The Purpose of Language

Ever since my August 12 blog post (Dictionary of the Future) on texting-driven changes to our language, I’ve been thinking a lot about common abbreviations. I wonder if my kids know why we say ATM or PIN. To them, these initials may just mean “cash machine” or “passcode,” and that is fine, but if that becomes widespread, new words are created, right? If people start understanding ASAP to mean “as quickly as feasible,” isn’t “asap” then a new word, regardless of the original abbreviation?

With this in mind, I put together a little quiz for my kids to assess their understanding. It had some easy ones like L.A., NFL, and FYI. They all got those except one daughter thought L.A. meant “later alligator”. We couldn’t say she was wrong. More difficult were the techie ones like WWW, HTTP, and USB and also some company names like ESPN, UPS, and IBM. They recognized the initials but they did not know what they stood for. For AT&T one daughter guessed “American Talk and Texting.” They did not know that GEICO and SPRINT are also acronyms.

The two younger ones knew what a VCR was, but did not know what the letters stood for. They all knew TMI and TTYL. The boy knew NCAA and RBI, but none of them knew IV or DVD.

To tell the truth, as I was making the quiz, I considered VHS but I don’t know what it stands for. But I know what it means and isn’t that the purpose of language anyway?