Slang

The focus of the research project in this paper is to determine whether teenage slang is a distinctive language that cannot be understood by non-adolescents. Furthermore, the specific features of the changes in teenage slang throughout the years will also be identified in order to illuminate common patterns and trends in the evolution of teenage slang. Therefore, the two hypotheses of this research project are: 1) Teenage slang consists of words and expressions that are not easily understood by adults who do not interact frequently with adolescents; and 2) Slang is a dynamic "language" that has evolved significantly over the last century.

In this research project, a group of adolescents were asked to generate a list of slang words or expressions that were commonly used by members of their age group. The researcher then showed this list to Peter, a 30-year-old man, Jenny, a 50-year-old woman and Lisa, a 70-year-old woman and

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expressions of the list because he learned about them from television sit-coms and films. According to him, the constant repetition of the slang expressions in different contexts throughout the film offers strong contextual clues for determining their meanings. In addition, slang terms such as "cool" from the past generation of adolescents have been passed onto the current generation. Therefore, teenage slang cannot be considered a mysterious and secret language that cannot be deciphered by adults. However, the adults need to train their ears to listen to the repetition of the terms in different contexts in order to ascertain their meanings. This factor undermines the validity of the first hypothesis. Although the first part of this study has identified key features of slang, it has provided a static conception of slang. In reality, slang is a fluid and dynamic lexicon that has evolved over the years in deceptive ways. While some slang terms such as "cool" have maintained their original meanings as they are passed from one generation to the next, other terms have altered their meanings substantially. Therefore, in the second part of the research project, the researcher asked the adult participants to produce a list of slang term
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2206
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)

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