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Brits place blame on emojis for ruining English language

Lisa Miles
An article on the E&T Magazine website states that a study has found that most British adults believe the English language is in decline, with many believing that emojis should take some of the blame.


Personally, I think the English language constantly 'evolves' over time....


I remember the furore when texting became the norm and many people started using 'text speak' in their everyday communitication. However, over the past few years, with autocorrect and predictive text becoming much more sophisticated, it's actually much harder and more time consuming to type 'text speak' into your phone nowadays.


There will always be those that aren't able to spell as well as others, and emojis will always have an appropriate place in communication, but I don't think we need to worry too much about the decline of the English language...


Or do we? wink
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    There's a particular error that makes me chuckle everytime I see it and that is the menu in our canteen when we have something like:


    "Fish, Chips and Pea's"


    I eagerly await to see what the Peas are going to give me but nothing ever arrives!!! sad


    (Edited because I forgot to add my 'sad face' emoji... laugh)
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    Thanks Lisa.....I've just made a mess choking on my brew after reading your post! Well spotted.




    laugh
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    Lisa Miles:

    "Fish, Chips and Pea's"




    Meanwhile, I used to pass a road sign every day saying "No access for HGV's" which always made me think "no access for HGV's what?" - only to find out that some authorities say that usage is fine, because it's needed to distinguish between abbreviations which finish with an 's' and plural abbreviations. A case where a bit of knowledge on my part got it wrong-ish. I've no idea what those who say it's ok suggest you're supposed to do with a possessive plural of an abbreviation - perhaps "there's a pile of HGV's' tires over there"??? (Or 'tyres' if preferred...)


    I think I'm generally not good with road signs - the grammatically correct sign "Heavy Plant Crossing" still makes me look out for triffids or Ents...which it wouldn't if it had an emoji (or "symbol" as we used to call it in the olden days wink) of a lorry...


    By the way, I've just found out that the word "emoji" comes from the Japanese e (絵, "picture") + moji (文字, "character"). I always assumed it was connected to "emotion" (like emoticon).

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    Andy,

    I have to disagree with 'some authorities' here. There is no problem with abbreviations that finish with an 's' when the abbreviation is in capitals and the 's' is lower case as it is obviously meant to be a plural. Also if the reader doesn't know if the abbreviation finishes with an 's' or not then it means they don't know the abbreviation and it should be written out in full to give proper understanding (going back to your earlier post about being unambiguous).

    I loved the news story a few months back about someone in Bristol who goes round at night deleting (or in a few cases, adding) apostrophes from shop signs to correct their grammar (known generally as the 'Greengrocer's apostrophe' due to the prevalence of greengrocers with signs saying "carrot's", "apple's", etc.

    I have the same reaction as you to the sign "Heavy Plant Crossing", but I also remember many years ago reading a book by Terry Pratchett where the heroes (non-human of course) had 'borrowed' a car and having passed a sign saying "Road Works" drove over the unmade section, then complained that the sign was wrong as the road certainly didn't work!

    Alasdair
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    Like Alasdair Anderson‍ I also have to disagree with the 'authorities'. frown


    HGVs is the plural, HGV's is belonging to a singular vehicle and HGVs' is belonging to a group of vehicles. It's the same for the word 'year' too. Years (plural) year's (belonging to one year) or years' (belonging to more than one year)


    Or is my understanding of apostrophe use incorrect? blush
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    Hi Alasdair, Lisa,


    Personally I totally agree with you - and I wish I could find now where I read the other view (that it is always ok to pluralise abbreviations with an apostrophe). It was probably 10 years ago that I looked this up, following a disagreement with my then manager over this point.


    If I happen to trip over the source I'll definitely post it here!


    Cheers,


    Andy
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    https://afterdeadline.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/04/13/faqs-on-style/
    https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/55970/plurals-of-acronyms-letters-numbers-use-an-apostrophe-or-not (note the first post - this is where my ex-manager was coming from, being of a similar generation and education to this poster)
    http://www.grammar-monster.com/lessons/apostrophes_show_plural_of_abbreviations.htm


    What I do now, pragmatically, is pluralise abbreviations with an apostrophe if (and only if) there is a risk of misunderstanding. Which isn't very often since most abbreviations I use are all caps.

    Unless my wife is likely to see it in which case I never use one!


    Cheers,


    Andy
  • 0
    I like this one:
    http://www.english-grammar-lessons.co.uk/lessons/apostrophes_show_plural_of_abbreviations.htm

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    As time goes by I'm increasingly convinced that Cormac McCarthy has the right approach to punctuation and usage. I always find his parred down style breath of fresh air.




    Cheers


    David
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    Andy Millar:

    I like this one:
    http://www.english-grammar-lessons.co.uk/lessons/apostrophes_show_plural_of_abbreviations.htm

     




    Some of this guidance is helpful, but there are several dubious statements.  "MPs" is not a synonym for "ministers".  "It is often the writer's choice whether to use full stops", but more often there will be a style-guide to over-rule a writer's preference.

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