2. Book Review of Language And The Internet
Book: Language and the Internet
Written by: David Crystal
Published by: Cambridge University Press
Publishing Year: 2001
With the advent of 21st century, the new third medium of communication, first being
written and second spoken discourse, allured linguists to probe deep into its genre. The
language used on the internet is that of real people of great diversity, whose output is
largely slang or in other terms has no proofreading or editing by the publisher, writer or
the professional.
David Crystal, a prolific writer and one of the world's eminent linguists, is a professor of
linguistics in the United Kingdom and has produced many scholarly volumes such as The
Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. In his 2001 book” Language and the
Internet” Crystal provides a comprehensive summary of the components of a new
medium. Being a genuine avant-garde linguist, he explores the idea that the internet
utilizes a new mode of language, with an insight into the nature of digital language.
Crystal outlines the linguistic hybrid of the internet language as “something that is
neither speech nor writing, but a very curious amalgam of the two...." He looks
profoundly into each of the Internet's "genres" i.e. the distinctive methods used for
communication on internet like web pages, e-mail, asynchronous discussion forums such
as mailing lists, synchronous chat such as instant messaging, and virtual reality worlds
such as MUDs or multiuser dungeons. This genre is not still established and is in state of
flux but Crystal‟s treatment and non-gloom-and-doom attitude make it refreshing and
accessible to the layman.
Crystal adopts the term „Netspeak‟ for the type of language used on the internet, in
chartrooms and in messaging such as msn messenger and devotes two chapters to it. In
the first chapter he gives a general introduction to this medium with a linguistic
perspective. He introduces the need and advent of this „third medium‟ in first half of the
MS Applied Linguistics, UMT, Lahore.
3. Book Review of Language And The Internet
first chapter with a sheer glance at the genre of internet. The second half of the first
chapter and second chapter full covers „Netspeak‟ and general features of Netspeak.
Netspeak language uses a combination of abbreviations (including words created using
digits as well as alphabetic characters), acronyms and emoticons to speed up the typing of
messages. While using Netspeak, Crystal notes the reproduction of the effects of prosody
and paralanguage in the use of repeated letters and punctuation marks, use of capital
letters, spacing and smiley. He states, “Although Netspeak tries to be like speech… it
remains some distance from it” (p, 41). Crystal furnishes his description of Netspeak as
future-prospect change in the field of language and sacks the notion that this medium is
an illitrate and dumbed-down language. In chapter 3 he tries to create a distinctive
language community with a title “Finding an identity”. The next chapter (4) is devoted to
the discussion of language used in e-mails, chatgroups (chapter 5), virtual worlds (
chapter 6) and the language of the web (chapter 7). The last chapter (chapter 8) is
endowed with a good speculation on the future of the genre.
The book comprises on 272 pages in thoroughly readable and apprehensible style.
Crystal‟s method is relatively descriptive but the stuffing for description is limited. His
presentation is reliant on his personal experiences as he takes only his own personal
sample e-mails for study. Crystal, as a linguist, doesn't try to relate the changes in this
medium with any linguistic theory except than use of Grice‟s theory to explain the
cooperative nature of conversation.
The book initially seems to be a useful survey of the language used in different genres of
the Internet and provides an academic review, well referenced and footnoted, and also a
good foundation of future studies. Crystal‟s attempt in clarifying aspects of the styles and
abbreviations used in e-communication is that of documenting, rather than of influencing
the styles. It is noteworthy that Crystal raises the question of the effectiveness of internet
language but he didn‟t try to answer it, rather he leaves this question for further research.
In his 2009 book, Txtng: The Gr8 Db8, he elaborates this medium as an art of texting,
language technology and its effects on literacy, language, and society with a scholarly
perspective, which itself paves way for the future researches.
MS Applied Linguistics, UMT, Lahore.
