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Writer's pictureCaitlin May

Case study: Is Dan Andrews still salty

Victorian Premier Dan Andrews has a track record of using informal language to appeal to the younger voters in his audience and to craft his public image as a 'regular Aussie.'


Last year he specifically used teenage slang in at least one social media post; see our explanation here about his use of 'vibe.' If you were writing about this in an essay, you could connect that example with the one below:


Right: In February 2022, Andrews visited Frankston High School. His social media post about the visit featured several examples of informal language, intended as a way of building rapport with his supporters.


Firstly, he uses non-Standard English in the form of ellipsis, omitting words from the start of each sentence. The pronoun 'I' is omitted both times, as is the verb 'am' in the second sentence. Given the context is that he is posting through his social media account, people can infer that he is the subject of these actions.


Secondly, his lexical choice includes teenage slang, with the adjective 'salty' meaning 'to be annoyed about something.' This also functions as a pun, seeing as it is in reference to missing out on chips.


Andrews is attempting to be humorous in order to build rapport, particularly as the slang adjective 'salty' is now a couple of years old. This ties into the identity he wants to portray; that of a daggy old dad who is trying to use teenage slang to show that he is keeping up to date with language change.

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