Texting doesn't 'ruin' language

The fact that users often use SMS and IM chat services does not negatively impact their basic language skills, the latest study in Canada concludes .

(Photo: ChatBlog)

According to experts at the University of Toronto, the phenomenon of users using symbols and abbreviations only reflects "a natural language expansion only".

"They make language more vivid, rich and closer to life - not hard-on-the-paper characters," declared Sali Tagliamonte and Derek Denis.

Even IM chat service also allows teenagers to "harmoniously mix and match between mainstream language and customary style".

In the study published in the New Scientist issue of Spring 2008, under the heading "Language of America ", the authors said: "Completely contrary to popular prejudices, IM does not destroy young people's ability to communicate. "

Still more orthodox than written

On the contrary, it also gives teenagers the opportunity to play, play and juggle with language.

"IM is a conversation that has a lot of interaction between friends. Although they use a completely unorthodox language, it is still a writing interface - that is," still more ". when talking about treatment, " Dr. Denis shared.

He and his colleagues Tagliamonte analyzed more than 1 million common words in IM communication - used by 72 people aged 15 to 20. After that, they found out: Although IM has shared Some sentences with spoken text, but its vocabulary and grammar are still "conservative and traditional".

The acronyms account for only 2.4% of the IM's common vocabulary - this is the rate described by the authors as "extremely small" in the study. The only acronym is more popular than the "original" "U" , with 9 times the usage frequency of "you" .