Tough to read isn’t it? That is an example of what is called SMS Language. When online or cellular texting services first came out, there was a limit to how many characters you could use. Therefore, many had to improvise what would be correct english of more than 200 characters, into improper english down to 140 or less. Standard English is the most widely accepted form of english by institutions such as schools and heads of state. With that being said, not all speak the same way. The concision of simplified english into SMS Language may be difficult to understand, but to many it’s the only way they can communicate properly with others. In this essay, SMS (which will stand for Simplified Mode of Speech) will be used as an umbrella term of the
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You can either shorten what you’re saying or create meaning out of thin air. Like with Mother Tongue, it’s intimacy that connects expression with thought. Maybe you can’t express your love for someone in the traditional sense of language, but you can through common interest. In the essay Motorcycle Talk by Thomas Simmons, he explores that very type of SMS between him and his father. At a young age, his father went through many personal grievances especially since the Great Depression, therefore he was a bit socially awkward in his communication. Their common interest to communicate over was vehicles. Their form of communication “became a meeting ground, a magnet for the two of us. My father would check the tension of the [motorcycle] chains, or examine the spark plug for carbon, or simply bounce the shock absorbers a few times as he talked [to me]” (Simmons, Motorcycle Talk). Their awkward form of care for one another was taking care of an inanimate object, the sons motorcycle. The attention the father gave to the motorcycle was the indirect attention he gave his son. Taking care of that motorcycle, making sure it ran as smooth as butter, was making sure his son was in good shape and functioning correctly. It worked backwards as well, “If my father was, in his dreams, a flat-track mechanic, then I was his driver: he owed me the best he could give me; that was his job” (Simmons, Motorcycle Talk). Without the driver there wouldn’t be a vehicle to tend to, to give it purpose rather than to sit around. This may not be text message SMS, or broken english compared to standard ]english, but their form of english communication is nonetheless a form of SMS. Like text message SMS and broken english, on the outside it may seem complex, but to those who communicate with it, it's the most simplistic form they can express with. It’s their only way of communication they can understand between
You can either shorten what you’re saying or create meaning out of thin air. Like with Mother Tongue, it’s intimacy that connects expression with thought. Maybe you can’t express your love for someone in the traditional sense of language, but you can through common interest. In the essay Motorcycle Talk by Thomas Simmons, he explores that very type of SMS between him and his father. At a young age, his father went through many personal grievances especially since the Great Depression, therefore he was a bit socially awkward in his communication. Their common interest to communicate over was vehicles. Their form of communication “became a meeting ground, a magnet for the two of us. My father would check the tension of the [motorcycle] chains, or examine the spark plug for carbon, or simply bounce the shock absorbers a few times as he talked [to me]” (Simmons, Motorcycle Talk). Their awkward form of care for one another was taking care of an inanimate object, the sons motorcycle. The attention the father gave to the motorcycle was the indirect attention he gave his son. Taking care of that motorcycle, making sure it ran as smooth as butter, was making sure his son was in good shape and functioning correctly. It worked backwards as well, “If my father was, in his dreams, a flat-track mechanic, then I was his driver: he owed me the best he could give me; that was his job” (Simmons, Motorcycle Talk). Without the driver there wouldn’t be a vehicle to tend to, to give it purpose rather than to sit around. This may not be text message SMS, or broken english compared to standard ]english, but their form of english communication is nonetheless a form of SMS. Like text message SMS and broken english, on the outside it may seem complex, but to those who communicate with it, it's the most simplistic form they can express with. It’s their only way of communication they can understand between