English Language - Age

Gary Ives Study - Does your age impact your language?

-carried out in a secondary school in West Yorkshire

-63 teens of various ages were asked

-All/100% said yes

Reasons:

-Desire to be different but also desire to have connection

Sociolinguistics (1977), Penelope Eckert

Divided the concept of age into three categories:

-Chronological age (how many years you've been alive)

-Biological age (physical maturity)

-Social age (experiences and social standing)

Penelope Eckert (2003) - Slang

“Slang is used to establish a connection to youth culture and to set themselves apart from the older generation.”

Penelope Eckert (2003) - Differences

“Adolescents do not all talk alike; on the contrary, differences among adolescents are probably far greater than speech differences among members of any other age group.”

Vivian de Klerk (2005)

-young people have the freedom to challenge linguistic norms

-They “seek out to establish new identities”

-They need to be seen as “modern… cool, fashionable and up-to-date”

-Their speech patterns, previously modelled after adults around them, change to maths their peers

-They have a need to belong to a group that are different to their parents, other adults or even other young people

Anna-Brita Stenstrom

Features of teen language:

-Irregular turn taking

-Word shortenings

-Overlap

-Teasing + name calling

-Verbal dueling/trying to one up each other

-Slang

-Taboo words and topics

-Language mixing (other cultures)

-Indistinct articulation