An Analysis Of Netspeak From The Perspective Of Memetics

After newspaper, broadcast and television, Internet has become the fourth massmedia. With the development of communication on the Internet, a new linguisticphenomenon netspeak comes into being. It attracts attention from researchers both athome and abroad.Memetics is used to explain the law of cultural evolution based on DarwinianTheory. Meme is the essence. It was coined by Dawkins in The Selfish Gene in1976as the basic unit of inheritable information in cultural evolution. With the advent ofMemetics, it is used by scholars to explain various phenomena in socio-cultural field.As the carrier of cultural transmission, language is a crucial cultural phenomenon.Memetics can be used to explain the law of linguistic evolution. Memes exert greatinfluence on the vitality of language.Through an analysis of netspeak from the perspective of Memetics, this thesiscomes to the following three findings. Firstly, with a careful examination of thecharacteristics of collected data, the study finds out that apart from copying-fidelity,fecundity and longevity proposed by Dawkins (1976), a successful netspeak memealso possesses the feature of novelty. In the process of transmission, two majorpatterns are ‘keeping the same forms as the originals but with different meanings bychanging the contents’ and ‘transmitting the same meanings in different forms fromthe originals’. In the latter pattern, the different forms can be subdivided intoabbreviation, homophone, code mixing, synaeresis and reduplication. Secondly, bytracing the source of collected netspeak memes with the aid of Baidu search engine,the study classifies the source into four types: social events and phenomena; mediaprograms and literary works; netizens’ creative use of conventional expression;professional design. Netspeak memes from social events and phenomena take up thelargest proportion. Thirdly, through a careful examination of the formation ofcollected netspeak memes, the study finds out that most of them are succinctexpressions and therefore reveals that there is a selection principle of economy in the process of transmission. Those succinct ones are more likely to survive. Meanwhile,with a report of Chinese netizens’ composition released by CNNIC, the studyanalyzes the features of netizens.This thesis is a tentative research into netspeak from the viewpoint of Memetics,which sheds light on the explanation of this linguistic phenomenon. What’s more, byusing strong netspeak memes in CMC, it is helpful to disseminate virtue anddiscipline evil in society through the power of public consensus on the Internet.