Textese, the English Evolution Second Draft
What language are you speaking!?! For anyone born prior to 1980 textese has made it difficult to follow simple and mundane conversations, especially those among tweens and teens. Textese is the language of texting, it applies to any format of digital communication, and consists of abbreviated, slang, and elliptical words, as well as anagrams and homophones. Users often replace parts of words with numbers to create ultra-concise words, like replacing later with l8r. Textese looks and sounds much like a phonetic language without all the rules that govern English. Within textese the phatic qualities we are accustomed to in our interpersonal communications are absent. No one is asking “how are you?”
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The sentiment that textese is a cancer destroying our language is common among writers and older generations alike. The destructive force of textese on the English language has been compared to the devastation wrought by Ghengis Khan in building the Mongol Empire. What constitutes the death of a language? According to David Crystal, “language dies when nobody speaks it anymore”. As of 2016 there were approximately 323 million people living in the United States, of those approximately 262.5 million spoke English, and throughout the world there are about 1,500 million English speakers with only about 375 million of those being native speakers. These numbers hardly support English being an endangered language, and certainly is not indicative of the death of the English language. In fact, these numbers seem to indicate the globalization of English as a common language. Rather than texting being the downfall of the English language John McWhorter sees it as a spoken language in written form and considers it a spoken language that is becoming richer and more complex with each passing year. (Is Texting Killing the English Language?). If language does not evolve it will die. We have all seen language change in our lifetimes, and we have probably all contributed to these changes in one way or another. Language is not dying, it is
In the article, “Does Im Make U dum”, the author states how instant messaging has made us become “dum”. The issue of using popular texting abbreviations like, “lol”, “brb”, or “gtg” can either be an effective or unproductive way of expression. Using abbreviations through texting are so commonly used by children, teenagers, and adults. Statistics show that children are younger than ever for when they are first exposed to mobile phones and text messaging. A 2005 ChildWise study that one-in-four children under the age of eight had a mobile phone.
Three years ago, linguist John McWhorter spoke at a Ted Talk conference about whether texting is killing language and went so far as to question the definition of language itself. His video, “John McWhorter: Txtng is killing language. JK!!!” distinguished to the reader the difference between writing and speaking and how texting was one in the form of another. Texting, he said, is a way of writing as one speaks, or specifically fingered speech, rather than as many believe, a mutilated version of the English language. According to McWhorter, texting is becoming a second language for many people, and those who do text are actually, in a sense, being bilingual. Texting itself is not very different from a foreign language, other than for its strong
Rhetorical Questions - In the fifth paragraph of this essay MacNeil ask rhetorical questions like "Is our exposure to social media wiping out regional differences and causing us all to speak the same? Is the language really in serious decline?" Including these questions in the paper helps convey consideration regarding the reason for the
Technology is not killing our ability to write, but it is reviving it and pushing our literacy to new directions. Andrea Lunsford, from Stanford University, conducted an experiment to scrutinize college students way of writing. Her results were alarming, "I think we are in the midst of a literacy revolution the likes of which we haven't seen since Greek civilization." Lunsford discovered that only 38% of students writing occurred within the classroom, the rest was written in their own free time. Most of our socializing now takes place online and always involves text or writing. Before the Internet, most of our communication was verbal. The only time Americans wrote was for a school assignment and if their job required writing. Otherwise most people didn't write another paragraph once they left
Although, some might say texting is changing the English language for the better in fact it is actually changing it for the worse because of how difficult it is to decipher the shortened meanings.
As explained in The Global Achievement Gap by Tony Wagner, “there is a core set of survival skills for today’s workplace, as well as for lifelong learning and active citizenship” (14). One of the seven skills Wagner listed can be tied directly to social media and how it hinders the development of strong communication skills. Instead of having a face to face conversation, teens are sending messages as a means of communication without the actual verbal part. Texting has made communication easier for young Americans by making unpleasant phone conversations a thing of the past and making a quick “Hello” much easier. This trend slowly builds a habit of poor communication skills. As previously mentioned, 75% of teenagers text regularly, and one in three sends more than 100 texts per day. We can see that texting is the preferred method of communication among young people. To make messages quick and maintain a steady flow of conversation, acronyms and dropping nonessential letters are used to shorten messages. Instead of typing out “laugh out loud” they’ll use acronyms like “LOL” to signify they find it amusing.. They’ll also use homophones like “gr8” for “great” and drop letters from words like “would” to make “wud”. It is obvious to see why texting and messaging through social networks negatively
In John McWhorter’s argumentative speech “Txtng is killing language. JK!!!!” he uses logical and emotional appeals to showcase his argument. He begins by explaining the roles of speech and writing in language, stating that there is a natural amount of bleed between the two linguistic methods. Throughout the speech he compels his audience by using primarily logical appeals, such as since it is typical to “speak like you write” then it must be possible to “write like you speak.” John McWhorter uses historical knowledge and linguistic research, building a logical claim that texting is creating a newer advanced level of digital speech.
In the essay “Politics and the English Language” by George Orwell, the author states his opinion of the decline of the English language. Orwell discusses both its causes and what he foresees as its consequences. He states there is less innovation and coherency, which dilutes the power of the language. Orwell felt that people were using the English language inaccurately, relying on metaphors which are meaningless and used so the writer does not have to bother with creating their phrases. Orwell asserted “It becomes ugly and inaccurate because our thoughts are foolish, but the slovenliness of our language makes it easier for us to have foolish thoughts.”
Language also changes easy whenever speakers come into contact with each other. No two individuals speak identically: people from different geographical places clearly speak differently, but even within the same small community there are variations according to a speaker’s age, gender, social and educational background. Through our interactions with these different
Text messaging has become a norm in our generation, as technology rapidly advances and gives way to more efficient forms of communication in a fast-paced world; and many are skeptical about the influence this new form of interaction is having on our society, especially with our younger generation. David Crystal, a professor at the University of Wales, writes “2b or Not 2b?” in support of text messaging. He insists, despite those who underestimate or negate the beneficial influence text messaging has on language proficiency, that “there is increasing evidence that [texting] helps rather than hinders literacy” and that the fairly recent form of communication has actually been around for a while and “is merely the latest manifestation of the human ability to be linguistically creative and to adopt language to suit the demands of diverse settings. In contrast, Jeffery Kluger argues in “We Never Talk Anymore: The Problem with Text Messaging” that text messaging is rapidly becoming a substitute for more genuine forms of communication and is resulting in difficulty among young peoples of our generation to hold a face-to-face conversation, engage in significant nonverbal expression, and ultimately build effective relationships with family, friends and co-workers. Both writers’ present valid arguments, however, my personal experience with text messaging has led me to agree more with Crystal’s view on the matter. Text messaging is indeed having a positive effect on society by making frequent texters primarily aware of the need to be understood, as well as offering betterment of spelling and writing through practice, and reinventing and expanding on a bygone dimension of our language through the use of rebuses and abbreviations.
Web. 23 Apr. 2012. . 7) Wilford, John Noble. "World's Language Dying Off Rapidly." Www.nytimes.com.
We often hear news stories report on the possible negative effects texting has on students’ formal writing. These stories usually flash a picture of some student’s formal essay or class assignment containing a text-speak abbreviation in place of a formal word. For example, “u” in place of “you”. Stories like this cause educators and parents to worry that the use of texting is impairing students’ ability to write in a formal setting and is thus becoming detrimental to literacy altogether. However, do these news stories actually hold any merit or are they simply media hype? How often does textspeak actually appear in students’ writing? According to literary scholar David Crystal, “all the evidence suggests that belief in an impending linguistic disaster is a conseq...
Language is a form of verbal communication via words and its pronunciation that is used and comprehended by various people of the same nation, culture, or geographical background. It has been said to be dated back as far as one thousand years ago before writing. Like culture, language is passed on through the process of enculturation. Meaning that it is something that is learned (Kottak, 101). In the video, “TED TALK: Texting is killing language,” Ted starts off the video by saying that “The idea is that texting spells the decline and fall of any kind of serious literacy, or at least writing ability, among young people in the United States and now the whole world today (Ted, 2013). Throughout the film discussion, what stuck out to me the most was how drastic language has changed via technology. Although Ted disagrees with the above statement, in my opinion, I believe that a language can be altered if it is changed by enough speakers and writers. With the constant use of various forms of technology, communication via texting has become a very popular leisure activity for people all o...
Text messaging is damaging our literacy and communication skills as a society. Calling someone on the phone or writing them a letter is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. There is a new language that is being learned and not taught across the globe. It is the language of Textese, and it has quickly consumed the lives of millions across the world. There will always be the protector of language arts. These are the shrinking number of people everyone knows, that will continue to handwrite letters and sign them with proper English and etiquette. It may be as simple as picking up the phone and calling a friend or relative. It may be even simpler than that, in that people put forth an effort to talk to the person sitting next to or across from you and engage them in a conversation. Texting and textisms have become so common and widespread that using proper English, correct spelling, and full sentences is also becoming a thing of the past. People that constantly use text and instant messaging may have difficulty with literacy and expressing themselves in writing form. The research shows that text messaging has deteriorated how we communicate and express ourselves because textisms have become an easier and quicker form of communication that has affected literacy in children and adults.
I have yet to not see one of my peers walking with their eyes glued to their cell phones. They quickly type the day’s events on a tiny screen that they use almost all day, every day. Teenagers today use texting as a primary source of communication. Although texting is an efficient and quick way of communication, texting is reducing teen literacy due to lack of face to face communication, abbreviated spelling, and meaningless conversation. Teen literacy today is at a low. According to author Anne Lewis, “more than eight million students in grades 4-12 are reading at "below basic" levels” (Education Digest 51). Because of the simplicity of most ways of communication, it deprives the teens of communicating effectively. They become so used to