Tracing Semantic Variation in Slang

TL;DR

This paper investigates how slang meanings vary across regions and history, using computational models to analyze historical slang records from the US and UK, revealing influences of culture and social functions.

Contribution

It introduces computational models to analyze historical slang variation, demonstrating the roles of communicative needs and semantic distinction over time.

Findings

Models can predict regional slang meanings from historical data.

Both cultural needs and social functions influence slang variation.

The importance of these factors fluctuates historically.

Abstract

The meaning of a slang term can vary in different communities. However, slang semantic variation is not well understood and under-explored in the natural language processing of slang. One existing view argues that slang semantic variation is driven by culture-dependent communicative needs. An alternative view focuses on slang's social functions suggesting that the desire to foster semantic distinction may have led to the historical emergence of community-specific slang senses. We explore these theories using computational models and test them against historical slang dictionary entries, with a focus on characterizing regularity in the geographical variation of slang usages attested in the US and the UK over the past two centuries. We show that our models are able to predict the regional identity of emerging slang word meanings from historical slang records. We offer empirical evidence that both communicative need and semantic distinction play a role in the variation of slang meaning yet their relative importance fluctuates over the course of history. Our work offers an opportunity for incorporating historical cultural elements into the natural language processing of slang.