Despite widespread panic among parents and English teachers, it turns out that instant messaging isn't actually causing teens' grammar to deteriorate. A study by the University of Toronto that monitored the speech and IM habits of 70 teenagers found that "instant messaging language does mirror patterns in speech, but that teens, surprisingly, are actually using a fusion of different levels of diction." Online the teens use both informal patterns that English teachers would disapprove of as well as "formal writing phrasing that, if used in speech, would likely be considered 'uncool.'" Toronto linguist Sali Tagliamonte says IMing teens "actually show an extremely lucid command of the language," and English pedants shouldn't worry.[Via Slashdot]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-01-2006 @ 5:10PM
Fabulo said...
I hope they did not pay millions of dollars for that study. I had no IM when I was a kid, but it is clear there was a language 'for us' with all the bad grammar and slang you want, a slightly better version to talk to adults and a very different one for writing school paper.
You speak the language that you hear in conversations but you write it like you read it in books.
That'll be $2M please :)
Reply
8-02-2006 @ 2:24PM
otakucode said...
Yeah, the next study will come out and say that the language people use online changes over time! Of course it does... you can easily tell how old/experienced someone is online by the way they speak. If you use full sentences, sophisticated diction (like 'sophisticated' and 'diction'), and proper grammar, you will be perceived as being more knowledgeable. Most likely, there will also be some slang and other contructions mixed in that are used in various situations, etc. You probably have in-jokes with friends, in-jokes that span a certain chat-room, etc. Language gets much more complex online. Any person who insists that face-to-face talking or over-the-phone communication enables more empathy or understanding between parties simply has no grasp of the flexibility that abounds online.
They're probably the same people who ask questions with 8 question marks, never use capitalization, and butcher grammar horridly and then are surprised when people treat them like the idiot they present themselves to be.
Reply