David Crystal investigates the nature of the impact which the Internet is making on language. There is already a widespread popular mythology that the Internet is going to be bad for the future of language - that technospeak will rule, standards be lost, and creativity diminished as globalization imposes sameness. The argument of this book is the reverse: that the Internet is in fact enabling a dramatic expansion to take place in the range and variety of language, and is providing unprecedented opportunities for personal creativity. The Internet has now been around long enough for us to 'take a view' about the way in which it is being shaped by and is shaping language and languages, and there is no-one better placed than David Crystal to take that view. His book is written to be accessible to anyone who has used the Internet and who has an interest in language issues.
Language and the Internet
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'This is the first mainstream book of its kind, a real achievement. Anyone who works in this field will surely refer to it, gratefully, on many future occasions.' John Morrish, Independent on Sunday
'A welcome reminder of an important truth about the Internet … provides us with the first comprehensive survey of how we behave in our new environment.' Times Higher Education Supplement
'The first sustained treatment of an engrossing and important subject.' Times Higher Education Supplement
'… fascinating new book … Language and the Internet is a pioneering work, an exploratory work, in no way definitive … here is material for a thousand theses.' Panorama - Canberra Times
'On no account should this book be dismissed as a curious 'popsci' compendium of informative and entertaining tidbits. On the contrary, it is a serious and essential linguistic record of these early days of 'computer mediated language', and one that we would all do well to read.' ELT Journal
'Any medium of communication as revolutionary as the Internet is bound to have a profound effect on language. Though many have noted the linguistic changes emerging in online communication, few have studied the phenomena and fewer yet have written about them in a clear and cogent manner. David Crystal's volume on the topic presents a well-organised and highly readable overview of value to both specialists and non-specialist alike.' Education, Communication and Information
'… does an excellent job and will have to be read by everyone who wants to put a toe in the water on the way to serious empirical study of the Internet.' Linguistics
'… a readable and entertaining overview that situates computer-mediated communication within established linguistic frameworks of analysis and points the reader to much of the extant research addressing language use online.' Education, Communication and Information
'A welcome reminder of an important truth about the Internet … provides us with the first comprehensive survey of how we behave in our new environment.' Times Higher Education Supplement
'The first sustained treatment of an engrossing and important subject.' Times Higher Education Supplement
'… fascinating new book … Language and the Internet is a pioneering work, an exploratory work, in no way definitive … here is material for a thousand theses.' Panorama - Canberra Times
'On no account should this book be dismissed as a curious 'popsci' compendium of informative and entertaining tidbits. On the contrary, it is a serious and essential linguistic record of these early days of 'computer mediated language', and one that we would all do well to read.' ELT Journal
'Any medium of communication as revolutionary as the Internet is bound to have a profound effect on language. Though many have noted the linguistic changes emerging in online communication, few have studied the phenomena and fewer yet have written about them in a clear and cogent manner. David Crystal's volume on the topic presents a well-organised and highly readable overview of value to both specialists and non-specialist alike.' Education, Communication and Information
'… does an excellent job and will have to be read by everyone who wants to put a toe in the water on the way to serious empirical study of the Internet.' Linguistics
'… a readable and entertaining overview that situates computer-mediated communication within established linguistic frameworks of analysis and points the reader to much of the extant research addressing language use online.' Education, Communication and Information
Book Description
Countering the popular mythology that electronic communication is somehow bad for language, leading writer on language issues David Crystal argues that the Internet is in fact enabling a dramatic expansion to take place in the range and variety of linguistic forms, and is providing unprecedented opportunities for personal creativity.
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Will the English-dominated Internet spell the end of other tongues? Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Will the English-dominated Internet spell the end of other tongues? Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
This book explores how we use language in the internet. it begins with a general introduction, describing lingusitics in general and sociolinguistics in particular. It discusses the internet in general and four particular aspects - email, chatgroups, virtual worlds (in multiplayer games) and the web.
The author clearly knows sociolinguistics very well and it is worthwhile reading the book just for that. However, his knowledge of the internet is weaker and often he relies on secondhand information that he is not able to evaluate well. This shows up in some of the more extensive quotes, repeated without much critical evaluation. For example, he frequently quotes 'Wired Style', only once (I think) refers to the Jargon File (without even working out who esr is) and doesn't mention RFC 1855.
There is not much original research here. For example, the chapter on email is based mainly on the author's own email correspondence, which is bound to be atypical. It would have been much more interesting to see if different communities, for example sampled from mailing lists, really used different varieties of language.
In some places it would be hard to distinguish between the language used in the internet and the language used by social scientists to describe the internet, between 'trolling' or 'boxen' and 'computer mediated communication' or 'cyberculture'. In others the author seemed unaware of features of the internet. For example, he does not seem to be aware that users can control how web pages appear or list emails by thread. Occasionally he gets terms wrong.
This is not a book to buy if you wish to learn the language (or rather languages) of the internet, but it is a very readable introduction to sociolinguistics applied to technology with some very plausible conclusions about where and how the internet will affect our use of language.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful introductory book combining sociolinguistics and the Internet
6 May 2008
Format:Hardcover
I have often referred to this book in my studies on computer-mediated communication; because it blends sociolinguistics with case studies (as one reviewer has pointed out, Crystal's own experience), it is useful for those interested in CMC and language use, and a quick look at the bibliography reveals further points of discussion and research. Major theorists, such as Grice (and his maxims of conversation) are mentioned, and even though Crystal says that maxims and conventions are in the process of being adapted and will likely continue to be adapted, it serves as a 'jumping-off point' for what the person's own interests of study are. I, for one, found the tables of spoken and written language criteria, as applied to several "Netspeak" media forms, quite elucidating.
I found this book reasonably approachable, and the examples given help 'bridge the gap' between those in communications or language studies and those who might only have a passing interest or knowledge and are looking for more information.
I found this book reasonably approachable, and the examples given help 'bridge the gap' between those in communications or language studies and those who might only have a passing interest or knowledge and are looking for more information.
4 of 18 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Hardcover
The areas covered within this superbly authorthed book luckily appeared to match the criteria within my syllabus. The information was well presented with interesting diagrams and information which made it far more easier than other books to understand. Im am sure that this source of information could be credited towards my understanding of the course i was taking at the time.
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