Expressing Teen Identity by Using Slang: Attitudes and Opinions Towards the Slang of Teenagers

Expressing teen identity by using slang:attitudes and opinions towards the slang of teenagers

Introduction

One of the most significant elements which people notice while meeting with someone is the person’s language. As Trudge (2000:2) points out, the manner in which we use our language has a great importance while “establishing social relationship and while conveying information about the speaker”. Ethnic background, gender, education, social class, age and many other aspects may influence the way we talk. And the way we talk may influence other people’s perception about us. Language in the society also differs in the formality levels. When talking about any specific kind of a language we use the term language variety. The variety of the language which is used in a particular situation is called style. Styles are mainly characterized by the vocabulary differences, but also by syntactic ones. Styles range on the scale from very formal to extremely informal. Vocabulary which is at the extremely informal end of the continuum is known as slang.[1] Some people might think that slang is only a young people issue. However the truth is that all of us use some kind of slang, and this usage is influenced by many factors. It is obvious that slang creates barriers between people or groups of people. So if you do not want someone, who is not a member of your group, understand what are you saying, you may use a particular slang, which is inherent only for your group. Using slang may also be part of a person’s identity. Therefore the main task handled in this paper is to examine the use of slang among teenagers and the sources they are influenced by.
This essay presents a view on teenage slang as a means of expressing their identity. It also includes society perspective and opinions on the adolescent use of slang. The teenage language was for a long period under-represented in language corpora. In order to repair this, a very comprehensive teenage language corpus, the

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