Texting has added a new dimension to language use, but its long-term impact is negligible. It is not a disaster.

Sending a message on a mobile phone is not the most natural of ways to communicate. The keypad isn't linguistically sensible.

Swearing makes an excellent relief mechanism

Text messaging is just the most recent focus of people's anxiety; what people are really worried about is a new generation gaining control of what they see as their language.

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.

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.

A feature of English that makes it different compared with all other languages is its global spread.