Standard English has fallen over the past few years. This is because of abbreviated terms such as "idk" and "u" ruin written communication because it presents a style that the text producer is not bothered and isn't engaged in the conversation. Emoticons in messages and an all round laziness in which language is not used how it should be. Jean Aitchison proposed a ‘Damp Spoon In A Sugar Bowl’ metaphor to say that people are lazy with language and it will stick and be used and ultimately damage the English Language as a whole. Our language builds such a big part of our culture and represents who the people from England are. It is hurtful to see language change because the original rules and structures have been tampered with and a monstrosity of a language has been adopted and is adapting around the laziness of people.
It is a well known fact that under 15% of those who speak the English Language are prescriptive meaning that they don't like the changes to the language and no matter what, it shouldn't change. This is important because it keeps the heritage and character to the language instead of removing it for a plain and dull language. I personally believe that language should not be changed because it creates an identity. The original rules of the language should not be changed because the traditional aspect to a language is how it should be kept because it creates this prestigious nature around communication which overall means that we should protect it with everything we have. This is bad because it language creates an identity for someone and by following the rules it enables people to be seen and express themselves in a positive way.
As a country, you should prefer a language that is formal and at its peak. Again, Jean Aitchison proposed the ‘Crumbling Castle’ metaphor. This means that the language had a peak where nobody made new structures and linguists could keep up with any developments. In reality, language is falling apart and falling down similarly to the bricks in the ‘Crumbling Castle. Ultimately, this means that language should have stayed at its peak meaning when everyone spoke properly and communication was efficient and useful and not shortened and wasteful. but it has changed too much and has fallen apart to the point it is almost beyond repair. The issue with this is that most people in this country have a descriptivist mindset which is really bad for standard English because it means that anybody growing up will adopt a slightly more descriptivist mindset and further continue to disrupt any order to the language. The children are using more colloquial terms and a lot of dysphemisms which overall damages the structure of the language because people can’t communicate properly.
Standard English, this is where every word is spoken correctly and used in the correct context. A society with this is now too far from reality. Now, people use too many words such as “innit” to express themselves where they should say ‘isn't it’. This means that standard English is far from reality because you raise your children to speak in ways that destroy the language and where the older generations, including the 2-3% of RP speakers, get confused and left behind because of the use of abysmal words of expression. This societal shift reflects that people don't care for respecting the language and instead want to think of themselves. This links with reflectionism as we live in a society where people only care for themselves and not how the effects of their words effect other people.
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