Txting: frNd or foe?
If I ________(1) a pound for every time I heard someone predicting a language disaster because of a new technological development, I would be a very rich man. If I were a time traveller, my bank balance (8) would have started to grow with the arrival in the Middle Ages of printing, thought by many to be the invention of the devil (13). It (5) would have increased with the telegraph, telephone and broadcasting. And I would have been able to retire on the profits from text messaging.
All the popular beliefs about texting are wrong. It isn’t just used by the young generation: the vast majority of texts circulating in cyberspace are among adults, especially by and to institutions.
Only ________(2) very tiny part of text messaging uses a distinctive orthography. The abbreviations (11) are not a totally new phenomenon (9). Young people don’t use them (6) in essays, nor in exam scripts. And research is piling up that text messaging helps rather than hinders (14) literacy. Texting (10) has, indeed, added a new dimension to language use (12), but its (7) long-term impact on existing varieties of language is negligible. It is not a disaster.
The popular impression is quite the opposite. People think that the written language seen on mobile phone screens is new and alien. It has been labelled “textese”, “slanguage”, and a “digital virus” (15). It has been described as foreign and “outlandish” (16).
However, ________(3) most striking characteristic of text messages is the combination of standard and non-standard features. Although (17) many texters like to be different and enjoy breaking linguistic rules, they also know they need to be understood. There is no point in paying for a message if it breaks so many rules that it ceases to be intelligible. There is always ________(4) unconscious pressure to use the standard orthography.
(Adapted from: CRYSTAL, David. Txting: frNd or foe? The Linguist, v. 47, n. 06, Dec. 2008/Jan 2009. Available at:
Select the alternative which correctly fills in the blanks in (2), (3) and (4), in this order.