Text Response

Dear Ms. Kerr

I completely agree with what you have said on the topic of slang. Nevertheless You have been looking at it in a very biased way. You have mentioned all of the negative points, I have a wider perspective on this subject.

Now if we look at Shakespeare he was known to use slang. Which as we know was not considered normal in his era. What is the definition of slang? It is used very loosely and thrown everywhere, any word which we are unaware of then we consider it to be slang. This should not be the case. It is an informal way of speaking, using non-standard words or phrases which is normally used in a culture or within a society.There are many words which we owe to Shakespeare, and these words would have been considered slang terms; these words are as follows assassination, bedazzled, cold blooded, belongings, eventful etc. Are these words to be discarded because they were considered slang?

In our generation it has become a way of communication and acceptance, we are prejudged and it has come to the point where we will not become some-ones friend or just isolate them,not based on character or personality, but the way in which they speak. we now have misguided intentions and pleasures and this has influenced the way that we speak as a society. I believe that these words have become a part of the vocabulary in my generation due to the actions which we carry out, e.g dirty actions and as I mentioned before, misguided pleasures. I understand that you may not see the future of English being very strong, but i don’t see it going downhill either. A language can not be ruined but it can only be developed upon. Unlike Latin no one used it anymore so it became a dead language. This will not happen to English and I’m sure of it.

The English Dictionary has unfortunately adopted these words into their books and on-line. I see your worry concerning this issue but I am contemplating of accepting this way of speaking as it has become a new type of language. A way the youth understand each other, I understand that you believe that the English language has become corrupted with slang, the “eloquent words” being replaced or discarded by my generation. As a matter of fact if we look into the past a few hundred years past Shakespeare we would see that the supposed eloquent words might even be considered slang. Why ? It is simple, the reason is that it was a way of communicating, and was a new type of language which only the people of that era would understand. Is this not what we are doing ?

You mention a point which stands out to me. you said its a battle for young people to prove were not all apathetic and without a doubt this is true. As a continuation you say ASBO wielding yobs who can’t communicate properly and this is also true. I don’t necessarily see the correlation in-between the way we speak and the lack of speech, or the lack of interest to speak with someone. The problem of being anti social or uninterested is not due to the change in form or structure of the way in which we speak. So the way that you have related the two I am not completely in accordance with your statement.

I agree with you, when you say that these language developments and new words, simply do us no favour. We now have a completely distorted image. This is true the way we speak has reflected the way we are. We are obligated to speak the English that wants to be heard by certain people. It comes to a point where we no longer recognise how we are speaking, and we are using these non eloquent words. Now these words that are spoken and thrown around, will eventually stop being used. So you’re right in saying that these words will come and go but unfortunately slang will never stop. The only reason for which certain words may become unused, is because another word has most probably replaced it. This happens continuously throughout the course of every ones lives  e.g wicked to sick, fugly to butters and now clapped. This whole idea of slang being eradicated from our youth and society is way too ambitious. So as you said ” As a member of a younger generation, partly responsible for their linguistic calamities, I can only apologise” But out of this, will come a way of speaking, which many people will neither hate nor love but simply use. So I do not apologise for what we are doing, but I apologise for looking bad whilst doing it.

Yours sincerely

Pablo