Hey, when I write, I don't use smileys, emotions, text words or symbols, or [emotions]
like :-(.
.
I say YOU, not U, and "thank you," not TY. If something is funny I say "that's funny," not LOL.
I like words and enjoy creating sentences. I don't think in 140 character sentences -- mine have rhythm -- the rhythm conveys feeling. Shakespeare does it with iambic pentameter -- (sample). But, soft! what light through yonder window breaks? ("Romeo and Juliet," or this, which suits my mood today, from "Richard III," -- Now is the winter of our discontent.
Hey, I avoid four letter words even if I'm angry. I don't think they help to emphasize passion, conviction, or anguish, and I seriously dislike abbreviations. When I read the latest news, I need to retain the title -- like will the NRA do something about guns? The National Rifle Association is killing us, according to what I learn on C|NET (while I'm wondering what does the "C:" stands for?)
I recently read an article by Katy Steinmetz in my Time Magazine. It's about tweet talk messing up language today. Since I get tons of email with emoticons, smileys, and net lingo, I Googled the subject and read opinions from accredited guys -- John Whorter, associate professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University, author of "What Language Is (and What It Isn't and What It Could Be," -- Carnegie Mellon Professor of Language Technologies, Noah Smith, who designs algorithms for automated analysis of human language, -- also, Jacob Epstein, computation linguist at George tech.
These educated chaps say text language is affecting, changing language today.
I think it's a viral infection. Text lingo like LOL -- I see laughing out loud every day, like IMA that serves as a subject, verb, and preposition to convey I am going to, like IKR means I really know. It bugs me, that my way of communicating is getting obsolescent.
And OMG, I read about a fascinating new language, N'KO -- it's a language app that is already helping various languages to use texting language. N'KO is gathering the terms, translating them for non English countries, so they can utilize and understand tweet/text language.
It reminds me of the days when I spoke Pig Latin. I figure kids nowadays, like me back then, want a special way of talking that befuddles the older folks and keeps the kids from being understood by adults.
Anyhow, Googling, I learned there are 500 million messages and more than 200 million daily twitter-users using hashtags, emoticons, links, even geotags that reveal their location.
I learned that older tweeters tend to use emoticons with noses -- :-) instead of :) -- youthful "no nose" tweeters (the nose is the dash before the parenthesis), tend to use more swear words -- young tweeters are more apt to type everything in capitals, and use expressive lengthening, like writing niiiiiiice instead of "nice."
"Language is really a window into people's sense of personal identity," Jacob Eisenstein, the Georgia Tech guy said.
"I see that things you think you understand, you don't really understand, like LOL. It doesn’t actually mean laughing out loud in a literal sense. It's subtler-sophisticated -- it's used even when nothing is remotely amusing -- a friend texts 'Where have you been?' and her pal texts back 'LOL at the library studying for two hours.' LOL implies empathy between the texters, sort of creating a sense of equality -- Instead of having a literal meaning, it's conveying an attitude." .
OMG, IRK -- YOU probably want to know all the latest, newest text terms! Okay, okay, here's the link to a guide to tweet language.
I am not L o L-ing--this stuff really irks me.