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Languages and the First World War: Communicating in a Transnational War pp 258–273Cite as

Palgrave Macmillan

‘Extraordinary cheeriness and good will’

The Uses and Documentation of First World War Slang

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Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Languages at War ((PASLW))

Abstract

First World War slang provides a glimpse into the human experience of war, particularly into the tension created by formal and informal prohibitions on normal human reactions to the terror and horror of trench warfare. This chapter uses newspaper coverage of First World War slang to provide a context for its more detailed documentation in dictionaries and glossaries (see Coleman 2008). It explores the manifest and subliminal functions played by soldiers’ slang in newspapers and books and on the stage, as well as in other forms of public discourse, both while the war was underway and afterwards, into the early 1920s.

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Authors
  1. Julie Coleman
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. London, UK

    Julian Walker (Independent educator, artist and writer) (Independent educator, artist and writer)

  2. University College London, London, UK

    Christophe Declercq

Copyright information

© 2016 The Editor(s)

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Cite this chapter

Coleman, J. (2016). ‘Extraordinary cheeriness and good will’. In: Walker, J., Declercq, C. (eds) Languages and the First World War: Communicating in a Transnational War. Palgrave Studies in Languages at War. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137550309_16

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137550309_16

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-71543-5

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-55030-9

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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