Quote:
Originally posted by rainmaker
I agree with you to a certain point, but too often these days I hear a teen say, "Well, you know what I mean?" and I really have no clue. And it's usually obvious that even other teens listening have no idea. Sometimes, I'm not even sure that the teen who said it knows what he or she means.
Language is just a way of putting thoughts out to be shared. When the thoughts are confused it shows up in the language. When the language is confused or inappropriate or mis-used, the listener doesn't really know what the intentions of the speaker are. This separates us from one another, and prevents society from growing.
This isn't to say we should all go back to the proper English of the 50's. I don't think that. But we do need to be careful that in throwing out the overly-rigid legalisms of the prunes-and-prisms English teachers of the past, we don't also eliminate the useful structure and rules that make communication possible.
Good grief, this is the third or fourth lecture on proper English that I've posted on the board this week. What is going on?!?
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I'm not arguing that it's ideal, only that it's inevitable. Since the sole purpose of language is to communicate, whatever English looks like in 100 years, it will still have all of the necessary structure and rules to do that. And your average teen will still be just as unable to express the jumbled mess of thoughts that they're still trying to sort out
