Investigating Lexical Innovations in the Speech of Algerian Youth The Case of First-year EFL Students at Belhadj Bouchaib University Centre - Ain Temouchent

Abstract

The present research work is an attempt to investigate the contribution of the young generation to language variation at the lexical level. This study principally aims to achieve three main objectives; first, it focuses on the different ways youth adopt to construct new words. Second, it investigates how these linguistic alternations are integrated to become a part of their daily speech. Finally, it seeks to examine the prominent factors that enable this linguistic phenomenon to occupy a considerable space among the youth category. To accomplish these aims, two research instruments, namely; a questionnaire and a word list have been submitted to first-year EFL students studying at Belhadj Bouchaib University Centre of Ain Temouchent. Therefore, a mixed-method approach has been employed in this study, which combines both quantitative and qualitative approaches to provide clear and deep explanations of the target phenomenon. The findings reveal that youth contribute to bringing a change in language use at the lexical level through borrowing and shifting from different languages such as French and English. Thus, these languages are considered a source of youth’s inspirations to reinforce their linguistic creativity. In addition to the fact, there are prominent factors such as social networks, cultural influence, and multilingualism that increase the rate of these lexical innovations and facilitate their diffusion among youth