Bare Vexed

In the article Kerr talks about slang and how she thinks it is represents the English language poorly and represents the youth poorly. Slang is a type of language that is regarded as informal. Some slang words have made it into the Oxford dictionaries. Kerr is one of a minority who think that slang is bad and that it shouldn’t be allowed in the English dictionary.

At the start of the article she tries to use the slang words to be ironic and to show that slang is bad by putting it in a sentence. There were probably people like her who didn’t like Shakespeare’s new words even though in the long run the words he came up with helped the English Language and people are still using his words so many years later. Kerr doesn’t seem to see the point in the new words but the English language always needs to be updated so new words should be added. She claims to be speaking and apologizing for the youth but she appears to be completely detached from the youth she claims to be apart of.

Kerr needs to understand that it is the 21st century and that the world has been changing and will always be changing, their used to be ‘old English’ but their words got changed. People were probably outraged that words of this famous language were being changed, well now it is happening again.

She goes on to say that Shakespeare ‘turned in his grave’ here it shows that she doesn’t even know what she is talking about because Shakespeare made ‘slang’, by this I mean that if it wasn’t for Shakespeare than the youth wouldn’t have been inspired to make their own words as they wouldn’t have thought it would’ve been possible but Shakespeare showed it can be done. Shakespeare would have been proud if he saw other people add new words into the dictionary. This shows she has made her self look like an idiot and that she should have researched what Shakespeare has actually done and the words he made up. Her argument is that slang shouldn’t be in the dictionary as they are not suitable but words like ‘bitch’ are in it which is seen as a rude word that kids shouldn’t use, so what’s wrong with words like ‘sick’ which is just another word for ‘cool’ or ‘wicked’ so if slang words shouldn’t be in the dictionary than a quarter of the words in the dictionary should not be in the dictionary. Kerr talking about Shakespeare and saying how he would be turning in his grave is her biggest mistake in her article because her argument is that slang words shouldn’t be in the dictionary and that slang puts a bad image on them, but ironically this is Kerr arguing against herself without knowing. Her examples are like ‘twerk’ and then she goes on to say that she doesn’t know what it is. This goes against her argument that slang shouldn’t be in the dictionary but a dictionary is for people who want to find out a meaning of a work and she doesn’t know what ‘twerk’ is and a dictionary is their to tell her.

Kerr goes on to say that slang is giving a bad image but the dictionary is here to tell you the meanings of the ‘modern language’ and slang is a part of the modern language. Kerr also says when was the last time someone used the word ‘groovy’ this backs up the point of the use of slang as groovy is a made up word and slang is a group of made up words so why should people use words like ‘groovy’ but not use words from slang which help the youth and other age groups express themselves in the way they want. People should always be learning new things and new words so with slang it helps them learn and use new words. All the words people use are made up so why can’t the youth make up words to speak, the youth never asked other people to use their words, they made them for them to use them themselves.

Kerr’s argument is that slang is making the English language look bad and that it is also putting a bad image on the youth. She says that she is speaking out for the youth, but in reality is actually detached from the youth as they are the ones that made slang and she does not like slang and is trying to destroy it, so the youth most likely don’t like her. Slang helps the youth communicate with each other so why wouldn’t the youth speak slang if it helps them communicate with each other. So I disagree with Kerr about slang as I think it helps the youth.

So in conclusion Kerr has presented herself in her article as someone who is arguing against something she knows nothing about and clearly hasn’t researched anything about it, sometimes she is arguing that slang should actually be in the dictionary which wasn’t her argument.