My name is Zoe, and for a long time I’ve been fascinated with how we use language on the Internet. So when it came to finding a subject to design a special study around, I knew what would be at the top of my list.
How does internet language differ from that in ‘real life’? How does technology expand or constrain our usage of language? What impact might internet language have on spoken and traditionally published language? These are just a few questions I’m hoping to explore over this semester.
A few introductory things –
How do we define “Internet language” or “Internet linguistics”? For my purposes, Internet language includes any language originally published via a digital device connected to other digital devices. E-mail, texts, social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tumblr, etc), chatrooms, forums, etc are all fair game here. I will also largely focus on written language simply. due to the amount of publications available, but spoken language does exist on the Internet (YouTube, TikTok, VR, etc) and I’m sure is just as fascinating as written language is.
What does the schedule for this semester look like? Here’s my current plan:
Sept 15: Early studies in Internet Linguistics
Sept 22: Practical Impact of Technology
Sept 29: Researching Internet Linguistics (Corpora, Ethics, Limitations, and Challenges)
Oct 6: Writing Conventions
Oct 13: Textspeak & Slang
Oct 20: Emoji & Emoticon
Oct 27: Impact of Social Factors on Language Use
Nov 3: Multilingualism Online & English Influences
Nov 10: Non-English Internet Language
Dec 1: Case Study: Arabic Internet
To the best of my ability I will be writing a blog post each week looking at the articles/sources I have collected for that week (the format only seems fitting considering the subject).