ABSTRACT
What these journalists, teachers and parents are reacting to, of course, is not all language found on the internet, but rather the language often used with interactive media like chat, instant messaging, mobile text messaging and micro blogging, language which in studies across numerous contexts has been found to contain a number of specific linguistic features, including:
• Frequent use of acronyms (e.g., ‘btw’, ‘lol’) • Shortened forms (e.g., ‘k’ for ‘okay’) • Less attention to standard spelling, capitalization and punctuation • Letter homophones (e.g., ‘u’ for ‘you’, ‘oic’ for ‘oh, I see’) • Creative use of punctuation (e.g., multiple punctuation such as ‘!!!!’ or ellipsis marks ‘. . . . . .’) • Spelling based on sound, sometimes to mark a regional accent or special style of
speech (e.g., ‘kewl’ or ‘cooooool’) • Lexicalization of vocal sounds (like ‘umm’, ‘uh huh’, ‘haha’) • Emoticons and other keyboard generated graphics (e.g., ‘=.=’) • Creative use of typographical space and layout • Formulaic openings and closings (e.g., ‘sup’; ‘bb’)
The linguist David Crystal argues that digital media are giving rise to a new ‘variety’ of language which he calls ‘netspeak’ – a type of language ‘displaying features that are unique to the internet . . . arising out of its character as a medium’ (Crystal, 2001: 18). He further divides ‘netspeak’ into various sub-varieties associated with specific digital media such as the ‘language of emails’ and the ‘language of chat groups’ (Crystal, 2001: 148, 165).
