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Linguistic doom-mongers frequently lament the demise of the English language, complaining that standards are just not what they used to be, that kids these days simply don’t have a grasp of how to use language correctly, lack creativity, and so on. Human nature appears to have a natural tendency to assume that things gradually get worse, not better.
I don’t actually subscribe to that theory, especially where language is concerned. Language evolves, and trying to pin it down and prevent it from evolving is a futile gesture.
True enough, there are many examples of poor grammar and spelling around, enough for many eagle-eyed writers to write entire books about them. I enjoy spotting these mistakes and chuckling about them as much as the next person; I am a massive fan of Lynne Truss and have read and re-read her books like old friends, and I applaud anyone who heightens awareness of language and grammar amongst the general public. As Truss demonstrates in the title of her book Eats, Shoots and Leaves, a wrongly placed comma can completely mislead a reader.
But.
There is a difference between the language we use in official publications and translations, and the language we use to communicate via instant, informal methods.
Like text messages, social networking sites and emails. Think about it: in speaking on the phone to friends and relatives, only the proudest people would claim to be able to hold conversations free from mistakes in word order, use of the possessive, tense etc., every single time they pick up the phone. We must all accept that instant communication methods require us to think on our feet. Our brains simply don’t have time to focus on both the message of what we’re saying and the grammar within it.
In spoken language we have intonation, volume and tone, and that is what we’re doing in emails and text messages as well. We use emoticons, capital letters, italics, amongst other tools, to try to express what it is we’re saying when we don’t have a lot of time in which to do it. I happen to think that this is not a bad thing; we are unable to claw back much time these days, we’re all terribly busy, that’s a given, so we are adapting to that with time-saving methods.
Texting is actually evolution in action. My favourite linguist, David Crystal, recently wrote a fascinating article for The Guardian on text speak, in which he argues that it actually represents a highly creative use language. Moreover, he makes the important point that writers such as Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Walter Scott, and DH Lawrence all used ‘deviant’ spelling in their novels, so it’s not something entirely new.
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