Text Messaging and Grammar

I know that I have noticed this phenomenon in my college students. The IM and text message language and writing style has infiltrated into more traditional forms of writing. I believe that one of the big challenges in the years to come for those of us who teach writing will be transitioning our students from modern computer slang to traditional, standard English.

From CNN.com

Report: Text messaging harms written language
DUBLIN, Ireland (Reuters) -- The rising popularity of text messaging on mobile phones poses a threat to writing standards among Irish schoolchildren, an education commission says.
The frequency of errors in grammar and punctuation has become a serious concern, the State Examination Commission said in a report after reviewing last year's exam performance by 15-year-olds.
"The emergence of the mobile phone and the rise of text messaging as a popular means of communication would appear to have impacted on standards of writing as evidenced in the responses of candidates," the report said, according to Wednesday's Irish Times. "Text messaging, with its use of phonetic spelling and little or no punctuation, seems to pose a threat to traditional conventions in writing."
The report laments that, in many cases, candidates seemed "unduly reliant on short sentences, simple tenses and a limited vocabulary".
In 2003, Irish 15-year-olds were among the top 10 performers in an international league table of literacy standards compiled by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Copyright 2007 Reuters.

On April 17, a fan in Syracuse, NY, wrote:

Our local news used the term ‘snowblowed.’ The sentence was something like … “many CNYer’s snowblowed their walkways several times today…” My question is other than saying …’many CNYer’s had to snowblow their walkways several times today...,’ is ‘snowblowed’ correct?

Snowblowed? Snowblew? In English, to form the past tense of a regular verb (that is, indicate that an event has occured in the past), we add the ending -ed. So if "snowblow" is a regular verb, "snowblowed" is correct. But "blow," is not a regular verb, its past tense being "blew." So should the past tense of "snowblow" be "snowblew"? Good question.

In fact, the problem here is not one of regular or irregular past tense. Instead, the problem is what is commonly referred to as "verbing a noun," that is, using a noun (remember? person, place, or thing) as a verb (action word). A "snowblower" is a thing, thus, a noun. "To snowblow" is the result of "verbification," turning a legitimate noun into an illegitimate verb. Sometimes, verbing a noun is useful; most often it is senseless and lazy. Unfortunately, many examples of unnecessary verbification have become common parlance: "email" (noun) to "email, emailing, emailed" (verb forms); "contact" (noun) to "contact, contacting, contacted" (verb forms); and "impact" (noun) to "impact, impacting, impacted" (verb forms)--oh, how I cringe at this last example! Verbification is generally lazy and results from an attempt to say something as quickly and efficiently as possible. I'm all for efficiency, don't get me wrong; but don't do it to the destruction of the English language! Nancy Allison has a clever (and lengthier) article on "nerbs," as she calls them, at http://www.stcboston.org/archives/articles/nouns.shtml.

So, no, to a classic grammarian, "snowblowed" is not correct, nor would be "snowblew" or any other verbification. I'd suggest, "Many CNY'ers [what the heck is a "CNY'er," anyway? the subject for another post, I'd say!] cleared their sidewalks with snowblowers several times today." Longer, yes, but so much more pleasant to the ear, wouldn't you say?

The most important element of this question, though, as I see it is what on earth you're doing living in a place where snowblowers are in use "several times" on April 17!

Grammar crackdown overseas

Just saw this article on cnn.com. Now if only we could get this sort of thing to happen in our own country...

BEIJING, China (AP) -- On the floor at Beijing's Capital Airport, a sign reads: "Careful Landslip Attention Security."

On a billboard, this mysterious message: "Shangri-La is in you mind, but your Buffalo is not."

In an elevator, parents are warned: "Please lead your child to tare the life."

Beijing officials have promised to crack down on bad English in preparation for the 2008 Olympics and they've asked the public to help police bad grammar and faulty syntax.

With 500,000 foreigners expected for the Olympics, taxi drivers who can't speak English -- or signs that mangle the language -- could be an embarrassment and distract from the $40 billion being poured into rebuilding the city for the games.

Liu Yang, who heads the "Beijing Speaks Foreign Languages Program" for the city government, said 6,500 "standardized" English-language signs were put up last year on Beijing roads.

Liu said a language hotline may be set up for the games to encourage the public to report nonsense English. China's diplomatic missions abroad are assisting, Liu said, "and our people working in foreign companies are helping with correct usage."

Officials have also undertaken efforts to stamp out spitting and bad manners in the run-up to the games.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/04/19/china.olympics.ap/index.html

Good or Well?

After a conversation with a friend yesterday, I was reminded of the confusion that exists with when to use "good" and when to use "well." I'm borrowing a page from my sister's book and giving the next commonly confused words post as a dialogue.

Imagine a conversation in an office hallway.

Employee#1: Hi. How are you?

Employee #2: I'm doing well. I just heard good news: we are all getting a raise!

Employee #1: Does that mean that our product has been well-received?

Employee #2 Yes it does, and it is a good thing too.

Employee #1: And why is that?

Employee #2: The head of the company said that if sales didn't go well, we might be looking at a pay decrease instead of a pay increase.

Employee #1: That is good news!


So, what can we tell from this (besides that it is good to get a raise!)?

Good is an adjective, used to describe nouns (like "news" and "thing").

Well is an adverb, used to describe verbs or actions (like the act of receiving or the act of going).

When you are discussing your health, we also use well. ("I am well.")

This last one is what trips a lot of people up. We think that when we say "I'm good" we're describing ourselves. What we are actually describing is our state of health, which requires us to use well. Here's a handy trick: we go to the doctor's office for wellness visits. Just the same when someone says, "Hi, how are you?" we are being asked about our health, so we should say "I'm well" (that is, healthy).

Unless, of course, you didn't just get a raise. Then feel free to say "I'm miserable."

National Poetry Month

In April we celebrate many things, not the least of which is the return (we hope) of good weather. We also take this month to enjoy and appreciate poets and poetry. If you are interested in information about celebrations going on, here's a handy website:

http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/41


Happy National Poetry Month!