Instant msg-ing messes with grammar? As if! lol!

Teens adopting unique linguistic shorthand but not ruining syntax
Jul 31/06
by Sonnet L�Abb� (about) (email)

With 80% of Canadian teenagers using instant messaging and adopting its unique linguistic shorthand, many teachers and parents are concerned about the medium�s potential to corrupt kids� grammar. But instant messaging doesn�t deserve its bad reputation as a spoiler of syntax, suggests a new study from the University of Toronto.
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U of T linguists Sali Tagliamonte and Derek Denis studied over 70 Toronto teenagers and compared their use of language both in speech and while using instant messaging. They will present their research at the Linguistics Society of Canada and the United States Annual Meeting on August 2.

This research focuses not only on characteristic features of computer language, such as, acronyms like lol, but goes deeper by looking at four features of grammar; intensifiers, as in that's so cool; the future system as in, the show tonight is going to be fun; quotatives, as in "he was like oh hi"; and deontic modality, as in "I have to go to work.

The study finds that instant messaging language does mirror patterns in speech, but that teens, surprisingly, are actually using a fusion of different levels of diction. Teens are using both informal forms that their English teachers would never allow, yet they also use formal writing phrasing that, if used in speech, would likely be considered �uncool.�

�Everybody thinks kids are ruining their language by using instant messaging, but these teens� messaging shows them expressing themselves flexibly through all registers,� says Tagliamonte. �They actually show an extremely lucid command of the language. We shouldn�t worry.�