Communication of adolescents in their own special "language" has been celebrated for more than a century, but the older generation of parents never ceases to worry about this fact. Strange words and expressions are jarring and disturbing - what if the children never learn to speak normally, like all other people? Why do they need their own jargon or slang, why do they stubbornly strive to get away from the linguistic norms and standards of adult society, what are they trying to achieve?
Teenage language incomprehensible to adults
In describing the subject being studied, philologists use both terms - "jargon" and "slang", this duality describes different sides of the process of creating their own language by adolescents and young people. The concept of "jargon" often reflects that part of the vocabulary of adolescents, which obviously should not be understood by elders, it is a kind of encrypted transmission of information, as well as a manifesto of alienation from the adult world. Any jargon is created for a limited group and is aimed at preventing the rest, the uninitiated, from understanding it. This is consistent with the psychological characteristics of adolescence. After the period of childhood, when the parents were the main authorities for the child, the time comes to go beyond the world of the home, to join youth groups and communities. At school, on the street, in sections and clubs of interest, a teenager realizes himself, striving to be "one of his own". But is teenage jargon or slang really that scary?
Slang is used by writers to portray the psychology of young people. From "Sketches of the Bursa" by N. Pomyalovsky, "A Clockwork Orange" by E. Burgess to "The Geographer Drank the Globe" by A. Ivanov, the speech of the heroes emphasizes their disorder and vulnerability.
Often, the creation of new designations for already familiar objects and phenomena arises in protest against the authority of elders. Teenage jargon is not homogeneous and differs greatly among different groups, for example, among representatives of different subcultures, fans of different sports, musical styles.
This rebellion is, for the most part, temporary. Its acuteness is smoothed out by good mutual understanding with parents and other representatives of the older generation, the ability to communicate - developed speech skills acquired at an earlier age. Jargon games are also less common among well-read children. And, most importantly, the hobby for jargon is much less pronounced in self-confident adolescents with high self-esteem, who do not have to win the respect of their peers just by using special words.
The worst jargon that teenagers use is that they can forget how to express their thoughts in literary language. It is alarming when, when it is necessary to speak correctly, the teenager does not find words for this.
Teenagers have fun coming up with new words
The concept of "slang" characterizes the other side of adolescent language creation. It is connected with the fact that young people often go ahead of other generations in mastering the phenomena associated with new technological and social realities. For many of them, the linguistic tradition has not yet developed simple and convenient designations. Foreign names or technical terms are foreign or cumbersome. And teenagers, for whom play is very important as a way of exploring and mastering the world, begin to come up with their own words. Teenage language creation creates a new sphere of concepts, which is often followed by older generations. A lot of youth words have enriched, for example, the sphere of computer games, communication in social networks, new musical directions and the world of fashion.
These language experiments are not always successful, but sometimes the innovation is so successful that it gradually gains popularity and becomes common. An important factor here is often advertising aimed at young people as consumers, but not alien to seniors. For example, now no one needs to explain the word "cool" or the call "do not slow down!"
Psychologists and sociologists believe that youth slang is almost completely replaced every five years. During this time, successful language experiments take root, and unsuccessful ones are forgotten and replaced by new ones.
Note to parents of teenagers
However, seniors are reasonably concerned about their children's use of words from the vocabulary of criminal or drug jargons. Of course, most of these expressions change their meaning somewhat when they turn into teenage slang, but they are still perceived by adults as something unacceptable and frightening. Teachers recommend calmly and intelligibly informing the teenager where this or that word came from, which he uses, what it originally meant. Sometimes this is enough for him to "dislike" it.
The struggle for the purity of the language, the desire to teach adolescents to speak correctly and beautifully can be successful if the older generation pays attention to the psychological reasons for the alienation of adolescents. If they find time to communicate with teenagers, do not meet with hostility any of their transitory new fashion, build trusting relationships with them, then soon the slang game becomes unnecessary for them.
