Introduction
welcum 2 r webpage!!!1!! omgosh this is so EXCITING!!!!! this is r 1 st time, to project together so we rilly (rilly rilly pretty please!!!!) want u all to liek it . . . so feedback much wanted . . . tell us u luv us!!!11! thank u sooooooo much!!! xoxoxoxo!!!
Hopefully you can tell the above is not in correct grammatical form. If not, then our project may not make much sense to you. Thankfully, we have not seen anyone else's projects written in this way—but who knows what the case may be twenty or thirty years from now? Since the use of computers became widespread, we have seen the use of formal grammar in writing rapidly declining, especially among teenagers and young adults. Hence the issue: does this decline indicate a rotting of our language or is our language simply headed in a new direction?
Those of you who are here today probably know us as Becky and Cat. For the sake of this presentation, however, we would like to introduce you to our alter egos: Birdie and Kitty (along with our third partner in crime, Mouse, who is not currently present). Several years ago, appalled at the disintegration of English on the Internet, Mouse, Kitty, and Birdie banded together on a mission to rescue the English language from total annihilation. And thus, the MST was born!
An MST (derived from Mystery Science Theater, in which several characters got together to analyze movies) begins with a story, usually in the form of fanfiction. A “fanfic,” for short, is a piece of writing based on some other work, such as a movie or book. For example, a person might write a story that takes place in George Lucas' Star Wars universe or in Tolkien's Middle Earth. Typically, these fanfics are incredibly poorly written, with atrocious grammar, gaping plots holes, and unrealistic characters. Many fanfic writers post their writing online for “reviews” (which basically is their code word for praise and admiration). When they receive any sort of criticism, including constructive criticism, the authors often take great offense and verbally attack their reviewers. Mouse, Kitty, and Birdie quickly got sick of these people and decided to create a new type of “review”: the MST. In the MST, they read a fanfic line by line and analyze each line according to its literary elements. The result is usually very, very funny.
MSTing, which for a while was Mouse, Kitty, and Birdie's favorite hobby, was not the only cause for Becky and Cat's current interest in the subject of English on the Internet. We also frequent a website called HomestarRunner.com. Within HomestarRunner.com is a character named Strong Bad, who hosts an email show. The emails he answers are actual emails sent by fans. This surprises many people, because the grammar and writing in these email often only vaguely resembles English. They are another example of the disintegration formal English has undergone on the Internet since computer use became widespread.
(To see how a Strong Bad Email, or sbemail, is done, or for a better explanation of sbemials, visit the sbemail “The Process” .
Discussion
|
Cat: |
| Becky: A good example of the negative effect the Internet has had on written language can be seen within the sbemail “Animal.” In “Animal,” Strong Bad responds to an email from a fan who wants to know what made-up animal Strong Bad would be. Watch the sbemail and view the horror. The sbemail Animal. “What would you like as if you were your own made up animal”? Though the concept Spud Jr. is attempting to convey here is simple, apparently poor Spud Jr. found the syntax difficult. While there is correct capitalization and punctuation, the structure of the sentence makes little sense. A double-take and a reread are required to extract the meaning from it, even though communication is meant to be clear and easy to understand. |
|
Cat: The sbemail Stand-Up. “dear strong bad, This is a perfect example of the idea of “e-mail grammar.” There is no capitalization used, no particular effort towards spelling, and only the barest attempt at punctuation where we see “joe p.” using a question mark to differentiate between a question and a statement. Yet the message is entirely comprehensible. Even where “joe” has used phonetic spelling rather than traditional or “correct” forms, context is enough to tell the reader what he meant. As for capitalization, the lack of it really hasn't had any impact on the message's content. What's really important about this simplification in written grammar is that it brings the written word so much closer to the spoken word, especially for younger generations. In the past it has always taken a long time for slang to become widely enough accepted to be incorporated into literature, but that process is now being sped up. As a result, teenagers are now able to write things just as they would say them, and other teenagers can understand them. While the cartoon “Teen Girl Squad” is actually a parody of this, it makes the point quite clearly. This cartoon plays out just like a typical instant message conversation, and yet you can see it also reflects typical spoken conversation (even if it is somewhat exaggerated in the subject matter). Such expressions as “whatev” and “MAXORZED” are simply slang terms, things that they can understand, as is “MSG'd;” while that last is not a widely used term in itself, it demonstrates the method of taking a noun and directly using it as a verb, abandoning the traditional idea of some suffix being necessary to bridge the gap. Notice also the use of capitalization as a means of expression rather than in its typical punctuation form: words are written in all caps when the characters are shouting, and there is no capitalization in their regular speech. I should also mention that the dialogue in this cartoon uses both the multiple exclamation points and the frequent ellipses that are common in internet communication. |
| Becky: This concept is clearly and overwhelmingly portrayed by the fanfics that were MST'd by Mouse, Kitty, and Birdie. An excerpt from the fanfic “Change of Heart and Soul” by Lying Truthfully, which Mouse and I (Birdie) MST'd: Grace…Grace… GRACE MCCOY! Huh!? I was brought back to reality from the shout of my name looking up from my notebook to everyone staring at me as Mrs. Thorn walked over to my desk. Ms. McCoy since your not paying attention to the Grammar lesson, then I hope you don't mind me taking whatever your working on that's more important to the lesson. And if so then I hope you don't mind if I read it to the class. The teacher said as she picked up the notebook. Yes, read it Mrs. Thorn lets see what this girl writes about all the time during classes. Said a boy seated in the neck row near me, of course it had to be Jason. Yeah! The class chimed in. No, What I wrote is not to be read to everyone that wants to sit there and make a mockery of it, that's one good reason to why most teachers are hated Mrs. Thorn for embarrassing them to make pier pressure worse I would say. Mouse found “Change of Heart and Soul” online, and we both found it so appalling we could not help but MST it. It was almost necessary to MST the story simply so we could understand it. The spelling, the punctuation, the sentence structure: none of it made sense. We feel our MST may have helped clarify the story a bit: Preface: a Mary Sue, or Sue for short, is a female main character who is unrealistically beautiful, wonderful, and perfect, with whom all the male characters fall in love, and who will inevitably save the day. They are highly unrealistic and are often a sign of amateur writing (though there are some exceptions). The Sues in most fanfics are just plain irritating. Mouse: I'm trying really hard to follow what that sentence is saying, and all I'm doing is tying my brain in knots. Ms. McCoy since your not paying attention to the Grammar lesson, M: She owns a not paying attention? then I hope you don't mind me taking whatever your working on that's more important to the lesson. B: I don't mind at all. Wanna see my stick-figure novella? Had this story been purely oral, perhaps Lying Truthfully's friends would have been able to understand it. Or perhaps if she was telling the story via an instant message program, this kind of language would be appropriate. But Lying Truthfully has attempted here to write a short story, which falls under the category of literature. Literature requires proper grammar, so that it can be understood by any educated person (which in the United States is the majority). Many educated people would be dismayed by the grammar, or rather lack thereof, in Lying Truthfully's short story. The flabberghastingly horrible grammar of Lying Truthfully's story, though it seems trivial (after all, it is only a story on the Internet), is actually quite concerning, for several reasons. The first is that the writing of the average teenager has fallen this far. There are thousands of stories on fanfiction.net, where this one was found, many of which are as bad as “Change of Heart and Soul.” This may be a sign our current system of education is not working well, or it could simply be a sign that teenagers no longer care about their writing. Perhaps there are several factors. Whatever the reason, there needs to be a remedy. Also, I am frightened by the reviews stories such as “Change of Heart and Soul” receive from fellow authors on fanfiction.net. Many of these reviews gush on about how wonderful the story is and how wonderful the author is and how wonderful the character is and omg!!1!its liek, the b3st storey ive eva red!!! Ahem. Excuse me. I was momentarily overwhelmed. These authors are obviously not taking these stories to their teachers to be proof-read and critiqued, but only to their unqualified peers, who turn out not to be reviewers, but nothing more than sycophants. If this kind of writing is allowed to continue, eventually it will become accepted, and the line between informal slang and formal written English will blur and fade. |
|
Cat: The Internet has, though, had a major effect on the style and tone with which people write. Even within this webpage, we have a very clear sense of both author and audience. When writing on the internet, it is possible to be much more conversational; that change began on instant messengers and forums, but it has seeped into web pages and sometimes now even published books. The literature of past generations has shied away from directly interacting with its readers in most instances, and the author has been kept at a distance, separated from the narrator. Yet the internet has opened a door for new techniques and stylistic devices, such as the “author's note” that is so frequently included in fanfiction: Authors note: Hello my fellow readers! I'm so happy you clicked on my story :) The author here is addressing her readers specifically, and has claimed that she would be willing to change her story to please them. This takes the story to a higher level of interaction, because readers can influence it, and they begin to feel more of a personal involvement in the story. Yet the author's note is not all, for further on in the story we find parenthetical comments mixed in with the narrative: Tara was at her desk and was playing with her pencil while she listened to her teacher drone on about grammar and such. Now if you're thinking that Language Arts was her least favorite subject, you're way off! Actually, she loved Language Arts… it's just the grammar stuff she hated. (Who wouldn't?) You see, the reason why she loved it was because she loved to read. You might as well call her a book worm! It always made her feel like she was a different person instead of boring, ordinary her! That was terrific for her, ‘cause her life was, well, ordinary. Not that it was a bad thing. But too much of it can kill you. Anyways as her teacher droned on and on, she started to daydream about the book she was reading “The Lord of the Rings”. She was already on the second book! She just loved the character's personalities and the way they acted, especially the guys. They were so respectful. Very awesome! “ Why can't guys act like that in real life?” She thought angrily to herself. “ I mean the only things guys do today is say “dude!” or “wha t?” she smiled to herself as she thought about this. Notice how the author here attempts to guess what her reader is thinking: “…if you're thinking that Language Arts was her least favorite subject, you're way off!” This lends a much more casual tone to the writing, as though it were simply a chat with friends. She also uses a parenthetical comment, as she did several times in the initial note. It appears that such comments are intended to be direct addresses from the author to the readers, though because this idea is a fairly new one there does not seem to be any consistent rule for it, and that naturally leaves some room for confusion on the readers' side. For comparison, here is the MST of this story, this one performed by Mouse and I (Kitty): Like I said, I own nothing of J.R. R.Tolkien. Clearly as the lines between conversation and writing have been blurred by the internet, it has become harder to tell when an author “stop[s] yapping and start[s] writing.” In fact, it seems the authors themselves don't really know. |
Conclusion
Becky:
Indeed, I agree the lines between conversation and writing have been blurred by the Internet. This is what saddens me so much. For can you not see the result? Once the line between spoken and written English disappears, so does our ability to speak with any given English-speaker. In America, and in England, as well as any other country where English is spoken, there are many different accents, many different dialects of English. While I'm not sure that these dialects would be considered mutually unintelligible, some are so different they would not have to travel far to get there. I have heard southern accents that to my ears were nearly incomprehensible. But because we have formal, written English, with consistent rules that we all can understand, though we may be unable to understand each other's spoken English, one American can still communicate with any other American.
However, when the line between spoken and written English disappears, we lose that. People will begin to write as they speak—yet it is the very spoken English that is sometimes difficult to understand. Soon after formal English disappeared, we would no longer have one language, but many different dialects, which could eventually become mutually unintelligible, as many of the dialects in China have become. Many Chinese cannot even communicate with one another. It saddens me that people of one culture, one identity, could have languages so different that they cannot even communicate. And once the difference between spoken slang and written, formal literature disappears, so does the one common form of communication English-speakers have.
Cat:
Nevertheless, the changes we have seen on the internet have not been dialectal. Even as people begin spelling things phonetically, they do not largely take accents into account (perhaps just because people are not aware of their own accents). The Internet has brought people together on a global level, and so conversations taking place without grammar (as instant message conversations often do) can still take place between people on opposite sides of the world.
While it would be detrimental for the English language to lose its formal grammar or punctuation entirely, changing times do necessitate changes in language, and if “netspeak” is kept in check, this could simply be the next phase in our ever-changing English language.
Sources:
1. The main website that the sbemails
and the Teen Girl Squads come from: http://homestarrunner.com
2. The Strong Bad Email Homepage : http://homestarrunner.com/sbemail.html
3. The sbemail Animal: http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail119.html
4. The sbemail Stand-Up: http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail18.html
5. The Teen Girl Squad Homepage: http://www.homestarrunner.com/tgsmenu.html
6. Teen Girl Squad, Issue 3: http://www.homestarrunner.com/tgs3.html
7. Mouse, Kitty, and Birdie's Livejournal: http://www.livejournal.com/users/typofrog
8. The MST Archive: http://www.livejournal.com/tools/memories.bml?user=typofrog&keyword=MST&filter=all
9. Fanfiction post and review site: www.fanfiction.net
10. The fanfic “An Ordinary Story,” by Candy Quackenbush: http://www.fanfiction.net/s/2324797/1/
11. Pinker, Steven. The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language . New York : HarperCollins Publishers Inc., 1994.
12. A Wikipedia article on Mary Sues: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Sue
Sources for the bio:
1. The Lorax: http://www.desertlorax.com/lorax.html
2. The sbemail Kids book: http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail84.html
3. Marzipan Answering Machine 12, Message 4, Goat-Face: http://www.homestarrunner.com/answer12.html
4. Adams, Douglas . The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Pan Books. 1979
5. A Wikipedia article on the Answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Answer_to_Life%2C_the_Universe%2C_and_Everything
6. The Compendium for Lost Words: http://phrontistery.info/clw.html
About the Authors
Cat and Becky. Describe them? That's hard. I don't know if I can. They're shortish. And oldish. And brownish. And mossy. And they speak in a voice that is sharpish and bossy. Oh wait—that's not Cat and Becky. That's the Lorax. Pretty close, though, if you think about it. Well, Cat's short, at least. And they're both old . . . ish. Mossy may be a bit of a stretch.
So . . . Cat and Becky. What are they like? Well, they both have long hair, and they are both grammar nazis. They're roomates; they've known each other since middle school; Cat's in choir; Becky dances; they both enjoy their church; they both like to read; they both like to work with children; they're both super-geniuses; they're the two most wonderful, stunning, smartest, kindest, sweetest, benevolent, resplendent, mellifluous, squiriferous, absolutely nifty people you'll ever meet. But who really cares about that kind of thing? That's not what you want to know. You want to know who Cat and Becky really are. Secret agent ninja squirrels is the theory at the moment, though there have been rumors of piracy. Squirrel-handed piracy. Goat-faced, squirrel-handed piracy. They've definitely been called goat-faced. Like, not that, they have a goat's head for a face, or that their head is a goat's head. Like, their face is an entire goat. But that was before the surgery. Now they only have a goat's face for their face. But hey, that's what scarves are for, right?
Becky and Cat claim to be sane. Sometimes they even have evidence for this claim. Some claim it's true, that deep down inside Cat and Becky aren't any weirder than the rest of us. Others laugh in the face of such nonsense. But the real truth we may never know.
Oh wait. It's 42.