language change among young people

[Lynn Santelmann]

The discussion on language change among young people has reminded me of a
similar discussion that took place on the Linguist List last year. This
discussion was confined to English, but there are a number of interesting
postings. (Try searching the linguist list (www.linguistlist.org for
"recent change" to read these.)

One of the things that struck me after the discussion went on for several
weeks was that for many of the "recent changes" that someone brought up,
someone else would then reply that this "change" had been active in
regional (or historical) use for some time. That's what happened with my
contribution of the increased use of headless relatives such as "Can I help
who's next?"  The question was raised as to whether we were noticing true
change or simply the spreading of regional variants.

By the way, I believe the linguist list also had a discussion on the
changing status of "fun" - though I didn't follow it, because to my
post-baby-boom, American ears, "It's a rough game, but sometimes it's very
fun." sounds completely normal.

--Lynn Santelmann
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Lynn Santelmann, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Applied Linguistics
Portland State University
467 Neuberger Hall
724 SW Harrison Ave.
Portland, OR 97201

Phone: (503) 725-4140
Fax: (503) 725-4139
e-mail: santelmannl at pdx.edu
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