The Effect Of Technology On English Essay free essay sample

, Research Paper Jarrod Farrar English 255-01 November 20, 2000 The Effect of Technology on English Technology has ever had a manus in the defining of linguistic communications. From the clip cave mans formed tools to pull images to the cyberspace age, engineering has changed the manner we write and speak. With the spread of the? cyberspace age? we have seen many alterations in English in the last few old ages. The English linguistic communication will go on to germinate and distribute with our increased dependance on these new engineerings. The December 31, 1999 issue of the Economist wrote? The birth of the computing machine and its American operating systems gave English a nudge in front ; that of the cyberspace has given it a immense push? ( p85 ) . With America being the leader in computing machine and cyberspace engineering, English speech production people have reaped the benefits. Silicon Valley is traveling to provide to the patronage that it is most disposed to make and do the highest net income from. That is good intelligence for English talkers, bad for those that speak another linguistic communication. The chief option for these non-English talkers is to larn adequate English to be able to work Farrar 2 the computing machine package. This leads to the spread of English throughout the universe. The planetary economic system is another manner that engineering effects English. In an article in Fortune, Justin Fox writes, ? To vie globally, more and more European concerns are doing English their official linguistic communication? ( p209 ) . The planetary economic system is merely successful if the engineering available plants. The engineering that encompasses the planetary economic system includes: telephone orders, telecommunications, cyberspace concerns, web sites etc. Without equal engineering, the economic system would be more focussed on local concern. In this engineering, as with computing machine package, English is the dominant linguistic communication. In order for non-English speech production companies to vie on the planetary market, they must be able to pass on with English talking clients. If they force the client to pass on in their native lingua, odds are that they will non harvest the benefits available. The addition in planetary concerns led to the spread of E nglish throughout the universe. The combination of computing machine package and planetary concerns leads to the cyberspace. The cyberspace is the most of import tool in the spreading of English throughout the universe. Through the usage of confab suites and voice confab Sessionss, non-English talkers are exposed to English. This exposure leads to Farrar 3 more English speech production people. English talkers comprise the great bulk of cyberspace users, so most web sites are written in English. In order to acquire the most out of the cyberspace? s capablenesss ; users must be able to understand English. This leads to a farther spreading of English throughout the universe. The merchandise of this increased dependance on English and engineering leads to the formation of new words. Wilson Quarterly wrote in an article about the add-on of new words in the Merriam-Webster? s Collegiate Dictionary in the 1990? s that, ? Lending 24 of the 99 footings added in the 2nd half of the decennary, engineering is the prima linguistic communication generator. The cyberspace entirely ( surprisingly, the term was merely added in 1997 ) has spawned a brood of 12 nouns: newsgroup, chat room, clip art, place page, hyper nexus, netiquette, netizen, screen rescuer, hunt engine, spare, URL, and World Wide Web? ( p13 ) . The add-on of these words in such a short span of clip shows the influence of engineering on English. English is germinating to suit the new footings needed to map in the? wired? universe. The coming of these intelligence words leads to confusion covering with beginning of the words former significances. Richard Lederer writes in Writer? s Digest, ? The hot new engineering of the computing machine exhaustively befuddled the significances of back up, spot, boot, browser, clang, disc, point, hacker, difficult thrust, hit, mail, Farrar 4 memory , bill of fare, mouse, cyberspace, park, prompt, supplier, coil, Spam, breaker, virus, web site ( no longer merely where Charlotte lives ) , and window? ( 43 ) . Even if the article quoted from was written in joke, we can visualize a hereafter where words are muddled. Apparently mundane new engineering based words pop up that have their beginning in already used words. With the addition of these words, it is possible that English can go littered. One word may possess many significances that have no direct correlativity. This would do it hard on people larning English, or at least do it harder to hold on. The formation of these new words and significances besides widens the spread between those that are computing machine understanding and those that are non. There are a big per centum of people that have phobias covering with computing machines. With the addition of new words, people non already utilizing computing machines may be less willing to get down. The increasing dependance on computing machines makes it a necessity to be computing machine literate. It will be harder for those that do non understand computing machine slang to go successful. Another of import consequence of engineering on English trades with the manner we write and spell. When pass oning over the cyberspace, grammar and spelling is non every bit of import as in formal Hagiographas. The intent of this communicating trades with acquiring your thought across. Spelling is non seen as Farrar 5 awfully of import every bit long as the reader can understand what is written. This can take to hapless spelling wonts and grammar use. When composing an e mail or utilizing a confab room, seldom does one range for a dictionary. With the increasing usage of e mail as a manner to pass on, these bad wonts will non be corrected. Finally, words deemed misspelled today may non be considered misspelled in the hereafter. English words could finally germinate into a wholly phonic type linguistic communication. Of class we can ever utilize enchantment and grammar cheque on our computing machines in order to rectify our errors. Dick Teresi writes, ? Even in the yearss of typewriters, authors knew that their word pick would be 2nd guessed by editors, referees and the similar. Now we must confront the extra invasion of our ain computing machines, which critique us before we can even publish out? ( p39 ) . These spelling and grammar tools can be seen as short term solutions to long term jobs. The computing machine will rectify your spelling, but you are non rectifying your spelling. This leads to utilizing the computing machine as a crutch. Peoples will non work on their hapless spelling if they know that the computing machine will make it for them. These computing machine tools besides take off from a authors creativeness. By allowing a computing machine edit and clean up your paper, a big constituent of authorship Farrar 6 is taken from the author. With the increasing engineering, composing could finally go a? by the Numberss? activity. The user could type in a few abstract thoughts and the computing machine could manner a paper from the keywords. This could take into the loss of words that the computing machine universe could hold as unneeded. We can see from these illustrations that engineering has had a profound consequence on English. Technology has revolutionized the manner we can pass on with people from around the universe outright. English speech production states hold a monopoly on the technological universe and our linguistic communication is distributing because of it. The spreading of English helps us pass on, but it is besides evolves the linguistic communication. The consequence that engineering has had on English shows that linguistic communication alterations and adapts to the universe around it. Farrar 7 1. ? The World Language? Economist 12 Dec. 1999. P 85 2. Fox, Justin. ? The Triumph of English? Fortune 18 Sept 2000. P 209 3. ? Wordss to Populate By? . Wilson Quarterly Winter 2000. p13 4. Lederer, Richard. ? Brave New Words? Writer? s Digest Dec. 1999. p43 5. Teresi, Dick. ? Name Me Fishmeal? Forbes Winter 2000. p39