is "slanguage" and word correction/spelling on devices dumbing people down??

We have all seen the m8 for mate and laughed, we probably all have word correction on our devices but is it responsible for the poor standard of spelling and understanding among some groups..
I am not a spelling or grammar nazi usually but it is becoming beyond a joke and it seems some do not even recognise their mistakes..

a common one is "is this aloud on here", the device sorts the word out but the idiot does not even realise it is not right...

To be honest I think that people who have bad spelling and grammar would be that way with or without auto correction on phones and computers. If anything I think we can thanks those devices that the guilty ones don't come across a whole lot worse.

This is just language evolving.  M8 or 4-U are just ways of saying something with fewer keystrokes.  What could be more practical?

Language generally progresses by way of metaphors.  Lakoff and Johnson, Metaphors we Live By.  We might hear: Our nation owes a debt to men who died in battle, and not realize we are using a banking term--"debt"--to express our meaning.  Or, we often compare time to money: 'How do you spend your time these days?'  If you are critical about the front edge of language, you are simply not understanding the progress of language (note the use of a spacial/motion concept...front edge, to express an element of evolution).

The shortcuts derived from texting actually make even more sense.  They are practical ways reducing long words to codes, where the effort to type on a phone is too much.

I do agree with you about 'aloud' and 'allowed', however I often make similar mistakes.  Many times, rereading former posts, I find I have used 'their' for 'there', or 'they're'.  What to say; it's embarrassing?  All I can say is that some glitch in my head said to use 'their' rather that 'there'.  I wasn't conscious of it; had I thought, I surely know the difference.  That accounts for many of the 'modified' notices at the bottom of my posts...correcting embarrassments.

Original Quill wrote:This is just language evolving.  M8 or 4-U are just ways of saying something with fewer keystrokes.  What could be more practical?

Language generally progresses by way of metaphors.  Lakoff and Johnson, Metaphors we Live By.  We might hear: Our nation owes a debt to men who died in battle, and not realize we are using a banking term--"debt"--to express our meaning.  Or, we often compare time to money: 'How do you spend your time these days?'  If you are critical about the front edge of language, you are simply not understanding the progress of language (note the use of a spacial/motion concept...front edge, to express an element of evolution).

The shortcuts derived from texting actually make even more sense.  They are practical ways reducing long words to codes, where the effort to type on a phone is too much.

I do agree with you about 'aloud' and 'allowed', however I often make similar mistakes.  Many times, rereading former posts, I find I have used 'their' for 'there', or 'they're'.  What to say; it's embarrassing?  All I can say is that some glitch in my head said to use 'their' rather that 'there'.  I wasn't conscious of it; had I thought, I surely know the difference.  That accounts for many of the 'modified' notices at the bottom of my posts...correcting embarrassments.

It is fine when you know the correct way to spell things but I believe they do not actually know they are spelling things wrong which speaks volumes..

People have gotten lazy. They can't be bothered.
HF, you don't even use capitals...is that lazy?

Not having a dig, but it seems we are all guilty at times.
Mine is usually tiredness or typing too quickly.

I cherish words, I love them. I love the ebb and flow of them and the pattern they make and the shapes they create. I'm anal about my writing at times.
The only other poster who, I feel, has my love of words is Ben. He seems to like words for the reasons I do.

Would like his opinion on this thread actually.

eddie wrote:People have gotten lazy. They can't be bothered.
HF, you don't even use capitals...is that lazy?

Not having a dig, but it seems we are all guilty at times.
Mine is usually tiredness or typing too quickly.

I cherish words, I love them. I love the ebb and flow of them and the pattern they make and the shapes they create. I'm anal about my writing at times.
The only other poster who, I feel, has my love of words is Ben. He seems to like words for the reasons I do.

Would like his opinion on this thread actually.

Sure thing! I've actually been thinking about this for a while, and I think it's a double-edged sword (which is a good thing, because who wants a sword with just one edge?). While we need a lexicon that we all roughly agree upon to make communication possible, that lexicon is going to evolve over time whether we like it or not. The problem is usually in cross-generational communication, which becomes even more obvious when you look at written material from long ago, like this excerpt from a mid-1800s newspaper column written by Mark Twain when people still knew him as Samuel Clemens:

A Mr. J. P. Goodman, who has a saloon in Washington street, was getting into the cars at the Hayes Park Junction, about 9 o'clock last night, with his wife, when the Frenchman Georgi, manager of the Buislay troupe, being drunk, made some insulting remarks to the latter - a perfectly common and hourly occurrence in all sections and localities of this city under its present gouging, grasping, corrupt and black-mailing police, Police Court and Supervisors' regime - when the husband very properly drew a pocket-knife and stabbed the rowdy in the side, but missed the heart, unfortunately. Oh, sweetly governed city! So perfectly gone in are you in
official morals and honesty that you are worthy to be a suburb of hell - nay, a part and parcel of hell proper.

The excerpt reads so differently from writing from today because of that evolution of language over time, the accumulation of small, gradual changes. That I'm fine with. I'm also fine with spell-check and autocorrect, because they really just speed things up -- you could still check a dictionary before they came along (anybody remember doing that? I do!).

I cringe when I see things like "is this aloud" or "for all intensive purposes," etc. but I don't think slang or spell check are to blame -- I think the problem comes from the fact that people don't read well-written material as much as they do Facebook posts and text messages, so their writing style is based on that rather than the style of a decent journalist or author.

Speaking of cringe-worthy mistakes, one of the worst I sometimes encounter is when a reporter wants to say that a team won a playoff berth -- i.e., it qualified to compete for the championship -- but they write that the team has a "birth" in the playoffs. Even more awkward in that half the stories we publish are about high-school girls teams ...

Absolutely agree on literature.
For an example; children's books. I don't know if you're familiar with any, but I read an awful lot to my three year-old daughter, and some recent books are lovely!
The Gruffalo, Room on a broom for example. They are lovely story-poems and a pleasure to read.
But lately, I've been reading her some Enid Blyton, (not sure how well-known these books are in the USA?), and the language is just so different!

The word "shan't" for example has all but been forgotten by people now, yet Blyton's characters are these articulate, well-spoken children who would say

"Pooh! I shan't be punished as I simply wasn't responsible!"

Where would you read that sentence now?

I love the fact my daughter hears this language and the words "larder" and "coal-shuttle" as places she's never seen. The beautiful and articulate language is so endearing and, I believe, a good starting point for their language development.

Ps just read that back and I sound so stupid! Hahahaha but I truly feel we've 'lost' our grip on language and words and it's a real shame.

Well, I'll sound stupid with you then I don't know those books but I read a lot of old ones as a kid, and they always felt like a glimpse into a totally different universe -- and usually it was, because I was a Texas kid in the 1980s reading about British or coastal American kids in stories set 50, 100 years prior.

To me, reading a book set in a certain place and time can reveal so much more about what life was like there and then than reading a history book can.

they aren't spelling it wrong your reading it wrong

the answer is whoever uses it more and no generation eve in the past have used text to communicate as much as the current

it was just wrong before to slow and inefficient it is just undergoing some much needed evolution to suit the new human trait of using test for basic communication multiple times a day instead of a had written paper letter every week or 2.

regarding 'spell check' when combined with translation software and a Google glass like piece of tech, soon we could just 'fix it' for old peoples by translating it to the archaic words and spellings they know in real time as they look at the new high efficiency text.

I shan't begin to tell you the times in my lifetime when I've learned I was using a malaprop.  Or my disappointment when I heard a Berkeley professor use the term: for all intensive purposes (he was a department computer programmer, sooo...).

Everytime I hear someone say: a whole nother story, I want to scream...'nother' is not a word you fuckwit!

But what do you wanna bet that 'nother' becomes a word in the next decade?  'Another' is already a contraction of 'an' and 'other', but it is just too tempting to slip another adjective in there, trying to place the poor, lonely 'n' somewhere...for emphasis, you understand.

There is one expression that so pisses me off that I am tempted to explode: Moving forward. as in 'we hope this will cure the problem, moving forward'.  WTF!...were you contemplating walking backwards???  I know precisely where that expression came from...it came from a speech by President-elect Obama (pre-inauguration, 2008), when he announced he would not prosecute former Vice-President Cheney for his war crimes: "Moving forward," he said, "we look to brighter days, and not gloomy pasts."  

Now everybody says 'Moving Forward' when it means nothing.  Idiots!

Ben_Reilly wrote:Well, I'll sound stupid with you then I don't know those books but I read a lot of old ones as a kid, and they always felt like a glimpse into a totally different universe -- and usually it was, because I was a Texas kid in the 1980s reading about British or coastal American kids in stories set 50, 100 years prior.

To me, reading a book set in a certain place and time can reveal so much more about what life was like there and then than reading a history book can.

Yes! Exactly! You get a real feel for that time and a real sense of the different language used.
Of course, I love modern books - I'm an avid reader - it's just reading these 'old' books to my daughter (the same ones I read as a child!) are a wonderful way to colour her language. She's a great talker anyway, very eloquent, but I'm loving the phrases she's picking up!

eddie wrote:

Ben_Reilly wrote:Well, I'll sound stupid with you then I don't know those books but I read a lot of old ones as a kid, and they always felt like a glimpse into a totally different universe -- and usually it was, because I was a Texas kid in the 1980s reading about British or coastal American kids in stories set 50, 100 years prior.

To me, reading a book set in a certain place and time can reveal so much more about what life was like there and then than reading a history book can.

Yes! Exactly! You get a real feel for that time and a real sense of the different language used.
Of course, I love modern books - I'm an avid reader - it's just reading these 'old' books to my daughter (the same ones I read as a child!) are a wonderful way to colour her language. She's a great talker anyway, very eloquent, but I'm loving the phrases she's picking up!

That's fantastic. Reading material like that gives a person perspective like nothing else can -- you don't just learn about how people live(d) in that place or time, you get a real person's sense of the rhythm and flavor of it.

Plus, old books are one of the last things that are really valuable and yet nobody's realized it yet -- you can have them for a pittance

eddie wrote:

Ben_Reilly wrote:Well, I'll sound stupid with you then I don't know those books but I read a lot of old ones as a kid, and they always felt like a glimpse into a totally different universe -- and usually it was, because I was a Texas kid in the 1980s reading about British or coastal American kids in stories set 50, 100 years prior.

To me, reading a book set in a certain place and time can reveal so much more about what life was like there and then than reading a history book can.

Yes! Exactly! You get a real feel for that time and a real sense of the different language used.
Of course, I love modern books - I'm an avid reader - it's just reading these 'old' books to my daughter (the same ones I read as a child!) are a wonderful way to colour her language. She's a great talker anyway, very eloquent, but I'm loving the phrases she's picking up!

Just like Mummy  Which books have you been reading her Eddie?  I used to love the Magic Faraway Tree series

Hi FTL!

I love the faraway tree and the wishing chair!

I'm reading her Amelia Jane - the naughty rag doll one!

the Bad old days