It is the same old tired argument trotted out once again. The U.K.

­It is the same old tired argument trotted out once again. The U.K. government's advice on childhood language development has announced that the linguistic growth of the current generation of teenagers is being stunted, limiting them to a vocabulary of 800 words a day, when a 1000 words per day is suppose to be the minimum for adequate communication. As a result, she says, they could be making themselves unemployable. The culprit? Texting and internet chat rooms, of course. This kind of conservative stand has accompanied every evolution in communication.

With which of the following is the author of the above least likely to agree?

A. The only constant about language is that it changes.

B. The invention of the printing press was decried as perversion of religion and language itself at that time.

C. Even if one were to assume that the cognitive skills of teenagers have deteriorated in recent times, the causes could well be elsewhere than the adoption of new technology.

D. A changing vocabulary is not the equivalent of a limited ability to express oneself.

E. Sure, language evolves, but what is happening is not an evolution of language but degrading it


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