Theories about Teen Speak

• Surveyed a group of 17 year olds from the same secondary school in Bradford (West Yorkshire) about words that they used as a teenager.
• Most of these words were connected to childhood games (e.g. - 'kissy-chase') but they couldn't recall specific words or pinpoint examples.
• They could easily give examples to how they spoke as a teenager: they used taboo language, dialectical features and slang (e.g.- 'bruv', 'bare' and 'hype')

Found out that teenagers used:

• Irregular turn-taking
• Overlaps
• Indistinct articulation
• Word shortenings
• Teasing
• Verbal duelling
• Slang
• Taboo language
• Language mixing

• Discovered that slang is used to 'establish connections to youth culture and seperate themselves from older generations'.
• She stated that teenage language use is specific to their peer group.

• Teenagers use negation more frequently than adults.
• A third of these negations were due to orders, suggestions and refusals.
• Teenagers are more direct with their speech whereas adults are more conscious of how they speak.

• Focused on the use of informal tag questions (e.g. - 'innit', 'yeah' and 'right')
• Social class was a big factor in determining the usage of tags.
• 'Okay' was used more by boys however 'innit', 'yeah' and 'right' were used equally by both genders.