The Incongruity in Anti-language

叶海萍

（滇池学院，云南 昆明650228）

Abstract：The anti-language is a term coined by British linguist M.A.K Halliday (1971)，referring to a way of communicating within a language，excluding outsiders.Alternatively, anti-language，which can be treated as an extreme version of social dialects, tends to arise among subcultures and groups that occupy a marginal or precarious position in society，especially where central activities of the group place them outside the law.This paper intends to analyze the incongruity exists in the anti-language from Yang Zirong and Zuoshandiao.Yang’s successful spy work partially dues to his intelligible of the stylistic effect of the deviation in the anti-language.While in the example of Zuo Shandiao, with the register of calling for secrecy, the incongruity in his language would be a strategy to verify Yang’s identity in the limited time.Consequently, the anti-language is the peculiar language characterized with the incongruity under the register requiring a high-level security.

Key words： Incongruity；Anti-language；Spay work；Register

If one can grasp the meaning of the following sentence, then he or she would understand, even speak the anti-language.The utterance means that: “hey guys,look back carefully, there are some officers on aboard with a bulk of money.The head asks us to kill them and grab the money”.Apparently, it is spoken by muggers, and it is regarded as the anti-language.One of the first detailed records of the anti-language comes from a 16th Century magistrate called Thomas Harman.

“合字儿，掉瓢儿，招路把合，龙宫道漂遥儿赤字，居米子海。脑儿塞拈青字，浑天汪攒架漂遥儿，摘赤字的瓢儿肘，居米急付流儿撒活。”

Embarking from the theory of foregrounding, anti-language embodies a feature of lexical incongruity or lexical deviation.Namely, by adopting the lexical incongruity, the anti-language enables speakers to achieve the goal of secrecy.Therefore, this report will clarify the anti-language is mostly featured by its incongruity.More than that, with such given register in need of secrecy, the utterances featuring with the deviation would be the prime strategy for speakers to exclude some who are not their fellows.The anti-language is a term coined by British linguist M.A.K Halliday (1971), referring to a way of communicating within a language, excluding outsiders.Alternatively, anti-language, which can be treated as an extreme version of social dialects, tends to arise among subcultures and groups that occupy a marginal or precarious position in society, especially where central activities of the group place them outside the law.Halliday (1978) discusses the Elizabethan underworld language in terms of ‘relexicalization’, which means using‘new words for old’(p.165).

E.g.1.

土匪：蘑菇，溜哪路？什么价？

杨子荣：嘿！想啥来啥，想吃奶，就来了妈妈，想娘家的人，小孩他舅舅就来啦！

The above utterances, which are excerpted from the movie, The Taking of Tiger Mountain, confuse most moviegoers except that you are one of the bandits or you are quite familiar with it.Actually, what the bandit asks is that “who are you? Where are you going?”As for Yang Zirong’s response,“妈妈”and“小孩他舅舅”all refer to bandit.Apparently, the utterances are organized by the reconstruction of the words or “new words for old”, hence they are characterized with relexicalizaiton.Shaped by register of verifying Yang Zirong’s identity to avoid possible dangers, Zuo Shandiao violates even deviates from the norms of expressing the meaning.In such movie scene, the language is a rather efficient way to discern Yang’s identity, because Zuo Shandiao can’t tell Yang’s identity through his dressing within a short time.Zuo Shandiao shapes his language with incongruity, violating the norms of speaking.Therefore, in such register in need of secrecy, language featuring incongruity serves as passwords to join in the bandits.

E.g.2.

“天王盖地虎”

“宝塔镇河妖”

“马哈马哈，脸怎么黄了”

“防冻涂的蜡”

“怎么又红了”

“荣光焕发”

The speaker, in order to make his aims prominent and intelligible only by his fellows, deviates from the norms of expressing through the strategy of relexicalizaiton.Considering the field of the communication, some illegal contents are concerned so that incongruity is conducive to confidential work.In the movie, Yang’s success of taking mountain Tiger can be ascribed to his figuring out of incongruity in the Zuo Shandiao’s anti-language and the authentic meaning underlying it.Otherwise, Yang would not be qualified for the spy job, let alone win trust of the bandits.In the movie, there are various ways of calling their fellows, for instance, “合字儿”, “排琴”, “并肩子”rather than “兄弟(the most common expression to call their fellows)”.The fact that there are various synonyms of the same concept is called overlexicalization, which deviate from the norm of calling their fellows.But there are trivial differences among“合字儿”,“排琴”,“并肩子”.For example,“并肩子”is used to call someone who is quite familiar with the speaker, and “排琴”bears a sense of respect, while “合字儿”is more like flattering.Therefore, concerning the tenor, interlocutors with various social status would adopt diverse salutations.As another example, there are several ways to call the“黑话”, for instance,“山音”,“切口”,“怯口”.But in short, such incongruity in anti-language is aiming for secretary, excluding outsiders even their deadly foes, such as policeman.

To sum up, the anti-language is featuring with the deviation for certain stylistic effect.In 1990th, interview of about 400 robbers had been carried out in Calcutta, asking them the reason of using the anti-language.Among them, 132 said it was for communicative force, as well as verbal art, and 26 just said they had no idea about the anti-language, while the rest 158 said it was for secrecy.Admittedly, under such kind of register requiring the secrecy, the incongruity in their language would be their shield to guard themselves.And in the example of Yang Zirong,his successful spy work partially dues to his intelligible of the stylistic effect of the deviation in the anti-language.While in the example of Zuo Shandiao,with the register of calling for secrecy, the incongruity in his language would be a strategy to verify Yang’s identity in the limited time.Consequently, the anti-language is the peculiar language characterized with the incongruity under the register requiring a high-level security.