“Students examine the features that distinguish informal language from more formal language.”
“They understand how spontaneity and planning can both play a role in informal language and the ways in which informality may play an important role in building rapport.”
“They examine how users of informal language may be idiosyncratic in their linguistic choices and structure texts in a non-linear way, and they explore the role of colloquial language and language varieties in establishing informal registers.”
Both written and spoken informal texts may contain non-fluency features, ellipses, shortened lexical forms and syntactic creativity. (Study Design, 2024)
- Summary of characteristics of informal discourse: glossary of spoken informal elements
- See a Summary of Updated Examples 2024 of a range of informal examples.
Informal language and In-group solidarity
Students investigate “how informal language choices can build rapport by encouraging inclusiveness, intimacy, solidarity and equality” (VCAA)
- Slang: notes on slang; and the in-group , intimacy and solidarity; Australian vernacular and “strine“
Informal language, tenor, face needs and social distance/purpose
“Students investigate how informal language can be used to meet and challenge others’ face needs” (VCAA)
- Informal language and face needs; positive (“the need to be liked, respected and treated as a member of a group”) and negative (“the need to be autonomous and act without imposition from others”) ; “strine” and “slanguage”
Informal language features such as slang and swearing patterns
Students investigate how “slang and swearing patterns are important in encouraging linguistic innovation and in-group membership” (VCAA)
- Informal language; “slanguage” and “bloody“; swearing patterns, language change and shifting taboos ; swearing and online trolling
Other useful links:
- See Short Answer Questions: spoken discourse features
- See Informal Language: a variety of functions
- See linguistic analysis of informal texts: A range of commentaries (formal/informal/spoken/written
- Return to: Essays and contemporary examples 2024 for language variation
- Other subsystems: lexicology; morphology; syntax; semantics
- References to linguists and relevant commentators (which ones?)
- Return to our Welcome Page: Overview of English Works Notes and Resources