Grammar & Spelling - Is it important? Read post first

[Verruckter]

Originally Posted by devonin

I'm always amused to see the argument regarding the evolution of language come up, because it always has false dilemma written all over it.

Generally you'll see something like this: "Languages evolve and change, we can see that by looking at the history of english. Internet-style slang is becoming more prevalent, so we have to -choose- between "Letting the language evolve" or "Resisting the evolution""

The attitude that kind of thought process shows is one that says there can only be one path of linguistic evolution, and so we either have to go with it, or discard it staying where we are, and doesn't allow for the fact that multiple changes can happen in tandem, and we can accept some and reject others.

People coin phrases all the time, some catch on, some don't catch on. This is just the normal course of any evolutionary process. Unfortunately, one of the changes seeing widespread use is the discarding of existing rules primarily of spelling and grammar, in favour of textually efficient speech. The -quicker- you can communicate, the better.

In its own way, internet slang is actually fairly similar to things like older forms of Hebrew, where while still leaving enough letters to decode the meaning, you've done away with vowels entirely, shortening words considerably. Just...unlike hebrew, they haven't also included the use of things like vowel marks to facilitate pronunciation.

Half the reason English is such a complex language to learn is that we've done away with a number of the guiding grammatical and linguistic concepts that other languages have, which make mastery of the language more forumlaic and studied. So in its own way, English is actually a sort of text-speak version of the romance languages.

I don't see how there could be two paths of evolution, at least not in the context. Generally, a language evolves differently than another with which it has a common ancestor because it is somewhat cut off from that specific other language. For example, german evolved so differently than english because the latter was spoken on an island, rather than on the rest of the soon-to-be Europe.

In the case of "Good english" versus "Internet slang", both are in the same environments. They both are spread equally around the world (for the newer generations, at least) and concern as many people, mostly native speakers, as second language english speakers usually care more about syntax and grammar than native speakers (although I have no source to confirm this). In other words, both different languages cohabit and are exposed to the same conditions.

Originally Posted by lord_carbo

Grammar encompasses syntax. But don't take my word for it. Insert your fingers into the pages of the nearest dictionary, the nearest English book, or the nearest Wikipedia to where you sit, and search yourself.

You're right, my bad.