Adolescent Language and Innovation:

A Lexical Perspective

Miss. BAGUI HayetAssistant TeacherNaama University.

baguihayet@yahoo.fr

Based on Grosjean’s List (1982) on ‘Factors Influencing Language Choice’ where he considered that attitude, age, and topic are among the factors of code choice, this paper aims fundamentally at examining adolescent language and lexical innovation, and the reasons that stand behind theses innovations’ choice.

Blom and Gumperz (1972) approach identified two types of code choice: situational switching and metaphorical switching. Situational S depends on the situation; the social context defines the linguistic choice, and such a choice is controlled by social rules that have been become integrated part of the daily linguistic behaviour of individuals.

Objectives of the study

Metaphorical S, on the other hand, occurs according to changes in topic rather than the social situation. Here, it is “the choice of language that determines the situation” (Hudson, 1996:53).

Myers Scotton (1993b) introduced her “Markdness Model” as a complementary device to “account for CS by proposing that speakers have unmarked and marked choices available to them when they speak”. The « unmarked choices » are expected and do not produce any special effect whereas « marked choices » are unusual, un-expected and encode the speaker's social disapproval.

Sub-Questions

1/What are adolescents’ attitudes towards lexical innovation and

what are their attitudes towards individuals neglecting its

interference?

2/ What are the motives that lead adolescents to these lexical

innovations’ use?

3/Do adolescents include new items in any informal talk?

Hypotheses

1/There might be positive attitudes towards this new language and

some negative attitudes towards people who do not innovate..

2/various factors contribute in the use of this specific type of

language, the most important one being age, in addition to other

social factors.

3/It could be hypothesizes that adolescents tend to include

innovations according to the topic discussed

AdolescenceAdolescence is a developmental transition between childhood and adulthood. It is the stage in person’s life from autonomy to maturity and from dependency to independence.

There are varying views on the actual time line of “A”, begins/ends:

Stanley Hall 1st psychologist to advance a psychology in its own right. He refers to A as a turbulent transitional age.

about 12/13years between the ages of 22/25

.Biological SocialEmotionalCognitive

Adolescence is affected by a set of transitions (challenges) which influence many aspects of the individual’s behaviour.

Adolescence develops a new way of thinking, a new capacity which is more creatively and critically totally different from children

This period develops an emotional creativity among adolescence: different beliefs, attitudes, and self-perception in young persons’ life.

The process whereby adolescent want to be integrated and gain a place within a society, i.e. the search for personal identity

Profound physical changes ‘puberty’: the growing in height, weight, appearance.

Field study based on both quantitative and qualitative methods with the ultimate goal of providing adequate answers to the set of questions addressed earlier.

Research Instruments Site of Research

Matched Guise TechniqueInterview

Adolescents(Tlemcen)

Recording

Early (15/20)

Late(21/25)

Methodology

Triangulation

Sampling and Stratification of Informants

Educational level Male Female

Secondary 20 20

University 20 20

1) Attitude as an incentive paradigm

Results and Interpretation

Educational

level

Gender 10-14 14-25 More than

25

I do not

know

Secondary Male0 2 18 0

Female0 0 20 0

University Male0 5 15 0

Female0 1 19 0

Adolescents’ assumptions of:S1 Age range S2 Age range

Educational

levelGender 10-14 14-25 More than

25

I do not

know

Secondary Male0 19 1 0

Female0 18 0 2

University Male0 16 3 1

Female0 17 0 3

Educational

levelGender S1 is a boy S1 is a girl I do not

know

Secondary Male14 4 2

Female10 6 4

University Male12 3 5

Female8 10 2

Educational

levelGender S1 is a boy S1 is a girl I do not

know

Secondary Male19 0 1

Female20 0 0

University Male18 1 1

Female15 2 3

Adolescents’ perception of:S1 Gender S2 Gender

Educational

levelGender Normal Polite Narrow-minded

Secondary Male 7 3

10Female 6 4

10University Male 5 7

8Female 4 4

12

Educational level Gender Normal Polite Narrow-minded

Secondary Male

136 1

Female

125 3

University Male

108 2

Female

106 4

Adolescents’attitudes towards adults’ speech.

Adolescents’attitudes towards lexical innovations.

2) Age as a source of influence Adolescents Vs Adults’ Daily Speech

Adoles

cent

s(15-

20)

Adoles

cent

s(21-

25)

Adults

(30-

40)

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

YesNoSometimes

Adults using new expressionsYes 2%No 80%Sometimes 18%

Early Adolescents us-ing new expressions

Yes 77%No 0%Sometimes 13%

Late Adolescents using new expressions

Yes 65%

No 5%

Sometimes 30%

Family Friend at school Friend in street Friend through the internet

Male 5% 22% 40% 33%Female 13% 20% 32% 35%

Adolescents’ lexical innovation use in correlation with participants.

Speakers in different face to face situational interactions, usually accommodate their

speech depending on the address or addresses they are talking to. This means that

language used with friends is quite different from the one used with members who do not

belong to the same group. So, adolescent language also changes depending on the “we

code” that relates the choice of language in in-group relations.

Female adolescent language source

InternetMusicTVStreet

Male adolescent language source

InternetMusicTVStreet

Lexical Innovations’ Source

3. Topic as Code Determinant TopicSchool

Program

Internet Religion Music Cloths

INNOVATION x x x

ANY

INNOVATION

x x

The topic discussed, on the other hand, stands out as a trigger that operates to influence adolescents’ language choice.

Some Lexical Innovations Examples: -[argaaz] and [google]: are addressed to people who are so intelligent and attentive.-[ma puus]: a word addressed to females to mean ‘my intimate’ or ‘my friend’ whereas, for males the word [Griiki] is used instead.-[zasaafa]: this word is used firstly to denote a means of transport (an ancient car in Algeria).Now, it is used in Algerian Arabic to refer to people who walk very slowly.-[bel of] and [kwa de nef]. These expressions are mainly used in facebooc’s interactions. The first means ‘beautiful photo’ while the latter: ‘is there any new?’.-[or GoE] or [makaanBG rrizo]: from the French word ‘or champs’ and ‘pas de réseau’ respectively. These words are concerned with mobiles interactions. Yet, today they carry a different meaning in adolescent language. They mean: ‘I am out’.

-[artist],[annuuG],[abba],[fiim], [intiik], or [bogoos]: to mean ‘beautiful’. They are replacing the Algerian word:[Gbaab].

-[mabriizi]: means (I am fed up). In spite of the existence of its equivalent in Algerian Arabic as [kaarah].This item has widely spread in adolescent language, taken from the Algerian recent ‘Rai’song «rani mabriizi»

-[nbipi] : From the English ‘beep’. The word has been introduced into colloquial Arabic from the French ‘bip. The term means a short high-pitched sound basically made by the horn of a car (Oxford, 2000), but now its meaning has extended to the signal made by electronic device such as cell phones.

Conclusion

• This empirical paper provides a closer picture about adolescent language. It could unveil the psychological motives of adolescents’ use of innovation and social psychological reasons lying behind it• At the psychological level, it has been observed that the biological changes give adolescents a psychological change that reflected them not solely physiologically, but also affect their linguistic behaviour.

• At a larger scale, it may be asserted that adolescents’ innovations relate to the speakers’ mental image of the code they speak and their attitudes towards it.

• Almost all adolescents have positive attitudes towards this new-fashioned language and some negative attitudes towards people who use a stable speech.

• Age and participant, as sociolinguistic variables, play a prominent role in language innovation as adolescents express a certain awareness of which code to select. The topic discussed, too, stands out as a trigger that operates to influence adolescents’ language of discourse.

•The most important one being the impact of the street culture including the speech community, the influence of the mass media, TV, and the internet.