[Red Boots]

Fun and alive, or used to communicate? You decide which, then we'll debate. Wordplay IS fun, though the fun of it comes precisely from it's lack of communication. You can play with language, or communicate with it, but not often both at the same time.

[CyberCowboy777]

You can play with language, or communicate with it, but not often both at the same time.

Unlike food, with it you can both play and eat, often at the same time!

Language is not Food!

[DannyTN]

Fun and alive, or used to communicate?

I'll take both as generations of people have done before me.

You are asking for a stop to a trend that is probably as old as man. Would it be better if we stagnated the language? Perhaps, but probably not. Either way it's not going to happen.

Everything from new technology, new concepts and yes, slang, is going to continue to influence the language. I would argue that today's English is both more complex and more precise than than the Old English of Beowolf. And certainly you couldn't communicate to more than a handful of scholars if you used Old English in today's world.

Perhaps you can ignore slang as probably 90% or more is simply fad and will go away. However, ignore it completely and eventually it will leave you obsolete and unable to communicate.

[DannyTN]

Let me give you some examples. That English course I took was offered off campus. The class was made up of mostly of English teachers and other adults of various ages seeking continous education. I was probably the youngest student and other than the teacher, the only male in the class.

This 70 year old lady, an English teacher, speaks up and says, "Well language must change. Last week, I asked this girl in my class 'how she made out last night' and you should have heard the laughter."

Our class broke up laughing and as soon as we paused, she continued with "One day I said 'I got so mad I shot my wad.' and you should have heard the guffaws." At this point, our class was laughing hysterically. And the poor lady still didn't know what she had said. As the only guy, the class nominated me to tell her, but fortunately one of the other ladies volunteered to tell her after class.