Actuality of the social bond: sexuality, the law and the social in the slang of adolescents

Abstract

This study arose from the interest in knowing the changes that have taken place in our society, through current adolescent’s “slang”. Three categories of analysis, corresponding to sexuality, law (as a relationship with authority) and social, were established from the theoretical presuppositions of the Freudian Psychoanalytic Theory. The theory suggests a new update of the Oedipus in Adolescence; which implies, the arise of sexuality, the addition and acknowledgment of Father's law and an opening to a world with other people as an effect of the Castration complex. These points provided a global overview of what is currently happening in the Subject as well as its manifestations in language and its particular forms, such as “slang”. Thus, this study analyzes the most frequently used linguistic expressions (“slang”) by adolescents between the age of 13 - 18 years from a private school in the city of Quito. The information was collected through Focus-groups and the obtained data were classified, according to the gathered terms, in subcategories that were then submitted to analysis and discussion. Important information about Adolescent’s established ways of exchange was found, thus showing us the contemporary social bond.