Lourdes Schlingman

Morphology/Semantics Activity

Los Angeles Pacific University

Professor Crystal Gentry

 Dope “Yo that jacket is dope”

Meaning- Cool or very good.

> What struck you about the language being used by the teenagers whom you
observed?

I had never heard anyone use it to not reference an abused substance.

 Goat “He’s the goat”

Meaning- Greatest Of All Time

> What struck you about the language being used by the teenagers whom you observed?

Referencing an athlete or sports player during the conversation.

 Bae “Pizza is my bae”
Meaning - boyfriend or girlfriend, could be short for babe or baby.

> What struck you about the language being used by the teenagers whom you observed?

Bae sounded similar to baby but was used in a more casual way than to a person since
it was made in relation to food. So closer to I love food.
 Bruh “that’s not even funny bruh!”
Meaning - A male friend, or a friend who is like a brother.

> What struck you about the language being used by the teenagers whom you observed?

Very casual sounded both since but also endearing a the same time, like closer than a friend.
 A Karen - “don’t be such a Karen”
Meaning - a woman who is viewed as entitled or demanding beyond the scope of what
is normal.

> What struck you about the language being used by the teenagers whom you observed?

Seemed like an expression similar to “don’t be a party pooper”

 Sus - “no way dude, that’s totally sus!”
Meaning- Short for suspicious, popular during among us game

> What struck you about the language being used by the teenagers whom you observed?

Sus was used in a fun way, while suspicious would mean guilty the use of sus made it lighter, and
not necessarily a bad thing, but maybe a lie caught.
 Shade - “oh that’s some shade right there!”
Meaning- an insult or a diss.

> What struck you about the language being used by the teenagers whom you
observed?

Not sure I can make the connection to what the word shade and throwing shade
means, besides maybe it being dark.
 Hangry - “If we don’t eat soon I will be Hangry in an hour”
Meaning- combination of hungry and angry.

> What struck you about the language being used by the teenagers whom you observed?

A fun made up word, by mixing two other words, creating a new lengague.
 Fire - “Those tacos were fire!”
Meaning- really good or excellent

> What struck you about the language being used by the teenagers whom you
observed?

The full substitution of a word for another.

Fire could mean dangerous but in this case it means really good.
 Boujee - “You’ll have to ask her, she’s v boujee”
Meaning- living a life of luxury.

> What struck you about the language being used by the teenagers whom you observed?

Not a word that I ever heard before until very recently.

In French it means middle class status, but in America thanks to a hip hop song has taken

a different meaning.
-> Why do teenagers have their own set of vocabulary?

I believe teenagers create their own words to bond with their peers. Developmentally they are not quite fitting in with a
child group but also not with the adults, creating and manipulating words to create new ones gives them an opportunity to have
something special and that is their own.

-> What comparisons/connections can you make to your own adolescent linguistic practices?

● Did you engage in similar language creation when you were that age? I have a very vague memory of
creating words with my cousins, adding letters before and after to create them harder for others to
understand.
● Do you see similarities between your development and the development of the teens whom you
observed? Yes I think teenagers face different challenges than those I did, I grew up in a time with no social
media, now with videos trending and being shared on large social media platforms, those fun new words
spread a lot quicker.

-> How do you connect this activity (morphology/semantics in practical application) to your readings about
morphology/semantics from a theoretical perspective?

● What principles of morphology/semantics did you observe? Morphology was the building blocks of
language, being able to identify what those are and building on top of those to create new meaning and new
words. However some of the words I observed were made shorter or completely changed the meaning.
● What conclusions can you draw about how language changes in real-life, and in real-time? I think we
are seeing students create a new language, similar to Spanglish, which combines to very different
languages and creates a new one that can be somewhat connected to it.
-> How will you apply this information in your future classroom?

I think our students should be aware of what they are doing when creating slang terms. The change it causes
to our vocabulary and how it could cause different meanings that would make comprehension harder to understand
for some. However we never want to oppress or shut down the language creativity that they are using.

-> Does this learning change the way that you will approach students from a linguistic perspective?

I have heard the term linguistic oppression as it relates to those who speak a different language than English
and how instead of building up their language we shut it down, even when they are creating a new combination of
words. I do think that language is evolving and will continue to evolve and change as time goes on. It is a fine
balance between encouraging our students to explore language and broaden their ideas but also holding them
accountable for the responsibility that they have to themselves and making sure they are using adequate terms as
they move to high school and college level classes.
References

SLANG WORDS AND THEIR MORPHOLOGICAL PROCESSES . from https://repository.metrouniv.ac.id/

A guide to understanding teenage language. Dove UK.

https://www.dove.com/uk/dove-self-esteem-project/help-for-parents/family-friends-and-relationships/a-guide-to-under
standing-teenage-language.html#:~:text=Teenagers%20are%20trying%20to%20find,appropriate%20to%20the%20c
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