In reading William Safire's article "Language: Translating the lingo of adultalescence" (http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/09/30/news/edsafire.php) I was left thoroughly confuzzled (an amalgam of confused and befuddled). Many of the slang expressions in the article were foreign to me.
There are two possible explanations: one, I am just not that hip with the jive of our generation, or two, I live in a different region of the country where some of these terms have not yet arrived.
It was telling when Safire added some regional qualifiers to the expressions, like Chapel Hill's "sketchy" and Rice's "adultalescence". It would have been interesting to see where more of these terms are being spoken, as most slang will vary campus to campus.
That makes sense though, as slang is usually new terms that have not had enough time to spread from lexicon to lexicon. It seems to me that the source of most expressions that become part of the national teenage vocabulary is the media, which draws from local sources. An expected migration of new words would be Southern California--> MTV/Movies/Television/Music--> U.S./ World.
Slang is an attempt by each generation to develop its own separate identity or subculture, an attempt that for the most part has been successful. Each decade of the 20th century has a unique set of words and expressions that characterize it.
It is obviously the natural tendency of language to change over time, but it is possible that this phenomenon only occurs at generational speed when national media distribution is involved.
I'm curious if any of Safire's expressions crossed to other teenage English speaking populations, and how may of them are spoken in the home states of other class members.
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3 comments:
Interesting post. You point to the large role the media plays in spreading new slang terms. Are there any other factors that might play an equally, if not greater role in evolution of language? Is evolving language always about kids rebelling against un-hip parents, or are other social or cognitive factors involved? This is a really fascinating thing to think about!
I wrote about this article, too--and I thought the same thing. I'd never heard of some of these expressions that are supposedly so popular with teenagers! Except I actually use "sketchy" all the time :)
It would definitely be interesting to find out who's heard of what expressions in our class
I found your point about the media's involvement in the spread of slang to be really interesting. I curious to know if widely used slang existed before the appearance of radio and TV broadcasting or even before the time of newspapers, or could this widespread slang be a relatively modern phenomenon?
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