Abstract
The new developments in today’s life-style and needs have called for a good deal of language change. Due to this reason, language studies often strike fresh grounds. The researcher’s interest in this study is to investigate a language variety used in graffiti writing from multiple perspectives. This paper focuses on the grammar of statements written by non-native English speakers, i.e., Jordanian students learning English as a foreign language. The written English statements of graffiti have been videotaped from English medium schools. The collected data have then been transcribed, coded and analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The study demonstrates that Jordanian learners of English as a foreign language when compared to English native speakers have developed a kind of ownership of English that enables them to simplify its grammar by playing with its rules affected by the internet communication, globalization, and SMS texting. The spill-over effect of applying grammatical rules in English on statements of graffiti is, in fact, due to some of these trends. The results reveal that graffiti writers commit additional errors due to mother tongue interference, overgeneralization, conformity with native speakers, and ignorance.
Highlights
The new developments in today’s life-style and needs have called for a good deal of language change
The study demonstrates that Jordanian learners of English as a foreign language when compared to English native speakers have developed a kind of ownership of English that enables them to simplify its grammar by playing with its rules affected by the internet communication, globalization, and SMS texting
Linguists and sociolinguists agree that any language contains a number of varieties which have evolved in order to serve different functions in society and to fulfill the needs of their speakers
Summary
The new developments in today’s life-style and needs have called for a good deal of language change. Claramonte and Alonso (1993) outlined the social significance and categories of wall and desktop graffiti They studied peculiar and idiosyncratic spellings and discussed abbreviations, acronyms, clippings, pun, rhyme slang and new word derivation strategies (See AbuJaber, Yagi & Al-Ghalith, 2012). Obeng (2000b) studied language attitudes in graffiti writings The results of his findings showed that the discursive strategies used to express language attitudes in the graffiti written by Ghanian university students include intertextuality, and he noticed, as a matter of fact, that graffitists borrow from previous texts or from public knowledge when creating graffiti. In their research of (1982) they aimed to identify personality and motivational variables that contributed to graffiti written by male and female university student communication in restrooms Their results have shown that a need for recognition and for relieving boredom were behind their motivation.
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