Today Sun Mon
It is forcast to be Chance of Snow at 10:00 PM EST on February 11, 2012
Chance of Snow
-4°/-8°		 It is forcast to be Chance of Snow at 10:00 PM EST on February 12, 2012
Chance of Snow
-2°/-4°		 It is forcast to be Clear at 10:00 PM EST on February 13, 2012
Clear
3°/-3°

18 Comments

news

Casino Crime, Teen Texting Fine, Kid Makes Good Time

By Patrick Metzger

news_20May08.jpg
Two University of Toronto researchers who’ve been studying teen text messaging say that not only is the medium not wrecking the English language, but may actually herald a linguistic renaissance as teens re-learn words like “shall” and “must.” After reading months of teen text conversations, the lead linguist reported that she “was able to gain access to a world that most middle-aged academics never get to,” which is interesting and a little creepy.
The RCMP say that drug dealers are using Ontario casinos to launder their ill-gotten gains, depositing money into slot machines, then cashing it back out while remaining under the reportable $10,000 threshold. Criminal activity taking place around casinos? Stop the presses, people.
A 17-year-old from the Barrie area has been hit with several charges after being clocked travelling at 239 km/h in an 80 km/h zone. What’s that, Speed? You won’t get your licence back til your grandkids are driving?
The Globe reports that a hotline set up to allow people to leave anonymous tips on immigration infractions is being misused by people who don’t understand the system and who are often pursuing personal agendas. Example from a call log: “Caller would like to deport a couple of people from Canada and she would like the website address to fill out the proper forms. Advised caller that it is not her decision who gets deported. Caller does not care.”
Canada’s tanning industry is launching a publicity campaign against critics who say that the practice of lying under UV lamps is dangerous. It can’t be easy selling a service that has no useful purpose and also causes cancer.
Photo by nonstopflights.

Comments

  • David E

    Shall and will are coming back into use in English. There is a renaissance of vocabulary.
    Amazing!
    Now, if we can get those airheads on TV and radio to follow suit then we’ll be better off.
    I just wish the American influences in spoken English were not taking hold here. Americans don’t like adverbs; have difficulties with past participles and have troubles with prepositions.
    Don’t believe me, just as Russell Smith.

  • davedave

    “a linguistic renaissance.”
    Uh, no. Email and text messaging are destroying the English language that was already on life support.
    Sorry, but LOL, SKR and all the rest of the text garbage are not words. They’re lazyass abbreviations. Nobody can spell anymore nor can they string a grammatically correct sentence together. Those 2 linguists are idiots.

  • mboadway

    The casino thing certainly is no news.
    Casinos and many other institutions have to report transactions that exceed a total of $10,000 in one day, not one transaction. The cansino should have been reporting based on that alone.
    Transactions that appear to be on the inside of the $10,000 limit should also spur the casino to write up Suspicious Trasactions for FINTRAC.
    For fun reading on this stuff go here:
    http://www.fintrac.gc.ca/publications/FOR/2007-05-02/1-eng.asp

  • rek

    I can’t hear ‘shall’ without thinking of Family Circus comics and how unrealistic the dialogue is. I wouldn’t mind if that word died.
    Teens might be learning new words, but they aren’t spelling them right, that’s infinately indespudible.
    And what’s with the sudden blurring of pronunciation between you’re [yew-r] or [yer] and your [yore]? Yore going to yore car now?

  • iamnotdynamite

    actually, after testing myself out loud, i’d say ‘yer going to yer car now?’
    oh god, i’m contributing to the decline of the english language.

  • Gloria

    “Shan’t!” So delightful. Everyone should know the joy of that.

  • rek

    Mayn’t is a word I wish would experience a renaissance. May I? No, you mayn’t.

  • David Topping

    The Ottawa Citizen article (aside from the great opening paragraph) is a little off, but this quotation pretty much nails the whole argument:

    Katherine Barber, editor-in-chief of the Canadian Oxford Dictionary, said it’s no surprise that instant messaging doesn’t threaten conventional language. “Many people have this black-and-white view of language, that some things are always right and wrong,” she said. “That’s not how it works.”

    Different forms of writing have different rules for what is and isn’t acceptable. There’s a lot that’s acceptable in text messaging that isn’t in almost any other form—texting language is far more compact and speedy because the form necessitates that. (I try to write text messages the same way I regularly write but, for instance, I rarely use em dashes or semi-colons in them.)
    Since I was a kid, I’ve been hearing that my generation (with an assist from technology) was destroying the English language. I wouldn’t say it’s dying—I’d say it’s got some growing pains. The English language is remarkably flexible and picks up and incorporates (or abandons) stuff as it goes along, and while it’s important to not be too laid-back about language, I’m not sure that it makes sense to be freaked out about it all the time either. So long as “your” and “you’re” don’t become interchangeable in my lifetime, and so long as the semi-colon outlives me, I think I’ll be okay.

  • wardnikoff

    Language is constantly evolving – it always has been. Read up on all the words Bill Shakespear invented. “Proper” english has never really existed. In fact all languages are evolving into one another too, including modern technological words like text message words and the like. Everyone show calm down as usual and remember the great quote from Henery Drummond in Inherit the Wind;
    “Language is a poor enough means of communication. We’ve got to use all the words we’ve got. Besides, there are damn few words anybody understands.”

  • Marc Lostracco

    I’m gobsmacked by how many people still don’t know the difference between your/you’re and there/they’re/their. Nobody should be graduating ELEMENTARY SCHOOL without knowing that, let alone university or college.

  • spacejack

    People write a lot more than they did before internet/texting technologies. I’d bet writing skills in general are much better than when I was in high school (I know a lot of my friends went from writing almost nothing to regularly communicating via email.) You just didn’t see as much crap from people with terrible writing skills back then.

  • PickleToes

    just wish the American influences in spoken English were not taking hold here. Americans don’t like adverbs; have difficulties with past participles and have troubles with prepositions.
    Racist

  • mrs

    PickleToes: “american” isnt a race…

  • PickleToes

    I was trying to be funny.

  • Ben

    keep trying.

  • PickleToes

    Nah, you adore me.

  • redleaf

    well, it’s true, I’d miss reading the banter

  • rek

    A friend of mine has been teaching English in Korea and Japan for 4 years now, a university grad too, and can’t be bothered to differentiate your and you’re.