adolescent language

[Susan Ervin-Tripp]

There has a been a lot of change in the study of
adolescent language in the past ten years. Eckert's
book has become a classic in this field, showing how
the identification of marginality, centrality,
identity can be indicated by phonological lexical
and other linguistic features. That's in the book
Nicolopoulou cited.  There are now later works building
on that work on monolinguals.

In addition, there is work on adolescents in contact
situations, which are very common in this world of
migrants and refugees.  The most vivid example of this
kind of study is Ben Rampton's _Crossing_ showing again
how linguistic features are borrowed to signal
belonging--this time across languages.

Sort of like using jargon to show what theoretical
persuasion you want to belong to.  Since these processes
are so active in adolescents we see lots of language change.

Susan Ervin-Tripp