Decline of Language

[cry4eternity]

Surely we've all noticed the recent decline in the ability of the general public to discern between "your" and "you're." I can't help but think that any typical third grader faced with the same dilemma would make the correct choice more often than many people in my age group. If you haven't noticed this, go to your facebook. You might not even have to scroll down at all. If you still fail to find any problems, start reading flyers around your local college campus or public library. You're bound to find something. Flyers for fraternity events seem to be especially problematic.

The obvious culprit for this seems to be txtsp34k. People have become accustomed to typing and writing things in a way that is convenient rather than correct. I also partially blame spell check and the lack of grammar in public education curricula much past elementary school. Just last semester I was taking a required university level writing class. At one point our teacher, who was a grad student in english rhetoric, made us fill out a sheet with a few basic grammar rules. I thought I found a typo in her answers and pointed it out, but in the end she ended up not knowing the difference between the more obscure meanings of "affect" and "effect."

Maybe I am a bit of a grammar nazi, but should it really be this common for people to be this ignorant? When I make a big deal of this and point it out, is it me that cares too much, or is it truly a sheer display of ignorance to take a dump on language? Is there something to be said for people who can form a coherent sentence with all words spelled properly while still choosing the proper form of "two," "too," or "to"? In my experience, those who can are *usually* more intelligent in general.

So I guess my question is this: Is this phenomenon actually a problem? Do people still need to know how to spell? If you take this point up with a linguist, they'll probably say that it's just the language's way of evolving. I've even heard some say that as long as the message was understood, the language was properly used.

Additionally, if this truly is a problem, what do you think should be done about it?

[Zerth]

I know what you mean. RIGHT across the street from my school, there is a large sign that says "CAR STERIO'S" and I think i die a little bit every time I see it. And I've also had many teachers not know the difference between "its" and "it's". I simply think that there is no excuse for using an entirely wrong word. To me, the huge difference between "there" and "they're" is about the same as "son" and "sun", yet for some reason, it's not considered as bad of a grammar error.

[who_cares973]

You have no idea how much the gets on my nerves

[basicdrummerman]

your ensane, I doghnt sea wat u meen.

[ScylaX]

I doubt these spelling mistakes are fully unintentional, I mean I can hardly imagine someone that had an - average - education to be able to make total mistakes on a fundamental and recurrent word/phrase, like "your" and "you're", for instance. Only the one that hadn't a correct education can do this without knowing they weren't grammatically right. I probably say this because I learnt English on my own by lurking american sites most of the day and I never have been mistaken by this kind of thing once I have been used to this, but probably does this come from the fact I'm really conscious about having the most correct grammar I can have compared to most people since I don't speak my mother tongue right now, I don't know.

You'll probably have guessed what I thought of the problem. To my sense, it comes from the fact people feel less concerned about being correct or wrong as long as they can understand each other. It looks like they don't care at all, as if stressing the 'correctness of spelling" was something exclusive to language teacher or snob pepole etc. I know the old british english was way more hard to speak because it was grammatically more variable with more exceptions and this semantic simplification seems to happen in every developped country.

I don't have historic references that says this phenomenon already happened before and I really can't say if the decline of language is really a problem that is specific to our times, or if we always had some issue concerning the spelling.

[who_cares973]

i wish you were right scylax i wish that everything was done intentionally but sadly thats not how it is.

[kommisar]

It's mostly because people are too lazy or think it's funny to type in such ways. I find myself mistyping stuff all the time mostly because I don't give two ****s about my grammar online. In any professional situation, It's obvious I'm not going to be a complete dick head and type like I came out of dipshit college.

[ScylaX]

Originally Posted by who_cares973

i wish you were right scylax i wish that everything was done intentionally but sadly thats not how it is.

I don't say it is fully intentionnal, I consider that's something that is something totally self-willed at the beginning (for any reason) and that became to invade more and more everyday's reflexes till the moment you don't even are aware that what you write isn't right or you forgot how you spellt things right.

[Reach]

As much as I have noticed this, I am skeptical of it as a trend.

I'm not entirely convinced that it has been established that this generation is worse at language and spelling than previous generations. I have a sneaking suspicion that there is no decline in language at all, but rather, there has been a shift in the types of language people are using.

Has there been any formal studies on the matter to assess this objectively? From personal experience, people in *general* have poor language abilities. Most adults I know have incredibly poor spelling as well. Sure, they don't use the same txtsp33k that kids nowadays use, but none the less they still can't spell their way out of a crackerjack box. Some of my managers at work, for example, cannot spell. They'll post notices on the wall or something with glaring grammatical mistakes.

People in general have weak vocabularies. I have to watch the types of words I'm using around young and old alike. I do notice that the older generation has a better grasp on many more difficult words that are formal in nature, but on the same token, they don't understand any of the slang words that the newer generation is using.

So, I see this as more of a shift. People today seem like they have worse grammar, but that's only because everyone is broadcasting their stupidity online for you to see. In a formal situation I'm willing to bet that in general, most people just can't write worth shit.

People seem like they have smaller vocabularies but in reality they're probably the same size as our parents, except full of different types of words.

[Sephiroth28]

I notice the ignorance of people's grammer quite often and it's somewhat bothersome that something that people learn for many years in school is being misused to such a degree that people are being called ignorant than just having it be a simple mistake.

[XCV]

I, for the longest time, corrected everyone's grammar (more often spelling) whenever it was necessary, until I realized I was being a total douche. I still notice it, though.

[AsphyxZero]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth28

I notice the ignorance of people's grammer

hehehe

[who_cares973]

Originally Posted by Reach

Some of my managers at work, for example, cannot spell. They'll post notices on the wall or something with glaring grammatical mistakes.

story of my work life

[dragonmegaXX]

Me and my mom always correct each others grammar and it always ends up turning into a war

[customstuff]

Originally Posted by Sephiroth28

I notice the ignorance of people's grammer.

FFFFUUUUUUUU-


I actually rarely see anyone on my facebook friend's list that actually uses "you're" correctly. Even my ex, who corrects people all the time and finds it annoying when people make a spelling mistakes, uses the "your".

I honestly can't believe so many people are actually that stupid. It's been drilled into our heads at schools for years and almost everybody uses it wrong.

There are some people that can spell perfectly fine for an assignment, then mess it up online.

[Artic_counter]

I'm not too sure about this but I think it's laziness. As far as I, know there are hardly any grammar rules.

Compared to French that is xD

[who_cares973]

english grammar can suck a dick

[customstuff]

Seriously just saw this one someone's facebook wall.

"_______ .. YOUR ALOUD OVER TOMOROW . call me (number) or (number)"

[Emithith]

Originally Posted by Reach

People seem like they have smaller vocabularies but in reality they're probably the same size as our parents, except full of different types of words.

I don't know whether or not to agree with this. I'm just gonna leave it sitting there. I DO know that when my mother tried to get me tested for ADD when I was about 11 they put me through some tests including an English test, and the one who gave the test said I had a Grade 12 Canadian Vocabulary. I didn't know half the words I know now. Which really worries me because it's only been about 3-4 years since then.

Originally Posted by customstuff

Seriously just saw this one someone's facebook wall.

"_______ .. YOUR ALOUD OVER TOMOROW . call me (number) or (number)"

I wouldn't worry about Facebook too much. If you try to change it you can only come out with an extreme anger for it. Though I have to admit I do feel like putting the keyboard through the monitor when people mess up in such a degree that makes it look like the teachers weren't teaching properly.

EDIT: I also cannot believe how stupid some advertisements are. FFS, I saw an ad that said "Want to Learn English?" I did NOT know you were supposed to capitalize Verbs. I thought it was only nouns. /sarcasm.

[u84]

Overall, I'd say that the typical American is unaware of their grammatical errors. In my experience, with the exception of texting and profile-chatting, errors are made unintentionally. The scary aspect of this is that upon being informed of their misuse of, say "too" instead of "two", for instance, most people will either shrug it off or actually grill you for correcting them.

It puts me at a state of great discontent when I stumble across a word that I require spell-check for in order to correctly use. Most people misspell every other 3+ syllable word without the slightest concern.

I also believe that it is our generation as a whole that has declined in vocabulary. Sure, we have our slang that older generations fail to pick up on, but the fact remains that our - new words - are either shortened derivations of real words or a combination of real words. The general conversation fifty years ago was most definitely far more advanced than today's and the same can be said for fifty years before that.

If it weren't for the technology today, I'd go as far as to say we were a generation of stupid people entirely. In truth, we just have a larger population of people with lesser intellects than those with greater intellects than in previous years. What's ironic is that those of greater intellects actually make it easier for those with lesser intellects to remain at their current level or even decline from their current level through "text-speak," T-9 editing, etc.

TL;DR: I'm very much frightful for how future generations are going to speak both at a social level and at a professional level, be it upward, downward or even horizontal communication.