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Have you learnt a lot of English words? Well, many more are being created right now! Neologisms appear all the time, especially linked to new technology. This not only represents more work for you but also annoys some native speakers of English.
Every age has its purists. Tom Chatfield, author of "Netymology: A Linguistic Celebration of the Digital World ", says that in the 16th Century, many people frowned upon neologisms with foreign influences. The poet Richard Willies said that they were "smelling too much of the Latin".
In the 19th Century, the English poet William Barnes suggested that the word "photograph" should be replaced by "sun print" in order to achieve proper "Englishness". It didn't catch on.
Now the debate about speech and writing is livelier than ever, says Mr Chatfield. He thinks the Digital Revolution is as significant as the Industrial Revolution, and there are many inventions and processes which have to be named.
From text messages and email to chat rooms and video games, technology has over the past few decades brought about an extraordinary new arena of verbal exchange. The controversy is not so much about foreign influence but informality and abbreviation. The Oxford English Dictionary acknowledged in 2011 the use of initials such as "oh my God" (OMG), "laughs out loud" (LOL) and "for your information" (FYI).
We are moving away from spoken words and towards the act of typing on to a screen. We've already grown so used to saying phrases like dotcom out loud that we forget we are speaking punctuation marks. And punctuation took a life of its own with emoticons.
The speed of communication today is matched by the speed with which new words are taken up. Bicycles, automobiles and telephones took decades to become a part of daily life as words and objects. With online offerings, new words are adopted in a matter of months. The verb "to google" has become a part of dozens of languages across the world.
Where habit leads, language follows. Only time will tell what endures. Meanwhile, as a student of the English language, you've got a lot of catching up to do.
Glossary 詞匯表
a neologism 一個(gè)新詞或舊詞新意
a native speaker 一個(gè)說母語的人
a purist 語言純正癖者
to frown upon 對(duì)某事物表現(xiàn)出不滿
Latin 拉丁語
proper 正式的、規(guī)矩的
to catch on 開始流行
a text message 一個(gè)短信
an email 一封電子郵件
a chat room 一個(gè)聊天室
a video game 一個(gè)電子游戲
informality 不拘禮節(jié)
abbreviation 縮寫
OMG (Oh my God) “我的天”的英文縮寫
LOL (Laughing out loud) “哈哈大笑”的英文縮寫
FYI (For your information) “供參考”的英文縮寫
dotcom 網(wǎng)站
a punctuation mark 一個(gè)標(biāo)點(diǎn)符號(hào)
punctuation 標(biāo)點(diǎn)
an emoticon 一個(gè)表情符
to catch up 追趕上
相關(guān)閱讀
Historic and historical 兩詞區(qū)別
（來源：BBC英語教學(xué) 編輯：Julie）
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