Quote Bank

David Crystal:
1. 80% of people who text are adults.
2. Only 10% of words in text messages are abbreviations.
3. Texting improves literary scores.
4. [Texting] is not causing the English Language to deteriorate.
5. Technology always changes a language.
6. [English] is so diversified as a result of the Internet.
7. People are very ready to make deductions about the background of a user based on Language use.
8. [Slang] is a way of being witty and different as well as adding an earthiness to the abstract.

Kate Burridge:
9. Slang works ... to stick members of a group together and ... to erect barriers between them and the out-
side.
10. ‘Bloody’ has now become an important indicator of Australianness and of cultural values such as friend-
liness, informality, laid-backness, mateship.
11. Dysphemisms are contaminated by the taboo topics which they denote.
12. Politeness ... and impoliteness ... are wedded to context, place and time.
13. Nothing is taboo for all people, under all circumstances, for all the time.
14. All varieties have the same potential for complexity and richness of expression and there are no linguis-
tic grounds for saying one is better than another.
15. Standard English is perceived to be intrinsically superior to other varieties.

Felicity Cox
16. All Australian accents have changed, but they change through the speech of young people.
17. We feel comfortable and not self conscious anymore, we’re very happy to express ourselves using the
accent that we have.

Peter Trudgill:
18. Received pronunciation speakers are perceived as soon as they start speaking as haughty or unfriendly
by non received pronunciation speakers unless or until they are able to demonstrate the contrary.
19. Nonstandard English is best defined as “Any dialect of English that differs from Standard English. Non-
standard dialects of English differ most importantly from Standard English at the level of grammar.”

Benjamin Lee Whorf:

20. “Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we think about.”

Murray:
21. “Every tongue has it’s own rules.”

Frantz Fanon:
22. “To speak a language is to take on a world, a culture.”

Quentin Crisp:
23. “Euphemisms are unpleasant truths wearing diplomatic cologne.”

Hugh Lunn:
24. “If you lose your language, you lose your personality, your character and who you are.”

Kingman Brewster:
25. “Incomprehensible jargon is the hallmark of profession.”

Ruth Wajnnryb:
26. “English language use has to satisfy the identity needs of users as well as the pragmatic need for commu-
nication across a range of groups.”

Laurie Bauer:
27. “What is called beauty in a language is more accurately seen as the prestige of its speakers.”
Quote Bank

Wierzbicka:
28. “Diminutives [are used] as a solidarity code, a way of speaking which marks the in-group belonging of
Australians.”

Roland Sussex:
29. “Australian English is becoming well known for its quirky, larrikin, idiosyncratic creativeness.”

Journalist Brendan Black on slang:

30. “Many do not understand them because they’re not meant to; they’re saying ‘you’re not part of my
group’.”

Linguist Ferdinand De Sassure:

31. “Time Changes all things, there is no reason why language should escape this universal law.”

Gloria Anzaldua:
32. “Ethnic identity is twin skin to linguistic identity - I am my language.”

Professor Ian Malcom:

33. “Aboriginal people are always disadvantaged because the norms by which acceptable English is judged
always comes from the economically and politically dominant members of society.”

Tracee Hutchison:
34. “It is almost un Australian not to throw in the occasional expletive for a bit of no nonsense impact.”

Bill Hunter:
35. “Very few women use broad Australian accents, probably because it is associated with Australian mas-
culinity.”