Jaunimo požiūris į angliškus žodžius suaugusiųjų kalboje

322 Languages and Culture | 83 AURELIJA ČEKUOLYTĖ lietuvių kalbos institutas Young People's View of English Words in Adult Language 1. Introduction In our current society, there is a prominent cult of youth. We want to be modern, youthful and energetic, and language can help us to look that way. The language of young people differs from that of adults and is characterized by slang, English insertions, onomatopoeia and direct quotes (Jørgensen, Quist 2008: 12). Young people are well aware of the differences between their own language and that of adults and, as studies show, they use the language of young people when speaking with one another, while when communicating with older persons they tend to reduce the features of youth language (rathje 2008: 247). thus youth language is one of the ways of expressing youth identity. one of the distinctive features of the youth language of non-English speaking countries is the use of English words such as nice, sorry, cool. English words used by young people and the function of English in the youth language of Western European countries in general have received considerable attention from scholars. sociolinguistic studies show that English in the youth language primarily performs a social function. one could mention the dissertation of the Swedish researcher Harriet sharp, in which she compared how adults and young people insert English words into their speech (sharp 2001). Adults use English interjections only at work, when talking to colleagues, and young people insert English words into everyday conversations even when communicating with strangers. Especially many English words and expressions are in the language of the so-called youth subcultures (Preisler 1999). Marianne rathje, who studied oral communication among three different generations in Denmark, found that young Danish people use more English words in their language than the older generations (rathje 2008). but the fact that young people quite often insert English words into their speech does not mean that they cannot say the same thing in their native language. English simply gives the statement a certain stylistic shade (Kotsinas 2007: 69). a. Czech Republic. Attitudes of young people to English words in the adult language 323 Scandinavian researchers also studied the attitudes of young people to the use of English words in the Danish language. A person who inserts English words into his or her language was described by young Danish people as energetic and modern, but not particularly reliable and competent (andersen 2004: 181). There are some data on the attitude of Lithuanian youth to English language inserts. Young people appreciate the use of English words and like to incorporate them into their language (Girčienė 2004). loreta vaicekauskienė pointed out that Lithuanians associate a large number of English foreign words in the language with young men (vaicekauskienė 2006). A number of Danish researchers have observed that the language of some adults has many of the characteristics of youth language. For example, M. rathje’s study of oral communication across three generations in Denmark showed that women also use a significant amount of youth vocabulary (rathje 2008). however, Margrethe andersen in her dissertation mentions that young people tend to negatively evaluate English words in adult speech (andersen 2004). Danish high school students were asked to describe five people who recounted the same article. the one-person story was characterized by a wealth of English words typical of youth. Although the age of the narrator was not mentioned1, the students determined from the voice that it was an adult person, so some of them found it strange and unnatural that a person of that age used English words drive-by, pusher, etc., but the attitude of young people to English words inserted in adult language was not investigated more thoroughly. The aim of this study2 is to find out whether an adult person who inserts English words into his or her speech is considered modern and energetic or, on the contrary, such a person is assessed negatively. The aim of the study was also to investigate whether such language, which includes English words, seems appropriate for young people to use in the public space – television. 2. tYrIMo METHODThe test method is the mask test3 (The Matched Guise Technique). It belongs to the so-called indirect methods, since the respondents do not know 1 This participant of the experiment was 29 years old. Article 2 was prepared based on the master thesis of Aurelija Čekuolytė De litauiske og de danske unges holdninger til det ungdomssproglige engelsk i voksnes tale (2010). 3 term mask test translated from The Matched Guise used in Danish sociolinguistics Technique translation "masketest". 324 Languages Culture | 83 real research objectives. in sociolinguistic studies, the mask test does not directly refer to language. Sometimes scientists even deliberately put a different goal for the study. For example, Scandinavian researchers, studying the attitudes of their compatriots towards the English language, informed the respondents that the purpose of the study was to find out which person is best suited to work as a radio journalist (Kristiansen 2006). For example, L. Vaicekauskienė titled her research, which aimed to determine with which language users the abundance of foreign words in English is associated, “Civil Society and Social Changes in Lithuania” (Vaicekauskienė 2006). This “deception” of the respondents is considered the main advantage of the mask test, because it can reveal so-called indirect individual preferences. in the mask test, respondents have to listen to several, usually five, recordings of individuals and describe them. but they do not know that the same person speaks twice. It is the so-called investigation mask. one time a person speaks simply, neutrally, and the next time he puts on a mask and speaks differently, expressing such traits, the evaluation of which is intended to be examined. For example, foreign words, dialect vocabulary or dialect speaking, with accent, etc. are inserted into the speech. After the test, it is observed how the respondents evaluated the same person speaking in two language variants, what differences there are. The remaining three persons are merely filler voices (cf. lambert et al. 1960: 44), they do not allow respondents to understand that one person is speaking twice. The respondents of the study described in the article are 55 students of two tenth grades of one Vilnius secondary school. 40 boys and 14 girls participated in the study, and one respondent did not specify gender. a similar study was carried out in one of the high schools in Copenhagen. A total of 52 students in the first year of Danish secondary school4 were interviewed, of whom 30 were boys, 18 were girls and 4 did not specify their gender. This article presents the results of the Lithuanian study and compares them with the results of the Danish study. respondents had to listen to five women’s stories and describe them. all the women told one cooking recipe. At the beginning of the story, each woman would introduce herself and tell her age. so the respondents knew that the authors of the texts are middle-aged women. one woman spoke twice – once in pure Lithuanian (Lithuanian mask), and the other time inserting English words into her speech (English mask). The age of women (about 40 years) was chosen not by chance. 4 In Denmark, the first grade of secondary school corresponds to the tenth grade in Lithuania. a. Czech Republic. Attitude of young people to English words in adult speech 325 A person of this age usually has a permanent job, has founded a family, in other words, is a typical adult. The 40-year age limit in Lithuania is also the most appropriate according to adult English proficiency – most Lithuanians of this age do not speak English or speak very poorly (vaicekauskienė 2010). In addition, students were also asked to answer four open-ended questions: which woman they liked and disliked the most, which of them would (or would not) host a culinary TV show. Students had to justify their answers. By asking whether a woman is suitable to host a television show, the aim was to check which language expression – generic, complying with the requirements of norms, or with impurities of youth language, according to the students, is the most appropriate in the public space – television. It was also wanted to find out whether young people would name the same woman as the most liked and as the most suitable host of the television show, or whether their choices would differ. In the English mask were inserted the English words of the youth language: ok, sorry and nice. These words were chosen as frequent in youth blogs – portal www.blogas.lt and in teenagers’ discussions on social website Facebook. When choosing English words for the study, we tried to make them understandable to all respondents, so we deliberately excluded such words that are associated with specific youth subcultures. The following research masks are presented – a purely Lithuanian narrative (Lithuanian mask) and a narrative with English words of the youth language (English mask). A Lithuanian mask My name is Daiva. I'm forty years old. I'll tell you how to prepare stuffed zucchini. You will need several zucchini, two onions, one carrot, various spices: salt, pepper, more various herbs. then about five hundred grams of meat and about two hundred grams of cheese. We take the zucchini, first wash them, remove the inside of the zucchini and make such boats from the zucchini. at the time, then start cooking, meat prepare. then fry the onions first, add the carrot, spices and add the meat. And we stew the meat until it is almost cooked. add the prepared filling to the zucchini boats. then grate the cheese and put the cheese on top. all this, those boats prepared put in the oven and bake in the oven for about thirty forty-five minutes. It's delicious. The English Mask My name is Eglė. I'm forty years old. I'll suggest you make a marital status. This daržovių troškinį su vištiena. Patiekalui reikės keturių krūtinėlių vištienos, keletą skiltelių česnako ir įvairių daržovių: brokolis, pusė kalafioro, keletą mor- 326 Languages Culture | 83 ka, one pepper. OK. cut the chicken breast into strips, fry, heat the oil in a pan and fry finely chopped onions, oi sorry, garlic. then add the chicken breast and cook until it is brown. Now it's time to put all our vegetables: broccoli, cauliflower, peppers or any other you have. then all this is stewed for about thirty minutes. And at the end of the stewing, if you still have cream, it would be quite nice. Only the respondents’ responses to the survey masks are included in the analysis below. Attitudes of young people to other women in the study will not be considered in this article. Since there were more boys than girls, the attitudes of boys and girls to English words in adult language are not analysed separately. but the observed differences in attitudes between boys and girls are highlighted in the analysis itself. 3. tYrIMo rEzultataI When describing women, young people mentioned their character traits, such answers were the most. but students also tried to guess whether women have established families, how they look, etc. The answers of respondents can be divided into the following groups: Character traits. These are answers that describe the attitude of students to the person himself, for example: "modern", "young", "pleasant" and so on. Linguistic expression. This group includes responses in which assessments of women’s language were given, for example: “she uses English words”, “bad language”, “knows English” and so on. group includes those answers where the respondents guessed whether the women have children or are married. Eligibility to work on television. In answering questions about the suitability of women to host a television show, several respondents mentioned certain qualities that a host should possess, for example, “show business needs a funny person who doesn’t look for words in his pocket”. Appearance. These are answers about women’s appearance, such as: “she probably takes a lot of care of her appearance”, “I think she has big lips and a small head”. such responses are excluded from the analysis of the study. Recipe. The answers from this group mention recipes and women’s characteristics related to food, such as: “vegetarian”, “loves vegetables”, “eats healthy and varied with a variety of vegetables” and so on. These answers are not analysed in the article. a. Czech Republic. Attitude of young people to English words in the adult language 327 they should belong, for example: "working with children or simply Kiti atvejai. Grupė „Kiti atvejai“ apima tuos atsakymus, kurie nepriklauso išvardytoms grupėms, ir tokius, iš kurių sunku spręsti, kuriai grupei loving them", "communicating with foreigners", "growing up in an environment surrounded by friends", "exchanging emotions", "I think that fyfa. Well, at least it would be good if there were fyfa" and so on. The analysis includes those answers that are relevant to the purpose of the study. Figure 1: Distribution of answers by groups As you can see (see Figure 1), the students most often mentioned character traits, recipes and language expression in their answers. Just over a fifth of all respondents paid attention to the language of the woman who used English words. so, such words in adult speech make young people wondering. Interestingly, not one student mentioned that such a woman could have founded a family, but several respondents wrote that a purely Lithuanian-speaking woman could be married and have children. Probably, this is related to the attitude of young people, which woman could use the English words of the youth language and which not. but most often respondents attributed 328 Languages Culture | 83 gave women various traits of character. such a result should not be surprising, because it is natural that respondents asked to describe a stranger from the voice mention precisely character traits. these answers are discussed in more detail below. 3.1. Character characteristics and assessment aspects As already mentioned, the most common description of women was character traits, or, in other words, a word denoting a certain trait of character. The key words would be: confident, energetic, eloquent, friendly, cute, modern, ambitious and tidy. According to Danish researchers (andersen 2004: 176; Kristiansen 2006: 15–16), all character traits in such experiments can be divided into five evaluation aspects: competence (loud, confident, neat, ambitious, cute), friendliness (relaxed, interesting, friendly), superiority, superiority (loud, cute, neat, ambitious), dynamism (confident, energetic, relaxed, interesting, friendly) and modernity (modern, young). The distribution of character traits according to the above-mentioned aspects of evaluation is graphically shown in Table 1. 1 lEntEla. Character characteristics and aspects of evaluation Dynamicity superiority, advantage Competence confident self-speaking energetic orderly ambitious Friendliness relaxed cute modern young fun friendly Modernity 3.2. Characteristics attributed to test masks The distribution of the most frequently mentioned character traits in the answers of young people when describing the research masks, i.e. the woman who spoke with English insertions and the woman who spoke without them, is graphically presented in Figure 2. a. Czech Republic. Attitude of young people to English words in adult language 329 2 Fig. Distribution of character characteristics according to research masks In the opinion of the students, a woman who spoke purely Lithuanian is eloquent. one respondent even emphasized that she speaks very clearly, expressively and well articulates her thoughts. In the opinion of teenagers, this woman is also confident, friendly, sweet and neat. but it should be noted that she was mostly described as confident by boys. Other qualities that students attributed to a Lithuanian-speaking woman are: sensual, creative, cultured, polite, experienced, specific, diligent, understanding and educated. only a small part of the respondents negatively reacted to this woman, to them she seemed boring and ugly character. Respondents described the woman who used youth English words as very modern, youthful, energetic, friendly, confident, sweet, eloquent and interesting. According to them, she is responsible, ambitious, talkative and little lying. but this woman was also mostly described as confident by guys. It's interesting that the girls don't mention in their answers 330 Languages Culture | 83 traits of this character. Perhaps too few girls were interviewed, or perhaps for girls self-confidence is not the most important quality when describing a person. Several students described the woman using English words rather negatively, they thought she was arrogant, artificial and hypocritical. If we compare the character traits that the students attributed to the woman who spoke purely Lithuanian and the woman who added English words to her speech, we would see clear differences. The first woman is attributed more to qualities that indicate superiority and superiority, i.e., she is thought to be eloquent, neat and lovely. the second woman is attributed more characteristics of dynamism, i.e. she is considered modern, energetic, young, friendly and interesting. but students attributed to these women not only different character traits. In their view (as will be seen below), the marital status and leisure interests of these women differ. 3.3. Survey masks: marital status and hobbies Several young people, describing the woman who spoke purely Lithuanian, replied that she was a mother of several children. Others guessed that she works with children or just loves them very much. so the participants of the experiment imagine that a woman who speaks pure Lithuanian should be a real housewife. when describing a woman who inserted English words into her speech, the students did not even mention her possible marital status. but respondents had quite a lot to say about this woman’s hobbies and thereby apparently tried to explain why she stands out from other women. Students wrote that she should have a lot of free time, many friends and especially pay attention to appearance. Several young people tried to guess that she works or communicates a lot with foreigners. respondents also believed that such a woman should spend considerable time at the computer. one student even mentioned that he would like to meet such a woman, because she should be interesting. thus, to summarize the respondents’ attitude to a woman who spoke a language close to young people, it could be said that she was a “super woman”, as one girl described her. 3.4. English mask: positive assessment of language expression Some of the respondents also paid attention to the expression of this woman’s speech. Most often, students mentioned that the woman speaks English and inserts the hole. Cheetah. Attitude of young people to English words in adult language 337 3.9. Comparison of Lithuanian and Danish research results As mentioned above, a similar study was carried out at a school in Copenhagen, Denmark. About a quarter of Danish and as many Lithuanian respondents, describing a woman hiding behind an English mask, noted that she uses English words or youth slang. so English in adult speech attracted the attention of both Lithuanian and Danish students. A small proportion (about 5%) of both Danish and Lithuanian pupils reacted negatively to the English words of the youth language in the adult language – they said that it is not appropriate for a forty-year-old woman to speak in this way. This group of respondents described English in adult speech as a failed attempt to be young. In their eyes, such a person is not youthful, on the contrary, he is more like a clown. However, it should be noted that a larger proportion of both Danish and Lithuanian pupils evaluated English as an adult language positively. According to young people, such an adult is characterized by a modern lifestyle, that is, a modern, ambitious person, spending interesting leisure time, without children. When comparing the attitude of Lithuanian students to an adult speaking with or without English insertions with the corresponding Danish attitude, it was observed that Lithuanians value an adult speaking with English insertions better. Lithuanian students described a woman who did not insert English words as a sweet mother, while a woman who used youth language with English insertions, in their opinion, is modern, energetic and youthful. Young Danes were less likely to mention qualities such as modernity and youthfulness when describing a woman who spoke with English accents. but both Danish and Lithuanian students guessed that the woman speaking in this way has an interesting leisure time, travels a lot, has friends, is interested in fashion. but the Danes, unlike the Lithuanians, described a purely Danish-speaking woman as self-confident, having a good job, a family and a successful career. The difference in Danish students’ attitudes towards a woman who spoke with and without English interjections is well illustrated by several respondents’ guesswork about what women wearing masks might look like after the study. Danish high school students imagined a woman with English words in her speech wearing brightly coloured clothes and a purely Danish-speaking woman wearing a suit. Danish students tend to evaluate women according to their imagined social role: a woman who speaks purely Danish is self-confident and established in society, while a woman who inserts English words into her speech looks like a young woman. 338 Languages Culture | 83 A woman who speaks in 83 languages is younger and more modern than a woman who speaks pure Lithuanian. so Lithuanian gus, mėginantis atrasti save. lietuviai respondentai, vertindami moteris, daugiau remiasi modernumo kriterijumi: mano, kad angliškus žodžius savo pupils see English as more prestigious and modern than Danish pupils. The fact that a person who uses English words in his language is more modern and youthful to Lithuanian youth than to Danish youth is probably related to the fact that English has spread in Lithuania relatively recently. For a long time, Russian occupied an exclusive position, and English is thus a means to displace Russian (House 2003: 565; cited by Kristiansen 2005: 159). adults usually speak Russian better than English, because they learned Russian in school and in general, in the past many places were written and spoken in Russian. so in the eyes of young Lithuanians, an adult who inserts English words into his or her speech instead of Russian ones is a modern person who stands out from other adults. The attitude of Lithuanian and Danish pupils to English words in adult language differs even more when analyzing the answers to the question “Which woman is more suitable to host a culinary TV show?”. Lithuanians were more negative than Danes about the use of language with English insertions in public space (television). Much fewer Lithuanian respondents chose the woman who spoke in this way as the host, although it is noticeable that one third of the students liked this woman. Danish young people had the same attitude to English words in adult speech, whether they were asked about a woman they liked better or a woman who was more suitable for a job on television. For some young Danish people, it seemed that a woman who used English words should be the host, because she had a sense of humor, was confident and could attract young viewers to the television. true, some of the Danish respondents negatively evaluated the possibilities of such a woman to work on television, because she is boring, uses slang, etc. by the way, several Danish respondents noted that not all viewers understand English. The difference in the attitude of Danish and Lithuanian young people to English in the public space may be due to different language policy traditions in Denmark and Lithuania. Lithuania has a stricter language policy, so it is not surprising that Lithuanian young people tend to take into account the correctness of the language when evaluating the speech of the host. In Denmark, a liberal language po5 H o u s e J. 2003: English as a lingua franca: a threat to multilingualism? – Journal of a. Sociolinguistics 7(4), 556–578. ČEKuolYtė. The attitude of young people to English words in adult language 339 litikos, therefore, about the correctness and purity of the language in Denmark is less discussed than in Lithuania. when evaluating a TV host, Danish young people chose what would appeal to the viewers of the show. The analysis of the attitude of Lithuanian pupils to English youth language words in adult language by IŠVDA shows that for many young people such adult language is acceptable, even interesting and modern. Surprisingly, only a small part of the pupils had a negative opinion about the language used by the adults and said that the English insertions in the forties sounded stupid and artificial. several reasons could have led to this outcome. First, the text of the experiment was written in normal, neutral English for young people. Perhaps inserting more specific English words, typical of youth subcultures, into the adult’s language would have produced a slightly different, more negative result (this is exactly what happened in one Danish study; see andersen 2004). secondly, English words in Lithuanian society at the moment give the impression of modernity and novelty. It is therefore not surprising that, in the opinion of most respondents, an adult who uses youth language is youthful, energetic, modern, has no children, has an interesting leisure time, has friends abroad. all this corresponds to a modern lifestyle, which is similar to the lifestyle of youth. As mentioned, some respondents even guessed that a woman speaking in this way would spend a lot of time at the computer, and the computer and the Internet are inseparable from the modern lifestyle of young people. The students described the woman who spoke purely Lithuanian as a representative of a traditional lifestyle. it is a cute, confident, eloquent and family-based personality. The results of the experiment show that a purely Lithuanian-speaking person is also desired as a television host. respondents based their choice on the fact that it is not appropriate to use obscenities on television. Thus, it can be assumed that Lithuanian language policy influences the indirect language attitudes of young people. Comparing the attitudes of Danish and Lithuanian pupils to English as an adult language shows that Lithuanian young people have a stronger impression of newness and modernity of English than their Danish peers. In addition, Lithuanian pupils, unlike a large part of Danish respondents, do not consider the use of English in public space (television) acceptable. 340 Kalbos Kultūra | 83 lItEratūra a n d e r s e n M. H. 2004: English to Danish: Whole lot of fun or wannabe-like and real estate-looking?, Copenhagen: Danish Language Board. G i r č i e n ė J. 2004: Competition of new debtors and their equivalents in sentence usage. – Borrowing and common Lithuanian language, Vilnius: Lithuanian Language Institute, 120–146. J ø r g e n s e n J. N., Q u i s t P. 2008: De unges sprog, Copenhagen: Hans reitzel Forlag. Ko t s i n a s u.-b. 2007: Youth Language, Uppsala: Hallgren & Fallgren studieförlag. K r is t i a n s e n t. 2005: the Power of tradition. a study of attitudes towards English in seven Nordic Communities. – Acta Linguistica Hafniensia 37, Copenhagen: C. a. reitzels forlag, 155–169. K r is t i a n s e n t. 2006: Nordic language attitudes. En masketest, Oslo: Novus forlag. W. E. et al. 1960: Evaluational reactions to spoken languages. – Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology 60 (1), 44–51. P r e i s l e r b. 1999: The Danes and the English language, roskilde: roskilde universitetsforlag. r a t h j e M. 2008: Generational language in oral interaction. A Sociolinguistic Study of Generation-Specific Linguistic and Interactional Traits in Three Generations of Spoken Language, Copenhagen: Dansk Sprognævn. s h a r p H. 2001: English in Spoken Swedish. A Corpus Study of Two Discourse Domains, stockholm: almqvist & Wiksell. va i c e k a u s k i e n ė l. 2006: English foreign words and social identity in Lithuania. – Works and Days 46, 65–78. va i c ek a us ki e nė l. 2010: The global perspective of multilingualism: the place and role of English in Lithuanian urban space. – M. ramonienė (ed.), Cities and Languages, Vilnius: Vilnius University. Received 09/09/2010 YouNG PEoPlE’s PErCEPtIoN oF ENGlIsH WorDs IN aDult laNGuaGE Summary Contemporary society is based on youth cult. We want to be young, modern and efficient. one of the ways to look modern and young is to speak youth language. Youth language differs from adult language. one of the differences arises from a. ČEKuolYtė. In addition to the inclusion of English words, or to be more precise, the use of certain English words, like nice, sorry, fuck etc. as evidenced by the results of a few surveys, adolescents are fully aware of typical features of youth language and they use such language only when speaking with other adolescents. but how will they react when they hear an adult use in his/her speech certain English words that clearly belong to youth language? Moreover, will adolescents tolerate the use of such English words in public, for instance, on tv? the article presents an experiment known as the Matched Guise technique, which was carried out in a secondary school in vilnius. 55 pupils were asked to listen to recorded speech of five women and then describe the speakers. all the women indicated their age, so the respondents were aware of the speakers’ age. What pupils did not know was that one woman talked twice: the first time she talked plain lithuanian (the lithuanian guise), the other time she used three English words, namely, OK, sorry and nice (the English guise). the aim of the experiment was to investigate the pupils’ evaluation of the woman in the two different guises. the pupils were also asked to indicate the best and worst speakers and evaluate how the women would function as tv hostesses. the results of the experiment showed that only a minority of the respondents reacted negatively to the use of English words in the adult speech. they described the speech of the woman in the English guise as contrived and unnatural and noted that the language she used did not become a 40-year-old woman. However, the majority of the adolescents reacted positively to the use of youth English in the adult speech. the pupils described the women in the English guise as modern, efficient and young. they also hypothesized that such adults had many foreign friends and spent much time at the computer. the adolescents’ attitudes to English words in the adult speech show that they relate the use of such language to the modern lifestyle which resembles the young people’s lifestyle. Interestingly enough, the woman in the lithuanian guise was described as a lovely and self-assured mother who represented the traditional life style. as regards the question about which of the speakers they liked most, similar numbers of the pupils chose the woman in the English and in the lithuanian guises. but when asked about the best tv hostess, the pupils gave preference to the woman in the lithuanian guise reasoning that the use of English is not appropriate in public contexts. obviously, the official lithuanian language policy has an impact on the adolescents’ language attitudes. aurElIJa ČEKuolYtė lietuvių kalbos institutas P. vileišio g. 5, lt-10308 vilnius [email protected]