"Although language change is inevitable, it's too bad to see some of our most colourful expressions going out of use," said Joan Hall, former editor of DARE.
But the language change is often awkward and sometimes heavy-handed, with references to e-mail, pizza delivery and a mini-mart.
But when Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villagairosa, the convention chairman, came to the podium to ask for the approval of the delegates, those who shouted opposition to the language change were as loud, if not louder, than those who voiced their support.
"Wow, I can't wait to read your screenplay exclamation point" would mean something quite different from "Wow, I can't wait to read your screenplay!"—namely, semi-ironic detachment.Long-term language change is inevitable.
Even if language change is not harmful, the faster language changes, the less new generations will be able to understand what their forebears wrote.The Middle English quotation in last week's column proved the point for some readers: it is all but impenetrable to modern understanding without special training.
Vestige Theory claims that language change is always the result of constraint demotion and that the demotion of a constraint leaves behind a vestige of itself.
For, just as it was in the 16th Century, language change is a potent proxy for other concerns - about globalisation, the undermining of regional cultures and values, the decline of a shared sense of what is "proper" - and the stuff of thought itself.
One important source of language change is contact and resulting diffusion of linguistic traits between languages.
"Instead they are highlighting that language change is normal, ongoing, and entertaining".
Even though language change is often initially evaluated negatively by speakers of the language who often consider changes to be "decay" or a sign of slipping norms of language usage, it is natural and inevitable.
