Grigor Baghdasaryan

YSU, Faculty of Romance and Germanic Philology, Bachelor’s student

Supervisor: Assistant N. Martirosyan
Email: [email protected]

HOW TECHNOLOGY CHANGES THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

The new forms of technology have managed to change the world. Some people long for the good old days
when communication was more personal, while others love that they can simply type a message and click “send”.
No matter what type of person you are though, there is no getting around the fact that technology has changed the
spoken and written English forever.
Linguists and lexicographers agree that technology is by far the biggest force for change in the English
language today. It has revolutionized the way we communicate and the things we do, and as new things become
possible, we have to find new ways to describe them.
Languages that don’t change over time are considered dead languages. The fact that English changes so
much, shows that it is alive and active1.
As English has changed over time, speakers of 1500 AD would not have understood an English speaker from
500 AD or modern day English spoken today.
The first written English sentence “gaegogae maegae medu”, which is translated as “this she-wolf is a reward
to my kinsman” was found on a coin and dates back to 450 AD.
Over time it has evolved from the use of “Old English,” to “Middle English,” “Early Modern English,” to
present day “Modern English.” These changes are a direct reflection of the era in which the English language was
spoken and the modern day technology available.
Historically, technological advances tended to increase the social and economic phenomena to talk about thus
requiring new words, new phrases or semantic expansion of old words and phrases as well as to increase contact
between people and the consequent impacts of such contact (and domination). These types of changes are obviously
still occurring today and doing so on a greater scale.
Today, technology has changed the way we read, write, and communicate with each other in ways no one
could have predicted, specifically email, text messaging, and e-books.
Nowadays technology also moves incredibly swiftly, rendering new words faster than ever.
While even the previous generation has taken up using of cell phones and social media, they still partake in
language the way it used to be. Many people of that generation simply use these devices because it is what everyone
else is doing and is sometimes the most convenient way to get in touch with others. People born in the current
generation, sadly, do not know any other form of language. Current generation grows up in this new technological
era so they do not know any other either. The previous generation was hitting puberty while these changes were
developing so they are mostly converted to this new style of language. The simple expression “Dude,” in 1880s,
described a man who went slightly overboard with his fashion. And today, the expression has become part of the
teenage vocabulary as a way to show excitement. 2
Times are changing, and the English language will continue to change as well.
When the first mobile phone was invented in 1956, it lacked mobility. As the phone shrunk in size, it became
more portable and thumb friendly. Devices such as cell phones and computers have dramatically changed the way
we communicate with each other. The percentage of 8 to 18 year olds who own a phone or a laptop has significantly
increased from 2004 to 2009. Now it reached its maximum. Since then people are doing less talking then texting.
With the development of technology and the use of cell phones and computers, people are more commonly
text messaging, instant messaging and emailing one another, as other ways of communication. To accommodate
technology, people have devised abbreviations, version of words made out of a combination of letters, letters
representing syllables, and logograms (such as & and numerals) in order to be able to communicate more quickly,
referred to as “Textise.”, “Netspeak” or, sometimes “Textspeak”3. Symbols, referred to as “Codex,” can also be used
to express one's emotions through digital characters as an alternative to conventional language.
Some of the most popular “words” and “expressions” in internet language are4:

Abbreviated expression Full form

BFF best friend forever
BRB be right back
IMO in my opinion
BTW by the way

1
Top 50 Most Popular Text Terms (http://www.netlingo.com/top50/popular-text-terms.php)
2
Online Etymology Dictionary (http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=dude)
3
Crystal, D., A glossary of Netspeak and Textspeak. Edinburgh University Press. 2004.
4
Crystal, D., Language and the Internet (2nd Ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 2006.
 LOL laughing out loud
NIMBY not in my back yard
OIC oh, I see
OMG oh, my God
PCM Please, call me
SMH shaking my head
SWDYT So, what do you think?
TMI too much information
TTYL talk to you later
XOXO hugs and kisses

Abbreviation word Word

2MORO Tomorrow
2NITE tonight
B4 Before
GR8 Great
L8R later
THX thanks

Also there is an idea that words in upper case mean we are shouting, while lower case writing is the accepted
form.
Another noticeable change is that fewer face-to-face conversations are taking place. Most people are
choosing texting over talking. Technology really makes it easy to avoid speaking to people if you don’t want to.
Are people actually forgetting how to use language in their daily lives? With things like this happening, it
would appear so. Technology is a wonderful thing, and the new devices that have been developed have some
fantastic benefits. But, we are allowing it all to take the place of spoken word, and point in case this is not a good
thing at all.
Oxford English Dictionary published a short-list of new words to be considered for inclusion in future
editions, a list that included a tweetup, on the pattern of meet-up used on Twitter microblog; staycation5, a holiday
spent at home; and most notably de-friend, a term to describe the act of dropping someone from your list of
Facebook acquaintances.
How to determine which neologisms are passing requirements and which should be included in dictionaries?
How to decide which words are worth being anointed official representatives of language? Or is it the dictionary that
must change, moving from stolid documents of rusted-on record to more dynamic, changeable texts?
All of this aside, modern technology has had some very recondite effects on the English language. For
example, it is totally ungrammatical to say something like "everyone in the class lost their book." The correct form
is "everyone in the class lost his book" likewise, it's incorrect to say something like "I'm going to my friend's house.
Their address is ____", but it is becoming increasingly more common to hear the pronoun "they" (and its various
forms) used as a third person singular pronoun of unspecified gender. When gender is either unspecified or
indefinite, and the subject is still singular, it is proper to use the word "he". But with the advent of a new "politically
correct culture" this structure seems oddly "sexist" somehow.
While technological innovation and dissemination have always influenced on the change of the English
language, some scientists prove that the scale of such influence today may lead to more rapid and significant
changes than in the past due to the nature of contemporary technological innovation and dissemination.
Below is illustrated a list of words whose meanings have changed, wholly or partially, due to the
technologies bringing to changes in the meanings of words, in whole or in part. We can think of these words as
linguistic-technological fossils, preserving a trace of old technologies in the words we use, long after the technology
has disappeared.6

 Pencil Late 14c., 'an artist's fine brush of camel hair,' from O.Fr. pincel 'artist's paintbrush' (Fr. pinceau),
from L.penicillus 'paintbrush, pencil', lit. 'Little tail', diminutive of peniculus 'brush', itself a dim. of penis 'tail'.
Small brushes formerly used for writing before modern lead or graphite pencils. The meaning 'graphite-core writing
implement' apparently evolved late 16c.

 Tape (verb); also videotape (verb) to record electronically for later playback. Original recording medium
was magnetic tape: long strands wound first around reels, then later inside cassettes. Now that electronic recording
is digital, no actual tape is present either for videotaping or audiotaping. But the verb is still used, usually for
recording broadcasts from television to DVD or other electronic storage medium. Usually when a computer is the

5
Oxford English Dictionary
6
C. T. Onions., The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. 1966.
target recording medium, the verb download is used instead of tape, even if the segment recorded is broadcast via
television.

 Cable, diplomatic cable. The WikiLeaks episode, in which "diplomatic cables" were made public on
websites, creating scandal, awkwardness, and sometimes international incidents, made some people wonder what
exactly a "cable" is. Diplomatic cables are private communications among embassy officials of various countries.
They take their name from the old technology of cables laid under the ocean for long-distance telegraphic, and then
telephonic communication; diplomatic communications had separate cables for security. The communications now
happen mainly by email and texting, but the diplomatic messages are still called cables.

 Dial (verb). Originally a noun for a round flat object with numbers on it indicating a measure of time,
specifically a sun dial, and later any clock face. Still later the word was used for a part of a machine that showed the
amount or degree of some quality like temperature, pressure, or speed; most often, such display gauges were still
round like a clock face. Often a desired degree could be set by a user, which allowed dials to become associated
with input into a machine; for example radio dials showed the frequencies a radio receiver could be tuned to, using a
knob to control the frequency setting. Telephones acquired dials for use solely as input devices rather than for
inputting and visually showing settings. In telephone dialing, the user selected numbers by putting the forefinger
into one of the openings in a perforated disk set over a round number display, and dragging the finger, and hence the
disk, around the circle to a fixed point and then releasing it. The verb dial was used for this action. Telephone dials
started being phased out in the 1960s, although it took a generation for that type of phone to disappear. The
verb dial, however, for inputting phone numbers into a phone has outlasted the actual use of dials on phones, which
now almost universally have numerical keypads (physical or virtual). The recent expression dial it down meaning
'scale back one's anger/enthusiasm/ostentatious behavior' makes reference to the control function of dials for setting
quantity.

 DJ Originally an initialism for disk (or disc) jockey. Disk was an informal term meaning 'record', the old
technology for recording music on vinyl disks. Disk jockey was the name given to radio programmers who chose the
music to play on pop and rock stations. Later it spread to any selector of music, e.g. at a party; and specifically was
associated with music technology, as music selection and playing became more electronic. Now the word seems to
also include any musician who uses technology to mix recorded music, and even create new music from pieces of
recorded music and sound creation technology.

 Type (verb) 'to cause text to appear on a surface such as paper or a screen, by means of striking keys
representing letters with the fingers. From the noun type which was a collective noun meaning 'letters fixed in
sequence to a printing block that, when inked and pressed, produce text'. The word was first applied in the domain
of printing in the late 18th century, a few centuries after the advent of the printing press with moveable type system
of printing invented by Johannes Gutenberg. The typewriter, a kind of personal printing device operated by
manually striking a keyboard with the fingers, developed via incremental inventions throughout the 19th century and
by the 1870s some designs were commercially available. The verb type came into use around this time, and has
survived for modern uses of keyboards that no longer physically control printing; keyboards are now generally
electronic text input devices.
 Pen 'writing implement'," c.1300, from O.Fr. penne 'quill pen, feather,' from L. penna 'feather,' from PIE
*petna-, suffixed form of base *pet- 'to rush, fly' (cf. petition). From the same base comes suffixed form *petra-,
source of Skt.patram "wing, feather," Gk. pteron 'wing,' O.C.S. pero 'pen,' O.N. fjC6C0r, O.E. feC0er (see feather).
In later French, this word means only 'long feather of a bird,' while the equivalent of English plume is used for
'writing implement,' the senses of the two words thus reversed from what they are in English. The verb is late 15c.,
from the noun.
 Turn on, turn off (verb). (as in turn on/off the lights). Originally from the turning action of the fingers
used with gas lamps, which had flat knobs that could be turned with the finger-tips to control the amount of gas and
therefore light produced by a lit lamp.

Grigor Baghdasaryan

HOW TECHNOLOGY CHANGES THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Key words:
Technologies, changes, influence of technology, innovations, abbreviations, and word meaning changes

The aim of this article is to highlight changes in English that took place because of technologies. Examples of
words were given where it is shown how the words changed their meanings as a result of technological
development. Reference is also made to the problem of naming technological novelties, coining new words, and the
words that were coined in the recent years. In conclusion, any living language changes over the time, which is quite
inevitable in the highly developed technological era.
 Գրիգոր Բաղդասարյան

ԻՆՉՊԵՍ ԵՆ ՏԵԽՆՈԼՈԳԻԱՆԵՐԸ ՓՈԽՈՒՄ ԱՆԳԼԵՐԵՆԸ

Բանալի բառեր.
Տեխնոլոգիաներ, փոփոխություններ, տեխնոլոգիաների ազդեցություն, ինովացիաներ,
հապավումներ, բառերի իմաստային փոփոխություններ

Հոդվածի նպատակն է ցուցադրել անգլերենի՝ տեխնոլոգիաների ազդեցությամբ

պայմանավորված փոփոխությունները։ Բերված են բառերի օրինակներ, որտեղ ցույց է տրված, թե
ինչպես են դրանք տեխնոլոգիաների ազդեցության արդյունքում փոխել իրենց իմաստները։
Անդրադարձ է կատարվում նաև տեխնոլոգիական նորույթները անվանելուն, դրանց անվանելու
համար նոր բառեր ստեղծելուն և ժամանակակից տեխնոլոգիաներին վերաբերող վերջին տարիներին
ստեծված բառերին։ Հոդվածը հանգում է այն եզրակացության, որ յուրաքանչյուր կենդանի լեզու
ժամանակի ընթացքում փոխվում է, ինչը տեխնոլոգիական բարձր զարգացվածության
ժամանակաշրջանում միանգամայն անխուսափելի է։

Григор Багдасарян

КАК ТЕХНОЛОГИИ ВЛИЯЮТ НА ИЗМЕНЕНИЯ В АНГЛИЙСКОМ ЯЗЫКЕ

Ключевые слова:
Технологии, измемения, влияние технологий, иновации, аббривиатура, изменение смысл слов

Целью данной статьи является - показать влияние технологий на изменения в английском языке.
Выше были приведены несколько примеров слов, смысл которых изменился в результате влияния
современных технологий. Так же в этой работе говорилось о создании новых терминов определяющих
суть иноваций в современном мире. Статья ведет к выводу о том, что любой живой язык со временем
изменяется, что свою очередь доказывает невозможность избежать данного процесса в период развития
высоких технологий.