问答题 My summr hols wr CWOT. B4, we usd 2 go 2 NY 2C my bro, his GF & thr 3: -@kids FTF, ILNY, its gr8. Can you understand this sentence? If you can’t, don’t feel too bad: neither could the middle school teacher in Scotland who received this as homework from one of her students. This is Netspeak: the language of computerized communication found in Internet chat rooms, instant messages (IM), and text messages on mobile phones. Netspeak in a collection of abbreviations (cuz = because) , acronyms (BRB =Be Right Back ) , and symbols (CU B4 clss = see you before class ). To newcomers (newbies in Netspeak) , it can look like a completely foreign language. So, what is the ‘translation’ of the sentence above? My summer holidays were a complete waste of time. Before, we used to go to New York to see my brother, his girlfriend, and their three screaming kids face to face, I love New York; it’s great. Language purists, school teachers, and parents everywhere say this new form of writing, with its disregard for proper spelling, punctuation, and grammar, threatens to destroy the English language. It is blamed for a perceived increase in spelling and grammatical errors in students’ writing in school work. School boards, teachers, and parent groups call for zero tolerance of Netspeak, for fear that the writing of the new generation might become completely incomprehensible and the language itself could become corrupted. Everyone should just relax, say linguists and language scholars. While there certainly is a need to ensure students learn the standard rules of writing, the phenomenon of Netspeak and writing on the Internet, they claim, is actually doing more good than harm. David Crystal, a language historian at the University of Wales in the UK, argues that Netspeak and the Internet are developing new forms of creative language use that provide a strong motivation for literacy (读写能力). Crystal points out that through personal home pages and blogs, the almost lost art of diary keeping has been revived. Stanford University linguist Geoffrey Nunberg agrees. ’ People get better at writing by writing,’ he claims, and online chatting and instant messages are getting young people to write more than ever before. ’ I think you could argue that the kids who are now doing text messaging, email, and instant messages will end up writing at least as well as, and possibly better than, their parents or than any generation in history.’ Linguists further argue that electronic messages should be considered a new medium of communication and not judged on the standard rules of writing. This new medium has features of both spoken and written English, but has more in common with speaking than traditional writing due to its nearly instantaneous, interactive nature. Like spoken language, it is considerably shorter, utilizes a more limited range of vocabulary, and is more relaxed in grammar rules.