-Caveat Lector-
From
http://www.sciam.com/2001/1201issue/1201reviews1.html
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Spontaneous, Unedited, Naked
Review by ANNE EISENBERG
A Linguist Looks at Discourse on the Internet
LANGUAGE AND THE INTERNET
by David Crystal
Cambridge University Press, 2001
Never mind those anxieties about the Internet's impact on privacy,
intellectual property and the recreational habits of 12-year-olds.
What is it doing to the future of the English language? Will it
really lead to the end of literacy as we know it--not to mention
spelling?
Not according to David Crystal, a linguist who says in this witty,
thoughtful book that, on the contrary, the discourse of the Internet--
with its new, informal, even bizarre forms of language--neither
threatens nor replaces existing varieties of English but instead
enriches them, extending our range of expression and showing us "homo
loquens at its best."
Crystal, the Welsh author of the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the
English Language who is known to many in the U.S. through his
comments on National Public Radio, analyzes the discourse of Web
pages, e-mail, chatgroups and virtual-reality games. At first glance,
much of this text certainly looks like a primer on linguistic
irresponsibility: the shedding of capital letters; the minimalist
punctuation; the perverse spellings and goofy abbreviations like RUOK
("are you okay?"); the smileys, such as :-), representing humor; the
coining of terms at a rate that has no parallel in contemporary
language.
For Crystal, though, these phenomena are not portents of linguistic
doom but examples of a set of language tactics developed for a new
medium he calls computer-mediated communication. The innovative,
sometimes screwball varieties of English expressed in computer-
mediated channels, he says, have evolved as users have adapted their
language creatively to meet changing circumstances.
A Guide to Netspeak
Both uppercase and lowercase forms are used.
afaik
as far as I know
awhfy
are we having fun yet?
b4
before
bg
big grin
cm
call me
dur?
do you remember?
fwiw
for what it's worth
gal
get a life
gmta
great minds think alike
ianal
I'm not a lawyer, but. . .
icwum
I see what you mean
imo
in my opinion
mtfbwu
may the force be with you
obtw
oh, by the way
rotf
rolling on the floor
rtfm
read the f---ing manual
smtoe
sets my teeth on edge
t+
think positive
tttt
to tell the truth
tx
thanks
wb
welcome back
X!
typical woman
Y!
typical man
2bctnd
to be continued
2g4u
too good for you
4yeo
for your eyes only
Smileys, for instance, appeared early in the language of e-mail as
people struggled to replace many characteristics of speech, like
pitch and tone, with symbols, using ;-) for winking or :-( for
sadness. Most other forms of written language suffer under the same
burden as e-mail, of course--they are not face-to-face and are
therefore always ambiguous in their omission of cues such as
intonation. So why are there no smileys in other forms of writing?
Crystal argues that the answer lies in the immediacy of computer-
mediated communication. Traditional writing entails time to revise,
to make personal attitudes clear, to tinker with phrases. Smileys and
other, related devices stand in for this extra work in the more
spontaneous, fluid world of the new medium, which combines properties
not only of speaking and writing but of rapid electronic exchange.
Crystal is unbothered by typical usage issues--for instance, whether
the form "email," "e-mail" or "E-mail" will prevail. He's willing to
leave such matters to a future editorial consensus. And he does not
worry about whether using "Dear Bob" instead of "Bob" at the
beginning of an e-mail will make him a fuddy-duddy, as one handbook
on e-mail usage advises. In fact, Crystal laughs at this prescriptive
approach, arguing that to condemn one style as bad is to deny English
users the stylistic option of switching, thereby reducing the
versatility and richness of language. No single recommendation, he
says, can suit the expectations of the range of audiences the
Internet is reaching.
His interest, instead, is in the readiness with which people are
adapting spelling, grammar and semantics to meet the needs of
Internet-based situations. The chapters on specific adaptations are
studded with linguistic delights to satisfy anyone who has ever
wondered what TTFN means ("ta ta for now") or tia ("thanks in
advance") or gal ("get a life"). (Many more of these abbreviations
are explained in highly entertaining tables, as are the varieties of
smileys.) He tackles etymologies, too, and the derivations shed light
on much that may otherwise have been mysterious: cc, for example, has
a new gloss as "complimentary copy," now that carbon copies are a
distant memory. He examines the plural ending "-en" that is popular
on the Internet--as in "vaxen" for VAX computers--saying that such
suffixes are a development that "will cause delight to all Anglo-
Saxonists."
Crystal devotes a chapter to the discourse of chatgroups--"gossip
groups" is a more accurate description for most of what goes on
within them, he says--which he characterizes as a "perpetual
linguistic party, where you bring your language, not a bottle." He is
fascinated by chatgroup language in part because it provides a domain
in which to see written language in its most primitive state--banal,
repetitive and untouched (as most writing is) by editing. "Chatgroups
are the nearest we are likely to get to seeing writing in its
spontaneous, unedited, naked state."
He also reports on the scholarly literature of computer-mediated
communication, including such gems as the finding that, in contrast
to females, males on academic newslists sent longer messages, made
stronger assertions and engaged in more self-promotion, while making
fewer apologies and asking fewer questions.
Crystal is definitely upbeat, discovering the still evolving
discourse of the Internet an area of huge potential enrichment. He
uses the analogy of a gift he received--a new informal shirt. This
shirt didn't destroy his sense of the value of formal and informal--
it just made his previously satisfactory, informal shirts look
somewhat staid. He sees the language of the Internet, too, as
similarly extending the range of communication options. RUOK with
this?
Editors' note: Among the many concerns we had on September 11 was
December's book reviewer Anne Eisenberg. We knew that Eisenberg, who
writes for the "Circuits" section of the New York Times and teaches
writing at the Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, lives a few short
blocks from the World Trade Center. We discovered that she was safe:
she had dashed from her apartment, into a cloud of black smoke and
debris, just as the second tower began to pancake. We asked her what
she took: "Money, passport, a sweater and David Crystal's book,
because it was my next assignment."
<-End
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