Introduction
For the last two decades, there has been a tremendous change in as far as the local as well as global communication patterns of individuals are concerned. This is largely due to the inception of the Internet. Crystal (2001) notes, “Previously, linguists have always recognized only the spoken and the written English” (p. 7). This statement could have been considered true several years ago but currently, the advent of the Internet has brought with it what is popularly known nowadays as netspeak. Research points out that this new form of global communication pattern has a negative contribution to the grammatical position of the English language. Nevertheless, differences do however spring up with regard to the language of the internet, in comparison to the conventional language.
As Crystal (2002) has noted, “ on the internet, as with traditional speaking and writing, the language that individuals produce is far exceeded by the language they receive; and the internet is a medium almost entirely dependent on reactions to written messages, awareness of audiences must hold a primary place in any discussion” (p. 20.). According to Andrews (2002), “This new version of language that bears a correlation to the internet is more of a linguistic vandalism, in which spelling of the English language turns out to be extremely superfluous, and the grammar is rapidly waning” (P. 47). This research paper is therefore aimed at pointing out the effects of the Internet on the English language.
According to Crystal (2001), the world is on the verge of the largest ever language revolution, which shall in the long-term lead to a total transformation of language. It is not that hard to realize why such a transformation may be inevitable.
The World Wide Web is to a large extent dominated by materials of the English language.
Globalization too has extremely benefited from the rapid expansion of the World Wide Web, so that now the world is one global village. In addition, Crystal observes, “The invention of the internet has created a platform from which several languages that have not been adequately represented within the internet will experience transformations occurring from adaptations imparted by the languages used within the internet” (P. 26).
Rheingold (2001) further claims that many local languages have not adequately been represented within the internet (Rheingold 2000). As a result, the users whose cultures have been so underrepresented may exhibit distinctive adaptations and perceptions of the languages; in light of the Internet. From the perspective of the language, it is important to appreciate that the internet should not just be viewed as a tool for the technological revolution. Rather, the internet is also extremely social. With this in mind, language, based on its social inclinations, is, therefore, plays a key role in the technological revolution of the Internet.
The language of the internet
The language that is often utilized by the users of the internet is undergoing a transition and as Andrews (2002) notes, “The yearning for an enhanced reliability, predictability, as well as familiarity amongst the internet users seems to impact on all the situations of the internet” (p. 17). This includes even the issue of the language of the internet (Andrews 2002). The internet world is one in which people have attempted to overcome the shortcomings of a medium of communication that is electronically impaired by numerous distinctive ways.
Netspeak
According to Crystal (2002), “ The term ‘Netspeak’ is an alternative to ‘Netlish’, ‘Weblish’, Internet language’, ‘Cyberspeak’, ‘electronic discourse’, ‘electronic language’, ‘interactive written discourse’, ‘computer-mediated communication’ (CMC), and other more cumbersome locations” (p. 19). Rheingold (2000) has also noted that “‘netlish’ has been derived from the term ‘English’ “(p. 16). With an increase in the multilingualism of the internet, the term ‘netlish’ appears to be experiencing a diminished importance (Rheingold 2000). On its part, “electronic discourse’ stresses the elements of dialogue and interaction. Netspeak, as a name, bears a functional and concise meaning, especially bearing in mind that the term ‘speak’ in this context entails both talking and writing. Besides, there are quite a several netspeak salient elements that are now finding their way outside of the communication channels that are computer-mediated Crystal (2001). This is even though the language of the internet has been around for just about two decades.
Impact that the internet has had on language
As can be seen, the internet is already playing a significant role in transforming language. The influence appears to target the vocabulary of the English language in particular, although graphology is also being affected, at least for several of the written versions (Crystal 2001). One great effect of netspeak on language is the killing of creativity through the use of symbols to express changes in context. This leads to the substitution of words and expressions that show mood and pitch by symbols. According to Crystal (2001), “The wide variety and innovative English often expressed in channels that are computer-mediated, have tremendously developed as a result of their uses embracing their languages most creatively to tackle, with a view to tackling alterations in the prevailing circumstances” (P. 22). For instance, the use of Smileys in the e-mail language came about following desire by people to replace a majority of the characteristics of speech such as the tone and pitch, with symbols instead. In this case, Smileys of happiness’ or sadness could be utilized. A majority of the other written languages have also not been spared by this kind of replacement, although questions still abound as to why other types of writing bear no Smileys.
Crystal (2001) opines that the answer to such questions may be found in the immediacy nature of a communication process that is computer-mediated. If we were to explore the conventional type of writing, we would realize that such style of writing is characterized by ample time to revise to clarify personal attributes, and also enabling the users or writers for that matter, to play around with the various English phrases. This means that netspeak helps communicators to quickly and simply express their feelings and attitude towards the subject in question without having to work on diction and sentence construction. As a result, this gives the communicators a remedy for their needs of immediacy. Through this, to tackle they avoid using creative sentence structures and diction to express themselves accurately.
That the internet is out to dictate how our language will be shaped is not in doubt. All the time, we hear the application of fundamental terms of the internet being applied by individuals, even to those that may not have a participative role in the field relatively to of the information technology.
Such words as ‘multitasking’ (implying that a person is capable of handling more than one activity at a time), ‘going offline’ (meaning to hold a private conversation), and ‘being wired’ that is, being prepared to handle a task in hand), are not unusual during conversations. Nevertheless, Andrews believes that if we as a people are to truly comprehend how our language shall be influenced by the internet, “ there is a need therefore for us to try and come into terms with the various language varieties that have thus far found their way onto the internet (p. 37). In line with this, it is also important that we assess the linguistic properties of the different languages used on the internet.
Bearing in mind that the internet has transformed the world into one global village, there is a need therefore to handle the linguistic diversity issues with the seriousness that they deserve.
This is important, as it enables us to handle the natural language that is contained within the internet (Andrews 2002 p. 39). The internet may have developed as a network that is based on English, but as of now, other types of languages appear to be expanding rapidly.
In terms of diversity in language, the internet appears to be experiencing a two-fold direction. First, there is a need to generate a huge content amount using other languages besides the English language. Should this trend be embraced, there is the danger of encountering challenges during the translation of the contents. Secondly, there is a growing trend that seeks to adopt the English language as the internet lingual Franca. On the other hand, there seem to arise two issues as far as this solution is concerned. First, seeing that most of the speakers of the English language the world over are not native language users (Crystal 2001), internet content writers are not in a position to make assumptions the assumption that most of the readers of their content writings shall comprehend the complex constructions of idioms, grammar, or even ordinary vocabulary.
Conversely, there is still the question of the type of English dialect that ought to be selected, even amongst the English native speakers. Rheingold (2000) observes, “In the conventional world if the asker’s acquaintances cannot provide an answer, the asker is stymied. But with electronic communication, the asker has access to a much broader pool of information sources” (p. 48). It is important to major infield creatively a single dialect so as to avoid misinterpretations that may occur. This comes as a result of slight variations that occur in the different dialects. The variations may end up changing the meaning of the word or phrase completely. For example, double negation could be appreciated in some regions but retain the meaning in its negative form while in other dialects, double negation could change the meaning of the phrase to positive. That is, I haven’t eaten anything could mean I have eaten everything in dialects that do not accept double negation.
Research questions
To facilitate this research, the following questions will be used as guidelines to help accurately bring out the impact of the internet on language use and the conclusion of the study. Will the flexibility and creativity of general communication be replaced due to the urgency of communication as exhibited in the case of netspeak? And, will the urgent need for communication and self-expression lead to total distortion of the English language? Such research questions call upon a more precise analysis of the question at hand. To investigate further into these inquiries, I find it crucial to better understand the extent to which the so-called “netspeak” distorts the originally configured English language. Even more, whether other languages prevail online depends on how accurately the English language conveys the contents and emotions of a foreign language.
Having thought that each individual differs from the Internet’s influence on the English Language, I ought to consider a survey on a sample group that represents the whole population.
The sample group will most likely represent whether Internet communication has brought about a prominent change in the language. Along the same line, the survey will further elaborate on assumptions about how strong a ground English has in Internet communication.
Work cited
Andrews, Jean. i-Net+ Guide to the Internet (Second edition). Boston: Thompson Learning, 2002. (p. 16-39).
Crystal, David. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, (Second edition). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997. (p. 107- 125).
Crystal, David. Language and the Internet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. (P. 16- 48).
Graddoll, David. 1997. The Future of English? London: British Council. (p. 3-11).
Rheingold, Howard. 2000. The Virtual Community: Homesteading on the Electronic Frontier. (Revised edition). Cambridge (MA): MIT Press.(p. 22-48).