C: Expanding the Mother Tongue. Time for a Vocabulary Lesson.
In my heyday, long past, “text” was a noun. In this 21st century world, “text” has become a verb: If you want to send someone a “text message” from your phone, you “text” him. People have wrecks while texting in their car. So, we see the English language expanding to fit our lifestyle. I have grown to like text messaging, but only in a limited sense. I am definitely not hooked on it, as some seem to be. I probably send or receive a text message once or twice in an average week. They are extremely useful in situations (court, for example) where answering the phone is impossible but you need to send or receive information. Usually the message will be something like “ Witness is running late—she’ll be there in five minutes .” I find text messages useful but not particularly personal nor a primary means of communication. And then there is the “tweet,” which is no longer simply a description of bird talk. No, tho...