Like everything else in this modern era, language changes as quickly as a drag car blasts from starting line to finish. As soon as words are invented, they assume a grammatical form that is subject to instant change. I realized this around the time google mutated from a noun to a verb, as demonstrated by a financial expert appearing on the Today show with the advice, "Google for coupons."
Some usage purists rail against this linguistic looseness, this sudden twisting of a noun into a verb. Changes in language, though, should not surprise us in a world whose rate of change has sped up so much that everyday life feels like a ride on a demented merry-go-round. Language purists like to keep rhetorical matters static; in a very immediate, comfortable sense, words are tradition. They are our treasured representations of a sometimes arbitrary existence; they help us fit into an unpredictable world. It is natural to resist new idioms and absurd colloquialisms that roll in with new generations of people.
This desire for continuity, though, ignores the elastic and inclusive history of the English language. An objective look at the ability of this language to absorb native vocabulary from all the places it inhabits without creating a sense that something has been destroyed or hopelessly altered renders the cause of language purity quixotic at best and insular at worst.
The latest change seems to be toward minimalism. When I exclaim "OMG" to an absurd student or "ROTFL" to a funny person, they are increasingly likely to know what I'm saying. I suspect these minimalist utterances will go the way of all cliches, so I don't worry too much. English has survived, grown, expanded for more than a millennium, and it does not seem truly endangered by any outside force. If you don't believe me, then google it: "history of the English language."
Copyright 2007 Charlotte Browneyes
Saturday, June 16, 2007
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