Is anyone else concerned about the effect text messaging has on language?
Okay, call me old-fashioned, but I see language as having two functions – communication and art. I believe art has a license to “bend” rules and definitions to provide thoughtful or amusing stimulus. But I believe communication should be succinct, precise, and unambiguous.
That is the reason I have become concerned about the effect text messaging and “tweeting” appears to be having on all languages. If you cruise the forum on any regular basis, you will find it replete with requests to translate phrases that carry incorrect spelling, punctuation, and grammar. They are often ambiguous, at best, and require significant context before beginning to decipher. Yet the member requesting the translation appears to expect a perfect translation. What could they possibly expect, when they can’t understand the message themselves?
I searched the archives and found a thread with a similar lament last year, but I wanted to bring it up again.
Cuando era joven, aprendimos el código morse (Morse code), un método de comunicación que usa puntos y rayas, pero seguimos siempre las reglas de la estructura de la frase.
¿Qué te parecen estas cosas?
(I may have caused more damage to the language with that last paragraph, but feel free to correct me. Soy estudiante.)
4 Answers
Cuando era joven, aprendimos la clave telegráfica de Morse (Morse code), un método de comunicación que usa puntos y rayas, pero seguimos siempre las reglas de la estructura de la frase.
It is easier to say "aprendimos (el código) morse".
The phrase "los efectos..." is the subject of the verb "parecer", so you can't use prepositions (i.e. "sobre"), and it should agree with it.
¿Qué te parece esta cosa?
¿Qué te parecen estas cosas?
I personally think that text messaging is not helping with spelling, although it seems almost inevitable. But, who knows? Maybe English spelling will improve thanks to this, hehe.
Linguists like David Crystal do not believe that it is harmful, by the way.
Yes. I have commented on this before and made the comparison to calculators and their impact on math.
There has been more than a few comments on this. In my opinion only, text and chat talk is correctly used in those specific environments. DO NOT let it into your speech and grammar,in the buisness world, it is inappropriate and is a real "turn off" when applying for a job. I would never even review the application for work of an engineer that cannot communicate in standard english-or spanish.I don't care how qualified the person is, if the person cannot communicate in standard language that person is not considered. Punto!
Depending on whether your a "glass half full/empty" sort of personality, you can take some comfort from the notion that at least half of the current "text-speak" will disappear within a generation or be depressed that as much as half may survive.
If history is any guide, (even without the internet) the English of a hundred years from now would give you, at least, occasional difficulties and the English of two/three hundred years hence, serious problems. Move out five/six centuries and it will, almost certainly, be very hard to understand.
