OMG, text messaging! It’s destroying the English language, corrupting young minds, turning us into illiterates. It’s probably shrinking the ozone layer, too. Or is it? In his new book, Txting: The Gr8 Db8, David Crystal offers a different...
The real problem with texting isn’t how it affects language, but what it does to social interaction. Is there anything more annoying when you’re trying to have a conversation than watching your companion’s eyes flitting to his phone when he sees...
When it comes to text messaging and its effect on English, the linguistic apocalypse is not nigh. Quite the contrary, in fact. Grant talks about some eye-opening research about text-messaging and teen literacy. This is part of a complete episode...
A listener has a question about emoticons, those little sideways symbols you type to suggest emotions in informal electronic writing. You know, like using a colon, dash, and a capital P to stick out your tongue like this 😛 or using a colon, dash...
A caller from Indiana wonders if the T9 text-messaging function has led to the term book being a new term for “cool.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Why T9 Texting Can Make “Cool” Come Out as “Book”” Hi, you have A Way with Words...
sandpit n.— «The men working for the security companies, while reluctant to talk in public, have their own online chat-rooms, where they exchange views on what they refer to as “the sandpit”—Iraq.» —“Iraq’s hired hands under fire as the pot of gold...