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Brits place blame on emojis for ruining English language

Lisa Miles
An article on the E&T Magazine website states that a study has found that most British adults believe the English language is in decline, with many believing that emojis should take some of the blame.


Personally, I think the English language constantly 'evolves' over time....


I remember the furore when texting became the norm and many people started using 'text speak' in their everyday communitication. However, over the past few years, with autocorrect and predictive text becoming much more sophisticated, it's actually much harder and more time consuming to type 'text speak' into your phone nowadays.


There will always be those that aren't able to spell as well as others, and emojis will always have an appropriate place in communication, but I don't think we need to worry too much about the decline of the English language...


Or do we? wink
  • 0
    "I would therefore agree with your pragmatic approach of only using an apostrophe where there is a risk of a misunderstanding and no chance of my wife seeing it."


    Thank you, that has made my Friday. Classic.


    All the best


    David
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    Andy,

    I've worked with company style guides, but they only provide advice on what font, colour, etc. to use, with occasionally reference to spelling (ise/ize) but never the use of apostrophes.

    I thought your second link was interesting (https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/55970/plurals-of-acronyms-letters-numbers-use-an-apostrophe-or-not) as shows an example of the saying 'the exception proves the rule' which has been completely misunderstood. That is to say, the extract from Webster's provides examples of where it is acceptable to use an apostrophe to indicate a plural, and these exceptions show that the general rule (not stated) is that you don't use an apostrophe to indicate a plural (i.e. these are the exceptions to the general rule), but the correspondent has read this and not appreciated that point.

    I would therefore agree with your pragmatic approach of only using an apostrophe where there is a risk of a misunderstanding and no chance of my wife seeing it.

    Alasdair

  • 0
    Interesting thought from this - given, again, that engineers tend now to write their own reports that go to customers - how many of us work for companies that have a style guide for engineers? I've never seen one at any of my employers.


    Cheers, Andy
  • 0

    Andrew F Wilson:



    ...but more often there will be a style-guide to over-rule a writer's preference


    Another point you don't want to get my wife started on - the amount of times recently she's been saying to clients "where's your style guide???" Or, even worse, finds a style guide written by someone who is keen on formats for web marketing, but doesn't understand grammar. As you can imagine she often ends up offering to write one for them!


    It seems like the days of style guides - even for publishers - are going. Not too bad when she's working on a single author book, as she ends up deciding her own rules if no-one else will, but a pain for journals, magazines and for those marketing materials that need consitency.


    Must admit I mised the MP / minister point, (I'm supposed to be doing other things than posting on forums smiley ) but I still liked that example.


    Cheers,


    Andy
  • 0

    Andy Millar:

    I like this one:
    http://www.english-grammar-lessons.co.uk/lessons/apostrophes_show_plural_of_abbreviations.htm

     




    Some of this guidance is helpful, but there are several dubious statements.  "MPs" is not a synonym for "ministers".  "It is often the writer's choice whether to use full stops", but more often there will be a style-guide to over-rule a writer's preference.

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    As time goes by I'm increasingly convinced that Cormac McCarthy has the right approach to punctuation and usage. I always find his parred down style breath of fresh air.




    Cheers


    David
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    I like this one:
    http://www.english-grammar-lessons.co.uk/lessons/apostrophes_show_plural_of_abbreviations.htm

  • 0
    https://afterdeadline.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/faqs-on-style/
    https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/55970/plurals-of-acronyms-letters-numbers-use-an-apostrophe-or-not (note the first post - this is where my ex-manager was coming from, being of a similar generation and education to this poster)
    http://www.grammar-monster.com/lessons/apostrophes_show_plural_of_abbreviations.htm


    What I do now, pragmatically, is pluralise abbreviations with an apostrophe if (and only if) there is a risk of misunderstanding. Which isn't very often since most abbreviations I use are all caps.

    Unless my wife is likely to see it in which case I never use one!


    Cheers,


    Andy
  • 0
    Hi Alasdair, Lisa,


    Personally I totally agree with you - and I wish I could find now where I read the other view (that it is always ok to pluralise abbreviations with an apostrophe). It was probably 10 years ago that I looked this up, following a disagreement with my then manager over this point.


    If I happen to trip over the source I'll definitely post it here!


    Cheers,


    Andy
  • 0
    Like Alasdair Anderson‍ I also have to disagree with the 'authorities'. frown


    HGVs is the plural, HGV's is belonging to a singular vehicle and HGVs' is belonging to a group of vehicles. It's the same for the word 'year' too. Years (plural) year's (belonging to one year) or years' (belonging to more than one year)


    Or is my understanding of apostrophe use incorrect? blush

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