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The Gr8 Db8
Oxford University Press
September 2008
On Sale: September 1, 2008
256 pages
ISBN: 0199544905
EAN: 9780199544905
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
Text messaging has spread like wildfire, especially among
young people, who appear to spend most of their time
texting, and are unwilling to write much else. Indeed the
phenomena is so widespread that many parents, teachers, and
media pundits have been outspoken in their criticism of it.
Does texting spell the end of western civilization?
In this humorous, level-headed and insightful book, David
Crystal argues that the panic over texting is misplaced.
Crystal, a world renowned linguist and prolific author on
the uses and abuses of English, here looks at every aspect
of the phenomenon of text-messaging and considers its
effects on literacy, language, and society. He explains how
texting began, how it works, who uses it, and how much it
is used, and he shows how to interpret the mixture of
pictograms, logograms, abbreviations, symbols, and wordplay
typically used in texting. He looks at its manifestations
in different languages, and explores the ways similar
devices have been used in different eras. He finds that the
texting system of conveying sounds and concepts goes back a
long way--to the very origins of writing. And far from
hindering children's literacy, texting turns out to help it.
Illustrated with original art by Ed MacLachlan, the popular
cartoonist whose work has appeared in Punch, Private Eye,
New Statesman, and many other publications, Txting: The Gr8
Db8 is entertaining and instructive--reassuring for worried
parents and teachers, illuminating for teenagers, and
fascinating for everyone interested in what's currently
happening to language and communication.
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