different from our own. For one Page 16 the stars and stripes saturday october 1,1988