I'm wondering about why we use slang. The article stated that minorities, oppressed groups, and coworkers come up with their own slang. But for everybody of every age , why? Well its fun! and I believe it serves a purpose. Slang allows us to color our language. It makes it so we can have more than just words, intonation, and meaning. Slang can set the mood of your message; slang dips into all the layers of not only what you're saying, but what you're meaning and feeling. Its almost like a code, and if you can get the message and decode it correctly you can see into the person and learn what they're really all about. When my dad uses slang, he's doing more than projecting himself as hip or cool, he's being endearing. (is that possible?)What I mean is, that I find it funny because I know and love him; another man, similar to my dad, could say the same thing and I might laugh but when my dad says, for example "peace out" I not only laugh but it gives me a 'warm fuzzy.' Its almost like he's letting me know that he loves me, when he uses slang. (by the way there's also plenty of non-verbal stuff going on, i.e.=eyebrow raise, looking you in the eye, the 'I'm cool' expression) He is also revealing his mood to me.
When my dad says 'peace out' its like he's saying: I'm hip, I'm cool, I love you, life's good, I'm happy and I want you to be happy too. :) I know there's more to it than that but I don't know how to express it.