This study investigated and analyzed the uses of vulgar words, fad words, and jargon in adolescents' spoken language, providing specific lists and frequencies of vulgar words, fad words, and jargon used by adolescents and examining their usage patterns according to school level and gender. The analysis results were put together and sorted out as follows:
First, the adolescents' use of vulgar words was examined. They used adverbs of degree and exclamations with a vulgar feel such as "존나, 씨발, 개-, and 처-" a lot. Most of the vulgar words of high intensity had to do with sex, and the usage of those words rose with school level. The girls were not much different from the boys in the use of sex-related vulgar words.
Secondly, the adolescents also used a lot of adverbs of degree and exclamations such as "완전, 개-, 헐, and 대박" in the domain of fad words, and the majority of them came into fashion with the extended usage context of communication language. Of its subcategories, the fad words that originated in everyday language recorded the highest frequency, with differences in preferred fad words between the girls and boys.
Finally, adolescents used jargon related to sex, jargon that belittles a peer group, and game jargon in high frequency. They spelled jargon either by picking up only initial consonants or employing English alphabets for the sake of secrecy. Differences were found in jargon usage according to school level: while the elementary school students used game jargon a lot, the middle and high schoolers used a great deal of delinquency, sex, and violence jargon. Jargon related to body parts or sex acts was used by the boys more than the girls.
The study collected and analyzed adolescent conversations and offers empirical and concrete data about their language uses, thus making a future contribution to the establishment of language policies and educational plans for adolescents.
The follow-up study of the study, which analyzed adolescents' vulgar words, fad words and jargon from the perspective of content, should approach the topic from the perspective of morphology, syntax, and expression. In addition, it needs to conduct in-depth analysis of the contexts in which vulgar words, fad words, and jargon are used.