Living Language

It's its

Your you're

To too two

There their they're

Sk many words 

They surround us

Drown is

Do we rescind need so many?

Just one "there" would be fine;

Simply "to" would suffice. 

Why can't we be efficient?

Also can't we be precise?

And while we're on the topic: grammar

Who whom whose who's a/an/the that which

It is I

It is me

Which is right? Which is wrong?

So many rules

Do JD need them all?

Surely some

But English is a growinganvhagw 

It's not get done

So prune back some branches

Pitch some files out the door

But keep the core

For that is our language

That is our identity

Thag is us

Oh autocorrect.  The blessing and curse of modern smart phones.  Autocorrect is one of the most confusing additions to our language; true, some words are homophones (same sound but different meanings), but at least if you sound it out you can understand.  Autocorrect completely changes the word and with it, the meaning of the sentence.  For this reason, I doubt we will ever stop reading around autocorrect. 

We learned this week about borrowing words from other languages, and one question to consider is “Will we someday begin borrowing autocorrections?”  I would like to answer that question with another: how can we borrow autocorrections? They are just botched up words transformed into the wrong word; it may be wrong, but it is still a word.  How does one borrow something that one already has?  It makes no sense for me to say that I am borrowing the word “princesses” from autocorrect because it has already existed for years.  Maybe you’ll learn it, or adopt it into your everyday language, but you cannot borrow a word that originates from your own language.

Obviously, English can be deep and philosophical.  Although this was questioned at the beginning of its use, English has stood the test of time and proven its ability to convey complex and meaningful ideas.  The question now is whether or not autocorrect and other inventions of modern society are helpful to the communication of ideas, or harmful.  As was stated previously, autocorrect changes words and therefore the meaning of sentences.  This means that many sentences that would otherwise be lyrical or powerful risk losing their flow or strength due to an autocorrect gone awry.  

In addition to autocorrect, many people will abbreviate their texts (lik dis), often in order to save money should their phone bills.  These abbreviations, while convenient for some, are very likely to irk many other people.  These people often will write off what the abbreviator is saying as uneducated, and won’t pay attention.

So, is it possible to communicate a deep philosophical idea via text? 

My answer is of course you can, as long as you carefully reread your text and consider your audience.  If you do not just hit send the moment you finish typing, you can find any mistakes and correct them before the other person receives the message, whether they be bad autocorrects or text abbreviations that should not be included.  

At the end of the day, at least adhere to the basic rules of English. Grammar exists to make language clearer; if you throw all the rules out the window, you will not be clearly communicating anything. 

With that in mind, happy texting!