It
is believed that teens are responsible for the incorporation of verbal filth,
or slang, into the English language; however, these accusations are not
completely valid. According to researchers in the article Teens Aren’t Ruining Language by Adrienne Lafrance, there is found
to be no correlation between age and vernacular change, which means there are
other influences that enhance or encourage slang usage. These consist of, but
are not limited to, race, gender, sexual orientation, and other social factors
that people come in contact with. The reason that teens are being falsely
accused is because they are the ones mostly involved in social media, making
them susceptible to most of these social factors.
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| Comic portraying the fact that teens are not the only one to use slang. |
However, according to researchers,
social media is not the only breeding ground for slang terminology to come
about; in fact, some believe that the environment that someone grows up in or
is accustomed to may have an influence, as well. According to authors of the
article ControversialIssues of Slang: Lexicography and Users written by Ildiko
Zoltan, “Typical users
of slang are the different peripheral subcultures and even counter-cultures,
branded as ‘deviant’, e.g. homosexuals, drug users or criminals.” This
accusation occurs because normally when there is a large group of people in a
confined or close-knit group such as a gang, club, university, military prison,
etc., there is a higher chance they will develop their own “code,” if you will,
which can then spread outside of these groups, causing trends.
Another influential factor besides
peers or social groups is the subject of homosexuality. This subject has been
controversial and very popular as of late with the high media focus on gay
marriage. However, terms that were once politically correct to address someone
that is homosexual such as fag, homo, queer, etc. are now being used as
derogatory terms, making them offensive. Yanchun Zhou and Yanhong Fan state in
their article, A Sociolinguistic Studyof American Slang, “Many of these are older terms from the
gay society or from what used to be called "vulgar slang.” However, teens are not the only ones using these slang words;
many adults of older generations do not accept gay marriages as openly as
younger generations, which results in their naïve slang usage.
Another influential factor other
than age that contributes to the use of slang is gender. According to
researchers, women use slang terminology less than men do. Many researchers
believe it is because it is considered unlady-like language, but according to Zhou, “…men belong
to more sub-groups than do women…in business, men have acquaintances that
belong to many different sub-groups. Women, on the other hand, still tend to be
restricted to family and neighborhood friends.” The article also references to
men having slang terms for masculine conversational topics such as sex, women,
work, money, whiskey, politics, etc. With support from Zoltan’s article, he states that the slang usage of women is
becoming greater and greater, and this increase may be due to the feminist
movement, which encourages men and women to be one of the same; therefore, if
man can use slang, women can too.
Other
factors, especially social factors, contribute to the usage of slang, which takes
some of the blame off of teens. In addition to teens not being the only ones to
use this type of language, it is proven that these slang terms do not usually
stick around very long, making them impossible to have any permanent effect on the
English language, further proving these accusations to be false.
