A Memetic-Adaptation Approach To Network Catchwords

With the rapid development of information technology, human communication is more liable to rely on the ubiquitous internet than ever before. In order to adapt to the network environment, a new language variation, i.e. network catchwords, emerge as the times require. Those network catchwords, once employed only in the virtual cyberspace, finally find their way in non-virtual daily verbal communication due to their replication and transmission at an amazing speed. They have been used so much and so frequently that we would feel unease even in face-to-face communication if they are not employed. At the same time, more and more scholars in a variety of disciplines start to examine this interesting phenomenon, either from a sociological perspective or from a psychological perspective, or even from an anthropological perspective. Naturally, linguists analyze and explore network catchwords and some related phenomena from a linguistic approach. So far, researches on this topic have been focused on the collection, classification and feature description of network catchwords, few researches can be found that aims at a systematic interpretation of this linguistic phenomenon. On this account, this thesis attempts to explore network catchwords in general and the catchword "hold住" in particular on the basis of memetic-adaptation theory, which would hopefully elaborate the internal motivation and mechanism for the production, replication, and transmission of network catchwords. Memetics, a theory that dates back to Darwin’s theory of evolution, is often used to account for the laws and principles in cultural evolution. In recent years, owing to its great survival adaptability and explanatory power, this theory was introduced to the field of linguistics to interpret various complex pragmatic phenomena. Based on the core concept "meme", the author illustrates the intrinsic motivation for the production of network catchwords, namely strong memetic selection. The process of this memetic selection tends to follow the selection criteria of simplicity, novelty and expressiveness, echoing Darwin’s evolutionary principle of survival of the fittest.If the emergence of network catchwords is the results of a strong memetic selection, the replication and transmission of those network catchwords can be naturally viewed as a process whereby memes adapt themselves to the network context. Specifically, the replication and the transmission of network catchwords are the results of adaptation that selected memes have been making to the mental world, social world and physical world.The characteristic of the dissertation is to link research at selected spots with that in entire areas, i.e. integrating point and sphere. The so-called "sphere" refers to the comprehensive and universal discussion of internet catchword; and the "point" is the case study of network hot word "hold住" appeared in2011. This research mainly adopts the qualitative analysis, and the majority of the referenced data is directly from Sina, Sohu, Netease and other well-known portal websites, also the BBS, personal micro-blog network media. The present thesis is only a tentative study. However, a memetic-adaptation perspective would certainly add to the pool of theoretical frameworks that can be applied to the interpretation of various complicated language phenomena. Of course, the elaboration of network catchwords in this paper, though superficial and naive, is an example that shows the application of this theoretical approach.