Slang In America Essay

Slang in America has developed throughout many generations, and people have used it to shorten big words and expressions to get their message across faster and simpler. Many writers have argued whether slang corrupts or benefits the English language. Tom Dalzell, an expert on American slang, wrote in his essay about the impact of young people on the development of slang. He simply states that “youth slang is a core element of youth culture”. Slang helps define one’s identity and allows young people to freely express themselves in various ways. Slang cannot be fully annihilated by even the most repressive attempts by adult authority, but to some extent where it shouldn’t be used. Slang plays a key role in youth culture and they are the ones

Instead, they’ve become part of not only our language but our social life. Young kids and young adults use slang to provide simpler context to what they want to say. They abbreviate long words and expression in order to describe certain situations. There are a lot, but some of the commonly used abbreviations are “brb” (be right back), “lol” (laugh out loud), “cya” (see you later), and “omg” (oh my god). In relation to all this, is the adult perspective and their views on the impact of slang on young minds. Many adults and the older generations don’t like the idea of words turning into nonsense jargon because they want especially young kids to be taught proper English and the correct form of grammar. What many have tried to do was to allow certain music that the children could listen to or certain stories they were allowed to read. Dalzell says otherwise that “the most vigilant and repressive attempts by adult authority cannot completely eradicate slang and music…”, briefly explaining that even though adults try extremely hard to limit slang from children and kids, it won’t be enough to stop them from expressing themselves and what they want to