E-mail, Internet, Chatroom Talk: Pragmatics

Abstract

The Internet has a significant effect on the ecology of languages, with the dominance of English increasingly being counterbalanced by the increased use of other languages, resulting in a language diversification and preservation effect. As the most technical of all language media, language in the Internet may be medially written, but is neither entirely written or spoken in character. It reflects the specific communicative conditions of language use on several levels of analysis, from specific forms used in the medium, to potential modifications in the Gricean cooperative principle. The new forms used are the product of the conditions of use, of typological conditions, and of culture-specific factors. The Internet is instrumental in linguistic change in several ways, such as the rise of new genres and registers, or the rise of new social networks with the concomitant linguistic shibboleths. At the same time, it provides a unique window on the microstructure of linguistic change.