Much has been made of weblish, and I'm not sure I agree with any of it. I know weblish isn't even a dialect. A register? Just that.
John Humphrys argues against weblish, saying that grammar is liberating because it allows greater accuracy -- but that misses the point. There are two pressures on language: Accuracy and speed (obviously; think about either of the two extremes if only one pressure applied). The speed issue in written text will naturally be very different from rapid spoken language. And accuracy -- well, any new language that is less accurate than the root language will not be selected for.
But the accuracy pressure changes. I'll leave it like this: Is use of the apostrophe going the same way as the usage of who vs. whom?
Much has been made of weblish, and I'm not sure I agree with any of it. I know weblish isn't even a dialect. A register? Just that.
John Humphrys argues against weblish, saying that grammar is liberating because it allows greater accuracy -- but that misses the point. There are two pressures on language: Accuracy and speed (obviously; think about either of the two extremes if only one pressure applied). The speed issue in written text will naturally be very different from rapid spoken language. And accuracy -- well, any new language that is less accurate than the root language will not be selected for.
But the accuracy pressure changes. I'll leave it like this: Is use of the apostrophe going the same way as the usage of who vs. whom?