Posted on 01/11/2010 7:00:37 PM PST by smokingfrog
Teenagers have been warned they are becoming unemployable because they use a vocabulary of just 800 words.
The limited linguistic range also consists of many made up words and 'teenspeak' which has developed through modern communication methods such as text messaging and social networking sites.
Today Jean Gross, who advises the Government on children's speech, said urgent action was required to prevent children failing to find jobs because they are unable to communicate.
Mrs Goss, who last week issued a stark warning over the effect of television on children's development said yesterday: 'Teenagers are spending more time communicating through electronic media and text messaging, which is short and brief.
'We need to help today's teenagers understand the difference between their textspeak and the formal language they need to succeed in life — 800 words will not get you a job.'
The majority of teenagers should have developed a broad vocabulary of 40,000 words by the time they reach 16.
Linguists have found, however, that although they may understand thousands of words, many choose to limit themselves to a much smaller range in regular conversation and on a daily basis could use as few as 800 terms.
Mrs Gross said her concerns were increased by research by Tony McEnery, a professor of linguistics at Lancaster University who analysed 10 million words of transcribed speech and 100,000 words gathered from teenagers' blogs.
He found that the top 20 words used by teenagers, including 'yeah', 'no' and 'but', account for about a third of all words used.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
LOL
:P
LOL!
LOL
It does not make the person sound smarter.
like......
I’m, like in agreeance.
“Yeah, that is like, SO not OK, dude!”
Orwell nails it again, sixty years ago:
“Newspeak is a fictional language in George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. In the novel, it is described as being “the only language in the world whose vocabulary gets smaller every year”....Newspeak is closely based on English but has a greatly reduced and simplified vocabulary and grammar. This suits the totalitarian regime of the Party, whose aim is to make any alternative thinking—”thoughtcrime”, or “crimethink” in the newest edition of Newspeak—impossible by removing any words or possible constructs which describe the ideas of freedom, rebellion and so on.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newspeak
Here you go (not for the easily offended): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt8_HybhM5Q
Don’t forget “let me be clear” and “make no mistake”.
I guess they would be .... screwed.
to read
I finally had to relent on texting for my daughter. Her coach will only communicate with the girls via texting. We limit her to 300/month, which she thinks horrible.
The boy, has his texting blocked. He thought he was just unpopular until his sister broke the news.
My kids think I’m completely weird, which makes me think I am probably doing something right.
That was effin funny!
And the ever popular, Frankly!
it is what it is...
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