Language and Age Theorists

Question 1

Gary Ives

Answer 1

1:
- asked 63 teens in West Yorkshire of people speak differently depending on their age, they all said ‘yes’

-assumed that more standard forms are used as you get older

2:
-carried out discussion with 17 year olds and identified features of ‘teen speak’

-informal register, taboo language, dialect and slang

3:
-typical language features associated with technology used extensively by 8 to 11 year olds

-older children no longer see it as ‘cool’ to talk like that

Question 2

Jenny Cheshire

Answer 2

• life experiences change language use, not chronological age
• “language… develops in response to important life events”

Question 3

Douglas S. Bigham

Answer 3

-most life experiences occur post-18, during ‘emerging adulthood’

Question 4

Anna-Brita Stenstrom

Answer 4

• features of ‘teen speak’
• irregular turn taking, overlaps, indistinct articulation, word shortenings
• teasing and name calling, verbal duelling, slang, taboo, language mixing

Question 5

Penelope Eckert

Answer 5

• “slang is used to establish connection to youth culture (and) to set themselves off from the older generations”
• common features: up talk, ‘like’ and ‘okay’, multiple negation
• also claims that “adolescents do not all talk alike”

Question 6

Ignacio Palacios Martinez

Answer 6

• teenagers use negatives more often

- no way, nah, dunno, I couldn’t give a toss, double negation, non standard use of never

Question 7

Unni Berland

Answer 7

• ‘innit’ more used by working class, ‘yeah’ used by middle class
• ‘okay’ used more by boys, both equally use ‘innit’, ‘right’ and ‘yeah’

Question 8

Anita Stenstrom, Gisle Andersen and Ingrid Kristine Hasund

Answer 8

• 14 to 16 year olds in London

- multiple negation, use of ain’t, ellipsis of auxiliary verbs, non standard pronouns (theirselves)

Question 9

Christopher V. Odato

Answer 9

-stages of ‘like’

Stage 1: infrequent use, mainly at beginning of clauses (like you won easily)

Stage 2: used more often in different positions, girls move to this stage at 5 and boys move to this stage at 7

Stage 3: used even more frequently and in other positions, before a prepositional phrase (look at how yours landed like right on the target)

Question 10

Zimmerman

Answer 10

• the following features influence teen language

- media, the press, new means of communication, music, street art, graffiti

Question 11

Vivian de Klerk

Answer 11

• young people have the freedom to “challenge linguistic norms”
• they “seek to establish new identities”
• they need to be seen as “modern… cool, fashionable and up to date”