Text Language

The recent phenomenon of text language has had much attention by different linguists. It also interests me because I find it fascinating how people can talk in a very formal language but text in a completely different language, for example if we send emails we would write in the correct spelling and punctuation however when sending texts to our friends we would misspell words and almost always abbreviate. There are thousands of different texting and abbreviation when communicating online, some abbreviations may be familiar to a person and others might be completely foreign as it isn't used by that group of people. People with different hobbies and interests would use different abbreviations, for example; someone in a game chat room will use different abbreviations than a work related email being sent. Also smiley faces are used in the same way that a person's voice or facial expressions changes when having a real life conversation.

 

There had also been a lot of press by the media on this topic, the telegraph say that; Baroness Greenfield, a neuroscientist is worried that sending text messages may cause young people to have a shorter attention span. They also say that language is in a constant state of evolution, perhaps text speak will be perfectly normal in 50 years' time. The BBC News say that after studying 88 children to understand the impact of text messaging on their language skills. They found that 'textism' could be having positive impact on reading development and also that children may use misspelling in words however they will not use it elsewhere such as exam as they have a sophisticated understanding of the appropriate use of words.

 

A famous linguists who has focused on text language is David Crystal, he says "Texting is good for the English language". David's theory is that it's not only kids that abbreviate in texts, adults also abbreviate in texts. He also says that kids leave letters out in words because it's cool and not because they can't spell it. Research has found that the more you text, the better your literacy score. Also the earlier you get a mobile phone, the better your literacy scores. David believes that texting isn't causing the English language to deteriorate rather its helping with reading development.

 

The reason people might abbreviate and use numbers instead of letters may because they have a close relationship with the person they are texting and they are sure the person receiving the text will understand them. This may be why people from different hobbies and interests would use different abbreviations as they will only understand each other. Texting is not affecting the English language because the English language has no evidence of extinction or deteriorating, there is just evidence of new types of language such as text language starting.

 
 
Amina Begum