A devolving evolution....

At times, while perusing the chaos that is the interwebonet I come upon a piece of writing about the current state of verbal and/or written communications in our fair society. Once in a while the article is simply an observation but most often it is a full throated lamenting of the deplorable state and direction of our rapidly devolving skill in usage of the English language.

My first thought upon reading one of these latter pieces is to marvel at the delightfully subtle irony of a screed decrying the tragedy of the evolution of language written in contemporary English rather than Late West Saxon (the long demised linguistic ancestor of English) or any of the innumerable permutations that have since found their way to the communicative boneyard.

My second thought is usually that any difficulties caused by new or creative alterations in spelling, grammar, or usage is more due to a failure in compliance with context rather than any absolute shortcomings of contemporary language. Since it is possible that the phrase "failure in compliance with context" just now saw it's very first utterance, maybe I should explain.

In my brain (admittedly sometimes not being in congruence with reality), it refers to the idea that the use of any thing, such as a tool, eating utensil, clothing, or language, works best when the selection of a particular type of the thing from all the various sub-types of the thing is made with due consideration of the context within which the thing will be used. An alternative label might be "Eating Soup with Chopsticks"

While a fad diet and book titled "Eating Soup with Chopsticks" would probably make it's way to the top of various bestseller lists, the truth is that selecting that particular eating utensil to assist in the consumption of that particular foodstuff would be a definite failure in compliance with context, not to mention a really looooong meal.

The same theory would seem to apply to the changes we some times see in how members of our society, especially those with birth years in the not so distant past, make use of language. I don't believe there is anything inherently bad or wrong with slang, the abbreviations used in texting, or even "smilies", it's just that using those particular linguistic protocols when a more formal formulation of expression is appropriate is likely to yield results as unsatisfying as digging into a bowl of creamy tomato with a non-spoon utensil.

Possibly a better path lies in upping our efforts in teaching better compliance with context rather than using our energies to down the creative adaptations necessitated by changes in our society and the technologies that support it.

I'll even be kind and not insist that any dissenting opinions (always welcome, by the way) be presented in Late West Saxon... Chaucer's Middle English will suffice.

To answer the question many of you might now have in mind... Yes, an article I read this morning really got up my nose and has been irritating my brain cells all day long. Now it's been purged and I can move on to thinking about how to avoid the disasters that always seem a hair breadth away from every turn in my renovational journey.

..take care... tim b