Txtng: The Gr8 Db8 - Softcover

Crystal, David

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0199571333 ISBN 13: 9780199571338

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 2009

Synopsis

Text messaging has spread like wildfire. Indeed texting 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 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, a 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.

About this title

About the Author

David Crystal is honorary professor of linguistics at the University of Wales, Bangor. He has written or edited over 100 books and published numerous articles for scholarly, professional, and general readerships, in fields ranging from forensic linguistics and ELT to the liturgy and Shakespeare. His many books include Words, Words, Words (OUP 2006) and The Fight for English (OUP 2006).

Review

"Crystal has performed an admirable service by bringing a linguistically grounded discussion of text messaging to a lay audience. Txtng helps readers appreciate the medium's potential sophistication and become less fearful of negative consequences." --Language

"In this witty and insightful work, Crystal examines the phenomenon of text messaging, notably in terms of its impact on language and society. Crystal cuts through the exaggerations about the dire impact of the medium on language and places texting in context. This book serves both as an excellent introduction to texting for the uninitiated and as a scholarly resource for those who study the phenomenon. Essential." --CHOICE

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0199571333
• ISBN 13: 9780199571338
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 239