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Within a very few years, the Internet has
emerged from obscurity to dominate many of our lives. In
some areas, e-mail has already almost totally replaced more
conventional forms of correspondence; and for an increasing
number of people, the World Wide Web is the first port of
call for most types of information inquiry and the first
resort for most types of leisure activity. This has been
an extraordinarily rapid communications revolution.
What effect is it having on our language?
How radical are the changes it brings to the way that we
address each other?
This is the first book by a language expert on the linguistic
aspects of the Internet. Language and the Internet
considers:
- The language of e-mail, chat groups and
virtual worlds
- The language and languages of the Web
- The neologism spawned by electronic communication
-- "moontalk," "trolling," "cyberspace,"
"e-commerce"…
- The still fluid formal conventions governing
electronic communication -- new forms of punctuation,
formatting, greetings and sign-offs…
- New types of graphic communicational
devices -- the "smiley"…
- The future of language and languages
in an electronic age
David Crystal argues that "netspeak"
is a radically new linguistic medium. Like it or loathe
it, we cannot ignore it. His book opens up the issues for
a general readership.
David Crystal is one of the world's foremost
authorities on language, and as editor of the Cambridge
Encyclopedia database he has used the Internet for research
purposes from its earliest manifestations. His work for
a high technology company has involved him in the development
of an information classification system with several Internet
applications, and he has extensive professional experience
of Web issues.
Professor Crystal is author of the hugely
successful Cambridge Encyclopedia
of Language (1987; second edition
1997), Cambridge Encyclopedia
of the English Language (1995),
English as a Global Language
(1997) and Language Death
(2000).An internationally renowned writer, journal editor,
lecturer and broadcaster, he received an OBE in 1995 for
his services to the English language. His edited books include
The Cambridge Encyclopedia
(1990; second edition 1994; third edition 1997; fourth edition
2000), The Cambridge Paperback
Encyclopedia (1993; second edition
1995; third edition 1999), The
Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia
(1994; second edition 1998) and The
Cambridge Factfinder (1994; second
edition 1997; third edition 1998; fourth edition 2000).
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