ON ALTERNATIVE VARIANTS TO MODERN ACADEMIC DICTIONARIES OF the ENGLISH LANGUAGE
The article describes several examples of folk English. The number of crowdsourced folk dictionaries of present-day English is constantly growing. The purpose of this article is to study online folk dictionaries according to several factors. Urban Dictionary, The International Dictionary of Neologisms, Unwords, WordSpy are considered: reasons for their making, compilation and update principles, presentation of word entry etc. Urban Dictionary is one of the most popular crowdsourced dictionary. The International Dictionary of Neologisms and The Unwords Dictionary register new non-standard coinages invented by native speakers. Their common features are absence of linguistic description of neologism, reiteration and expressiveness of definitions. WordSpy tries to follow the principles of academic lexicography. The research proves that notwithstanding common skeptical opinion of professional lexicographers towards folk dictionaries, we cannot deny their functional importance. They carry out the main functions of language, provide information of new words coined in the English language every day in different areas. Through these dictionaries a person maintains the feeling of being an active participant of communication. Folk dictionaries include words and their meanings which belong to non-standard language and are not likely to be included into fundamental dictionaries of the English language. In the 21st century, online folk dictionaries register word-manicuring activity of modern society.