Slang as means of communication at different stages of socio-age development

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Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University

SLANG AS MEANS OF COMMUNICATION AT DIFFERENT STAGES OF SOCIO-AGE DEVELOPMENT

Pozdniakov O.V., Candidate of Philological Sciences,

Associate Professor at the Department

of Foreign Languages and Country Studies

Annotation

language slang social maturation

The study is devoted to peculiarities of using slang during the period of young people's social maturation. Main features of this language subcode include lower stylistic status, limited number of lexico-semantic fields, secondary naming, productivity of metaphorization and synonymy, borrowings from English. The use of slang vocabulary suggests a specific type of communicative environment to conduct certain linguistic behaviour. The youth itself is a transitional phase of individual's social evolution, created by society in the process of its historical development. In our research, we have chosen the division of the lifetime period «youth» into three stages: pre-adolescence, adolescence, and post-adolescence. The use of slang vocabulary is typical for all singled out stages of young individual's development. Key factors to prefer specific language subcode in communication process are physiological maturation, gaining new social roles, evolution of the system of values.

At the pre-adolescence stage, the use of slang is just a kind of imitation and occurs mostly beyond the necessary context without taking into account the communicative situation. For their part, adolescents tend to conscious switching language subcodes. In the process of permanent choosing specific vocabulary, the use of slang is preferred and becomes a priority. The heterogeneity of peer groups and subcultures also play an important role. Adolescents want to identify themselves against members of other socio-age groups. Representatives of the above-mentioned stage of social maturation are characterized by emotional sensibility, which determines the use of slang vocabulary to express an ironic, contemptuous attitude towards the surrounding world. Hence, there are a lot of lexical units to name different types of physical or mental flaws in the studied language subcode. At the post-adolescence stage, refocusing of the system of values to the rules and relationships of adults' way of life occurs. This causes gradual change of habitual communicative situations, and therefore giving up the active use of slang vocabulary. Exceptions are people whose jobs are directly related to lifestyle, activities, and communication of adolescents as a target group.

Key words: socio-age stage, linguistic behaviour, adolescence, peer group, social maturation, communicative environment.

Анотація

СЛЕНГ ЯК ЗАСІБ СПІЛКУВАННЯ НА РІЗНИХ ЕТАПАХ СУСПІЛЬНО-ВІКОВОГО РОЗВИТКУ

Дослідження присвячено особливостям використання сленгу в період соціального дозрівання молоді. Основними ознаками зазначеного мовного субкоду є низький стилістичний статус, обмежена кількість лексико-семантичних полів, вторинність номінації, продуктивність метафоризації та синонімії, запозичення з англійської мови. Використання сленгової лексики передбачає певний тип комунікативного середовища для реалізації відповідної мовної поведінки. Власне молодість є перехідною фазою суспільної еволюції особистості, створеною людством у процесі його історичного розвитку. У нашому дослідженні обрано поділ життєвого періоду «молодість» на три етапи: доадолесцентний, адолесцентний та післяадолесцентний. Використання сленгової лексики притаманне для всіх виокремлених етапів розвитку молодої особистості. Ключовими чинниками надання переваги в процесі спілкування відповідному мовному субкоду є фізіологічне дозрівання, набуття нових соціальних ролей, еволюція системи цінностей.

Використання сленгу на доадолесцентному етапі є лише наслідуванням і відбувається здебільшого поза необхідним контекстом без врахування комунікативної ситуації. У свою чергу, адолесценти схильні до свідомого перемикання мовних субкодів. У процесі постійного вибору специфічної лексики перевага надається використанню сленгу, який стає пріоритетним засобом спілкування. Велику роль відіграє також неоднорідність груп однолітків і субкультур. Адолесценти прагнуть ідентифікувати себе на тлі членів інших соціально-вікових груп. Для представників зазначеної стадії суспільного дозрівання характерна емоційна вразливість, що зумовлює використання сленгу для вираження іронічного, зневажливого ставлення до навколишнього світу. Звідси, наявність у досліджуваному мовному субкоді великої кількості лексичних одиниць на позначення різних типів фізичних або психічних недоліків. На післяадолесцентному етапі відбувається переорієнтація системи цінностей на правила і відносини, властиві способу життя дорослих. Це зумовлює поступову зміну звичних комунікативних ситуацій, а отже, й відмову від активного вживання сленгової лексики. Виняток становлять люди, робота яких безпосередньо пов'язана зі стилем життя, діяльністю та спілкуванням адолесцентів як цільової групи.

Ключові слова: суспільно-віковий етап, мовна поведінка, адолесцентність, група однолітків, соціальне дозрівання, комунікативне середовище.

Formulation of the problem

Both in Ukrainian and foreign German studies, youth slang vocabulary is considered an important component in the lexical and phraseological system of modern German language. This language subcode is mainly featured by its lower stylistic status, limited number of lexico-semantic fields, secondary naming, productivity of metaphorization and synonymy, borrowings from English. Pragmatic effectiveness of the given linguistic phenomenon is one of the key reasons for its spread at the present stage of society development. New challenges caused by internet technologies, social network communication, media and advertising industry have created favorable conditions for the use of substandard, emotionally charged, and morphologically remarkable slang vocabulary to increase the impact on target audience within German-speaking communicative environment. A close interaction of young people's language subcode with colloquial German also determines rapid growth in popularizing slang vocabulary. At this level, there is active borrowing of slangisms, followed by gradual loss of their original subcultural connotation, and further registering in the dictionaries of standard German, which is considered the final stage of language innovations evolution [10, p. 834].

At the same time, the issue of youth slang's nature as a linguistic phenomenon requires an in-depth study of the communicative environment, which creates conditions to prefer this specific vocabulary, as well as a detailed analysis of socio-age peculiarities of its creators and active users. Hence, the relevance of our study is determined by the need not only to clarify age limits of the active phases of using slang, but also to find out social preconditions influencing the sequence and distinctions of these individual's lifetime periods.

Taking into consideration social and age conditionality of slangisms' formation and functioning, the use of this language subcode suggests a specific type of communicative environment to conduct certain linguistic behaviour. In our opinion, the practical value of the given research lies in the possibility of applying the results obtained to analyze the structure and semantics of slang vocabulary in general.

Analysis of recent research and publications has shown that in defining the youth as a specific lifetime stage, setting age frames of each of its periods is carried out taking into account the influence of social factors. A number of researchers tend to believe that it is impossible to establish a common classification for the development period between childhood and adulthood due to the individuality of young people's psychological maturation. The latter is determined by diversity of contacts, including relations with peers and adults, participation in various subcultural activities, internet and media impact, differences in the process of obtaining relevant social roles and responsibilities [6; 12; 14]. It should be noted that in the analyzed scientific works, there are significant divergences of views concerning establishing frames of the youth age and the period of active use of slang vocabulary. The first one is considered to be much longer. According to a number of scientists, it may reach the age of 35 years. In turn, the phase of individual's self-identification as a member of socio-age group «youth» through the use of specific substandard lexical and phraseological units is defined as much shorter - from 13 to 18 years. Some Germanists claim that this period can last up to 22 years [5, p. 6]. We think that such vagueness of the above-mentioned age frames is determined by social factors, mainly the peculiarities of an individual's acquisition of certain social status and his (her) transition to adulthood.

The purpose of the article is to define the socioage group «youth» in terms of the use of relevant language subcode, to establish key periods of young people's development in the process of becoming members of the German-speaking communicative environment, as well as to find out factors of conscious use of slang at each of the singled out stages.

The object of the study is represented by young people as an age and social group, adolescents as a part of this group, and slang vocabulary as a means of their everyday communication. The subject of the study are peculiarities of the use of slang at corresponding stages of social maturation.

In our paper, the following methods of scientific research have been applied: the method of analysis and synthesis has been used to study publications on the issues under consideration, by means of the descriptive method we have found out factors of increasing and decreasing activeness of using slang vocabulary, while the inductive method has helped reveal determinants of this process.

Scientific novelty of the article is in the generalization of approaches to determining the place of young people in general, and adolescents in particular, among other groups forming the overall Germanspeaking communicative environment, as well as highlighting key extralingual reasons for the use of slang vocabulary.

Results and discussions

The results of the study of the above-mentioned scientific works allow us to assert the socio-cultural conditionality of people's life division into three stages: childhood, youth, and adulthood [9, p. 340]. Compared to this, the natural lifetime division consists of only two main periods: childhood and adulthood [4, p. 5].

As for the youth stage, it is considered a transitional phase of individual's social evolution, created by society in the process of its historical development. Hence, this period is of an artificial nature in terms of physiology [13, p. 65]. The life stage «youth» was not typical for the early stages of human civilization, when transition from childhood to adulthood didn't last too long and was mainly based on traditions of a certain community. Much later, the youth stage had been singled out as a separate transition period, the main goal of which was social adaptation expressed in preparation for proper performing «adult» social roles [13, p. 67]. During this time, switching the individual's roles according to norms and values of adult society is being intensified along with the process of physiological maturation.

Thus, W. Hornstein and W. Thole suggest to consider youth as a social, historically formed, and permanently changing group [8, p. 443]. In this regard, the issue of a definition and detailed sociolinguistic description of youth is closely correlated to the gradual increase of youth stage's duration under the influence of corresponding social processes. These include, first of all, increasing duration of education period. As a result, young people begin their professional career and family life, which are one of the indicators of individual's social maturity, at a later age. Thus, the status of a «full member» of society is also achieved later.

In this regard, we can assume the possibility of further increasing duration of the youth phase at the future stages of human civilization's development. Having the opportunity to study for a longer time, and thus, to maintain the status of representatives of the transitional stage of social maturation, young people see the benefits associated with the lack of full responsibility for themselves and people around them, trying sometimes to extend this period as long as possible. That is why, integration into the environment of adults by starting an independent professional activity or changing marital status occurs too slowly [4, p. 7].

To find out the reasons for young people's activeness in using slang vocabulary at certain stages of their physiological and social development, as well as to establish the key factors of this process, we have chosen the division of the lifetime period «youth» into three stages: pre-adolescence, adolescence, and post-adolescence [11, p. 312].

In our study, we suggest to consider adolescence as a socio-age stage of young people's development, when they are not regarded as children, on the one hand, and do not have the status of adults, on the other hand. In terms of sociolinguistics, this period lasts at the age of 13 to 18 years. Although, depending on the convergent impact of environmental factors (such as financial status, level of education, subcultural affiliation, etc.), it may be different in duration.

At the stage of pre-adolescence (up to about 12 years), the choice of communication patterns is significantly determined by communication patterns inherent in the family, which usually depends on social and financial status of parents [6, p. 8]. In the formation of pre-adolescents' active vocabulary, there is a strong focus on the linguistic behaviour of adult family members. Another reason for choosing lexical and phraseological units is communication at school, where linguistic behaviour of teachers matters. At this stage, the communicative environment of peers is gaining in importance for transformation of the system of values, including linguistic behaviour [2, p. 69], but is not yet determining. As a rule, the use of slang during the above-mentioned period of young individual's development, is just a kind of imitation and occurs mostly beyond the necessary context without taking into account the communicative situation [2, p. 69]. On the other hand, this unconscious use of slang vocabulary contributes to the transition to the period when the influence of peer and subcultural groups on young people's linguistic behavior increases significantly. The internet, new media, and social networks, which represent slang vocabulary as one of the integral components of self-identification, play an important role as catalysts for this process.

Adolescence is an important socio-age stage in the process of forming young individuals. This is where the young people's transformation from family members to members of society takes place, accompanied by weakening influence of family values and increasing role of peer groups in the choice of communicative patterns [1, p. 5]. Adolescents identify themselves with these micro-teams, trying to gain the desired status in them. Becoming active participants in various sorts of subcultural activities, young representatives of German-speaking society tend to conscious switching language subcodes. In this process of permanent choosing specific vocabulary, the use of slang is preferred and becomes a priority.

The next reason for intensification of using slang vocabulary at the adolescence stage is the heterogeneity of peer groups and subcultures. According to M. Chun, modern society is characterized by the existence of various systems of values that often oppose each other [4, p. 46]. As a result, young people want to identify themselves against representatives of other socio-age groups. An effective tool here is language creativity expressed in the formation of specific vocabulary. Adolescents are likely to create new words and collocations, the functioning of which sometimes occurs only in communication within a particular subcultural group. Adopting these neologisms determines high dynamics of slang vocabulary, constant changes in its core structure, formation of a number of morphologically remarkable, expressively charged lexical and phraseological units. The secondary nature of the studied language subcode in comparison with standard German determines the most productive ways of its word formation, namely making compounds, metaphorization, and borrowing from other languages (first of all, from English).

The adolescents' wish to verbally oppose the linguistic behaviour of adults is a no less significant factor of using slang vocabulary [2, p. 72]. Gradual weakening of the influence of parents' and teachers' communicative patterns along with the lack of a full set of adults' social roles create the preconditions for a verbal protest. In this case, young people tend to use rude and obscene vocabulary. Although, the share of pejoratives in slang vocabulary varies, depending on the social standing of a certain peer group.

Emotional sensibility of adolescents determines the use of slang vocabulary to express an ironic, contemptuous attitude towards the surrounding world. In the studied language subcode, we have found a lot of lexical units to name different types of physical or mental flaws. Exaggerated vulnerability in perception of reality, accompanied by the process of physiological maturation cause the propensity to the frequent use of superlatives made by means of adding prefixes «super-», «hyper-», «ultra-», etc.

The post-adolescent stage of young people's social development usually occurs between 25 and 30 years. At this time, there is refocusing of the system of values to the rules and relationships of adults' lifestyle, the key characteristic of which is awareness of responsibility not only for themselves but also for others [3, p. 177]. Getting married, finding a job, giving birth and raising children, inclusion in a number of other non-adolescent social roles determine gradual change of habitual communicative situations, and therefore giving up the active use of slang vocabulary. Professional activity, the need for career development lead to breaking the peer group and subcultural links established at the adolescence stage [2, p. 74]. Changes in the circle of communicative partners determine the need to use standard vocabulary. Finally, the process of social maturation is complete, which can be seen in the loss of the wish for new language experiments. Hence, slang ceased to be considered a means of self-identification and achieving a desirable group status.

Meanwhile, most post-adolescents continue using lexical and phraseological units, which were typical for communication within their former peer groups. These words and collocations were previously defined as elements of slang vocabulary. Given the dynamic changes in the core structure of the studied language subcode, they are not considered as «youth» vocabulary by the following generations of adolescents. However, there are exceptions, which mainly concern representatives of certain jobs directly related to lifestyle, activities, and communication of adolescents as a target group (for example, musicians, bloggers/vloggers, television presenters, songwriters) [2, p. 75].

Conclusions

The results of the study make it possible to assume that youth is a separate stage in individual's social development, which is historically formed by society to optimize transition from childhood to adulthood. There is a tendency to increase the length of this lifetime phase due to the longer duration of education period, on the one hand, and the unwillingness of young people themselves to take on all the social roles of adults, on the other hand.

The use of slang vocabulary is typical for all singled out stages of young individual's development. The key factors to prefer specific language subcode in communication process are physiological maturation, gaining new social functions, as well as evolution of the system of values. At the pre-adolescence stage, the latter is formed mainly under the influence of parents and teachers, while during the post-adolescence period, giving preference to standard vocabulary over slangisms is caused, as a rule, by professional reasons and changes in lifestyle. As for adolescents, their main values are determined by subcultural and peer group affiliation, and slang is one of the means to achieve the desired status in these parts of German-speaking community. Thus, the need for originality, creativity, expressiveness becomes helpful and efficient. The try to show protest against traditional communicative patterns established by adults also plays an important role in the active use of slang by adolescents, who usually identify themselves against representatives of other socio-age groups. Further extralinguistic reasons for preferring slang vocabulary are adolescents' sensibility and vulnerability, which are verbalized in various language patterns to express hesitation, exaggeration or irony.

The results of the study can be applied in researching lexico-semantic division of youth slang vocabulary and peculiarities of its interrelations with other language subcodes of modern German.

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