Is the English language being "dumbed down", and if so, why?

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

altho

I bet you also like the Drive Thru window.

Yes.  The gh digraph is a gost which serves no useful purpose in any of the major English dialects.  Its tenacity despite it being one of the lowest hanging fruits on the simplified spelling tree is enough to make one sie.  Only 'ph' is lower hanging, and people still laf to see it replaced with 'f', It's as if there is a ingrained fisical resistance to simplifying spelling, tho I suspect it is sykological in nature.  (Changes such as nature -> nachur are too ambitious to try for now.)

[Ban my account ffs!]

Perhaps, some day, the pronunciation of words and their spelling will separate completely and our language will be even more abstract.  (Then, all language is abstract)

[angus]

Okay Ernest, I was driving to my office this morning and in front of me was a luxury sedan being driven by a very small, very old woman.  As I approached the from behind, I noticed a bumper sticker that stated,

"DO YOU FOLLOW JESUS THIS CLOSE." 

I don't care how you spin it, this sentence has at least two errors.  First, I'm certain that close is an adjective and therefore cannot modify the verb follow.  An adverb is required there.  Also, the voice--or mood--is interrogative.  At least the structure suggests an interrogative sentence, so the punctuation is wrong.  A question mark is required.  (ALLCAPS were inoffensive if they were intended to suggest shouting.) 

These errors were especially disconcerting considering that it was probably made by the Jesus People.  Who are the Jesus People?  The priests.  Priests are among the best educated members of society.  They go to school for a long time.  Historically, priests were typically the only members of the community who were literate.  In Western civilization, they could read and write not only in the vulgar idiom of their hometowns, but also in Latin.  I recognize the difference between the Religious and the Clergy and the Laity, and am aware that in the various flavors of Calvinist and Protestant religion that have been born in the United States there is no distinction between the Religious and the Clergy, and of the fact that in many of these traditions there is no proper clergy.  Maybe a plumber gets "saved" one day and is inspired to have some business cards printed that say he's a minister and he starts a church.  No formal education necessary.  Still, it is so disappointed that even the Jesus People don't write well. 

The style of this bumper sticker was meant to be clever.  Smart alek.  Cute.  I can appreciate that.   I, too, have a sardonic sense of humor.  But if you're going to be like that then you need to be sure that all your words are spelled correctly--and by correctly I don't mean Ernest Style--and you should make sure that your grammar is tight, including punctuation.

This bumper sticker is so distracting that I worried that might cause an accident.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

'Close' happens to be one of those adjectives where the '-ly' suffix to make it an adverb is optional, especially when used with the verb 'follow', so that's a stylistic quibble, not a grammatical one.  If you prefer a morphological distinction between adjectives and adverbs, then clear you would prefer closely.  The ALL CAPS were likely used to improve legibility rather than indicate shouting.

However, the lack of a question mark is a clear error. Indeed, it appears that the error has been spotted and corrected since I found it for sale with the correct punctuation.

[angus]

The ALL CAPS were likely used to improve legibility rather than indicate shouting.

They also apparently have it in now in lower case as well.



and with closely as an adverb



License plate holder:



and as a present participle:

[angus]

From the Walk Score Algorithm:

Walk Score measures how easy it is to live a car-lite lifestyle—not how pretty the area is for walking.

Walk Score uses a patent-pending system to measure the walkability of an address. The Walk Score algorithm awards points based on the distance to amenities in each category. Amenities within .25 miles receive maximum points and no points are awarded for amenities further than one mile.

Walk Score uses a variety of data sources including Google, Education.com, Open Street Map, and Localeze. Since nobody knows your neighborhood better than you do, you can add and remove places from Walk Score.


Now for the new-and-improved angus version:

Walkscore attempts to measure the degree to which living in a particular neighborhood necessitates a private car.  It does not take aesthetics into consideration.

Walkscore utilizes a patent-pending algorithm to measure the walkability of an address, based on distances from various retail outlets and other amenities.  Amenities within 0.25 miles receive a maximum number of points.  Amenities farther away than one mile receive no points.

Walkscore uses a variety of data sources including websites such as Google, Education.com, Open Street Map, and Zillow.com.  In an effort to include the intimate knowledge of those residing in a neighborhood to the walkability measure, walkscore encourages users to add or remove retail venues and other amenities from the map. 

Actually, there was only one glaring grammatical mistake.  The word "further" was used to describe relative distances.  This should be replaced with "farther."  Nevertheless, the hideous style of the writing bears testimony to the degree of amelioration that the written word has suffered in the decades since education for the masses has become compulsory.  Compare, for example, the Walkscore algorithm description to the Preamble to the United States Constitution:

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

That's one sentence, man.  The subject is We, the verbs are ordain and establish.  All the rest is dependent clauses and prepositional phrases.  Beautiful.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Preamble 2.0

We, the people of the United States, will do the following. We will improve the union. We will establish justice.  We will ensure domestic peace. We will provide for the common defense. We will promote the common well-being. We will secure the benefits of liberty for ourselves and those who come after us. In order to achieve these tasks, we wrote and enacted this Constitution for the United States of America.