Quotes by David Crystal - Page 2

You don't usually get a compound word where the first part is a slang thing and the second part is a rather ordinary or formal thing - they don't usually mix - but 'gobsmacked' is a perfect exception to that rule.
David Crystal / Author
Exception
Formal
Ordinary
Slang
Compound
Mix
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There's nothing unusual about a single language dying. But what's going on today is extraordinary when we compare the situation to what has happened in the past. We're seeing languages dying out on a massive scale.
David Crystal / Author
Compare
Dying
Extraordinary
Massive
Situation
Unusual
Scale
Languages
In The Past
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The Internet has given us 10 or 15 new styles of communication: long messages like blogging, and then short messages like texting and tweeting. I see it all as part of an expanding array of linguistic possibilities.
David Crystal / Author
Communication
Blogging
Expanding
Given
Internet
Long
Messages
Texting
Array
Part
Short
Linguistic
Tweeting
Possibilities
Styles
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Increasingly, over the past ten years, I've come to take the view that a cultural perspective is intrinsic to the future of language teaching and learning, especially in the case of English, as it becomes increasingly global.
David Crystal / Author
Cultural
Future Learning Past
Increasingly
Intrinsic
Ten Years
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Ever since the arrival of printing - thought to be the invention of the devil because it would put false opinions into people's minds - people have been arguing that new technology would have disastrous consequences for language.
David Crystal / Author
Technology
Arguing
Devil
Invention
Language
Mind
New Technology
People
Printing
Technology People New
Since
Consequences
Arrival
Disastrous
Ever
False
Put
Minds
Opinions
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English has been this vacuum cleaner of a language, because of its history meeting up with the Romans and then the Danes, the Vikings and then the French and then the Renaissance with all the Latin and Greek and Hebrew in the background.
David Crystal / Author
Greek
Hebrew
Language
Latin
Renaissance
Vacuums
Background
English
Cleaner
French
Meeting
Romans
Vacuum
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The death of a language. The word has the same kind of reluctant resonance as it has when we talk about the death of a person. And indeed, that's how it should be. For that's how it is. A language dies only when the last person who speaks it dies.
David Crystal / Author
Death
Dies
Language
Reluctant
Resonance
Should
Person
Talk
Same
Indeed
Word
Speaks
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Likewise, there is no evidence that texting teaches people to spell badly: rather, research shows that those kids who text frequently are more likely to be the most literate and the best spellers, because you have to know how to manipulate language.
David Crystal / Author
Evidence
Manipulate
Research
Best People Know
Badly
Frequently
Likely
Spell
Teaches
Text
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A community, once it realises that its language is in danger, can get its act together and introduce measures which can genuinely revitalise. You've seen it happen in Australia with several Aboriginal languages. And it's happening in other countries, too.
David Crystal / Author
Aboriginal
Australia
Community
Danger
Other Countries
Languages
Countries
Genuinely
Happening
Introduce
Measures
Several
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Bilingualism lets you have your cake and eat it. The new language opens the doors to the best jobs in society; the old language allows you to keep your sense of 'who you are.' It preserves your identity. With two languages, you have the best of both worlds.
David Crystal / Author
Jobs
Society
Cake
Doors
Identity
Language
Preserves
Eat
Best Your Keep
Both
Both Worlds
Old
Lets
Opens
Sense
The Doors
Worlds
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Word books traditionally focus on unusual and quirky items. They tend to ignore the words that provide the skeleton of the language, without which it would fall apart, such as 'and' and 'what,' or words that provide structure to our conversation, such as 'hello.
David Crystal / Author
Quirky
Book
Fall
Skeletons
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Word books traditionally focus on unusual and quirky items. They tend to ignore the words that provide the skeleton of the language, without which it would fall apart, such as 'and' and 'what,' or words that provide structure to our conversation, such as 'hello.'
David Crystal / Author
Quirky
Conversation
Fall
Focus
Hello
Items
Structure
Unusual
Apart
Ignore
Provide
Skeleton
Tend
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Languages like English, Spanish, and Chinese are healthy languages. They exist in spoken, written, and signed forms, and they're used by hundreds of millions of people all over the world. But most of the 6,000 or so of the world's languages aren't in such a healthy state.
David Crystal / Author
Languages
Hundreds
Millions Of People
Signed
Spanish
Spoken
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In Cardiff, I've heard a number of accent mixes that weren't previously heard before such as Cardiff-Arabic and Cardiff-Hindi. This pattern is repeating itself in many urban communities across the U.K.; people are especially keen to develop a strong sense of local identity.
David Crystal / Author
Urban
Accent
Pattern
Repeating
Strong Sense
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Of all the mediums that influence language, I think film is the one that has the most effect. Not so much from the point of view of pronunciation and grammar. I don't think we pick up very many sounds and grammatical instructions from the films we see - but the catchphrases.
David Crystal / Author
Grammar
Influence
Mediums
Point Of View
Effect
Films
Instructions
Pick
Sounds
View
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One of the places the full stop is really being revised in a really fundamental way is on the Internet. You look at the Internet or any instant messaging exchange - anything that is a fast dialogue taking place. People simply do not put full stops in unless they want to make a point.
David Crystal / Author
Dialogue
Instant
Exchange
Fundamental
Stops
Messaging
Revised
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There's an old little jingle: 'The chief use of slang is to show that you're one of the gang.' What that means is that every social group has its own linguistic bonding mechanism. If there's a group of lawyers, they have their own slang. If there's a group of doctors, they have their own slang, and so on.
David Crystal / Author
Bonding
Doctors
Gang
Slang
Social
Use
Little
Own
Show
Chief
Every
Old
Means
Group
Lawyers
Linguistic
Social Group
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The ethos of 50 years ago was that there was one kind of English that was right and everything else was wrong; one kind of access that was right and everything else was inferior. Then nobody touched language for two generations. When it gradually came back in, we didn't want to go back to what we did in the 1950s. There's a new kind of ethos now.
David Crystal / Author
Ethos
Generations
Touched
Everything Else
Gradually
Inferior
New Kind
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Several of us linguists at that time would record our own kids, just to get some data. There was some literature on it then, but no day-by-day, blow-by-blow examples. I recorded all my children over the years in some shape or form. It's what linguists do. You don't talk to a linguist without having what you say taken down and used in evidence against you at some point in time.
David Crystal / Author
Kids
Children
Taken
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I believe that any form of writing exercise is good for you. I also believe that any form of tuition which helps develop your awareness of the different properties, styles, and effects of writing is good for you. It helps you become a better reader, more sensitive to nuance, and a better writer, more sensitive to audience. Texting language is no different from other innovative forms of written expression that have emerged in the past. It is a type of language whose communicative strengths and weaknesses need to be appreciated.
David Crystal / Author
Believe
Exercise
Writing
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