These are the introduction sentences on the topic of the decline of English:
"Do you weep for the decline of the English language? Do people’s grammatical aberrations on social media fill you with horror?"
I can respond that I don't go so far as to weep, but do get irritated. "I use to" is normal now. I don't want to get "used to" this.
What's the answer? Let's find out what the experts have to say.
"When we think about the future of language – in this case, the English language – we have a tendency to bemoan its demise. The casual language used daily on social networks and in newspaper comment sections delivers a host of typos and misused words. Even capital letters and full stops are left by the wayside by some of those sharing their opinions, something that I personally find almost painful to witness."
The article goes on to tell me the English language is evolving.
I am concerned because there are times when I don't understand what the written sentence means. I will have to go back to school to learn the "New English".
Most of the articles are opinion pieces. I checked out the Linguistic Society of America's article: "Is English Changing?" Here's what the article says:
"What's important to realize is that there's no such thing as a 'sloppy' or 'lazy' dialect. Every dialect of every language has rules - not 'schoolroom' rules, like 'don't split your infinitives', but rather the sorts of rules that tell us that the cat slept is a sentence of English, but slept cat the isn't. These rules tell us what language islike rather than what it should be like."
That is excellent theory, but often I experience a failure on the the writer's part to communicate their point. Alternately, I might be far behind on the New English.
What got me thinking is the article's "Karen example". Here it is:
(4) So Karen goes, "Wow - I wish I'd been there!"
(5) So Karen is like, "Wow - I wish I'd been there!"
(6) So Karen is all, "Wow - I wish I'd been there!"
The article explains the different meanings of each of these. There are subtle nuances.
I wavered for a moment, thinking I should start a search to learn the new English. Instead, I found this 'joke' as a possible alternative to going back to school.
The montage picture seems a good representation of the decline of spoken and written language - a story of deterioration and disintegration rather than evolution.
