LANGUAGE CHANGE IN THE DIGITAL WORLD

WHY HAS THE DIGITAL WORLD HAD SUCH AN IMPACT?

DIGITAL ENGLISH- GLOBAL USE

In 1995, less than 1% of the world’s population was connected; the figure is now 40%,
and it is rising.

51% of websites are in English, closely followed by Chinese.

In traditional forms of mass media, the direction of interaction was one-way; in social
media, the content is published by anyone, to a potentially mass audience.
ONLINE COMMUNICATION AND LANGUAGE CHANGE-
ONLINE COMMUNICATION MEANS THAT NEW FORMS OF ENGLISH
ARE NOW USED:

Meaning change- social media takes words already in use and adds specific, additional meanings (e.g., pin, friend, troll,
tablet, like, tweet, page. The noun-to-verb backformation develops this change (e.g., he was pinning while he was at work.)

Lexis- social media introduces new lexis (e.g., selfie, google, phablet, hashtag, unfriend)

Abbreviation- the instant nature and speed of communication has resulted in many abbreviations and acronyms (e.g., OMG,
LOL, TTYL. SRSLY, FOMO). Character limits on tweets and early limits to text messaging helped to produce this change.
The omission of vowels continues as a recognisable form of communication.

Graphology- changes in graphology are particularly evident with the hashtag as well as the range of emojis which help to
reduce the number of words used, as they add meaning to the communication (5m are sent every day!)The association of
capital letters with shouting is also a change of communication values through graphology.
COMPUTER-MEDIATED
 - Texts, forums and other forms of online communication
enable participants to respond in real time almost as

DISCOURSE quickly as they could in conversation. Computer-

mediated discourse is usually unplanned and spontaneous

-THE DISTINCTIVE 
with mutually understandable language and graphology.
David Crystal develops the idea that all technological
PATTERN OF DISCOURSE developments have resulted in language change- from the
arrival of the printing press, newspapers and social
GENERATED BY networking, each form of communication has a distinctive
style.
COMPUTER NETWORKS.  Just as all language evolves over time to suit the needs of its
users, so too will the language of the internet and social
networking sites- and it is likely to occur quickly.
IT’S A GREAT
IDEA TO LOOK
FOR RELATED
ARTICLES.
HOMEWORK:

WATCH THE LONGER TALK

BY DAVID CRYSTAL (CLICK
ON THE SECOND BOX, SLIDE
2) AND SUMMARISE HIS
POINTS.