https://www.ted.com/talks/john_mcwhorter_txtng_is_killing_language_jk/transcript?language=en
Summary:
The way we communicate with one another has drastically changed throughout the past decade. Whether it be due to technology or how we are advancing as a society, our language has evolved. Some people would consider this change to be confusing or detrimental, however, it seems as though this direction of new speech was one that we were always moving forward to.
In the TED Talk, 'Texting is Killing Language. JK!!!' John McWhorter talks about how language has been around for thousands of years and even before that writing had been around longer. Today we have noticed so many changes in the way speak and part of that is due to the most popular way of communicating, texting. From "lol" to "idk" our society has begun to create shortened versions of words that have an overall accepted meaning. However, many would jump to say that these words are hindering us and maybe even "dumbing us down" a little. John McWhorter explains how in no way are these words hindering us, in fact, he believes they are making us better and smarter.
Many people assume that because texting is so unstructured and doesn't really follow the rules, that the language should not be accepted. McWhorter points out that texting is this new found "complexity" that we are seeing in these new forms of speech, and should not be avoided but, embraced. It is the evolution of our society and as we try to avoid it, we are only avoiding what was inevitably going to happen.
"The idea is that texting spells the decline and fall of any kind of serious literacy, or at least writing ability, among young people in the United States and now the whole world today. The fact of the matter is that it just isn't true, and it's easy to think that it is true, but in order to see it in another way, in order to see that actually texting is a miraculous thing, not just energetic, but a miraculous thing, a kind of emergent complexity that we're seeing happening right now, we have to pull the camera back for a bit and look at what language really is, in which case, one thing that we see is that texting is not writing at all." |
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Key Words/Phrases:
- Word Packets: A grouping of words formed together when we are speaking. You pick up on them when people are speaking.
- Pragmatic Particles: Words used as representational place holders. (i.e. LOL - laughing out loud)
- New Language: The idea that texting has altered the way we are communicating.
- Emergent Complexity: The transition texting as a new language and form of speech.
- Fingered Speech: Writing the way we talk.