Referring
in detail to text P and to relevant ideas from language study, explore how
attitudes of language over time, how language changes and how these changes are
reported.
The English language has progressively changed, especially
over the past few centuries, being influenced by many factors such as
colonisation, technology and even new socialect, usually referred to as slang.
The attitudes of this change in language have different views, such as
prescriptivism and descriptivism. The newspaper article, ‘Proper Hench’ by
tabloid newspaper, The Daily Mail was written for the attention of parents of
especially children who were teenagers, informing and potentially entertaining
the reader about the new use of slang and jargon that is commonly found upon
teenagers. The article talks about the confusion that parents seem to feel
about teens’ of the 21st century use of slang language, and the
struggle of the language barrier it is seemingly causing. The informal, chatty
language gives the readers a personal experience, whilst allowing them to
relate due to the problem clearly being a common one.
The descriptivist attitude that this article conveys the
acceptance of slang language, as the English language is constantly changing in
ways such as borrowing words from other languages. An example of borrowing in
slang language is shown when the definition of words are explained, “feds” now meaning
police, a word of which is commonly used in the American English language
(short for federation or a federal state). Even though this is a prescriptivist
approach to slang language, the list of social lexis followed by its definition
possibly suggests a slight descriptivism attitude as the slang words have been
standardised with meanings. Jonathan Green released a Dictionary of Slang, published in 1998, construing that 20th
century slang language has been accepted as a part of the English language. By
standardising these words meant that the lexis became “official”, as valuable
as the language that was published in the first dictionary in 1750.
Even though The Daily Mail’s article seems to accept the
slang that teens now use in the 21st century, there is clear
confusion from even the writer of the article, addressing the reader as
“parents for teenage bluds”, however reading it from a clear understanding of
slang language, the author is clearly trying to converge their language to
sound like a teenager. Slang term, “bluds” is used to address a friend or a
mate; however “parents for teenager bluds” does not make grammatical sense. This
possibly is intended to address the confusion of slang; however by using it at
the beginning of the article before any definitions are given for the slang
word, it would cause confusion for the parent who may not know what the term
means.
Technology has influenced slang, such as texting and
messaging, clipping words (“sorry” to “soz”, “parents” to “rents” and “awkward”
to “awks”), as well as abbreviating phrases, (“Laugh out loud” to “LOL”, “to be
honest” to “tbh” and “you get me” to “ygm”). Linguists have mixed feelings
about the slang language that is “infecting” the English language, as
descriptivist Jean Aitchinson comments on how others may view slang. Aitchinson
further describes views of slang language as the reason for the English
language being a “crumbing castle”, disintegrating due to the ease of
standardisation. Even though Aitchinson states that the Standard English
language is decaying from what it used to be from the nineteenth century and
previous, she does take a prescriptivist view on the change of language; simply
reinforcing the views that prescriptivists believe.
Other theorists such as William Labov studied language and
change, discovering that slang was used to fit in with a group, giving the
speaker a recognisable ‘street cred’ accent, rather than a Received
Pronunciation accent (of which he named “covert prestige”). Even though this is
seen as inferior by the ‘dominant cultural group’ who speak “standard English”,
the Covert Presitge communication, especially in colloquial terms and urban
areas earns respect within the community for the speaker.
The Daily Mail’s descriptivist views on the slang that has
integrated rapidly into the English language by its users is clear that there
is a struggle trying to understand the fashion of the words and their contextual
meaning, however the advertisement of campaigns and websites giving parents
help and guidance to understanding the “jargon” teenagers frequently use, such
as ‘websites’, ‘e-learning modules’ and ‘24 hour confidential hotlines’. This
shows that parents that do not understand this language is taking the ignorance
of the language very seriously and the educational resources that have been
provided almost gives the article a hyperbolic cry-out-for-help attitude
towards slang and how fast it is changing by youths.
