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Maybe it's just me, but I feel like over the past several years there has been a really profound and unfortunate deteriorating of the English Language.
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Am I the only one noticing this really sad and disturbing trend? I'm seriously ready to give up all social media and most message boards and other internet sites so I don't get corrupted anymore than I already have. Thoughts?
I agree. And it's been going on for centuries and I expect it to continue for at least the next several centuries.
The English language is changing, not deteriorating. It has always been changing and it always will be changing. And there have always been those who have looked at that change and insisted that it is deterioration.
Language change is normal.
By the way, there's no such thing as language deterioration. What you call 'deterioration' is just change that you dislike.
I highly recommend Henry Hitchings' The Language Wars: A History of Proper English. It accounts the shifting status throughout the centuries of what at any given time was deemed 'proper English' by various factions of English speakers. And it illustrates the fact that for as long as people have been writing about English, there have been those wringing their hands over what they perceived as the terrible demise of the language.
To answer your question, no, I am not concerned about this, because I realize that change is not deterioration as well as the fact that I do not expect a language to remain static for my benefit.
Well, first - no, I'm not concerned, and I am an English teacher. Language doesn't deteriorate - it evolves.
"I know, right? It's, like, literally evolving?"
Sorry, I don't buy this line of thinking when even highly esteemed publications are released with glaring mistakes as a matter of routine these days.
As for my quote, that speaks to the state of the spoken language, which has gone from "deteriorating" to outright rotting. Boomers may have started it with "y'know" at the end of every sentence. But Millennials and adolescents - as well as growing numbers of their elders - have taken it many steps farther downhill. I've started calling the speech patterns of strewing "like" throughout sentences, including superfluous (and often incorrect) adjectives/adverbs, and inflecting a declarative statement like a question "BS English" - "BS" being "Bloated Sentence" for short.
Something tells me that this subject has been harped on before...LOL!
What does bother me is that people totally bungle written communications, then the person who points out how they just screwed it up is portrayed as the "bad person". That seems to be the way with everything today.
Maybe it's just me, but I feel like over the past several years there has been a really profound and unfortunate deteriorating of the English Language. Correct spelling and grammar has completely gone out the window, and I feel even people who used to have good English skills are losing them thanks to how prevalent "Bad English" is becoming. No one writes anymore and word processors that basically can write for you are the norm. Oh red line under this word? Let me google why! Auto-correct is god,even though it doesn't actually know you meant "one" instead of "won", text speak and slang talk is becoming the norm, and even formal print materials are going down in quality. Editors are getting lazy, or stupid, just like the rest of the world.
But seriously, I'm in my late twenties and have always been really big on using English as correct as possible. I was a straight student in grade and high school. I am struggling lately. Even in many of my college textbooks I find glaring typos or grammar errors that have me screaming. The internet in general is the worst though, especially social media. Slang talk, memes, text talk, it's posted EVERYWHERE. The worst part for me is all the misspellings of words. I see SO MANY words misspelled and the more you see it the more your brain starts to wonder what is REALLY the right way to spell it. The worst part is that most of the misspellings you see are spelled out the way they sound, not exactly the way they are grammatically correct, so it really throws your brain for a loop.
I just need to know. Am I the only one noticing this really sad and disturbing trend? I'm seriously ready to give up all social media and most message boards and other internet sites so I don't get corrupted anymore than I already have. Thoughts?
No your not the only one noticing. I have seen so many changes in the overall educational system it is no wonder tens of thousands nationwide just want out of school and dropping out. It used to be fun to learn when I was growing up and havent heard one of my grandchildren in all these years come close to making that statement. Theres no focus on penmanship,you can write like a first grader and be heading to college,you dont have to be able to read well as long as you can run with the ball and score. Forget spelling. Have seen on national news,local news running along bottom of screen the school closings due to bad weather with skools and it goes on the entire day with not being corrected. That by the way was just one of many misspellings. Cursive is no longer taught in many areas around the country. The way I interpret alot of this is the bar was lowered to make it easier for those who are disadvanaged and or the influx of foreigners to be able to learn quickly and easily. Its called dumbing down of the educational system. It created a way too casual enviornment where teachers dont look like teachers and have become unprofessional even in their appearance. Sorry I got on this rant but have seen this decline in years and cant believe at your young age you have acknowledged the same. Do you feel at times people like us need to find a new country somewhere so people who still care can all live together?
I do believe we can just see it more right in our faces because we have social media, but yes, it is very frustrating to see that the written/spoken word does appear to be " outright rotting" as goyguy said.
The English language is changing, not deteriorating. It has always been changing and it always will be changing. And there have always been those who have looked at that change and insisted that it is deterioration.
Language change is normal.
By the way, there's no such thing as language deterioration. What you call 'deterioration' is just change that you dislike.
I highly recommend Henry Hitchings' The Language Wars: A History of Proper English. It accounts the shifting status throughout the centuries of what at any given time was deemed 'proper English' by various factions of English speakers. And it illustrates the fact that for as long as people have been writing about English, there have been those wringing their hands over what they perceived as the terrible demise of the language.
To answer your question, no, I am not concerned about this, because I realize that change is not deterioration as well as the fact that I do not expect a language to remain static for my benefit.
Are you a linguist? This is exactly how I feel about the absurd pearl clutching and hand wringing over the so-called deterioration of English, and I think it has to do with how my "linguistic consciousness" expanded after doing my undergrad minor in Language & Linguistics.
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- have taken it many steps farther downhill. I've started calling the speech patterns of strewing "like" throughout sentences, including superfluous (and often incorrect) adjectives/adverbs, and inflecting a declarative statement like a question "BS English" - "BS" being "Bloated Sentence" for short.
expanded after doing my undergrad minor in Language & Linguistics.
