Language changes and moves in a different direction evolving all the time. Where a lot of people see deterioration, I see expressive development

Ever since the arrival of printing - thought to be the invention of the devil because it would put false opinions into people's minds - people have been arguing that new technology would have disastrous consequences for language.

Swearing makes an excellent relief mechanism

Several of us linguists at that time would record our own kids, just to get some data. There was some literature on it then, but no day-by-day, blow-by-blow examples. I recorded all my children over the years in some shape or form. It's what linguists do. You don't talk to a linguist without having what you say taken down and used in evidence against you at some point in time.

Spellings are made by people. Dictionaries - eventually - reflect popular choices.

Although many texters enjoy breaking linguistic rules, they also know they need to be understood.

Word books traditionally focus on unusual and quirky items. They tend to ignore the words that provide the skeleton of the language, without which it would fall apart, such as 'and' and 'what,' or words that provide structure to our conversation, such as 'hello.