Language and the Internet

David Crystal, Honorary Professor of Linguistics David Crystal

Cambridge University Press, Aug 31, 2006 - Computers - 304 pages

In recent years, the Internet has come to dominate our lives. E-mail, instant messaging and chat are rapidly replacing conventional forms of correspondence, and the Web has become the first port of call for both information enquiry and leisure activity. How is this affecting language? There is a widespread view that as 'technospeak' comes to rule, standards will be lost. In this book, David Crystal argues the reverse: that the Internet has encouraged a dramatic expansion in the variety and creativity of language. Covering a range of Internet genres, including e-mail, chat, and the Web, this is a revealing account of how the Internet is radically changing the way we use language. This second edition has been thoroughly updated to account for more recent phenomena, with a brand new chapter on blogging and instant messaging. Engaging and accessible, it will continue to fascinate anyone who has ever used the Internet.

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Language and the Internet

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In this first book-length consideration of the Internet by a linguist, Crystal, whose Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language and over 40 other books have established him as a leading authority on language ...

Contents

• 1 A linguistic perspective: 1
• Blogging: 15
• Netspeak: 19
• 2 The medium of Netspeak: 26
• timebound spontaneous facetoface socially interactive: 31
• they transcend the traditional limitations on textual: 52
• 3 Finding an identity: 66
• identity to motivate new Internet users to use it or: 75
• 4 The language of email: 99
• Headers: 100
• The uniqueness of email: 130
• 5 The language of chatgroups: 134
• female speech63 Some studies have already identified salient: 173
• 6 The language of virtual worlds: 178
• An evolving world: 198
• 7 The language of the Web: 203
• noticeably a colourful medium and in this respect alone it: 210
• Evolution and management: 213
• Languages on the Web: 229
• 8 New varieties: 238
• Blogging has introduced a new era of interactivity to websites: 247
• 9 The linguistic future: 257

About the author

Honorary Professor of Linguistics at the University of Wales, Bangor.

Honorary Professor of Linguistics at the University of Wales, Bangor.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Language and the Internet; Language and the Internet, David Crystal
• Authors: David Crystal, Honorary Professor of Linguistics David Crystal
• Edition: reprint, revised
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2006
• ISBN: 0521868599, 9780521868594
• Length: 304 pages
• Subjects: Computers / Internet / General; Computers / Programming Languages / General; Language Arts & Disciplines / Linguistics / General