English language and the Internet

On a chat at http://wordsmith.org, David Crystal says that the impact of English on other languages has been pretty disastrous in places - like all major languages which have travellled around the world (complete citation at the end of the article).

Nearly two months ago he published Language and the Internet, in which he says that the Internet impact will not lead to the end of literacy because its new informal, even bizarre forms of language neither threaten nor replace existing varieties of English but instead enrich them, extending our range of expression and showing us "Homo loquens at its best", as Crystal puts it.

A similar approach is defended by Steven Pinker: when asked if raising a child trilingualy could have a negative effect he said that this was an urban legend, and that children have no trouble picking up multiple languages. Pinker says that their vocabulary in each language grows more slowly than it would if the child was speaking one language alone, but that the total vocabulary of all the languages would be far greater, with no psychological problems arising. In his book, Crystal defends the idea that the evolving discourse of the Internet is an area of huge potential enrichment, says reviewer Anne Eisenberg. She says that he uses the analogy of a gift he received - a new informal shirt. This shirt didn´t destroy his sense of the value of formal and informal - it just made his previously satisfactory informal shirts look somewhat staid. He sees the language of the Internet, too, as similarly extending the range of communications options.

The English discourse of the Internet is shaping a new conceptual system. Pinker says something that points to many directions: "I think our concepts are shaped partly by language acquisition, both because a language will force you to pay attention to certain aspects of the world in order to use words the way other people do, and because language is an important conduit by which we learn about the world through communication with other people. But I think the conceptual system also must be able to come to conclusions based on the five senses, on abstract reasoning, on introspection, and other language-dependent routes (otherwise where would the first concepts and thoughts come from?) - a language can only spread one person´s ideas to another, and the ideas had to get into the population of speakers somehow to begin with".

Crystal has something to say on a similar subject. Asked if the globalization of English diminishes language as a "cultural tool", he answered: "Yes and no. On the one hand, the impact of English on other languages has been pretty disastrous in places - like all major languages which have travelled around the world. On the other hand, as we see English spreading, we see it beginning to reflect local cultural practices. When people adopt English they immediately adapt it. So there is a case for saying that cultural variation is being maintained, but in new ways".

Note: To read the 2nd part of this article, go to "English language and the Internet - Part 2"

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