Like, Whatever!

And I quote “As we know, linguists believe that movies and television do not change people's language.” Pg 157 - Language from a state of Change.

Say what?? You see, I found this statement a little hard to believe. In fact, my best English teacher was Television. From as far back as I can remember, TV taught me how to speak and kept me current on new language uses and trends throughout much of my adolescence.

And how much more true is it today? Young children are practically “plugged in” at birth. Their minds absorbing anything that comes out of the glowing box that is their babysitter. Certainly there is good programing – programs that cater to the learning of social and language skills but others, well... not so much.

A young niece surprised me once with some interesting and obtrusive speech. “Where do you learn to speak like that?” “Bratz! It's my favorite show! It's blah blah blah blah....” As mentioned on page 158, language is born in the youth culture. But where are it's precepts derived?

But it's not just the young. Television norms of speaking effect us all. Take the Simpsons for example. Tell me you have never, not once, used the term “Do'oh” or the Nelsonized “haa-haa.” The other day I happened to be watching Fox with a lineup that included King of the Hill, Family Guy, The Simpsons, and Seinfeld. With each show, I could identify at least one person that identifies with a character enough to, if only on occasional, use similar speech patterns or phrases. And when the phrase or speech pattern doesn't make sense, we've all heard: “Haven't you ever seen _____?”

Whole sub-cultures have been built upon Star Trek. Trekkies even developed the Klingon Language to a functional level (again, thank you TV). The following phrases have been around more than 20 years and still illicit some type of response: “What's you talkin about Willis?” “I pitty da fool” “Say hello to my little friend” “I'm gonna make you an offer you can't refuse.”

We also turn to TV for exemplified use in language. Newsreaders and journalists often provide a great example of clear, globally acceptable English-in-use for communications purposes. Turn to MTV to learn how to speak “Hip-Hop” or watch any sportscast to learn specific lexicon and HOW it's used for that particular sport.

Television has also greatly increased the rate in which language and dialects evolve and saturate cultures. The West coast surfer/skater/snowboarder has only to post a video on Youtube for that methodology and dialect to be seen and absorbed on the East.

Television not affect language... Yeah. Right.