“Social language” concept and the area of its application

The article aims to expound the concept of «social language» on the example of the English language. As kind of sublanguage, called so by some scientists, social language has special features, uncharacteristic of dialects and language variations. It is the leading emotive function that differs the social language from the professional one. The article analyses the groups of people using one or another kind of social language (military, sportsmen, musicians etc.). It gives special consideration to youth slang as a good example for demonstrating changes in the whole society and in its separate groups. In this context, the article analyses the slang used by young people in an educational institution and in their free time.