Identity - Language And Age

Question 1

Why do young people use different language than the older generation?

Answer 1

-adolescence - they often choose their words in a way that deviates from adult usage.
-older people - not prone to language changes; often retain traditional language patterns and vocab from their time.

Question 2

Why do people use slang

Answer 2

-fit in with the group
-create rapport
-trendy
-deliberately exclude
-rebelling against social norms
-influenced by media/technology/music etc, culture, social media, YouTube.

Question 3

Who talked about slang to slanguage: a description based on teenage talk

Answer 3

Anna Stenström

Question 4

What is Anna Stenström research

Answer 4

Conducted a Corpus of recorded spontaneous conversations involving 13 to 17 year old boys and girls with various social backgrounds.

Question 5

Proper slang (Anna Stenström) definition?

Answer 5

The largest category that consists of words and expressions that correspond most closely to the dictionary definitions of slang presented.

Question 6

General slang words (Anna Stenström) definition?example?

Answer 6

Not related to a particular group or trend etc, such as booze(drink), dude (fellow), spooky (frightening).

Question 7

Specific slang (Anna Stenström) definition

Answer 7

Typical of a group or trend, for instance bunk (leave), speed (drugs), dorm (dormitory)

Question 8

What are the two types of Taboo words (Anna Stenström)? define them and give examples

Answer 8

-regular slang words- substitutes for accepted synonyms. E.g. piss somebody off (irritate), to be pissed (drunk), take the piss out of (make fun of). Some serve as abusives (dickhead), some as intensifiers (fucking crap), others as reflectors of the speakers feelings (fucked-off).
-regular swearwords- used for nothing but swearing. E.g. (bollocks, what the fuck). Sometimes met with euphemisms (cor blimey)

Question 9

Vogue words (Anna Stenström) definition?example?

Answer 9

Words that already exist in the standard language but which are suddenly very frequently used for a short period of time before going back to normal usage. E.g. paranoid (afraid). In this category one might include old words that are used with a new meaning, such as “sad” (contemptible), “wicked” (excellent)

Question 10

Proxy words (Anna Stenström) definition?example?

Answer 10

(Words which act for other words) consist of ‘quotatives”, which replace the verb “say” to report something said and are realised in the form of “be” plus “like” (he was like I didn’t do it). Or a form of the verb “go” which replace and refer back to a previously mentioned “set” (coffee and cookies and stuff like that).

Question 11

Pragmatic markers (Anna Stenström) definition?examples?

Answer 11

Consists of appealed, for instance the invariant tag “innit” and “yeah” (and then I went home and yeah and had dinner yeah), “hedges” realised by “sort of”(sort of like), ‘empathisers’ such as you know (I met Alex you know and…), and tge ‘monitor’ I mean (that’s the truth though I mean it is a bit silly) and finally “just” and “really”, which are both used very frequently for a variety of functions in colloquial language.

Question 12

What does the theory of teenspeak entail

Answer 12

-informal register
-taboo
-mixing language from different ethnic/cultural backgrounds
-more frequent coining of new words.
-Use of like as a discourse marker
-rising intonation
-use of textspeak (LOL)