Vocabulary is a matter of word-building as well as word-using..

Sending a message on a mobile phone is not the most natural of ways to communicate. The keypad isn't linguistically sensible..

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….

Language itself changes slowly but the internet has speeded up the process of those changes so you notice them more quickly..

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-….

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 b….

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 man….

Grammar is what gives sense to language .... sentences make words yield up their meaning. Sentences actively create sense in language. And the busine….

At any one time language is a kaleidoscope of styles, genres and dialects..

Language has no independent existence apart from the people who use it. It is not an end in itself; it is a means to an end of understanding who you ….

Although many texters enjoy breaking linguistic rules, they also know they need to be understood..

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 Fr….

Spellings are made by people. Dictionaries - eventually - reflect popular choices..

A feature of English that makes it different compared with all other languages is its global spread..

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 differ….

Swearing makes an excellent relief mechanism.

The internet is an amazing medium for languages..

Academics don't normally manage to alter people's way of thinking through their strength of argument..

The story of English spelling is the story of thousands of people - some well-known, most totally unknown - who left a permanent linguistic fingerpri….

Language changes and moves in a different direction evolving all the time. Where a lot of people see deterioration, I see expressive development.

Text messaging is just the most recent focus of people's anxiety; what people are really worried about is a new generation gaining control of what th….