I find the only way to cope with 'to be honest' is to thank the utterer for taking the trouble to point out when they are not lying....

Apparently, 78% of sentences that begin with the word 'apparently' include statistics that are pulled out of thin air by the author. Apparently, this invention also extends to non-statistical claims.

Don't get me started on the disambiguation of less and fewer.

However, the real test as to whether the English language is in decline, Jocelynne, will be measured by the infiltration of cyber slang into non-cyber-based communication.

Props to you, but. NEways, though I've never been told to FOAD off of a txt your article's got me all FINE.

BCNU.

Jocelynne,

For goodness sake, your examples of requests for personal details are all examples of identity theft frauds, mostly operated out of Eastern Europe, Nigeria and Asia. Why would you expect foreigners to be grammatically correct?

Oh, I forgot, their standards of English are way ahead of ours anyway, we are only 27th. Look over there, another Unicorn!

Thanks Teacher, not.

I blame television and Hollywood for the decline in the proper use of the rich English language.

In the popular media, words with more than four letters are eschewed and expressions like, 'shoot'im', 'let's go', 'aahh', 'stick'em up', 'ooooohhhh Bret', 'do the job', 'yeah, I dig', 'gimme'a shot', 'you turn me on', etc, abound.

Text-ing also favours the use of short words. Perhaps, eventually, this trend will lead us back to 'grunting' again!

Better watch out, Jocelynne, for those posts that threaten to disable your account unless you disclose information. They're usually scams. Their misuse of English and deployment of commercial cliches is deliberate, for verisimilitude.

My god what a rant.

I recommend 'Death Sentences: How Cliches, Weasel Words and Management-Speak Are Strangling Public Language'

Being a Lawyer you would do well to give that a read, it's a much more pertinent problem. Have you read some of the gobbledygook lawyers come up with?

BTW, 'Ostray-ya'? Na! It's a silent O. Straya. You really need to leave that ivory tower more often.

It is nice to see that Jocelynne, although adhering to her incoherent and confused style, has written about something of no importance.

The danger of her writing about a matter of any consequence is that someone may take her seriously.

There was some amusement in seeing her take fraudulent spam as an example of genuine communication.

Houellebecq, you are behind the times: it is now 'Shtraya'. We shed the 'L', add an 'H', which also appears in 'shtudent', 'shtreet' and 'shtraight'. Lara Bingle should come out of retirement to ask 'Where's the bl**dy L?' Its vanished from dubbayew, meeyonair, and the end of words like medal, and sometimes the middle of words too, as in 'gowd medaww'. And its not just occurring in Australia: if you listen to the theme song from the latest James Bond film you will hear the incomparable Adele singing 'Skyfawww'.

>>Houellebecq, you are behind the times: it is now 'Shtraya'. We shed the 'L', add an 'H', which also appears in 'shtudent', 'shtreet' and 'shtraight'.<<

Are you sure you're not just hearing impaired? Or associating too much with drunkards? Because I for one haven't noticed a common tendency for sober people to slur like this.

Cheers,

Tony

I suspect the author is so bored by the legal jargon she's obliged to digest, her only outlet is to become a pedant. Though frankly, Orwell she ain't.
The problem with this kind of pedantic critique, apart from it's being the province of conservative men (Orwell wasn't the radical he thought he was), is it suggests that all's well with the world--apart from common parlance. I'd advise the author to read Nabokov, who was a master at gilding the realist lily. The way to write a great contemporary novel is to keep the dialogue puerile (realistic) and the scene setting sophisticated. To be honest, that's our modern reality: idiots waxing lyrical within transcendent situations.
What is it about our society that breeds maleloquence? that's the question.
Jocelynne would have us all pontificate shrewdly, as if that's all that was wanting.
Nothing like keeping up appearances.

Not drunkards, Tony, though they sound like it, and I've definitely heard 'Shtraya' more times than I care to. Mostly from the young, many seem to work for the ABC, which seems to have thrown in the towel when it comes to spoken Australian English if the sloppy enunciation, pronunciation and grammar in current affairs reports and the radio news are anything to go by. The standard of spoken English on the TV news is better, probably because they're going head to head with other stations in the evening. And I'm not hearing impaired although sometimes I wish I couldn't hear the mauling of the language.

My favourites with their ABC is on the weather forcast, they always tell us about Non Tisa. I think it is a large town in western Qld.

The other is when they start telling us there is less ice in the Ant-Tart-tic. I believe that is further south.

Correction, it is Mon Tisa, I thought I'd corrected that.

So one has to ask, is the English language in decline, or is it evolving?

Sound English skills were important when our primary form of communication was pen and paper, but we have moved on from that era, whereby we now have the likes of text, email and social media, all of which seem to have there own brand of language, which, by the way, is an abbreviated form of English. In most cases.

This evolution has been brought about due to our 'time poor' lifestyles, as sending a text in proper English is deemed to be too hard.

After all, before English, we used to communicate with a series of grunts and groans.

Evolving AND declining - evolution is inevitable and how the language copes with changes in society and our circumstances. Decline - well just sloppy and a bit sad. No matter how we alter our methods of communication, they are based on the English language with all its history and richness and it is important to understand that even as we choose to modify or ignore it. We have regressed from being taught all the underpinnings of English - grammar, spelling, sentence structure, pronunciation, even elocution - through a period when all those things were thought not to matter and now we are in a time when a lot of people just don't have a clue. It will be hard to reverse.

It is interesting how quickly people latch on to 'nothing' words and phrases. Has any utterance ever been improved by the addition of 'going forward', 'event' (weather event) or 'basis' (daily is fine on its own)? Why do we rush to abandon words such as 'perceptive' and replace them with clunkers like 'insightful'? Why did 'forthcoming' give way almost overnight to 'upcoming', why does nothing 'begin' anymore. Tally ho, I'm off on my hobby horse.....

We have to thank Harry Potter for the fact that many kids learned to read at all, let alone take an interest in books at all?
Texting is also murdering the English language.
As are kids who try to multi skill, and retain very little, instead of focusing their attention on completing single tasks well, and thereby taking in and remembering information.
Today too many people simply can't be bothered doing their own research; but want everything served up in a link they don't need to wade through volumes to find?
Wading through volumes is what they require, to improve the missing reading skills and exposure to often interesting concepts/critical thinking.
Being able to read and comprehend complex ideas is an essential adjunct to tertiary education outcomes and individual success!
And indeed, enables an individual to express him/herself, instead of resorting to violence, simply to express outrage, disappointment, disgust or frustration?
Others have implicated slang or the misappropriated adjective?
If we removed invective and deleted all the expletives, some of us would be rendered speechless?
And a very sad commentary on everyday personal standards, that in my callow youth, would have resulted in a compulsory mouth scrubbing, with soap!
Books and a well honed imagination, is still far better entertainment than any 3D film!
And books give us all our vocabulary.
A sentence that starts with, to be honest, indicates that the speaker generally engages in completely insincere or pretentious mendacious verisimilitude, as a matter of course, and is therefore seeking to reassure the listener, that in this particular instance, this is not the actual case?
Rhrosty.

To be honest, I'm of the opinion that we should be mindful of the evolution of language.

Here's an excerpt from a letter written by one George Rolle to Lord Lisle, dated 1536.

"My duty remembered to your good Lordship, I have me humbly recommended to my good Lady your bedfellow, likewise advertising your lordship that I have received from your lordship two letters, the one bearing date viijth day of February, to which I have made you yet none answer, whereof ye somewhat marvel as appeareth in your second letter dated xxiijth day of February last, the tenours of which your letters I do perceive. For answer of your said letters, I have inquired of my Lord Daubeney's demeanour as secretly as I can , and I perceive at this time he is not determined nor disposed to hurt my lady and Mr Basser's title;..."

Just imagine if the English language had ceased to evolve at this point. I'm sure George Rolle and Lord Lisle would have looked upon "proper English" as spoken in the early twentieth century (before technology changed the paradigm) as a sad decline compared with the "proper" use of language in the sixteenth century.

Its all relative....apparently.

For serious, like? You had me totes emotes at "2B honest..."

The thing is, Poirot, you presumably can understand the archaic and turgid language George Rolle's letter while at the same time using up-to-the-minute Aussie English. If teens of my acquaintance are anything to go by the relatively recent prose of Jane Austen is already a bridge too far for anyone below Extension English. And you only have to suffer a few pages of managerial or educational jargon to know that inpenetrable prose is still with us.

WmTrevor,

Pardon?

Candide,

Yep, I get what you're saying.

It's a strange world of rapidly changing technologies and of habit's rapidly changing also.

But I have hope. Young children are remarkable in their ability to make sense of the "grammar of language". There's no reason to assume that the trend will necessarily be downhill all the way.

Ever since my son (in the middle of a five year-old plonker) informed me that he "was no longer affiliated with me" I've had a sort of respect for the ingenuity and creativity of young people.

Perhaps they'll lead the way, utilising and adapting the game rules to our advantage..... because, as always, it's our generation that has provided the mechanisms for change.

Poirot, you say, " Because, as always, it's our generation that has provided the mechanisms for change."

When I looked last at the world, I didn't notice much change. Same old wars involving rape and plundering, greed, duplicity, rape of the environment, sexual deviation, child molestation, lying politicians, gun massacres, etc.

Perhaps you are talking about changes not readily evident at least to me. Your further enlightenment would be appreciated.

David,

I was referring to language and it's evolution amidst new technologies and ways of living (in the West).

That mankind basically demonstrates the same brutish behaviour behind a civilised and resplendent facade is a given.

Poirot, you mention: "...that mankind basically demonstrates the same brutish behaviour behind a civilised and resplendent facade is a given."

Do you have any map co-ordinates which show where this 'civilized and resplendent facade' can be seen?

It can't be in Australia because we are not civilized and it certainly can't be in the U.S. because they are even worse than us.

>>Do you have any map co-ordinates which show where this 'civilized and resplendent facade' can be seen?

It can't be in Australia because we are not civilized and it certainly can't be in the U.S. because they are even worse than us.<<

It's in Kazakhstan.

Cheers,

Tony

I'm sorry you didn't mention "in terms of", which usually means either "in" or "of". But isn't "disappoint" a transitive verb? The Collins and Oxford dictionaries think so.

Language is constantly evolving and fluid at all times. However, I've noticed that certain words become the "in" words.
The one which has made me cringe recently with it's overuse is "icon". Take note Forum members, and maybe it will have the same effect for you.

Jocelynne,

Have you ever read mediaeval English?
You are like the King Canute of the lexicon, commanding the language to stand still and remain stagnant.
As with all the Canutes before you, you will fail.
Yes for those of us with a strong Grammar background "bored of" jars excruciatingly. I despair on a personal level at the use of the word "decimate". But we don't count. We are but pimples on the bum of the English language history. What is, is. What will be wil be.
No amount of our decrying it will change anything. Nor should it.

Neatly put, Shalmaneser.

>>No amount of our decrying it will change anything. Nor should it.<<

But I would like to enter a plea on behalf of poor old Canute.

>>You are like the King Canute of the lexicon, commanding the language to stand still and remain stagnant.<<

He did not believe for a moment that he could turn back the tide.

He was actually making this precise point to his courtiers, that resistance is, indeed, futile.

Thanks Pericles (wise leader and peerless orator)

I would think that the change in the 'understanding' of the Canute reference amply demonstrates the way the language matamorphoses.

To be totally historically accurate, Pericles, please note that it was the Borg who said, 'Resistance is futile'.

Just felt I had to be clear and acknowlege that I agree with your point, Pericles.

As you may know for demonstrating such wisdom he was given the appelation the Great Cnut although his legitmate heir, who reigned after Harold, was only Hathacnut.

Jocelynne, I read the bio on your website but there wasn't any mention of you going to work for the coup-leaders in Fiji. Please write us a piece explaining how you justified taking that position when you seem to be so keen on freedom and democracy. That would be far more interesting than quibbling about poor English. thanks.

Just watching an amusing new romantic comedy called "Hysteria", about that condition, of the same name, women are known to be pray to since time immemorial, and would you believe the very phrase in question, "bored of", is espoused about half way through (and didn't it jar), and by pious Victorians no less; scandalous!
I recommend the film nonetheless. It's about that wonderful innovation, the vibrator, and the medicinal prestidigitation that immediately preceded it.

Indeed they did, WmTrevor.

>>To be totally historically accurate, Pericles, please note that it was the Borg who said, 'Resistance is futile'.<<

Here it is, in all its native glory...

"We are the Borg. Lower your shields and surrender your ships. We will add your biological and technological distinctiveness to our own. Your culture will adapt to service us. Resistance is futile."

A seminal moment in history, that. Faithfully maintained through many generations, it comes alive even today in places such as the Australian Taxation Office.

And how true this is...

>>As you may know for demonstrating such wisdom he was given the appelation the Great Cnut although his legitmate heir, who reigned after Harold, was only Hathacnut.<<

Mind you, it does need to be recorded that not all of his courtiers were impressed by his turn-back-the-tide experiment, one of them was heard to mutter under his breath, "silly Cnut".

Or so I am told.