English Netspeak: A New Variety Of Language

The Internet is one of the most remarkable things ever created by human beings in the 20th century. It has exerted great impact on various aspects of our lives. The Internet brings people not only an unprecedented technological revolution, but also a cultural and linguistic revolution. Under such circumstances, netspeak - a new linguistic medium, has drawn attention from all circles, especially those in linguistics. So it is necessary to have a systematic analysis to meet the needs of the development of netspeak.Internet first appeared in the 1960s. Since then, many scholars have been doing researches on netspeak. One of the early observers is Naomi Baron who began to probe into the effects of the computer-mediated communication (CMC) on language changes in the 1980s. Since its opening up to public in 1993, the Internet has become a worldwide buzzword. As a result of the general acceptance and adoption of the new linguistic form by more and more people in computer-mediated communication, some scholars, like Susan Herring and David Crystal have analyzed the special features of netspeak. However the researches made by the academia in this domain are extremely limited at present. Netspeak is still a new topic, especially the idea that netspeak is a new linguistic variety. People who have touched upon this topic are not many.The thesis is a tentative study that intends to make a reasonable qualitative cognizance of netspeak through the data collection and systematic analysis as well as the thorough study of the related theories so as to explain netspeak as a virtual variety of language, focusing on the features of word-formation, semantic changes of netspeak as well as politeness strategies applied to online conversation. To achieve the purpose, the study examines netspeak by collecting and transcribing raw data from Internet environment, based on a pool of net words which have been collected from the Internet through search engines or chatting with other netizens, or collected from books of netspeak vocabulary collection or newspapers and magazines.The thesis is to be divided into four parts: it first introduces the purpose, the organization and the data collection of the thesis. Then it focuses on the basic knowledge of the Internet, netspeak, the development of the Internet and something about the Internet society as a necessary part to facilitate the study of netspeak as well as the in-depth study of the linguistic theory of language variety. In the third part, the linguistic theories mentioned before are applied to the identification of netspeak as a virtual variety of language, focusing on the features of word-formation, semantic changes of netspeak as well as politeness strategies applied to online conversation. Finally, the major findings of the thesis are summarized and the future tendency of the study in this respect is forecasted and expected.Netspeak is a new research area. It has abundant research values. The thesis is to emphasize that netspeak is a variety of language rather than a collection of slang. The most prominent features of netspeak are the emergence of a tremendous number of new words and a large number of existing words being applied with new meaning. It also indicates that the birth of new kinds of language or new kinds of language varieties is closely related to the development of society, and the language variety will be conducive to thedevelopment of language.The present research is just a pilot study. It is hoped that the thesis can invite andattract more attention from scholars in this field.