I Can Has A Smart?

It’s amazing how much time you have when you go from 16 hours of class, work, and homework, to just a couple of hours of piddley work. So now, I can blog until my heart is content. Yay me! Actually, I feel that my purpose has been stricken from me now that the semester is over. But back to the farm, I want to dismiss to everyone who thinks that the English language is devolving.

I’m saying this because it’s what I learned in a couple of my classes, which always brings me to the movie, Jingle All the Way, where Sinbad says that he knows what he’s talking about for he has taken a semester of psychology at a junior college. So I guess you should take my argument for what it’s worth.

In my rhetorical studies class we learned about ancient rhetoric by the Greeks. Since rhetoric really was the art of communicating effectively, Plato thought that writing (which was the newest technology at the time) would destroy language. Well like most people who are afraid to change, he was wrong.

Another thing I learned in this class is that language is purely social, social things will always be in upper and lower classes. The ability for one to read and write typifies he or she is in a higher social class. We can thank Harvard for our grammar today because as the ability to become literate came to the masses, someone came up with a way to once again make language a matter of class. “Anyone can read or write, but high class people know how to read and write correctly.” Even today if someone can’t speak “proper” English, they most likely live in poverty. So practically wealthy people have made it that literacy determines your success in life. In today’s world, access to communicate with others is literally at your fingertips, so many different types of communication.

Further more, and quite simply, people are afraid of change. As I learned about the modernist movement was that people had a difficult time dealing with a world now that is ever-changing, leading to fear. I think that people are simply afraid of things they don’t know. What old person doesn't cringe at phrases like, “OMG! We IMO LOL and L8ter ROTFL ;) :P,” or is terrified of using email, blogs, or the most evil of all, texting.

And for my strongest evidence for my argument is that language is always changing. Did you know that Shakespeare is considered Modern English? Look how much language has changed since then. I will give you an example the word “let” means to allow, but back in Shakespeare’s time, “let” means to hinder, the exact opposite.

So for all you old people, who think that the English language is going to the pot, chill out. Yes we need to keep our language unified so that we can understand each other, and we are doing that. In my Business English class, people are writing textbooks on how to properly text in the work place. Loads of information on how to correctly write emails can be found just about anywhere. Usually it’s those people who think the English language is devolving don’t know what subject verb agreements, pronoun with out an antecedents, or dangling modifiers are.