The Survival Of Computer-Mediated Language

Recent years have seen the popularity and prevalence of the computer-mediated language in the wake of the fast technological development of the computer and the Internet. Not only in the Internet, but also in our daily life, we can see some common use of the CML (computer-mediated language). In light of this phenomenon, the author makes an attempt to analyze it from the perspective of memetics, a new rising theory of how we think, which is mainly devoted to interpreting the cultural evolution and social phenomenon.In the thesis, the author argues that the meme has exerted much influence on the survival of the CML. As a matter of fact, not all the CML will survive in its long course of transmission, many of which will disappear while some will spread from one host to another. So the principle — "survival of the fittest", which has long been applied to biology— is also true of CML. Which one is to survive in the selection process? Although many scholars give different answers to that question, most of them are but general criteria not quite applicable to the specific subject matters. The author suggests that the CML has its own memetic selection criteria in the course of transmission and spreading, and proposes criteria of simplicity, novelty, informality, expressivity and conformity will have advantages over others. The author will elaborate on the selection criteria of CML through the qualitative analysis and try to describe in detail its distinguished features.To justify the selection criteria described, the author proposes the notion of memetic adaptation by integrating memetics and adaptation theory into the conceptual framework. The author holds that the CML contextual environment has its own distinguished features, in which selection and adaptation are possible. In the memetic adaptation model, the CML gets adapted to the cyberspace mainly from three perspectives: the mental world, the physical world, and the social world as well, the...