The degradation of the English language on the Internet

[Iron Mal]

I find grammar nazism and the like to be ridiculous and petty.

It is not that hard to read things on the internet (even if you have only a basic grasp of the English language) and it isn't overly important (it should be the meaning of what you write, rather than the presentation of it, that matters).

One arguement that was raised was that we don't have issues like this with the spoken word but the major difference is that we don't have to deal with complex spelling, grammar and punctuation in speech (we don't have to use as many abbreviations in speech because either we just say the title/name fully or written abreviations stand in for non-linguistic dialogue, such as laughter etc.).

 

[EisBaron]

Times change.

This has been talked about for ages and I say the same thing every time - Who speaks Shakespearian anymore?

yeah, but who really speaks coherent English anymore?

 

[A.I. Sigma]

As far as I'm concerned, near perfect grammar is a necessity.

Who cares if I'm a Grammar Nazi?

 

[hagaya]

lol u cant speek inglish roflmao ghey faget.

Ta da. A sentence you will find in no other place on this website. If shorthand and dumb IM speak annoy you, you can at least find a safe haven in the Escapist.

I do get somewhat annoyed, especially when people could actually use the real english language. I'm the only person I know that writes out full words in a text message, and I'm proud of it. However, the downfall of the english language are emoticons. Text faces are the stupidest thing I've ever seen. It irks me so damn much. Yet there is one exception, and I don't know why: :3

 

[daviejjd]

I'm not disagreeing that the standard of grammar is not what it used to be, but I think it is important to view the changes maybe as an evolution, rather than degradation, language adapts to it's uses in a beautiful way.

 

[D_987]

To be honest I find it quite funny how people can really be so bothered about this. In need of a hobby, maybe?

Nine times out of ten it's just as easy to understand what the person is saying, so just give it a rest, please. The people who actually whine about this stuff are a hundred times more annoying than the people their whining about. I want to strangle people when they will quote a post just to fix a spelling mistake, or disregard someone?s opinion because they say 'u' instead of 'you'.

Try to understand that not everyone cares about their spelling or grammar on the internet; and it doesn't make you better than them, it just means they don't care - and to be honest, why should they? It's just the internet, not an English exam.

Sure, if what they're saying is completely incomprehensible, call them out on it. But don't exaggerate; it really doesn't happen a lot with native English speakers.

As much of a dick it makes me sound like to say this, stop. being. so. damn. geeky.

LMAO WTF r u talken bout? U R RONG - typin liek tis is nt v.ezy 2 r3ad. =)

 

[D_987]

Times change.

This has been talked about for ages and I say the same thing every time - Who speaks Shakespearian anymore?

yeah, but who really speaks coherent English anymore?

Who speaks text language - they don't - so why type it?

 

[Chris^^]

There are only so many mistakes that may be blamed on poor typing, as it is I despise the recent rapid decline in the user of proper English on the internet.

I could create a whole list of the worst, but i only need to put one: peoples inability to use the word you're correctly...

anyone else get massively annoyed whener anyone asks if "your going to do something" or any other grammatical abomination along those lines?

 

[Therumancer]

English is alive and well. The Internet is something differant. People tend to use fine english when writing something "serious" but in light internet discussions where they are going to be typing a lot various kinds of short hand have developed.

A lot of this comes from chat modes and texting where speed is not only important, but you also want to fit as much as possible into as few characters as possible. The key is whether the person receiving the message can understand you.

To properly state something can turn a short statement from one line into two or even three.

English is not the only "victim" when it comes to "netspeak". I tend to write as best as I can (not that my english skills are great) but I understand why others do not. Then again I am frequently criticized for "walls of text" and personally do not spend much time in "chat".

>>>----Therumancer--->

 

[JemJar]

As an aside: how many of us text in full sentences? I know I do.

These days the "need" to use 'txt spk' is pretty much negated by the ludicrous numbers of free texts offered by most mobile networks (in the UK at least)

 

[Frank_Sinatra_]

LMAO WTF r u talken bout? U R RONG - typin liek tis is nt v.ezy 2 r3ad. =)

Oh, Christ my eyes! Good thing I know your kidding about that.

yeah, but who really speaks coherent English anymore?

Who speaks text language - they don't - so why type it?[/quote]
Thank you! If people spoke text language I'd excuse it but since they don't I won't excuse it.
In all reality if they did I'd kill myself.

 

[KeiraZodiac]

what is worse is people who mis-spell words on purpose - like "wrok" for "rock" or "ghey" for "gay" - I'm pretty sure my Latin teacher once told me that language is the basis for inteligence. That the more complex your language means you have to think more thus generally have a highger inteligence - hence why the Romans and ancient China were so advanced because of their complicated languages.

Also I have terrible spelling, I'm not dislexic I'm just not very confident with it - yet I always try and strive to a place of better communication - because that is what the internet is for.

 

[Fingerprint]

Times change.

This has been talked about for ages and I say the same thing every time - Who speaks Shakespearian anymore?

yeah, but who really speaks coherent English anymore?

I do.

 

[MercurySteam]

As long as the internet exists, this will continue. So you'd better get used to it.

 

[Therumancer]

Oh and one other thing. English fascists tend to forget that people have long been striving for a form of "technical writing" that could reduce the number of characters while being understood to create less paperwork/shorter instruction manuals and such (to save on printing costs, materials, etc...). Things like "E-prime" which you might have learned in school (ie remove all 'personal' words from your writing) are examples of this.

Arguably netspeak has succeeded even if it's "ugly" to many scholors where other attempts had failed. Arguably a business requiring net/texting shorthand on all documents, manuals, records, and inter-company information would ultimatly wind up reaching the goal of producing less material for the same results, even if it was academically ugly.

When the current generation takes over, I've sort of wondered if Netspeak will wind up becoming a professional skill, and perhaps even being officially taught.


>>>----Therumancer--->

 

[messy]

Butchering of the English Language - Bad Thing
Grammar Nazi's - MUCH MUCH WORSE

The point of a language is to convey a thought, having someone notice you missed a fucking comma along the way undermines the whole point.

This pretty much sums up my feelings, I've always been of the inclination that it's what you actually say is more important then how you say it (obvious exceptions; explaining loss of a love one or similar emotional situations)

 

[Mirroga]

Posting sentences doesn't even need to have needless, complicated words. Just be straight to the point. The only thing everyone should consider is actually writing an understandable sentence.

You think these shortcut messages and internet words are bad? You should see some of the text messages done here in the Philippines. Almost 75% of the WHOLE sentence is consonant due to shortcuts.

 

[Fingerprint]

There are only so many mistakes that may be blamed on poor typing, as it is I despise the recent rapid decline in the user of proper English on the internet.

I could create a whole list of the worst, but i only need to put one: peoples inability to use the word you're correctly...

anyone else get massively annoyed whener anyone asks if "your going to do something" or any other grammatical abomination along those lines?

It doesn't make me want to tear my hair out, there are worse grammatical crimes on the internet. However it does irk me when people who apparently pride themselves on their good writing and then constantly fail to use the correct grammar when it comes to "you're" or "they're" should know better, but at the same time I can live with it as I know I'm not perfect and sometimes it's a genuine mistake.

 

[Utarefson]

It seems to happen with every language, except latin, that's why latin is called 'dead'.