Mark O:
>>Currently, English is severely constrained by its literature (and
>>universal literacy). We need keep ourselves literate in what's gone
>>before and thus subject ourselves to the prescriptivists,
>>notwithstanding a generations-long revolt against them. Innovation
>>often gets stillborn.
Hakan in response:
>I've never heard this opinion before and as a speaker of a small, >heavily
>English-influenced language it's a weird experience to read >that one of
>its native speakers is so critical of the present state of English and that
>you believe that English is a constrained >language.
I think Mark just likes to wield his poetic skills sometimes.
English is hardly stillborn if you consider the "subculture" elements
that are helping to reshape the language as we speak (cf. "dope", "phat",
"be all that", "technicolor yawn", etc), combined with new
technologies, new innovations, new companies and new levels of social
interaction with their own new catchwords (cf. "EQ", "can-do
attitude", etc). I would say that it's true that old media items
(such as Gene Kelly or Betty Boop) might have a tendency to slow
some changes in the language (I mean: Who knows?? Television has
only been around for less than a century) but at the same time, creativity
and new terminologies (especially increasingly specialized ones) are still
being created left and right.
Sometimes it's hard for a computer programmer to communicate with an
architect about webdevelopment technologies without dumbing the
conversation down to a simple pidgin known as "layman's terms"
combined with the occasional sign language for clarification.
Mark O:
>>It would be so nice if English could go its merry way and fracture
>>into a number of interesting daughter languages. But this seems to not be
>>in the cards.
Mark underestimates the concept of ever-increasing "specialisation"
in the society of the 3rd millenium AD. English *is* fracturing but
in a totally new way. Remember, my friends - Even evolution evolves.
-------------------------------------------------
gLeNny gEe
...wEbDeVEr gOne bEsErK!
home:
http://glen_gordon.tripod.com
email:
glengordon01@...
-------------------------------------------------
_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at
http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp