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

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

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….

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

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….

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….

Swearing makes an excellent relief mechanism.

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….

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

Texting has added a new dimension to language use, but its long-term impact is negligible. It is not a disaster..

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..

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

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….

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

The internet is an amazing medium for languages..

In effect we are, bending and breaking the rules of the language. And if someone were to ask why we do it, the answer is simply: for fun.

Anyone interested in language ends up writing about the sociological issues around it..

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

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….

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