Friday, June 30, 2006
The Destruction Of The English Language?
Posted by Jon Westfall in "THOUGHT" @ 06:24 AM
Earlier This Week on a forum devoted to the Pocket PC version of an anonymous piece of software:
"hi people just installed the app 5 min ago, and be4 the app loads up i get a message saying Expired so how am i ment to c if it works on my device be4 buying. i have had non of the deluxe versions on my xda 4 more than a day cus non of the others worked can sum1 please help me i realy want to buy the app if it works"
8O Now there was a time when writing like this would have been thought to be the work of an 8 year old, today however, it's common. The scary thing is, it's starting to creep into forums and user groups that common sense suggests it shouldn't. After all, what would this guy use a Pocket PC for?
With the advent of instant messaging, SMS messages, screen keyboards (Where text entry can be painfully slow), and tri-tap on phones with only numeric keyboards, abbreviations make sense. But has it gone too far? Technically, language theorists debate if a language should take a proscriptive approach (where the rules are clearly defined and people are obligated to follow them) or a descriptive approach (where the rules are modified to suit the current usage of the language). I've always felt strongly that language should be descriptive, but now I'm starting to see the proscriptive light. The even scarier fact is that I've received essays from college freshman that include 'u', 'becuz', and similar! What do you think - is it a serious threat to the English language, will it pass, or is it actually a <shudder> good thing?
"hi people just installed the app 5 min ago, and be4 the app loads up i get a message saying Expired so how am i ment to c if it works on my device be4 buying. i have had non of the deluxe versions on my xda 4 more than a day cus non of the others worked can sum1 please help me i realy want to buy the app if it works"
8O Now there was a time when writing like this would have been thought to be the work of an 8 year old, today however, it's common. The scary thing is, it's starting to creep into forums and user groups that common sense suggests it shouldn't. After all, what would this guy use a Pocket PC for?
With the advent of instant messaging, SMS messages, screen keyboards (Where text entry can be painfully slow), and tri-tap on phones with only numeric keyboards, abbreviations make sense. But has it gone too far? Technically, language theorists debate if a language should take a proscriptive approach (where the rules are clearly defined and people are obligated to follow them) or a descriptive approach (where the rules are modified to suit the current usage of the language). I've always felt strongly that language should be descriptive, but now I'm starting to see the proscriptive light. The even scarier fact is that I've received essays from college freshman that include 'u', 'becuz', and similar! What do you think - is it a serious threat to the English language, will it pass, or is it actually a <shudder> good thing?
