http://www.askoxford.com/worldofwords/wordfrom/modernslang/
When I saw a news clip that the Oxford Dictionary, probably the most widespread and respected, was going to include slang words in their next edition, I decided to further look into the idea of slang as being officially recognized by published dictionaries. I thought this page on askoxford.com was interesting.
"Slang is a colourful, alternative vocabulary. It bristles with humour, vituperation, prejudice, informality: the slang of English is English with its sleeves rolled up, its shirt-tails dangling, and its shoes covered in mud." I love this description of slang; it presents slang as a relaxed, casual English...maybe in a slightly negative way, but not overly so. It's natural that people will invent sub-languages to express themselves in various situations - standard English just does not apply to all contexts.
I think that slang is inevitable in a language, but especially English with all of its odd rules. Whether or not slang words should be included in dictionaries is something that can't be ruled one way or the other, but slang will always be a part of our language.
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