Chicken Scratch and Monkey Noises

[arcanafex]

So, yes. It's been a while since I've written. And, coincidentally, that's exactly what I've been wanting to talk about! (the subordinate predicate (i.e. writing) not temporal qualifier

Comments

[arcanafex]

On the contrary, I actually don't think there's anything wrong with being a stickler for orthographic rules in contexts were it counts. I have a feeling the basis for this is the detail I often have trouble getting across to people. I think it comes down to splitting a hair that most don't recognize as being ... splittable, so to speak.

The thing is that the immediate reaction (which comes I feel from the ideological conditioning I mentioned above) is to view any deviation from The Standard as a degeneration of the language in some respect. Which, moreover, also seems to imply the *Degeneration Of Culture and hearkening of the Downfall Of Society!!!* Which, I'd say, is a great exageration, since in the English ideological world the equation of language change over time with the downfall of society has been a theme for well of 500 years. And if you go and read Chaucer, obviously it's pretty damn different and yet I would assert that society hasn't in fact collapsed into chaos and savagery, relatively speaking.

So, when I see stuff like the "degeneration" of IM/1337-speak, I don't see it as degenerate, but rather a seperate and newly developed adaptation of the existing orthographic conventions. An offshoot. There's no reason that it should be seen as any sort of threat to the Standard Writing system. It's not like it's replacing standard spellings in newspapers or novels or academic journal papers, nor do I think it is likely to. Our writing system today has remained pretty much exactly the same since at least 1400 if not earlier, and if older short-hand spellings (e.g. 'thru' for 'through', etc) haven't replaced the Standard spelling, then these ones won't either.

Necessity is the mother of invention, cliche-edly speaking, and the reason for the development of this "texting" system is directly the result of the standard system being deemed inadequate, consciously or subconsciously, by spellers in this context. So developed a shorthand system that could express equal context with greater economy of symbols, and hence more speed. I understand this, and so although I don't really use it myself, I have no problem with it. What bugs me far more is seeing compositional writing in which the writer can't use 'then' versus 'than' or 'they're' versus 'their' correctly, since this to me just indicates ignorance and lack of control writing skill. I could say more on this, but I'm gonna stop there for now. ;)

[clowny_face]

I actually have no problem with IM/1337 and do find it to be interesting as it represents some of the changes in our culture and way of life (the FUTURE!!!), and the people who created it seem to generally have had better linguistic skills than most of the people who've ended up using it. What I hate is, for instance, getting emails full of it. I think email is one of a few types of e-communication that should still merit thoughtful writing.
What I meant to show in my little sample was not so much a distaste for IM/1337, but the grating combination of that with incomplete/run-on sentences, bad spelling, lazy use of upper and lower case letters, and an apparently pitiful grasp of the language that seems to keep spreading. With all the writen communication we do nowadays you'd think people would be getting better, not worse! Boy do I sound like a snob!! But yeah.

Like you I also have a pretty big intolerance for those common spelling/grammar errors, including the ones you cited. My current favorite one to grind my teeth to is "definately". Like, NO ONE spells that right!!! "Could of/ should of/ etc" continues to be high on my list too, and I want to cry from the pressure of keeping myself from strangling people when they say how they "could care less"!!

I should point out that my own grammar definitely falls short of perfect, but one can rest assured that it ain't for lack of caring or trying!

Anyway, hopefully I haven't mistaken any of the more subtle points you've been making. All, again, very interesting! And I'm really surprised that I've kept having so much to say about this stuff when I'm supposed to be doing other things =P See ya!