Ever since the arrival of printing – thought to be the invention of the devil because it would put false opinions into people’s minds – people have been arguing that new technology would have disastrous consequences for language.
In effect we are, bending and breaking the rules of the language. And if someone were to ask why we do it, the answer is simply: for fun.
Language itself changes slowly but the internet has speeded up the process of those changes so you notice them more quickly.
Language changes and moves in a different direction evolving all the time. Where a lot of people see deterioration, I see expressive development.
At any one time language is a kaleidoscope of styles, genres and dialects.
Sending a message on a mobile phone is not the most natural of ways to communicate. The keypad isn’t linguistically sensible.
Language has no independent existence apart from the people who use it. It is not an end in itself; it is a means to an end of understanding who you are and what society is like.
English has been this vacuum cleaner of a language, because of its history meeting up with the Romans and then the Danes, the Vikings and then the French and then the Renaissance with all the Latin and Greek and Hebrew in the background.
Although many texters enjoy breaking linguistic rules, they also know they need to be understood.
The story of English spelling is the story of thousands of people – some well-known, most totally unknown – who left a permanent linguistic fingerprint on our orthography.
Research shows that those kids who text frequently are more likely to be the most literate and the best spellers, because you have to know how to manipulate language.
Swearing makes an excellent relief mechanism.
You don’t talk to a linguist without having what you say taken down and used in evidence against you at some point in time.