This document discusses how language and communication are being influenced by the rise of the internet. It explores topics like internet linguistics, how characteristics of online communication differ from speech and writing, surface features of language changing online, new technologies influencing language, and the creative ways language is used on the internet.

1. Language and the Internet

2. Language and the Internet The next slide contains a short video of David Crystal discussing the ways in which language and communication are being influenced by the rise and ubiquity of the internet. 1:36 PM Language and Society

3. A new academic discipline? Internet linguistics – the synchronic analysis of language in all areas of internet activity Email, chatrooms, games interaction, instant messaging, web pages, mobile texting, CMC An emerging diachronic study? Can we begin to study language change on the internet over the twenty years since its introduction? Vocabulary, spelling, grammar, pronunciation 1:36 PM Language and Society

4. What should internet linguistics study? The formal character of the internet as medium A new medium of communication has emerged which is different from conversational speech and from writing Speech: CMC lacks simultaneous feedback; lacks nonsegmental phonology (do emoticons replace tone of voice?); can deal with ‘group talk’ (in chat rooms) Writing: CMC is dynamic (animation); frames messages (cc: threaded emails); is hypertextual These characteristics are more important that the surface changes we witness in grammar, vocabulary and spelling 1:36 PM Language and Society

5. Surface features The influence of folk linguistics See John Humphrey’s ‘I h8 txt mesgs: How texting is wrecking our language (http://tinyurl.com/yh56p5a) The internet dictionary http://www.netlingo.com/ Is there a systematic survey that evidences the changes that have taken place? What impact has such language had on the English lexicon as a whole? Read Crystal’s counter-arguments to John Humphreys at http://www.davidcrystal.com/DC_articles/Internet16.pdf 1:36 PM Language and Society

6. New technologies and prophets of doom Are the prophets of doom right or is history full of people who, when new technologies are introduce, announce the death of civilisation? The next slide contains an extract from the BBC’s It’s Only a Theory broadcast in October 2009. In it David Crystal defends the proposition that texting is good for the English language. Before you watch the extract, what arguments do you think he might use? 1:36 PM Language and Society

7. Educational implications If we are developing new linguistic styles, what implications does this have for standard English? Are there issues of appropriateness that you think should be addressed by, for example, teachers and educational institutions more widely? Are there issues of effectiveness that might influence our understanding of ‘literacy’ in the age of the internet? 1:36 PM Language and Society

8. Stylistic creativity What linguistics creativity can you see emerging with the increasing use of mobile devices? What creativity can you see, for example, in the development of blogging as a cultural/communication channel? And twitter? 1:36 PM Language and Society

9. Guardian Haiku competition 2001 txtinizmessin, mi headn'meenglis, try2rite essays, they all come out txtis. gran not plsed w/letters shesgetn, swears i wrote better b4 comin2uni. &she's african Hetty Hughes Sheffield Sun on maisonette windows sends speed-camera flashes tinting through tram cables startling drivers dragging rain-waterfalls in their wheels I drive on Steve Kilgallon First Second http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2001/may/03/internet.poetry 1:36 PM Language and Society

10. -:):- On the next slide is a ‘Three minute story of mixed emoticons’ by Rives. In what ways does this performance add to the language? In what ways do you think it detracts? 1:36 PM Language and Society

11. Guardian Twitter competition Haiku Poems Privatise the trains The fat cats make money Commuters suffer. By Tantalise Opera plots If a cigarette doesn't kill you, the girl who made it will… I dropped the atomic bomb and it went off. Wait, I feel guilty. Too late. Might as well sing pretentious poetry. he cut off a bollock, but that still wasn't enough for them. Now, he wants revenge. Only the pure will survive. http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2009/may/18/poetry-twitter http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/charlottehigginsblog/2009/apr/01/classicalmusicandopera 1:36 PM Language and Society

12. Best Blogs in Manchester http://www.manchesterblogawards.com/ 1:36 PM Language and Society

13. Innovations Multi-modality Coveritlive (http://www.coveritlive.com/) Ustream (http://www.ustream.tv/) Digital story-telling The Virtual Revolution in 3D (http://www.bbc.co.uk/virtualrevolution/) 1:36 PM Language and Society

14. For good or bad? Clearly, the internet offers ample evidence to support the claims of political utopians and dystopians. It offers similar evidence for emerging communicative capabilities. These are the capabilities we need to study Positive communicative capabilities: A first hand encounter with multilingualism (see http://hemosoido.com) including support for endangered languages through their documentation and revitalisation Digital surveys such as http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/ give access to enormous data banks. See more of these projects at http://www.intute.ac.uk/cgi-bin/browse.pl?id=200480 1:36 PM Language and Society

15. For good or bad? Negative communicative capabilities Issues of security and protection loom large in discussions of the negative impact of the internet. Here (socio) linguists could use their expertise in exploring the power of semantic filtering, in understanding the ways in which power is used in online abusive behaviour An example: RIHSC Seminar by JemmaTosh of the Discourse Unit: ‘This session will explore practical and ethical issues of studying computer-mediated communication. I will discuss/use examples from my research on social constructions of rape on Internet discussion forums’. 1:36 PM Language and Society