Language Use and Culture - Essay Example

Informal language on the other hand is used in situations that are more relaxed and often involve people that we are very familiar with. Formal language is mostly used in writing, whereas informal language is used in speech. There are times, however, when informal language is used in writing. Such situations involve writing letters, emails and text messages to friends or family members. Informal Use of spoken language can also be formal. For instance, when a lecturer is giving lectures to students mostly the language is formal.

For instance, a statement like ‘We went to Barcelona for the weekend. We have a lot of things to tell you’, is a formal statement. When said informally the statement would be ‘Went to Barcelona for the weekend. Lots to tell you. In his speech, John McWhorter says that people have stopped giving speeches formally and have now changed gradually to give informal speeches. He says that the kind of speech given in an old movie where one clears his throat before giving the speech I and go, “ Ahem, ladies and gentlemen,” is a thing of the past.

He continues to say that even the way we write has gradually changed from formal to informal. John says that people, especially young people write as if they are talking not giving about capital letters or punctuation especially when texting. John refers to texting as fingered speech because it is basically a form of speech in writing. Informal language sometimes involves use of slang. Slang may be described as a subset of a language used by a particular group of people. Slang usually consists of words and phrases which are not in the English dictionary.

These words and phrases could be distortions of already existing English words or entirely new creations. Slang is used by almost all groups of people in society who have common interests or situations. The group of people that uses slang