A spectre is haunting the English language- a spectre of technology. Is this looming figure going to impose chains of oppression onto the English language’s ability to express emotion?
I must say I find this highly unlikely. Speaking as a student of our language, it seems as though doom-sayer prescriptivists like Dr Johnson believe that the loss of strict rules, brought in by this spectre, will mean the end of a glorious language. Or at least the disintegration into an inferior one… like American English. Ick! But surely rules apply constraints to a language and therefore restrict expressivity?
Admittedly technology provides its own constraints like character limits and small screens but it also features many affordances like not having to wait a whole month to receive a letter from your dearly beloved telling you that she’s run off with her Brazilian yoga instructor. A dynamic range of emotions can be expressed merely through new orthographies like ‘txt spk’ which contracts words by omitting vowel sounds to provide an efficient communication. This may not seem like having much of an effect on expression but let’s see if you can tell the difference between these two responses:
“Bobby! Your nan has just had a fall!”- Mother
“K lol” — Bobby
Vs
“Bobby! Your nan has just had a fall!”- Mother
“Ok. Send lots of love”- Bobby
The simplification of language can provide different but not less expression in comparison to standard English.
According to theorist McLuhan, people create a “typographic man” where they document and describe their life through social media. Everyone knows that Jenny had a baby at 16. Everyone knows that Darren is “feeling loved” by his ugly children on his underwhelming 50th. Everyone knows Will only clocked Chris because Jada is a moody git who can’t take a joke. We can express our entire lives to the world, whether they care or not.
Unnervingly, Fairclough suggested that computers are imitating human behaviour with interrogatives in pop-ups like “would you like to continue?”. Eventually we may have AI that can think, feel and be programmed to put the toilet lid down. Talking to an Alexa may be closer to Jarvis rather than being reminiscent of British people ordering eggs and chips on holiday.
Contemporary expression is unstable. The definition literally means “current expression” and if the “current” is flowing then it will undeniably change. Old people will never like change, but dead people (I’m talking to you Dr Johnson) don’t have a say. Neither do our senior citizens to be honest with you. The people. The people of now and the future are who do. We decide how we express ourselves through any mode of communication; text, speech, or tribal rain dances. Technology may inhibit the reception of expression but only to those who don’t understand it. Through all its ups and downs, technology has evolved expression.
We have nothing to lose but our linguistic chains…
