A Sociological Study of Colloquial Language in Youth Subculture

There is an interaction between the society and language in which the sociocultural characteristics of different groups are reflected. Therefore, the language could be a tool for understanding these subcultural and social characteristics. This article aims at exploring the relations between colloquial language (slang) of youth and dominant discourse of the society and social institutions and examining the role and function of this informal language as well. Our theoretical framework is a combination of Bakhtin's carnival theory and the relations between language and power in Ferklauf's discourse. The gathered data is analyzed by using discourse analysis and Ferklauf's analytical pattern. The research population was the personal blogs (live blogs) of youths aged 15-29 from 2006 to 2009. Besides, we selected 30 blog texts as a sample by the use of a purposive sampling method. Finally, we came to the conclusion that the colloquial language is not used similarly and homogenously in youth subculture; conversely, based on the social space of its usage, this language is used differently. This informal language as a carnival language challenges the dominant order and social institutions and resists the dominant ideological norms and values in secret. This carnivalian resistance shows itself variously in different cultural and ideological spaces in the city.