Abstract
Slang usage in modern age Iran is a popular phenomenon among most male and female teenagers. How pervasive this variation of language use is among various age and sex groups in Iran has been a question of debate given the significance of religion in a theological system of social structure. The work presented in this study aims to investigate the effect of age and sex on variability of slang usage. Sixty Iranian participants were selected, and then were divided into three age groups (i.e. primary school, high school, and senior university students) each group consisting of ten males and ten females. A self-made questionnaire in the form of Discourse Completion Test (DCT) describing nine situations of friendly conversations was given to the participants. They were asked to make their choice on the responses, which ranged from formal to very informal style (common teenage slang expressions), or to write down what they wish to say under each circumstance. The results of the chi–square tests indicated that slang usage among high school students is more frequent as compared with other age groups. Unlike the popular belief suggesting that slang is used by boys rather than girls, the findings suggested that young Iranians both male and female use slang as a badge of identity showing their attachment to the social group they wish to be identified with.
Highlights
Slang refers to speech expressions used by a speech community that wishes to show its attachment to a favorable social identity; a usage which is not often approved of by other social groups
Eleven chi-square tests were run to see whether the frequency of slang usage differs in the three age groups and whether males and females differ in using slang expressions
The results of six chi-square tests indicated that the three age groups significantly differed in the frequency of the formal, colloquial and slang expressions they provided: primary school
Summary
Slang refers to speech expressions used by a speech community (e.g. teenagers, criminals, etc.) that wishes to show its attachment to a favorable social identity; a usage which is not often approved of by other social groups. On the other hand, Allan and Burridge (2009) argue that the politeness of this category of language is wedded to context, time and place. It has even been stated by Brown and Levinson (1978) that the use of slang (known as in-group language) is a positive politeness strategy that shows high involvement in a particular group. Slang illustrates various generative processes through which language system intakes new words and usages including: neologisms, meaning extensions, derivations, clippings, borrowings, etc
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