Anyone interested in language ends up writing about the sociological issues around it.

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

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

I believe that any form of writing exercise is good for you. I also believe that any form of tuition which helps develop your awareness of the different properties, styles, and effects of writing is good for you. It helps you become a better reader, more sensitive to nuance, and a better writer, more sensitive to audience. Texting language is no different from other innovative forms of written expression that have emerged in the past. It is a type of language whose communicative strengths and weaknesses need to be appreciated.

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.

The story of English spelling is the story of thousands of people - some well-known, most totally unknown - who left a permanent linguistic fingerprint on our orthography.