Language has no independent existence apart from the people who use it. It is not an end in itself; it is a means to an end of understanding who you are and what society is like.
From David Crystal
A feature of English that makes it different compared with all other languages is its global spread.
Sending a message on a mobile phone is not the most natural of ways to communicate. The keypad isn't linguistically sensible.
Texting has added a new dimension to language use, but its long-term impact is negligible. It is not a disaster.
Text messaging is just the most recent focus of people's anxiety; what people are really worried about is a new generation gaining control of what they see as their language.
Ever since the arrival of printing - thought to be the invention of the devil because it would put false opinions into people's minds - people have been arguing that new technology would have disastrous consequences for language.
Likewise, there is no evidence that texting teaches people to spell badly: rather, research shows that those kids who text frequently are more likely to be the most literate and the best spellers, because you have to know how to manipulate language.
Anyone interested in language ends up writing about the sociological issues around it.
At any one time language is a kaleidoscope of styles, genres and dialects.
Vocabulary is a matter of word-building as well as word-using.
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