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

Academics don't normally manage to alter people's way of thinking through their strength of argument.

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.

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.

It took three years to put Shakespeare's words together, there were a lot of words to be studied and a lot of words to be sorted out, and it proved to be a major project.

Research shows that those kids who text frequently are more likely to be the most literate and the best spellers, because you have to know how to manipulate language.

In effect we are, bending and breaking the rules of the language. And if someone were to ask why we do it, the answer is simply: for fun