Students speak like monkeys, ain't it?

Rui Baptista thinks that the Written Word should not be prostituted by the language of SMS, social networks and politicians. He thinks, in a rather circular statement, that the enemy of language is every attack on oral and written words. Then, the usual cliché of cliché-hating, holier-than-thou Great Protectors of Language: students don't know how to speak and write. Only those who never contacted with a university student being incapable of writing a small text that rises above the common language are able to ignore the truly criminal nature of the things people are doing to their language! (I'm trying to preserve some of the convoluted nature of the original sentence.)

In a nutshell: language is under attack! Open the prison gates to all those language criminals! Because of them, young people who write in SMS-lingo speak the language of monkeys! (This must be true, because it was previously said by a Nobel Prize Laureate.)

Now, since this is such a strong defense of language prescriptivism that trying to debunk it would be like entering a Creationist museum and explaining point by point why it is wrong, let me just ask a few questions.

Do the really good students never use abbreviations and creative uses of spelling when writing an SMS? Using alternative spellings always imply the person is ignorant of standard spellings? An intelligent speaker isn't able to use and understand alternative spellings, just as anyone can understand different accents (and use different accents, in fact)? So, if I use "SMS-lingo" in my SMS (and not in my exams), am I sinning against the Religion of Language?

I would humbly advance the proposition that good linguistic skills imply a whole range of registers — and not only the strict grammar of written formal language (much simpler than spoken and informal language, to be honest). Using different registers in different contexts is a difficult skill, that most young people acquire with relative ease (despite those cases of people using SMS-lingo during exams or extremely formal talk during sex). Using the full range of our language is not being stupid or monkey-like, but just to be alive and savoring the language in all its texture and incredible flexibility.

So, relax and enjoy the ride!

By the way, if you think science is a good thing, read The Language Instinct, by Steven Pinker. Probably, your view of language will be shattered to pieces, but that's a good thing.