language diversity: age

Question 1

Penelope Eckert (1998) – the concept of ‘age’

Answer 1

• there are different ways to argue the concept of ‘age’: chronological age, biological age (physical maturity) and social age (link to life events e.g marriage and children)
• 20 yr old widow and 20 yr old single female would not have the same lexis

Question 2

Ignacio Palacios Martinez (2011)

Answer 2

• teenagers use tags ‘innit,’ ‘yeah,’ ‘right’
• in spoken English teens use negatives more frequently than adults
• they’re more direct and aren’t concerned w/ threatening a speaker’s face e.g. ‘no way,’ ‘nope,’ ‘nah’ etc.
• around 1/3 of negatives occur in orders, suggestions and refusals

Question 3

Christopher V. Odato (2013)

Answer 3

• investigated the use of ‘like’ in children’s speech, kids as young as 4 used ‘like’
  1. infrequently and in a few syntactic positions (at the beginning of a clause e.g. ‘like you won easily’)
  2. used ‘like’ more often and in a greater no. of positions girls began using it aged 5 and boys 7
  3. used more frequently in other positions e.g before a prepositional phrase
• concluded young children may be copying the language of those older than them

Question 4

Penelope Eckert (2003) ‘establish a connection to youth culture’

Answer 4

• research into teen talk and theorised that slang is used to establish a connection to youth culture and set themselves apart from the older generation to signal coolness, toughness or attitudes

Question 5

Penelope Eckert (2003)

Answer 5

• adolescents don’t all talk alike, rather the differences among their speech are probably far greater than speech differences among the members of any other age group

Question 6

Jenny Cheshire (1987) — important life events

Answer 6

• adult language, as well as child lang., develops in response to important life events that affect the social relations and social attitudes of individuals

Question 7

Douglas S. Bingham (2012) – ‘argues against Chesire.’

Answer 7

• argues against Cheshire
• ‘important life events’ are most likely to occur at an age termed ‘emerging adulthood’ (post-18)
• so chronological age may still be an influential factor for younger speakers

Question 8

Unni Berland (1997) — social class is an important factor

Answer 8

• concluded that social class is an important factor
• innit = working class, yeah = middle class
• both genders use it in equal measure, except the term ‘okay’ is used more by boys

Question 9

John McWhorter (2013) – Ted Talk

Answer 9

• negative attitudes towards the ways in which young people use language , w/ their inability to use ‘correct’ grammar and punctuation in their writing has been around for a long time
• cites examples from 1956, 1917, 1800s that complain about their students’ linguistic abilities.
• even an example from the first century that bemoans of the slipping standards of the language in the hands of the masses

Question 10

Stenstrom (features in teen talk: )

Answer 10

• irregular turn taking
• overlaps
• indistinct articulation
• word shortenings
• teasing and name calling
• verbal duelling
• slang
• taboo
• language mixing

Question 11

Vivian de Klerk: ‘challenge linguistic norms’

Answer 11

• young people seek to create identities and have freedom to ‘challenge linguistic norms’ and want to look ‘modern’ and ‘cool’ and different and need to belong to a distinctive group
• not all teens are a homogeneous group

Question 12

Gary Ives (West Yorkshire study)

Answer 12

• West Yorkshire study: 100% of teens that were asked thought that people speak differently depending on their age and that language becomes more standard w/ age
• conducted a 2nd study among 17 yr olds that the shared language of teen was informal, containing taboo and slang specific to their age group

Question 13

Drummond (2018) — Manchester study

Answer 13

• studied teens in Manchester that’d been excluded from mainstream school and from a variety of backgrounds
• observed teens were able to switch to a more standard variety of English when situation required it (context dependent e.g. formal mock college interview they used appropriate language)

Question 14

factors influencing teen lang. (meta analysis)

Answer 14

• technology
• music
• peers
• street art
• media
• adults
  because of convergence/ divergence from adult speech

Question 15

conclusions from Gary Ives (West Yorkshire) secondary school study

Answer 15

• taboo is a part of teen lang.
• dialect is used commonly when speaking
• slang is common
• informal lexical choices are often linked by common themes/ topics

Question 16

typical slang features (Eckert)

Answer 16

• use of like and ok
• rising intonation
• multiple negatives