M2.2 Lesson 2 | HI-LING working page

Lesson 2: Youth Language and Identity

Definition: Youth language plays a major role in the identity formation of adolescents. On the one hand, youth language contributes to establish group identities and on the other hand, it enables adolescents to express their individual identity.

Key Concepts

Differentiation
Identification
Group identity
Peer group
Emblematic
The positionality principle

UNIT 1: GROUP IDENTITY

Youth language fulfils several important functions in regard to identity. Generally, it can be said that youth language serves as a differentiation (from «them»), as an identification («we») and for establishing an individual identity («I»). Let us dive a bit deeper into those three categories. First, adolescents can use youth language to distance themselves from others. Usually, adolescents want to distance themselves from adults or from other peers that they do not relate with (maybe you know that from personal experience). This process is called differentiation. The opposite of differentiation is identification. Adolescents strongly identify with peers that they like and that they want to be associated with. How they do this, you wonder? Through the use of specific expressions and similar ways of speaking, thus through youth language, adolescents express their sense of belonging and their sense of closeness to other adolescents. As a consequence of the adolescents particular use of language, a strong group identity is formed. This so-called peer group that shares the same group identity is even identified as a group by people outside of that community. Consequently, the characteristics of youth language that are employed by the peer group become emblematic. Emblematic means that that they become widely recognized as belonging to a particular group and when someone then uses those emblematic features, outsiders know that the speaker belongs to a certain peer group.

Exercise 1: Discussion

Discuss with your neighbour – do you speak a certain way and use certain expressions with your friends that you could not use if you were speaking to your parents, your teachers or your grandparents?

As support, you can try to imagine the following scenario: You have had a really exhausting day at school, you were late because the train was delayed, you forgot your sports clothing and on top of all of that, you received an insufficient mark on your maths test – how would you tell your best friend about your day? And how would you tell your grandmother about it? Do you recognize differences?

UNIT 2: THE POSITIONALITY PRINCIPLE

Another important function of youth language, apart from establishing a group identity, is the individual identity formation of adolescents. During adolescence, young people slowly start to figure out who they are and one of numerous ways to express their identity is through language. But how does language contribute to expressing one’s identity? By means of language, an individual positions themselves in relation to others and negotiates their relationship to others. This process is called the positionality principle. This sounds complicated at first but it simply states that your own identity is formed in relation to other people and that this takes place on three levels. Let us look at this more closely. In a first step, your identity is made up of several macro-group (macro= large, overall) categories that you express when you speak. These macro-group categories for example are age, gender and nationality. Thus, in a conversation, you position yourself as being male/female/other, as living in Switzerland, and as being an adolescent between 15-20. In a second step, there are micro-group (micro= small, specific) categories which are more local and specific. They refer to your role inside your community. For example, you might identify as being a student at Gymnasium, as being the child of your parents or as being a member of a particular sports club. Third and lastly, there are also more flexible identities and roles that are only assumed for the time span of a conversation. For example, during a conversation, you can position yourself as being the listener, the joke teller or the advisor.

Exercise 2: Analyse a conversation

Look at this fragment of a conversation:

Two girls, Miriam and Lena are talking about school. They are high school students in England (16 years old). They are considered to belong to the «nerdy» group of girls at the school and do not belong to the «cool» girl group because they care a lot about their grades.

M: «Sis, I need to tell you what happened at school today! I am so damn mad!»

L: «Spill the tea, I’m listening.»

M: «Today we got our grade for the physics exam we wrote last week and even though it was hard AF, I aced it, as usual. But when Mr. Smith was praising me for my good grade, Elena the stupid bimbo, made fun of me for being a nerd. She threw such a shade. Joke’s on her that she is always just thinking about boys and the latest fashion trends.»

L: «Periodt! But yeah that really sucks, so annoying!»

M: «Yeah and especially because I was so psyched to tell my grandparents about it, they are going to be so proud! Especially my grandpa, you know how happy he is about the fact that I will be the first female in the family to pursue a university degree in physics. What a flex.»

L: «I get how you feel but try not to worry about it too much!»

Analyse this conversation and think about the three different levels of the positionality principle. Define the elements of youth language that you can detect and think about how the macro-social group, the micro-social group and the flexible identity during the conversation is constructed.

Solution: Youth Language: Sis, damn, spill the tea, AF, aced it, throwing a shade, bimbo, periodt, psyched, what a flex. Macro-social group: Age: they use youth slang so they are both young speakers. Gender: female, Miriam says she will be the first female in her family to study physics. Also the comparison with Elena, the girl that only thinks about make-up, makes a refence to them being female. Micro-social group: Miriam being a granddaughter. Both belong to the «nerdy» group, they talk about the good grades and that it led to a conflict with the «cool» girl. Both are students at that high school. Role during the conversation: Lena positions herself as the listener with stating «Spill the tea» and she is an emphatic listener as she is always responding and agreeing. In the end, she also gives advice. Miriam the one that makes a complaint and is letting off steam.

Final thought for this lesson:

Not only members of the same peer-group speak similarly, but it is also likely that we try to accommodate (=adapt) our speech to people that we like. Has it ever happened to you that you started to use expressions or saying that someone else always used?

Sources

Augenstein, S. (1998). Funktionen von Jugendsprache. Max Niemeyer Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110911329.
Bahlo, N., Becker, T., Kalkavan-Aydın, Z., Lotze, N., Marx, K., Schwarz, C., & ȘimȘek, S. (2019). Jugendsprache: Eine Einführung. Springer-Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-476-04767-0.
Blackledge, A., & Creese, A. (2015). Emblems of Identities in four European urban settings. In J. Nortier & B. A. Svendsen (Eds.), Language, Youth and Identity in the 21st century (pp. 167-182). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139061896.012.
Bucholtz, M., & Hall, K. (2005). Identity and interaction: a sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse Studies, 7(4-5), 585-614. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445605054407.
Henne, H. (1986). Jugend und ihre Sprache. Walter de Gruyter. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110862553.
Neuland, E. (2018). Jugendsprache (2nd ed.). Francke Verlag. https://www.utb.de/doi/book/10.36198/9783838549248.
Tabouret-Keller, A. (1997). Language and Identity. In F. Coulmas (Ed.), The Handbook of Sociolinguistics (pp. 315-326). Blackwell Publishing Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781405166256.ch19.

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