Extralinguistic factors of colloquial language argotization / jargonization: structure and dynamics

The article provides the results of study of extralinguistic factors that are relevant to the formation of transitional sub-idioms in Russian and French substandard as a product of argotization (jargonization) of modern colloquial speech. These are language subsystems that are established through interaction of various argot and jargon words with urban common argot in French and common jargon in Russian. The combination of extralinguistic factors is perceived as a structure consisting of three levels - from general to specific. Their dynamics is studied in the sociolinguistic context of contemporary history, from the second half of the XXth century to the beginning of the XXIst century. The upper level is represented by the most common social trends that determine linguistic situation in France and Russia within the period: lifestyle urbanization, establishment of relatively homogeneous social norms and stereotypes, pop culture and mass media impacts, etc. Socio-demographic, socio-economic, as well as social-psychological factors are taken into account. The author argues that active expansion of jargon/argot vocabulary beyond micro-communities tends to «peak» during the periods of highest susceptibility of social mind towards innovative changes, strengthening of anti-authoritarian trends in the society and self-expression needs. Furthermore, the study considers the factors relevant to the intensification of intralingual functional shifts - change in public attitudes towards literary norm, reorientation of linguistic consciousness to new evaluation guidelines. Finally, the peculiarities of transitional sub-idioms in Russian and French are considered: flexibility of French norm of informal communication has greater amplitude than the corresponding norm in Russian, which is less tolerant to obscenities. The author concludes that differential features relevant to the extralinguistic factors in question are gradual: being generally similar they have specificity to occur in different language situations in France and Russia.