Set Marking Tags - 'and stuff'

Abstract

Much sociolinguistic variationist study of ‘youth language’ or Jugendsprache (Schlobinski et al 1993) or ungdomssprak (Kotsinas 1994) is based on the identification of a distinct variety characterised by non-standard forms. This characterisation clearly recognises a debt to sociological constructs of age categories and developmental explanations of adolescence as a stage or period of transition. In this discussion we are not going to address the issue of difference ie we are not presenting comparative data that might challenge or confirm the separate identity of ‘youth language’. Nor are we planning to argue the relative merits or limitations of the variety based view of ‘youth’ language. The perspective adopted for the analysis and interpretation of adolescent discourses is one that recognises the social, economic and political marginalisation of young people living and constructing lives in local contexts dominated by global obsessions with representations of youth and youth cultures.