Y - Issue 216 - April 17, 2012 - Y-oman.com

April 17, 2012 Issue 216
While on this subject, he says, texting too has had a role to play, despite
the refrain from some people who opine that it is not a form of writing.
“It is actually very popular, and, for many people, it is the only form of
writing they do,” remarks Richard.
IL
EMAIL
But, what is surprising is the popularity texting has gained. Calling it
an amazing phenomenon, he says, “We never imagined that this would
catch on.” Nevertheless, what is worrisome is the spill over from texting
into other forms of writing. “We occasionally see that with our students’
essays. They put in things that are really meant for text messages. But
this doesn’t happen very often,” he adds.
Email is the other pertinent issue relating to English writing. “The
question here is whether email is, in fact, a form of writing or is it
just a speech written down. Well, email can be anything you want it
to be; it could be a formal business letter or something lighter. Email
creative, inventive, playful, etc., but others, who are more strict, will say the
language is deteriorating.”
According to Richard, there are two camps: one camp feels what is happening
is just ordinary language change and that language change happens
all the time; the other camp opines the quality of language is becoming
poorer - that language is deteriorating. “My own position is somewhere in
between,” he states. Highlighting the changes that are an inherent part of
every language, he notes that in the 20th century, when the telephone came
along, and with the advent of radio, films and television, everyone thought
it was the end of the written language. He explains the phenomenon as
follows: “We can’t predict the future, for what has happened is the opposite.
We at the university are trying to teach English academically. We have to
decide what the boundaries are. There is always the pressure coming from
students who want to write their academic essays as though they are talking
to their friends. In our own teaching we do stop students from using informal
TERNET
been accelerated by email, blogging and, generally, the Internet.
tends to be more like spoken English; it accentuates the current trend.
There are also other issues with emails: it can be very direct and abrupt
and sometimes can sound rude,” he says. Interestingly, there are no
conventions yet for sending mails and there is no reason to believe
it could happen in the future. “The message is that these things are
developing and we don’t really know where it is going,” he states.
From personal websites to company websites, there is a vast range of
Internet options for writers. This makes it very difficult to generalise
what is happening with the Internet, says Richard, emphasising that
sentences are becoming shorter and more direct. There is less use of
passive sentences and Latinate vocabulary and more use of simpler
Anglo-Saxon vocabulary, he explains, adding that there is also less
use of clauses – relative clauses, and more stress on direct forms of
communication.
“We seem to be changing rules; lot of sentences, nowadays, begin with
conjunctions like ‘and’, ‘but’, etc. In the past this was not considered
to be a good style. Today, even in The Times, sentences begin with
conjunctions; there are even sentences that contain verbs. Normally, we
call them fragments of sentences, not real sentences. If students used
it, we would underline it in red,” he asserts.
So, the question, what is right and what is wrong in written English, is
still in the debating stage, as the rules are changing all the time. Richard
says: “At the moment there are no rules. I mean, we have conventions,
but conventions are changing all the time. Because one thing about
the Internet is that people are making their own rules. They have this
liberty to do as they like; they can change spellings if they want or even
play with the language. Some people welcome this, saying it is very
language in academic writing; we stop them from using anything close to
text message. There is a general academic style, which most institutions
would aspire towards…”
INTERNET
While the changes in written language are obvious, what is startling,
or rather surprising, is the change in teen lingo. This, says Richard, is a
different issue altogether. “They (teenagers) deliberately like to create their
own language, one that nobody else understands. Once those words are
used by other groups they lose their interest in them, and they start all over
again. “In conclusion, I would state that we are still in the early stages of this
revolution. We don’t know what new forms of technology will come along.
We were taken by surprise with texting - nobody foresaw it. We don’t know
what’s going to happen. New technology may come along with very good
quality dictation or machines…
“This is really the beginning of the revolution. And although changes happen
all the time, we can see that from the 15th century up to the 21st century
there has been a gradual change in the written language. It has accelerated
in the recent past and we don’t really know where this is all going…”
SPOKEN
ENGLISH
* ‘What is happening to written English’ was the topic of the evening
presentation by Richard Harrison at GUTech, last week.
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