Research into Language Change

In today's lesson, we did some research into language change and how it is changing:

http://www.ted.com/talks/anne_curzan_what_makes_a_word_real

This clip is from TedTalks and is a talk by Anne Curzan. The blurb for this talk is:

One could argue that slang words like ‘hangry,’ ‘defriend’ and ‘adorkable’ fill crucial meaning gaps in the English language, even if they don't appear in the dictionary. After all, who actually decides which words make it into those pages? Language historian Anne Curzan gives a charming look at the humans behind dictionaries, and the choices they make. 

This talk is interesting as she begins to discuss how slang over the has changed over time and how many new words there are every year. She gives us an idea how dictionary editors jobs are harder than it looks and how deciding whether a word should be in the dictionary. It also interesting to see how the Usage Panel in dictionary's show how that words change in usage is acceptable. But the main message is that language change should not be seen as worrying but as fasinating and intreseting to compare to how it was used in the past to how it is used now.

Another intresting article is this one published this year in March:

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/11/pronunciation-errors-english-language

This article looks at 8 pronoucation errors that have changed the English language today. Looking through the 8 ways, it's intresting to see which ones you do and how it has effected your language. There coud also be a question that is it actually a good thing or a bad things that this is happening in the English Language today. Other TedTalk: http://www.ted.com/talks/john_mcwhorter_txtng_is_killing_language_jk by John McWhorter places his veiw on how texting is killing the English Language. It brings back an idea that our speech in converging to writing. However, David Crystal argues the fact that actually texting could be good for the English language: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h79V_qUp91M and this clipd shows us his reasoning for this. How taxting is a language that had been developed from the uprising use of technology