Is Grammar Morphing With Texting?

[Parson]

Hope: I misunderstood you're meaning. (Apologetic face).

You also taught me new text speak: irl=In Real Life, which must certainly be related to the question of whether grammar is morphing with texting. (The answer is "Of course, because any living language is always in ferment and anything as pervasive as texting is will make some changes in the core language.")

 

[tinkerdan]

You have just tried to reach a nonexistent , invalid, or temporarily disabled IRL please try again; if this condition continues, feel free to get one here at this link.

 

[hopewrites]

Acronyms have always been a part of speech patterns.

I tell you, I had the hardest time transferring from the medical sector to the financial one where ROI does not mean Release of Information but Return on Investment.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

I used to think ROI stood for Republic Of Ireland (which it does, too, even though officially no such country exists, officially it's Ireland in English).
It was only when in mid 80s I was more involved in project proposals and business plans that I discovered the financial meaning. I got a specialist technical journal after a fifteen year gap (or perhaps less) and it was full of acronyms I didn't recognise. Fortunately in the meantime the Website had become common and I could use Altavista to search (Google didn't exist!).

 

[Parson]

I used to think ROI stood for Republic Of Ireland (which it does, too, even though officially no such country exists, officially it's Ireland in English).
It was only when in mid 80s I was more involved in project proposals and business plans that I discovered the financial meaning. I got a specialist technical journal after a fifteen year gap (or perhaps less) and it was full of acronyms I didn't recognise. Fortunately in the meantime the Website had become common and I could use Altavista to search (Google didn't exist!).

Ah, the good old days. I once had a Compuserve account where you had to pay to be part of an online forum.

 

[Ursa major]

officially it's Ireland in English

Officially it's Ireland in English in Ireland**.


** - Although I suspect that many north of the border would say Republic (or Republic of Ireland) in order to differentiate between the country and the island. Note that I'll always tend to use 'Republic of Ireland' for the country, basically because I'm a bit of a pedant (not because of my views on the presence of that border) and I like to be precise about what I'm talking about (even if I'm being inaccurate or, simply, wrong ).

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Republic (or Republic of Ireland) in order to differentiate between the country and the island

Yes, the official name (UN and Internationally recognised as simply Ireland) is a bit stupid and was a childish political statement. Éire is of course also wrong in English and only correct in Gaelic. If Éire had been the English name as well as the Irish name there would be no confusion.
"Republic of Ireland" is very commonly used.
Some older people in Norn Iron still refer to "The Free State" and simply the "South" or The Republic (as if there only is one in the world) is common, though of course in Lough Foyle the South is to the north and the North is to the south.

N.I. is commonly called Ulster on both sides of the Border by all communities, even though three of the nine counties of Ulster are not in N.I. Ulster Television used to be N.I. only. They renamed themselves to UTV and along with STV are the the only surviving independent ITVs. UTV owns a lot of Irish Radio stations and now has an official Terrestrial TV channel in Ireland, called UTVI or UTV Ireland, which isn't simply UTV as in N.I.

 

[prokopton]

I was watching my daughter text the other day. Both thumbs were jumping over the letters in quick succession until finally she stopped and hit the send button. I asked if she minded showing me what she had written and to be quite honest with you I had no idea what it said. There were a huge number of abbreviations, no commas, no full stops and absolutely no apostrophes.

Is another form of grammar being created by the new generation? If so as writers, should we be paying attention to this and adapting our writing styles to reflect it?

We had a discussion on this topic. The instructor suggested that the writing style should depend on the audience. For formal and technical writing, always use traditional convention. For informal/casual writing, use the writing style appropriate to the audience.

 

[Ursa major]

Note that I'll always tend to use 'Republic of Ireland' for the country...

...although I'm tempted to mention that in the friendly international between Ireland and England in Dublin this afternoon, the referee was (and still is) from Ireland.....

 

[Ray McCarthy]

friendly international between Ireland and England in Dublin

Not cricket as that has Umpires. So some other activity?

I was astounded to have my BBC R4 LW interrupted recently by cricket from Dublin. So I had to switch my Wireless set from LW to my local VHF "Mp3 sender" frequency and select radio then 6 on my kitchen Satellite Receiver.

 

[Ursa major]

It was, allegedly, a football** match.


** - Of the variety also known as soccer.

 

[Ray McCarthy]

Not the one where the men have a strange ball.