The Internet and World Wide Web have generated an expansive new vocabulary with its own website dictionary. The   electronic medium presents us with a channel which facilitates and constraints our ability to communicate in ways that are fundamentally different from those found in other semiotic situations. Many of the expectations and practices which we associate with spoken and written language no longer obtain

Dorda, Svitlana Volodymyrivna

Дорда, Светлана Владимировна

Дорда, Світлана Володимирівна

Electronic Sumy State University Institutional Repository

 NETSPEAK – IS IT THE FUTURE? Dorda S.V. The actuality of the problem. The Internet and World Wide Web have generated an expansive new vocabulary with its own website dictionary. The electronic medium presents us with a channel which facilitates and constraints our ability to communicate in ways that are fundamentally different from those found in other semiotic situations. Many of the expectations and practices which we associate with spoken and written language no longer obtain. The development of the problem. There is a widely held intuition that some sort of Newspeak exists - a type of language displaying features that are unique to the Internet, arising out of its character as a medium which is electronic, global, and interactive. The fact that people are conscious of something out there is demonstrated by the way other varieties of language are being affected by it. It is always a sure sign that a new variety has arrived when people in other linguistic situations start alluding to it. There is a widespread view that as “technospeak” comes to rule, standards will be lost. David Crystal, for example, argues the reverse: that the Internet has encouraged a dramatic expansion in the variety and creativity of language. There is no denying the unprecedented scale and significance of the Net, as a global medium. The extra significance is even reflected in spelling: this is the first such technology to be conventionally identified with an initial capital. We do not give typographical enhancement to such developments as “Printing”, “Publishing”, “Broadcasting”, “Radio”, or “Television”, but we do write “Internet” and “Net” [1, p.1]. We need a name for this new medium. David Crystal calls it Netspeak. “I am comfortable with Netspeak, for it falls within a tradition of usage which began with George Orwell’s Newspeak and Oldspeak in 1984, later developments such as Airspeak and Seaspeak, and media labels such as Royalspeak and Blairspeak. It is functional enough, as long as we remember that “speak” here involves writing as  well as talking, and that any “speak” suffix also has a receptive element, including “listening and reading” [1, p.2]. It is worth stressing the point that Netspeak is a medium, not a variety. It consists of many varieties, some of which in turn consist of several sub-varieties. Crystal says that we are able to find five main domains within which varieties of Netspeak could be identified – there is the World Wide Web, e-mail, two types of chatgroups (the synchronous type and the asynchronous type), and the domain of virtual worlds [1]. We can think that this figure of five is soon going to grow as new technologies come to be; but these are the five that are out there right now. The computer-mediated communication is something that is electronic, global, and interactive, and this has given rise to a distinctive type of language, neither spoken nor written. It is not like writing because it lacks one of the most basic features of traditional writing – the fact that a piece of text is static and permanent on the page. Netspeak is not like speech either, firstly, because it lacks the kind of simultaneous feedback you get in face-to-face conversation, or the immediate reaction signals which people make to each other. Secondly, there is no way of expressing the full range of variations in intonation, stress, speed, rhythm, pause, and tone of voice. There have been efforts to capture these effects in the form of an exaggerated use of spelling and punctuation, and the use of capitals, spacing, and special symbols for emphasis. Netspeak is not like speech or writing. It is not a hybrid of spoken and written features. “Netspeak is something genuinely different in kind. Electronic texts are simply not the same as other kinds of texts. In particular, they display a dynamism that is lacking elsewhere, in the way texts can be manipulated and changed. And they permit a multiplicity of simultaneous communicative activities that neither speech  nor writing could tolerate” [1, p. 4]. We may coin new denoting expressions, either phrases or words. The e-prefix is a good example and another index of Netspeak’s influence. By now it has been used in hundreds of expressions. The Oxford Dictionary of New Words [2] had already noted e-text, e-zine, e-money. Examples include e-tailing and e-tailers (retailing on the Internet), e-lance (electronic free-lance) and e-lancers, e- management and e-managers, e-government, e-books, e-conferences, e-voting, e- loan, e-newsletters, e-security, e-shop, e-list. A popular method of creating Internet neologisms is to combine two separate words to make a new word, or compound. Some elements turn up repeatedly: mouse in such words as mouseclick, mousepad, mouse across, mouse over; click in click- and-buy, one-click, cost-per-click, double-click; web in webcam, webmail, webliography, webmaster, webzine, webhead (web addict); ware in firmware, freeware, groupware, shareware; net in netlag, netdead, netnews, Usenet, Netspeak, EcoNet, PeaceNet; hot in hotlist, hotspot, hotlink, Hotmail; bug in bug fix, bug tracker, bug bash (hunt for bugs). Similar in function are the use of cyber- and hyper- as prefixes or combining forms (cyberspace, cyberculture, cyberlawyer, cyber rights; hypertext, hyperlink, hyperfiction). Other prefixes include e-; V- (virtual), and E (for a number raised to a power, from mathematics). Blends (in which part of one word is joined to part of another) can be illustrated by netiquette, netizen, infonet, datagram. An innovation is the replacement of a word element by a similar sounding item, as in the use of e- (ecruiting: electronic recruiting; ecruiter, etailing). Word class conversion is also important, usually from noun to verb: to mouse, to clipboard. In conclusion we can say that modern technologies are sufficient to introduce a huge range of new varieties to the English language (and to other languages also). Computational futurologists are anticipating radical innovation in each of the three traditional domains of communication: production, transmission and reception. All of these will have an impact on the kind of language we use.  Literature [1] Crystal D. Twenty-first century English. [Електронний ресурс]. - Режим доступу: www.davidcrystal.com/DC_artciles/. [2] Knowles E. The Oxford Dictionary of New Words [Текст] / Knowles E., Eliott J.. – OUP, 1998. – 368 p.     Dorda, S. Netspeak – is it the Future? [Text] / S. Dorda // Слово й текст у просторі культури : тези доповідей Міжнародної наукової конференції, присвяченої 80-річчю з дня народження проф. О.М. Мороховського. – К. : Київський національний лінгвістичний університет, 2010. – С. 97-100. 

Netspeak - is it the future?

SocioEconomic Challenges Journal (Sumy State University)

 
NETSPEAK – IS IT THE FUTURE? 
Dorda S.V. 
The actuality of the problem. The Internet and World Wide Web have 
generated an expansive new vocabulary with its own website dictionary. The 
electronic medium presents us with a channel which facilitates and constraints our 
ability to communicate in ways that are fundamentally different from those found in 
other semiotic situations. Many of the expectations and practices which we associate 
with spoken and written language no longer obtain. 
The development of the problem. There is a widely held intuition that some 
sort of Newspeak exists - a type of language displaying features that are unique to the 
Internet, arising out of its character as a medium which is electronic, global, and 
interactive. The fact that people are conscious of something out there is demonstrated 
by the way other varieties of language are being affected by it. It is always a sure sign 
that a new variety has arrived when people in other linguistic situations start alluding 
to it. There is a widespread view that as “technospeak” comes to rule, standards will 
be lost. David Crystal, for example, argues the reverse: that the Internet has 
encouraged a dramatic expansion in the variety and creativity of language. 
There is no denying the unprecedented scale and significance of the Net, as a 
global medium. The extra significance is even reflected in spelling: this is the first 
such technology to be conventionally identified with an initial capital. We do not give 
typographical enhancement to such developments as “Printing”, “Publishing”, 
“Broadcasting”, “Radio”, or “Television”, but we do write “Internet” and “Net” [1, 
p.1]. 
We need a name for this new medium. David Crystal calls it Netspeak. “I am 
comfortable with Netspeak, for it falls within a tradition of usage which began with 
George Orwell’s Newspeak and Oldspeak in 1984, later developments such as 
Airspeak and Seaspeak, and media labels such as Royalspeak and Blairspeak. It is 
functional enough, as long as we remember that “speak” here involves writing as  
well as talking, and that any “speak” suffix also has a receptive element, including 
“listening and reading” [1, p.2]. 
It is worth stressing the point that Netspeak is a medium, not a variety. It 
consists of many varieties, some of which in turn consist of several sub-varieties. 
Crystal says that we are able to find five main domains within which varieties of 
Netspeak could be identified – there is the World Wide Web, e-mail, two types of 
chatgroups (the synchronous type and the asynchronous type), and the domain of 
virtual worlds [1]. We can think that this figure of five is soon going to grow as new 
technologies come to be; but these are the five that are out there right now. The 
computer-mediated communication is something that is electronic, global, and 
interactive, and this has given rise to a distinctive type of language, neither spoken 
nor written. It is not like writing because it lacks one of the most basic features of 
traditional writing – the fact that a piece of text is static and permanent on the page. 
Netspeak is not like speech either, firstly, because it lacks the kind of simultaneous 
feedback you get in face-to-face conversation, or the immediate reaction signals 
which people make to each other. Secondly, there is no way of expressing the full 
range of variations in intonation, stress, speed, rhythm, pause, and tone of voice. 
There have been efforts to capture these effects in the form of an exaggerated use of 
spelling and punctuation, and the use of capitals, spacing, and special symbols for 
emphasis. 
Netspeak is not like speech or writing. It is not a hybrid of spoken and written 
features. “Netspeak is something genuinely different in kind. Electronic texts are 
simply not the same as other kinds of texts. In particular, they display a dynamism 
that is lacking elsewhere, in the way texts can be manipulated and changed. And they 
permit a multiplicity of simultaneous communicative activities that neither speech  
nor writing could tolerate” [1, p. 4]. 
We may coin new denoting expressions, either phrases or words. The e-prefix 
is a good example and another index of Netspeak’s influence. By now it has been 
used in hundreds of expressions. The Oxford Dictionary of New Words [2] had 
already noted e-text, e-zine, e-money. Examples include e-tailing and e-tailers 
(retailing on the Internet), e-lance (electronic free-lance) and e-lancers, e- 
management and e-managers, e-government, e-books, e-conferences, e-voting, e- 
loan, e-newsletters, e-security, e-shop, e-list. 
A popular method of creating Internet neologisms is to combine two separate 
words to make a new word, or compound. Some elements turn up repeatedly: mouse 
in such words as mouseclick, mousepad, mouse across, mouse over; click in click- 
and-buy, one-click, cost-per-click, double-click; web in webcam, webmail, 
webliography, webmaster, webzine, webhead (web addict); ware in firmware, 
freeware, groupware, shareware; net in netlag, netdead, netnews, Usenet, Netspeak, 
EcoNet, PeaceNet; hot in hotlist, hotspot, hotlink, Hotmail; bug in bug fix, bug 
tracker, bug bash (hunt for bugs). Similar in function are the use of cyber- and hyper- 
as prefixes or combining forms (cyberspace, cyberculture, cyberlawyer, cyber rights; 
hypertext, hyperlink, hyperfiction). Other prefixes include e-; V- (virtual), and E (for 
a number raised to a power, from mathematics). 
Blends (in which part of one word is joined to part of another) can be 
illustrated by netiquette, netizen, infonet, datagram. An innovation is the replacement 
of a word element by a similar sounding item, as in the use of e- (ecruiting: 
electronic recruiting; ecruiter, etailing). Word class conversion is also important, 
usually from noun to verb: to mouse, to clipboard. 
In conclusion we can say that modern technologies are sufficient to introduce a 
huge range of new varieties to the English language (and to other languages also). 
Computational futurologists are anticipating radical innovation in each of the three 
traditional domains of communication: production, transmission and reception. All of 
these will have an impact on the kind of language we use. 
 
Literature 
[1] Crystal D. Twenty-first century English. [Електронний ресурс]. - Режим 
доступу: www.davidcrystal.com/DC_artciles/. 
[2] Knowles E. The Oxford Dictionary of New Words [Текст] / Knowles E., Eliott J.. 
– OUP, 1998. – 368 p. 
 
 
 
 
Dorda, S. Netspeak – is it the Future? [Text] / S. Dorda // Слово й текст у просторі 
культури : тези доповідей Міжнародної наукової конференції, присвяченої 80-
річчю з дня народження проф. О.М. Мороховського. – К. : Київський 
національний лінгвістичний університет, 2010. – С. 97-100. 


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