Language change and teen speech: Online crusaders for control and oppression

Across language history, defenders of purism have regarded the creation of new words and new structures as a threat, both to the standards of correctness set by lexicographers and grammarians and to the conventions of tradition, represented by classical authors. In this process, the way young people speak and write takes centre stage. The role they play is typically to disrupt the established order and to challenge conservatism, hierarchy and power. And by appropriating language as an in-group code, they use it as a device for identity assertion and generational rebellion against the norms of ‘proper’ English. As of late, the swift growth of internet use and the massification of social media have made it easier for language changes to reach people on a global scale. This comment particularly examines how the use of so-called ‘teen speech’ by older age groups is received with either condescension and dismissal by some or disapproval and censorship by others. The corpus of analysis is a set of online responses to youth language on a British news site comment board.