Adams covers this perennially interesting subject in a serious but highly engaging way, illuminating the fundamental question of what is slang and defending slang--and all forms of nonstandard English--as integral parts of the American language. He reveals that slang is used in part to define groups, distinguishing those who are "down with it" from those who are "out of it." Slang is also a rebellion against the mainstream. It often irritates those who color within the lines--indeed, slang is meant to irritate, sometimes even to shock. But slang is also inventive language, both fun to make and fun to use. Rather than complain about slang as "bad" language, Adams urges us to celebrate slang's playful resistance to the commonplace and to see it as the expression of an innate human capacity, not only for language, but for poetry.--From publisher description.