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Internet and cell-phone technology has reached a larger portion of the world within
a short duration. Parthasarathy (2001) observes that 50 million people were
latching on to the world wide web just four years after it became publicly
accessible while it had taken 38 years for the radio and 13 years for TV to reach that
figure. More and more youngsters are clinging on to their computers and cell phones.
These modes of communication have become very essential to have formal and
informal interactions. People of the earlier generation are also not far behind to use
these quick ways of communication. The cell phones with internet facility and
computers with call and SMS facility are removing the differences between the devices.
Language used in this medium has begun to find new ways of expressing the ideas which
suit the contexts and the devices used. This pace-driven technology has led to quick
and crisp communication. As it is stated by Verma and Krishnaswamy (1989) "Within
the limits of human cognition languages change because of their built-in tendency
to change, the inventive faculty of the users, several other human factors like
modesty, confusion, sloth, etc., and the passage of time" (p. 19). Likewise, the language
of electronic medium is also changing. Crystal (2001) says, "We can never
predict language change, only recognize it once it has happened" (p. 22). This article is
an attempt to study the grammatical deviations in e-English, i.e., Electronic English.
There are few works which deal with the relation and mutual influence of
electronic medium and language. The works which throw light on the grammatical deviations
are done by Crystal (2001), Priya (2008) and Taglamonte (2008). |
