Social Inclusion and Social Exclusion as a Tool for Reflecting Social Processes in the Lexical Neoformations of Youth English Slang

Abstract

The article discusses various approaches to defining the terminological base, the ambiguity of definitions, the lack of clear boundaries and signs of the concepts of social exclusion and social inclusion. The notions under study are characterized by way of their reference to communication process circumstances and participants, who are contrasted in their social status, cultural experience, ideological ideas and worldview to other social groups. The article analyzes slang neoformations with the concern for stylistically reduced register of communication as objectifying categories of social exclusion and social inclusion within the framework of youth discourse, which determine the developing vector of both society structure on the whole and social subsystems of the language. The novelty and relevance of the study lie in the use of linguocognitive analysis of authentic material, on the basis of which the mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion of slang lexical units are differentiated. The regularity in actualization of social exclusion or inclusion is understood in connection with the mechanisms and possibilities of using communicative practices in order to include social groups in social processes. These phenomena are reflected at the lexical level of the language and might contribute to various transformations of social consciousness, increasing language efficiency and its ability to respond to current challenges. It is concluded that modern youth slang is a specific language model that acts as an instrument of social exclusion or inclusion; in communicative practices, it is embodied through pejorative slang nominations thus strategically and tactically forming a negative image and antisocial behavior. The results of the research contribute to further study of the communicative nature of sociolinguistic phenomena, to comparative studies of the discursive construction of socially significant fragments of social reality, and the communicative manifestation of multidirectional social processes that determine the social structure and stratification of society.