Natalie Sillitoe English Language A Level Blog

The Emoji Evolution! Is it possible that emoji’s are actually improving our language? Grinning Face! Face With Tears of Joy! Rolling on the Floor Laughing! I don’t know about you, but I, along with many others, use emoji’s for everything. Emphasis! Punctuation! Emotional cues, and, best of all, when you simply don’t want to respond! For me, emoji’s are a life saver – so then why do people hate them so much? A popular argument against emoji’s is that communicating in pictures is causing our language to evolve backwards, but I have to disagree. In a modern world where more people are texting than ever, emotional cues are being lost when not talking face-to-face, and the meaning behind our texts are being misunderstood - for example, the text, ‘I see your diet is going well’ could be interpreted as an unkind comment with the intention to offend, when really the sender is just making a joke. And how are over 90% of texters rescuing this awkward situation? Emojis! If our te...

To swear, or not to swear? Is swearing a sign of limited vocabulary? Picture the scene: you’re walking around, minding your own business, when suddenly you stub your toe. Before you know it, an expletive – dammit! – has slipped through your teeth. Don’t bother denying it. We’ve all done it! But the question is: why? For some reason, people seem to have got the idea into their head that swearing is a sign of low intelligence and limited vocabulary. I mean, you surely wouldn’t swear if you knew more sophisticated words, would you? Of course you would! And, believe it or not, the reason why is scientific. Amazingly, studies have shown that uttering a curse word increases pain tolerance – thus explaining why you would swear if you stubbed your toe. In this study, people could keep their hands submerged in iced water for longer if they swore than if they didn’t. In a way, this means swearing acts like an anaesthetic – it’s another way for us to relieve ourselves of some...

Amazing! Trash! Awesome! These are just a few of the slang words I hear thrown about by my fellow teenagers. Most of us can’t go a day without using slang, much to the disgust of the adults – but did you know most common slang words are actually Americanisms? For some reason, the older generation get a bit hot under the collar when hearing British people use Americanisms, such as ‘take-out’ instead of ‘takeaway’. But they don’t seem to realise how useful Americanisms can be! Take spelling, for example. American words are spelled simpler than British words – for example ‘color’ instead of ‘colour’. If we all spelt words this way, it’d be much easier to teach children, and easier for people to learn the language. And who doesn’t want to have their life made easier by not having to overthink spelling? Another reason, to my knowledge, for the hate of Americanisms is that the old people think it ‘ruins’ the original language. If that’s the case, then why did William Shakespeare, t...

This blog will be my responses to topical issues about the English Language. Recently, I researched and explored Americanisms, and their effect on the English Language and people's responses to them. To do this, I listened to a BBC radio show called 'Americanize!', which discussed the positives and negatives of Americanisms in the English Language.