Lexical innovations in Madrid's teenage talk: Some intensifiers

One of the most characteristic features of teenage talk is its vocabulary, understood as a tool that unifies the group, while excluding the outsiders. When studying teenage talk, we observe that it abounds in fixed phrases of different structures and with different functions. These elements should be considered not only in the lexicological field, but also in the field of pragmatics in order for the communicative function of the phraseological units to be identified. This paper discusses these aspects by considering some of the fixed phrases used by today’s Madrid teenagers, as reflected in COLAm (Corpus de Lenguaje Adolescente de Madrid). The contexts in which the fixed phrases occur will prove to be fundamental for understanding their meaning and function.