Summary Of Twob Or Not 2b By David Crystal

In David Crystal’s essay “2b or Not 2b?” the author starts off with this quote by John Humphrys labeling texters as “vandals who are doing to our language what Genghis Khan did to his neighbours 800 years ago. They are destroying it: pillaging our punctuation; savaging our sentences; raping our vocabulary. And they must be stopped.” (335). what Humphrys says describes how many others feel about the evolution and rise of texting. Crystal introduces another disciple of the anti-texting movement, John Sutherland, and even quotes Sutherland’s work in way of stating that texting is just a lethargic disguise for learning disabilities, poor grammar and spelling, and illiterate people. One would think that Crystal’s essay is going in favor of the

He also points out that this “linguistic phenomenon” has aroused more feelings than any other in less than a decade from which this essay was written in 2008. Crystal then goes on to say how popular beliefs towards texting are wrong. He does this by revealing that it is just another few “ripples on the surface of the sea of language.”(337). Crystal continues this idea stating that even though linguistic rules are being broken while texting, more often than not, people still need to have an understanding and comprehend said rules in order for text messages to still make sense. For example, one American study, “less than 20% of the text messages looked at showed abbreviated forms of any kind- about three per message.” (338). this supports Crystal’s position and shows that text messaging has not corrupted and irreparably damaged the English language. Another example of how texting is not a hindrance to the English language is the Dictionary of Abbreviations published by Eric Patridge in 1942. The dictionary was written over 60 years before texting and still holds relevance now. Crystal brings up these examples to show the reader that even though texting is a newer process of communicating and using the English language, some of the methods used have been around for many,

One reason I agree with David Crystal’s assessment on the texting movement just being a passage in time because people felt reluctance to embrace email as well. Being an avid texter, I love the fact that I have the option to be as formal or as informal as I want, and have others respond the same. Texting is just another quick and easy way for people to express themselves, and will continue to be until something else comes along that society deems to be the next big break in the English language. Expressing oneself always runs the risk of being criticized by others, yet people still do so just to keep that sense of individuality with texting being just one example of many. My final thoughts on how texting is just another change in the English language is with a quote from T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets “For last year’s words belong to last year’s language And next year’s words wait another