David Crystal Quotes
Language changes and moves in a different direction evolving all the time. Where a lot of people see deterioration, I see expressive development
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.
Language itself changes slowly but the internet has speeded up the process of those changes so you notice them more quickly.
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.
Grammar is what gives sense to language .... sentences make words yield up their meaning. Sentences actively create sense in language. And the business of the study of sentences is grammar.
Although many texters enjoy breaking linguistic rules, they also know they need to be understood.
A feature of English that makes it different compared with all other languages is its global spread.
In effect we are, bending and breaking the rules of the language. And if someone were to ask why we do it, the answer is simply: for fun
Anyone interested in language ends up writing about the sociological issues around it.
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.
The story of English spelling is the story of thousands of people - some well-known, most totally unknown - who left a permanent linguistic fingerprint on our orthography.
Texting has added a new dimension to language use, but its long-term impact is negligible. It is not a disaster.
Sending a message on a mobile phone is not the most natural of ways to communicate. The keypad isn't linguistically sensible.
Academics don't normally manage to alter people's way of thinking through their strength of argument.
You don't talk to a linguist without having what you say taken down and used in evidence against you at some point in time.
It took three years to put Shakespeare's words together, there were a lot of words to be studied and a lot of words to be sorted out, and it proved to be a major project.
As I get older and I get a few more years experience I become more like Dad, you know, King Lear.
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.
