Youth Language Research Articles

Phonological Theory and the Dialects of Italy by Lori Repetti (review)

220 Reviews quantificationof foreignisms, youth language, and coprolalic and pornolalic elements, suggests that, while some generic beliefs about the fiction ofthe 1990s (such as a pervasiveness of spoken Italian forms) are true, others are not supported by a close investigation: the use of youth slang, for example, is not as widespread as many be? lieve it to be. Although important at the level of linguistic analysis, Berisso's essay fails short of drawing significant conclusions about his findings. The closing essay by Renello, 'The Mediatic Body ofthe Cannibale Literature', is an ideal development of La Porta's considerations on the artificiality of the violence narrated by the 'scrittori cannibali'. Renello argues that Italian pulp fiction reduces horror to a narrative game that has lost the power and the intention to terrify.His analysis of short stories by Ammaniti and Nove reveals how these writers operate multiple levels of linguistic mediation and media stratification, a strategy that denies any realistic access to their texts. Renello's essay introduces the English translations of three short stories, which ap? pear in the appendix of the book. These convincing versions (carried out by Francesca Mordini and edited by Lucamante) of Niccolo Ammaniti and Luisa Brancaccio's 'Evening Jaunt/Seratina', Aldo Nove's 'The World of Love/Il mondo dell'amore' (the two stories discussed by Renello), and Daniele Luttazzi's 'Little Red Ridinghood /Cappuccetto Splatter', will, one hopes, broaden the readership of the new Ita? lian narrative, encouraging the study of these and other 1990s authors in academic programmes of Italian, comparative, and contemporary literature all over the world. Victoria University of Wellington Claudia Bernardi Phonological Theory and the Dialects ofItaly. Ed. by Lori Repetti. (Current Issues in Linguistic Theory, 212) Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 2000. x + 301 pp. ?94. This volume is an important contribution to Italian phonology and to phonological theory. In the words ofthe editor (pp. 4-5), the book's goal is to show that 'Generative Phonology [. . .] can be particularly helpful in better understanding precisely those areas that the traditional method has focused on, including language change, language variation, and language typology' That is not obvious to me, but, be that as it may, it is not crucial for a volume that has much more to offerthan a mechanical adaptation of generative theories to Italian dialectology. As the authors' theoretical backgrounds are far from monolithic, their theoretical interests often go far beyond generativism. The book is carefully planned, with a well-balanced contribution in terms of both phenomena and dialectal areas. Misprints are few, though shaded boxes are always missing (e.g. on p. 240). There are still many intriguing facts in Italian dialectology, and, obviously, phono? logical theory may help in interpreting them. The most striking phenomena of Italian dialects (raddoppiamento, vowel weakening, syllable structure changes) recur as leitmotifs , giving us the chance to compare radically differentinterpretations of the same problems: stress patterns (Giovanna Marotta, 'Oxytone Infinitives in the Dialect of Pisa', Lori Repetti, 'Stress Stability under Cliticization and the Prosodic Status of Romance Clitics'); vowel weakening (Naomi Nagy, 'Stress and Schwa in Faetar', Francesco D'Introno and Rosemary Weston, 'Vowel Alternation, Vowel/Consonant Assimilation and OCP Effects in a Barese Dialect', Andrea Calabrese, 'The Feature [Advanced Tongue Root] and Vowel Fronting in Romance'), vowel epenthesis (JeanPierre Montreuil, 'Sonority and Derived Clusters in Rhaeto-Romance and GalloItalic ', Michele Loporcaro, 'Stress Stability under Cliticization and the Prosodic Effect of Romance Clitics'), consonant clusters (Jean-Pierre Montreuil and Lori MLRy 98.1, 2003 221 Repetti, both using sonority differential?but only Repetti (p. 276) gives credit to Vennemann for the idea: Theo Vennemann, Preference Laws for Syllable Structure (Berlin: Mouton), 1988), raddoppiamentosintattico (Naomi Nagy and Barbara E. Bullock , 'Consonant Gemination in Neapolitan'?basically a translation into optimality theory of earlier analyses), vowel quantity (Marco Baroni and Laura Vanelli, 'The Relationship between Vowel Length and Consonantal Voicing in Friulian', John Hajek , 'How Many Moras? Overlength and Maximal Moraicity in Italy', Pilar Prieto i Vives, 'Vowel Lengthening in Milanese'). Only two ofthe basic subjects are analysed by a single author. Calabrese deals with the 'peculiar' phenomenon of vowel fronting in Altamura (Bari): /u, o/> [y,0]. He seems to be unaware ofthe...

Changing attitudes of European youth

Reports a survey by GfK Ad Hoc Worldwide on new trends in youth culture and language; this shows a new generation of youngsters, dubbed Generation Search, which is searching for more meaning in life, and has different expectations of brands and advertising. Outlines these attitude changes in relation to femininity and masculinity (notably a general preference in both sexes for the “planet of femininity“); the world of the media and interconnection; multiculturalism; the importance of brands; what makes good advertising (humour, naturalness, openness, harmony, aesthetics, provocativeness, and vision marketing); and the social role of companies.

Inter-Ethnic Differences in Youth Tobacco Language and Cigarette Brand Preferences

Objective. To describe and understand variations in cigarette brand preferences between adolescents from varying ethnic and gender groups around the US. Design. A qualitative study where adolescents, both smokers and nonsmokers, were interviewed individually in depth. Setting. Schools and recreation centers in four sites: urban Maryland (Baltimore), urban Texas (Houston), rural Alabama and rural New Mexico. Participants. 121 adolescent volunteers 13-19 years of age, representing African American, white, American Indian and Hispanic ethnic groups, from both genders. Results. Considerable geographic and ethnic variation exists in terminology used by youth to refer to cigarettes and to their use. Clear patterns in brand preference by ethnic group were found that follow patterns of targeted marketing by ethnicity. White teens preferred Marlboro brand cigarettes, while African-American teens who smoke preferred Newports. Hispanic and American Indian teens were more likely to smoke Marlboro or Camel cigarettes. Hispanic teens were most likely to mention low price as a reason for choosing a particular brand or to state that the brand does not matter. Tobacco advertisements targeting ethnic groups and the use of promotional items to encourage teen smoking were also recognized as factors influencing brand preferences. Conclusions. These findings have implications for the design of intervention programs aimed at curbing teen smoking. When working with teens who already smoke, using youth language to target messages at perceived characteristics of commonly used brands may be more effective and meaningful than talking about cigarette use in general. Another implication of this work is to shed light on what impact an advertising ban would have on teen brand preferences, brand loyalty, and prevalence of smoking.

Straattaal

'Street language' is a kind of register, spoken by young people in Amsterdam and probably also by young people in other multi-ethnic, multilingual cities in the Netherlands. This paper reports on an explorative study of this relatively recently developed register. Street language seems to be comparable to other (monolingual) forms of youth language with respect to its function. The emergence of a mixed youth language has also been observed in other countries, for example in Sweden (Kotsinas, 1998) and Germany (Auer & Dirim, 1998). 133 students in three different schools for secondary education filled out a written questionnaire on street language. This instrument is not really appropriate for a typically spoken, informal variety, but it offered us the opportunity to collect data from a large group of respondents. The data were supplemented with information from a few informal interviews and with information from newspaper articles and television programmes on street language. 98 of the 133 students said that they used street language, boys rather more so than girls, a trend also observed in research on this subject in other countries. Especially children with Surinamese as their home language (in most cases next to Dutch) spoke street language. Students with a relatively low proficiency in Dutch (probably recently arrived) often reported that they did not speak street language. This was also the case with students who claimed to have a good proficiency in one of the following minority languages: Turkish, Moroccan-Arabic and Tamazight. Street language is (of course) most frequendy used in the streets, and also at school in informal interactions between students. Street language is used because it is funny, it is tough and because friends use it too. The respondents were also asked to give (no more than) eight examples of words or expressions in street language (with a translation in Dutch). They provided 468 words or expressions (tokens) in total. The total number of different forms (types) was 151. Most of the words and expressions came from Surinamese. Furthermore, there were words from English, and only a few words from other languages like Turkish and Moroccan-Arabic. Also some new (Dutch) words in the register of youth language were provided. Street language seems to contain quite a lot of more or less standard verbal routines. For outsiders the language sometimes seems to be (sexually) aggressive. Speakers of youth language claim that this aggressiveness is softened by the use of words and expressions from other languages.

Le langage jeune en Italie

Martine Pelon: The Language of Youth in Italy In Italy where the linguistic reality is an extremely varied one (situation of balanced bilinguialism) a distinctive linguistic phenomenon has developed : the Language of Youth. This language goes beyond the limits of the young people's world since the media, TV programmes, advertisements and the written press make numerous references to or are interested in it. It represents a language variety which is spoken to a greater or lesser extent by teenagers in peer group relationships. Its linguistic features combine a strong acceleration in linguistic dynamics, a ludic aspect, the use of old slang devices as well as the coexistence of elements from local parlance (exploitation of dialects) and international traits. Its main function lies in strenghening speaker indentity within the group. It is a language with strong regional characteristics. Finally, today it is one of the moving forces in the formation of the common language, spoken Italian.

Youth language in the German Democratic Republic: Its diversity and distinctiveness

ABSTRACTThis article provides an overview of Jugendsprache, youth language, as spoken in the German Democratic Republic, a variety far less studied than its West German cousin. Attitudes toward and perceptions of GDR youth language are treated, showing far greater diversity than previous Western discussions have found. More importantly, this study provides empirical data from a variety of sources for a sociolect previously largely lacking such evidence.

Comprehension of figurative language in youth

Comprehension of figurative language in youth

Contemporary Canadian English: A Report of the Survey of Canadian English

N 1972 an investigation into the usage of Canadian English was conducted by a group of Canadian scholars in a nationwide survey called the Survey of Canadian English.1 The Survey is significant in at least three respects. It is the first national survey of the English language in Canada ever attempted. It compares the language of youth with that of their parents. The results of the Survey also enable us to make some observations on regional variations of usage. The Survey was sponsored by the Canadian Council of Teachers of English with the support of the Canadian Linguistic Association and funded by the Canada Council. The decision to conduct the Survey was first announced at the 1970 Annual Conference of the Canadian Council of Teachers of

Taalbeleid in Nederlandse en Vlaamse kranten

This research project examines the approach of daily newspapers regarding linguisticinnovations. The author discusses how different newspapers cope with language as a livingphenomenon, based on a corpus of interviews with chief editors and language advisorsemployed by the major Flemish and Dutch newspapers. The study is comparative in twoways: on the one hand, the attitudes of popular and quality newspapers are compared. Onthe other hand, interesting parallels and dissimilarities between the two different languageareas are pointed out. The author analyzes a wide range of topics: the feelings towards thespelling reform of 2006, the spelling battle between the ‘Greens’ and the 'Whites’ in theNetherlands, the attitudes concerning linguistic phenomena such as youth language, foreign(often English) words, buzz words and neologisms, tendencies as the coarsening anddeterioration of the (skills in the) mother tongue, and the question whether newspaperlanguage functions either as a reflection of the language of society or as a pedagogicalexample.