Journal of Sociolinguistics 11/3, 2007: 322–345 Youth, slang, and pragmatic expressions: Examples from Brazilian Portuguese 1 Jennifer Roth-Gordon University of Arizona This article draws on an ethnographic study of the stigmatized speech style of poor black male youth in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. These youth are said to speak g´ ıria (‘slang’), and their speech is often described as incomprehensible to the Brazilian middle class. Speakers and listeners point to a wide range of pragmatic expressions as some of the most salient linguistic features associated with this speech style. This article presents examples from Brazilian Portuguese slang, in which youth draw on sound words, obscenities, address forms, and addressee-oriented tags to create new pragmatic markers and forms of indefinite reference. It is argued that these pragmatic expressions offer multiple opportunities for speakers to convey stance, novelty, and style, social goals long associated with slang. This data suggests that we broaden the purview of slang beyond the lexicon to investigate the ways in which speakers actively innovate within the area of pragmatics. KEYWORDS: Slang, youth, pragmatic markers, vague language, pro- forms, Brazilian Portuguese INTRODUCTION Bab ´ u: T´ a ligado? (‘You know what I’m saying?’) He says t´ a ligado all the time. Karate: Ooh, if she [Jennifer] talks with Cyclone, man´ e (‘man’). Ooh, if she talks with Cyclone, caralho! (‘shit!’) He won’t say one normal word! Over the past 25 years, discourse analysts have expressed growing interest in the new and innovative use of pragmatic expressions by youth, including: markers of reported speech such as ‘go’ and ‘be like’ (Andersen 2000; Butters 1980, 1982; Dailey-O’Cain 2000; Miller and Weinert 1995; Romaine and Lange 1991; Stenstr¨ om, Andersen and Hasund 2002; Tagliamonte and D’Arcy 2004; Tagliamonte and Hudson 1999; Underhill 1988); intensifiers such as ‘just,’ ‘really,’ and ‘so’ (Erman 2001; Ito and Tagliamonte 2003; Stenstr¨ om, Andersen and Hasund 2002; Tagliamonte 2005); and invariant tags such as ‘innit’ (Andersen 2000; Stenstr¨ om, Andersen and Hasund 2002). This article presents examples from Brazilian Portuguese, where youth draw on sound words, C  The author 2007 Journal compilation C  Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 2007 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK, and 350 Main Street, Malden MA 02148, USA