Teen age Language

. Vocabulary
If you go through the various linguistic articles and books discussing teenage language, you
will find a lot of different terms that define the language of teenagers like “teenage talk”,
“youth language”, “youth speak” and also “youth slang”. Taking the last example, the term
slang is often used to refer to teenage language. In linguistic studies of teenage language, it is
more precisely employed to describe the word choice of teenagers. “There are perhaps a
handful of features which could be regarded as typical of slang grammar, but there are very
few compared to the enormous number of words belonging to slang.” (Andersson & Trudgill
1990: 73) The vocabulary is thus what constitutes slang including, of course, youth slang.
Therefore, this study starts with an analysis of words typically used by teenagers. Special
attention will be paid to their innovative character expressed by the use of different word-
formation processes, as well as the use of words to indicate group membership and
“coolness”. Although slang dictionaries and some websites offer suggestions for the
explanation of many slang words, “[c]lear definitions of the meaning of commonly used
slang terms and expletives are generally not available: the very essence of such words rests in
their vagueness and adaptability.” (de Klerk 2005: 114) As a consequence, words have to be
interpreted with the help of the context, which makes it, at least in some cases, hard to give a
clear definition of slang words.

3.1 Word-formationProcesses
As Androutsopoulos (2005: 1497) points out, there are some areas that are “known for their
abundance in youth slang [like] mental and emotional states, sexuality, states of intoxication,
evaluative and intensifying vocabulary.” Having a look at slang words deriving from word-
formation processes in this study, the findings agree with Androutsopoulos’ statement that
these words mostly fulfil an evaluative function or describe emotional states.

3.1.1 CLIPPING
The analysis of teenage blogs revealed that clippings belong to the most frequently used
word-formations. Comparing the four blogs, readplatform.com has the biggest amount of
clippings, most of them nouns, while the other blogs contain only shortened forms of
adjectives and no example of shortened verbs. The reason for the dominating number of
adjectives that have become slang vocabulary by the use of clipping is the support and
feedback function of a group and its language. As has already been pointed out, adolescence
is a time during which the individual is trying to build up a personal identity and this process
is marked by insecurity. That is why teenagers are looking for confirmation by their peers.
Famous blogs often allow their visitors to leave comments giving them the chance of
evaluating entries and exchange opinions.

(1) Daisy Nguyen: OMG - LOVE this look! So easy, and RED! FAVE color. FAVE outfit!
(SJ 34)
(2) Dipika Syngai: I love your playlist and you look so damn fab and your friends as well.
(SR 27)
(3) Christian Jensen: Glad I’m not the only one who’s butt is legit hurting over this. (SYWH
16)

The examples (1) and (2) include shortened versions of positive adjectives that are used to
show agreement. Fav(ourite) and fab(ulous) seem to be the most frequently used adjectives
that have undergone the process of clipping. Other examples are brill(iant) and amaz(ing).
Since support of group members by positive evaluation belongs to the most important
functions of teenage language, adjectives carrying a positive meaning are commonly used.
This causes two problems for teenage language use. Firstly, words that are often used enter
standard language and become old-fashioned, which contradicts the teenage drive for
modernity. Secondly, these words like favourite and fabulous, which actually carry strong
positive meaning, lose their position as strong expressions due to their frequent use. From a
teenage perspective, one could say that they have become linguistically worn. In order to
restore the taste of modernity and also a strong meaning, they undergo the process of
clipping. Here we can perfectly employ Labov’s concept. The words given in the example are
often used by a majority of people to express positive meaning or agreement. Thus they have
overt prestige. By the use of clipping, these words are also used by teenagers or certain
groups of teenagers, which gives them covert prestige as well.

While clipping merely fulfils an intensifying function in the examples discussed above, it can
also lead to a change of meaning. This is shown in example (3), where we find the word legit
used as an adverb. It derives from the adjective legitimate and used to carry the same
meaning (legal, acceptable).[1]As one could conclude from example (3) it has been given the
meaning of an intensifier like really or extremely. Further research on the popular website
www.urbandictionary.com, where mostly young people try to give their own explanation of
slang words, confirmed the assumption that legit has recently undergone a process of change
in meaning. One user describes the word legit as follows: “this word was obviously a short
form of "legitimate" but it no longer holds the same meaning as legitimate, since it has
become very popular to use the word legit to mean something "cool".” Even teenagers
themselves seem to realize that the meaning of the word has changed. Moreover, the clipping
of legitimate broadened the use of the word, which, as shown in example (3) above, can also
function as an adverb.

(4) [...] and won’t stop until it has its own Wikipedia page (Urban Dictionary isn’t legit) (RP
4)

Having a look at another example for the use of legit, it turns out that the original meaning
still exists. Furthermore, legit as an adjective is seemingly not put before a noun unlike the
original legitimate. Instead, it is often used as a subject complement in connection with a
form of be. Summarizing the findings concerning legit, one can truly say that this word is a
perfect example of the innovativeness and “productivity of certain non-standard word-
formation types and procedures of formal modification (such as clipping, redundant suffixes
etc.).” (Androutsopoulos 2005: 1499) The development of this word started with a shortening
just to make it fashionable and appropriate for teenage language, which finally led to a
process of change affecting meaning and even the grammatical use.

Apart from the various adjectives influenced by clipping, the study revealed that nouns
underlie this type of word-formation, too. Although only the users of readplatform.com were
found to make use of shortened nouns, their relatively high number allows drawing
conclusions from them.
(5) Matty Crunk thinks “this is the biggest vid on road at present”. (RP 18)

(6) Taken from the forthcoming Smiff N wessun and Pete Rock collab LP “Monumental”
(released on the 28th of June) which is set to be fucking awesome (RP 32)

Since readplatform.com is a blog that comments specifically on topics belonging to the rap
music scene, there are some words, especially nouns, which are used more often than others
due to the restricted topic area. This causes again the problem of overuse triggering word-
formation processes. As in the example (5), vid is taken instead of video. Many entries on
this blog discuss music videos, which is probably the reason why video was shortened.
Another explanation which can be offered in that case is the typical use of registers. In the
previous chapter, it was stated that social groups develop their own language as a secret code
and to show the existence of shared knowledge. What might become clear in example (5) but
definitely in example (6) is the use of clipping to create scene-related registers. Thus vid
means not only video but music video, which can get an even more precise sense of rap
music video. Moreover, collab as a shortened form of collaboration refers to a joint music
project by at least two musicians or bands. While someone who is not familiar with the rap
music scene could probably guess what is meant by vid, this person might have some
difficulty in finding out what is meant by collab without having an appropriate context. So
the clippings found on readplatform.com like the examples mentioned above and others like
exec or zine help to constitute a music scene-related language that is apparently preferred by
teenagers to mark their membership of this group.

3.1.2 COMPOUNDING
As the findings about teenagers’ use of clipping have shown, word-formation processes are
mostly employed for positive evaluations, which are usually colourful expressions of
agreement. The following account will offer more evidence for this assumption.

(7) Christian Jensen: Because let’s face it, if you want to beat those guys and their own game,
you seriously need to put in some Olympic-Gold-Medal-grade effort and training. (SYWH
18)

(8) Stefania and Caroline: your crown is very edward scissorshands-suburbia and pink
lemonade (SR 14)

The results of the previous subchapter led to the assumption that teenagers need to express
their opinion or evaluation of different things so frequently and in such an extensive way that
commonly used adjectives are not sufficient anymore to serve their purposes. Therefore, they
use clippings to emphasize or even change the meaning of existing adjectives. By means of
compounding, they go even further and create their own words used for evaluation. In
example (7) a visitor of the blog wants to say that huge effort and hard training is necessary
to succeed. Instead of using general adjectives or adverbs, he creates a long noun by
combining four nouns with the help of hyphens, which functions as a noun modifier for effort
and training. This makes his expression very figurative while at the same time it constitutes a
kind of superlative. Most people would agree that the Olympic gold medal is the highest
possible achievement of a sportsperson. Consequently, this person has to undergo a very hard
training. So the utterance in example (7) is not only a playful and innovative form of
language use, it perfectly puts into words what the visitor of the blog wants to express.
While the compound in example (7) cannot be regarded as a register of the group because it
rather draws on general knowledge, the expression edward scissorshands- suburbia, which is
used to describe a crown, requires a certain background knowledge to be understood. The
visitor of the blog who wrote the comment probably assumed that the other readers know the
movie “Edward Scissorhands” and its setting in the American suburbs, which enables them to
get an idea of the imagination that the commenter alludes to. It is thus not only a fancy and
unconventional way of describing a fashion accessory, it also appeals to a shared knowledge
among the readers of the blog and strengthens cohesion inside this group.

There are further examples for compounding in the corpus, which emphasizes that both
adolescent boys and girls use this figurative way of expressing either positive or negative
evaluation. “Now more than ever before, young people must also negotiate and make sense of
an intensely semioticized world as post-industrial economies are premised increasingly on
symbolism, imagery and ‘design-intensity’.” (Thurlow 2005: 6) This offers a possible
explanation for teenagers’ preference of such pictorial expressions. Since mass media and
advertisements tend to substitute pictures for language, teenagers’ language becomes more
and more figurative. The meaning of a single word is seen as insufficient and therefore
replaced by a long compound or even a phrase.

(9) All the tracks I’ve heard off the LP are pure butter and this is no exception, all the verses
are super tight like fat girls in lycra (RP 29)

Here we have an example of a typical like-phrase that creates a funny image in order to
describe or explain something. Indeed, it does not belong to the category of word- formation,
but as a conclusion to this subchapter it confirms the above-said assumption that teenage
language tends to use long, figurative expressions instead of plain adjectives or adverbs.

[...]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1316062/Yes-teen-speak-drives-mad-adult-jargon-
[1]

FAR-worse- -innit.html, date: 21/8//2012.

 Apart from readplatform.com, all blogs chosen for analysis offered their visitors to leave
2

comments on the entries, which allowed this paper to analyse not only the language of a few
bloggers, but of a huge audience from different English-speaking countries.

According to Langenscheidt Universal-Worterbuch Englischer Slang (2009: 278), it is only

[1]

a shortened version of legitimate.