The Explosion of Language

Language used to be a slowly evolving thing—a mass lazily floating along, gathering a word here, a phrase there. But today the evolution of language could more easily be compared to a high speed train creating an air vacuum along the track it travels.

Hatchen and Scotton describe globalisation as “a profound interchange of cultures—a communication revolution” (Hatchen & Scotton 2002, p. 3) which directly relates to how words and phrases are being revolutionised in our postmodern world. Modernity tells us to embrace change and creativity, which must then include text talk.

Almost all of this is thanks to the internet, and a direct product of globalisation. Pieterse Nederveen says in his article Globalisation: Consensus and Controversies that “globalisation is being shaped by technological change” (Nederveen 2004, p. 9). This is shown through the fact that despite slang’s long history in the English language, text talk has now made the phenomena explode.

New words often used to be attributed to particular people, like Shakespeare. Now, with the flow of information picking up speed with incredible force, it’s almost impossible to trace who invented which word or phrase. The best that we can do to keep up is the Urban Dictionary, a publication documenting new colloquial words and sayings as they evolve.

Hatchen and Scotton say that “the media flow of information and news throughout the globe will have a greater impact than education on the world’s ability to understand its problems and dangers” (Hatchen & Scotton 2002, p. 7), meaning that text talk’s main medium (social media) is integral to globalisation’s hegemony.

As the internet makes new trends go viral, protecting intellectual property rights is an ongoing struggle and copyright laws are continually changing to accommodate the accelerated growth of technology.  Text talk phrases—popular acronyms like LOL and ROFL—spread like wildfire and new trends are hard to contain or track.

Globalisation in theory should be about enhancing and improving communication, but as the picture above illustrates, excessive use of slang and text talk actually sometimes inhibits communication. Colloquial lingo further alienates certain groups because there is only a certain amount of the population who can understand them.

Nederveen again comments on communication, saying that "a thread that runs through all globalisation episodes and discourses is increasing connectivity” (Nederveen 2004, p. 9). While this is technically true, has this so-called connectivity actually improved our ability to transmit information to each other?

References:

Image 1: Hunsdale Talbot, D 2011, ‘Book Reviews & the Written Word’, retrieved 7 August 2013, <http://www.writtenword.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/slang.jpg>.

Lady Luck Enterprises, 1998-2013, ‘All Down Under’, retrieved 7 August 2013, <http://alldownunder.com/australian-slang/>.

Mabillard, A 1999-2011, ‘Words Shakespeare Invented’, retrieved 7 August 2013, <http://www.shakespeare-online.com/biography/wordsinvented.html>.

Nederveen Pietrse, J 2004, ‘Globalization: consensus and controversies’, Globalization and culture: global melange, Rowan & Littlefield, pp.7-21.

Net Lingo, 1994-2013, ‘Net Lingo’, retrieved 7 August 2013, <http://www.netlingo.com/acronyms.php>.

Urban Dictionary, 1999-2013, ‘Urban Dictionary’, retrieved 7 August 2013, <http://www.urbandictionary.com/>.