Language is an integral part of human society. It appeared at the dawn of civilization and became the main factor that contributed to the evolution of the civilized world and relations between individuals. Being the main tool used for sharing feelings and emotions, the language could not but respond to the alterations of peoples mentality that was impacted by the appearance of new phenomena and notions. For this reason, every period in the history of society could be characterized by the unique peculiarities of the language used by people who belonged to a certain social class or group. The modern age is not an exclusion. Some many new notions and tendencies appear under the impact of the new environment. The appearance of neologisms is one of the major concerns of modern society; however, this process poses a certain threat to language because of its systematic looting.
Analyzing the language used by the modern generation, it is vital to provide several important facts. First, the evolution of science and the rapid rise of digital devices preconditioned the wide usage of neologisms and terms that tend to describe a new phenomenon (Morrison par. 5). In this regard, the young generation uses such words as “to chat,” “to google,” “noob,” “chat,” etc. They are necessary to describe the environment in which we live and create a clear image of the world that depends on technologies greatly. The strangle of these neologisms could also be explained by the tendency towards emphasizing of belonging to the digital culture and underlining a certain personal status.
Second, another factor that impacts the way the modern generation speaks is the overwhelming importance of social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. They create their language environment that is characterized by its unique speech patterns that are used to express various feelings and emotions. Furthermore, neologisms as “like,” “retweet,” “repost,” “shootout,” become an integral part of communication between young people who use these social networks extensively. These words come from the nature of social networks and the phenomena that are peculiar to their functioning. Their users are not able to ignore them because of the belonging to this very subculture and its increased popularity, but at the same time, the language dies (Morrison par. 12).
Very often these neologisms are used instead of some traditional words that are peculiar to the literary language. For this reason, it is possible to admit the “systematic looting of language” (Morrison par. 13) that should be considered a threatening tendency that might result in the alteration of its composition and its depletion. The strangle of words that come from social networks might result in the limitation of language and appearance of some problems with its further evolution as these new forms could hardly contribute to the composition of new derivatives that could be used to describe some new phenomena or notions. In other words, they have limited potential for language enrichment.
Altogether, the modern age could be characterized by the appearance of a certain sort of words that are widely used by the representatives of the young generation who communicate in social networks. It is the logical aftermath of the elution of science and digital technologies. However, at the same time, it is necessary to admit a certain threat posed by this tendency as literary words are replaced, and new limits appear. Even though neologisms reflect the current reality (Morrison par. 15), there is a certain problem related to the further evolution of language as at the moment society fails to guarantee its further improvement and enrichment. The given tendency conditions the necessity of some efficient response.
Works Cited
Morrison, Tony. Nobel Lecture. 1993. Web.