毕业论文
网络英语的词汇特征研究
学 生：刘
指导教师：吴红兵
系 别：外国语学院
年 级：
燕 英语系 09级
2012年6月
A Study on the Characteristics
of Cyber English Vocabulary
Student: Rosemary
Tutor: Ms Wu Hongbing
Department: School of Foreign Languages
Grade: English09
Tianjin University of Technology and Education
June, 2012
Abstract: With the development of computer technology, network goes into hundreds of thousands of households. Influenced by using environment and its‟ main users, it has some features different from the general English. By now, many scholars have studied it from the following aspects and have some achievements. For example: the origin and future of cyber English, the influence the cyber English has on English teaching and learning, the new cyber English vocabulary, the translation of cyber English. What this paper will study is the characteristics of cyber English, by citing examples and analyzing, we can know that the cyber English vocabulary has characteristics such as innovation, arbitrariness and compatibility.
Keywords: cyber English vocabulary; characteristics; future
摘要：随着计算机技术的发展,网络走进了千家万户。受使用群体和使用环境的影响， 网络英语具有了一些不同于普通英语的特征。目前对网络英语的研究在以下方面已有所 成果，如：网络英语的产生及其景，网络英语对英语教学的影响，网络英语新词汇，网 络英语的翻译。本文主要对网络英语词汇的特征进行探讨，通过举例说明，分析论证等 方法，得出网络英语具有创新性，随意性，兼容性等特征。
关键词：网络英语词汇; 特征; 前景
Outline
1. Introduction
With the development of computer technology, network goes into hundreds of thousands of households and more and more people begin using the internet for
real-time communication. The network which is a “hypothesized” world has provided people with a secret, free, relaxed and imaginable space which cannot be found in the real daily life. In this space, web cams formed a unique language
------- cyber Language. Since it was born, the cyber Language has been developing quickly and is having a greater and greater influence on social language life. By now, it has been studied by many famous experts and linguists. What this passage will study is the features of cyber English vocabulary, which may help people promote their knowledge on cyber English, make them study English better, and communicate more efficiently on the internet.
2. The characteristics of cyber English vocabulary
2.1 Innovation
2.1.1 Use homophonic letters and numbers
2.1.2 Form new words by abbreviation
2.1.3 Use symbolic language
2.1.4 Give new meanings to existing words
2.2 Arbitrariness
2.2.1 The informality of writing
2.2.2 Neglect some grammatical rules
2.2.3 Use a lot of informal words
2.3 Compatibility
2.4 Great creativity and great influence
2.4.1 Great creativity
2.4.2 Great influence
3. The future of cyber English vocabulary
3.1 Further richness
3.2 Standardization
3.3 Collectivization
3.4 Generalization.
4. Conclusion
Different from the traditional communication mediums, the main features of
network communication are quickness and high efficiency, it not only requires that the people communicating on the internet transmit information accurately but also require that they find out what they need from the abundant and incessant information quickly. In this case, in order to save time and complete the communication effectively in the shortest time, people engaged in the electronic commerce and people who go surfing on line all day hollow their thoughts to create a brief language which is easy to input, therefore make the cyber English have features like innovation, arbitrariness and compatibility. In this passage, we had a study on the characteristics of cyber English vocabulary, by which people may have a better knowledge on the cyber English, study English better and communicate more efficiently on the internet.
1. Introduction
With the development of computer technology, network goes into hundreds of thousands of households and more and more people begin using the internet for real-time communication. The network makes people break through the boundaries and the barriers among regions, countries, nationalities, languages, traditions, beliefs and so on, makes the humanity enter into the fast-developing information age. “In this age, by network, people can send electronic-mails (e-mail), carry on-line commercial business (e-business), go shopping online (online shopping), read network magazines (webzine), watch network videos (web TV), and in the chat room, they can make network friends (net partner) freely and even seek for network sweethearts (cyber lover)” (曾纪伟 2005.10.5). We can see from this that the network is an open system in which everybody is equal, the people‟s social background, occupation, sex, age, years of schooling and such other factors are hidden by the remote space and the unique network anonymous system. Therefore, the distance between them is shortened and the complex interpersonal relationship in the real life is also greatly simplified, people do not need to “pretend to be serious”, or need to constrain themselves. We may say, this “hypothesized” world on the internet provides people with a secret, free, relaxed and imaginable space which cannot be found in the real daily life. In this space, web cams form a unique language -------cyber Language. Since it was born, the cyber Language has been developing quickly and is having a greater and greater influence on social language life, and people‟s interest in studying it is greater and greater too. By now, many linguists have studied it from the following aspects, for example, the network vocabulary, the features and standards of network language, the origin of network language. In recent years, there have already been some achievements in this field. For example, in China, several dictionaries and works on network language have been published. The study on cyber English------the internationally recognized cyber Language is mainly carried out from the following aspects: its‟ origin and its‟ future, its‟ influence on English teaching and learning, the new cyber English vocabulary. What this paper will study is the characteristics of cyber English vocabulary.
2. The characteristics of cyber English vocabulary
2.1 Innovation
As we all known, the network is a “hypothesized” world and it has provided people with a secret, free, relaxed and imaginable place which cannot be found in the real daily life. In this space, people get rid of the bondage of the real world and the rules in the real world. By utilizing their unique and novel imagination, they find some new ways to create cleverly-constructed and astonishing words. For example: using homophonic letters and numbers, using symbolic language, using abbreviation and adding new meaning to existing words.
2.1.1 Use homophonic letters and numbers
The homophonic letters and numbers refer to those letters and numbers which are similar to the English words in pronunciation. The reason that people create homophonic letters and numbers lies in two aspects: first, these new homophonic
letters and numbers are simpler and shorter than those old English words, by using them, web cams can save time in inputting the information and promote the communication efficiency. Second, the young web cams is a group of people pursuing for innovation, therefore, they can find great fun in creating, using and transmitting the homophonic letters and numbers. For example:
r = are
c u = see you
OIC = oh, I see.
ICQ = I seek you
r u there = are you there?
2 = too/to
4 = four/for
me 2 = me too
4ever = for ever
CUL8R = see you later
2B or not 2B = to be or not to be
2.1.2 Form new words by abbreviation
In general English, there are also many words formed by abbreviations. These words are mostly from Proper phrases; they are recognized and widely used by the public. For example: IOC = International Olympic Committee; UNESCO = United Nations‟ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. But the cyber English words formed by abbreviation are a little different. Generally speaking, they‟re informal, lack the using rules which can make them be accepted and widely used in other careers, but they are simple and it is easy for people to understand, to remember and to transmit them. Therefore, they are very popular in network communication. For example:
NITE: night
SP: support
PLS\PLZ: please
IE: Internet Explorer
PPP: point to point protocol
BBS：Bulletin Board System
CPU: Central Processing Unit
VG: very good
TTUL: talk to you later
TIA: Thanks In Advance
IMHO: in my humble opinion
TYVM:Thank You Very Much
NOYB: None Of Your Business
Wassat: what‟s that?
ROTFL: Rolling On The Floor Laughing
2.1.3 Use symbolic language
The so-called symbolic language refers to a set of language formed by the symbols on the keyboard.
In the early time people communicate through the internet, neither can they see each other‟s expression, nor can they hear each other‟s sound, this limitation sometimes make people have some deviations and misunderstanding to what others say. In order to make up this flaw, web cams then make full use of those symbols, graphs, and numbers on the keyboard to transmit human emotions such as happiness, anger, sadness and smile, thus creates a set of unique network symbolic language (钟吉娅 2001.1.26).
The symbolic language is vivid, profound, thought-provoking and easy to understand, it makes up the deficient authenticity of on-line sentimental exchange. Therefore, it quickly becomes popular in the world. Even if today when people have already been able to communicate by video frequency and audio frequency, it is still commonly used in the chat room, forum, BBS and e-mail. But, being a specialized and strongly humorous language, it is mainly used by “the cybraian” and the active young people, and seldom used in formal situation. For example:
: ) smile
. ; -) wink
: - ) happy
: - I indifferent
8- ) sunglasses
: - @ screaming
. : - S confused
: - D astonished
: - ) make me sick
5555 ------- Crying
. : - e disappointed
(@@ childish, naive
Zzzz --------- sleeping
: - O shocked, surprised
?- (have question to ask, perplexed)
2.1.4 Give new meaning to existing words
Because of the similarity between two things, web cams often use the word describing one thing to describe another thing. Therefore, many existed word are given new meanings and become vivid. It is easier for people to understand them. We can see this process of word formation in traditional English words‟ formation too, but the cyber English vocabulary formed by this way is different, because most of them are given the meaning related to computer or the network. For example: “menu” which originally means “list of dishes available at a restaurant, or to be served at a meal” now refers to “a list of options from which a user can choose, displayed on a computer screen”; “mouse” which originally means “mall rodent with a long thin tails” now refers to “small hand-hold device that is moved across a desk-top etc to produce a corresponding movement of the cursor, with buttons for entering commands”; “ memory” which originally means “power of the mind by which facts can be remembered” now refers to “part of a computer where information is stored”; “window” which originally means “opening in the wall or roof of a building, car etc
to let in light and often air usually filled with glass in a frame” now refers to “screen of a visual display unit regarded as a means of displaying part of a drawing ,etc in a computer”.
2.2 Arbitrariness
The cyber English‟s main user is young people. In the process of personalization and socialization, the promotion of their self-awareness makes them want to be recognized by others, which gradually make them begin to separate from the social crowd. Then by the resistance to social mainstream and authority, by behaviors different from the traditional society, they show their maturity and self-existence to people. In this process, the informal, free, relaxed communication environment in the network provides condition for them. We can see it from the following aspects.
2.2.1 The informality of writing
The informality of writing can be seen from the following two aspects. the first one is neglecting the difference between uppercase and lowercase of letters. For instance: “China” is written as “china”; “Mary” is written as “mary”; “The Summer Palace” is written as “the summer palace”; “Nice to see you” is written as “nice to see you”; “Who are you ?” is written as “who are you ?”, the reason that people ignore the difference between uppercase and lowercase of letters mainly lies in that they want to save the time used in exchanging the two forms. The second one is seldom using the hyphens. For example: “e-mail” is written as “email”; “cyber English” is written as “cyberEnglish”; “e-book” is written as “ebook”.
2.2.2 Neglect some grammatical rules
We can see the ignorance of some grammatical rules from two aspects. „the first is the reduction of “ ‟s ” in noun possessive case” (孟雯玮、童芳华 2006.2.5), for example: we often say “ user interface” instead of “user‟s interface”; the second is the reduction of the phenomenon that use “-ing” after verbs to modify nouns, for example, the full title of the most famous British Broadcasting Company is “ British Broadcasting Corporation” in which “-ing” plays a role of modifying, but in cyber English, Broadcast usually does not have the morphological change, for example, we often say “Broadcast address” instead of “Broadcasting address”.
2.2.3 Use a lot of informal words
The network provides people with a secret, free, relaxed and imaginable space, in this space, people get rid of the bondages of the real world, they don‟t need to behave as the rules require or as the public recognize. So they don‟t ask for accuracy on the use of cyber English words, no matter the word is pejorative or appreciative, no matter it is official or unofficial, it is always acceptable only if it can express the meaning expected to express. For example:
Quit = resign
Leave = depart
Wanna = want to
Gotta go = got to go
Hi = how do you do? \ how are you?
2.3 Compatibility
“In computer domain, the compatibility refers to that after the installment of
different softwares, different hardwares or the different versions of identical softwares as well as hardwares, the computer can still work normally, and does not affect any other software or hardware” (孟雯玮、童芳华 2006.2.5).
The compatibility of the formation of cyber English vocabulary includes two aspects: the first is that cyber English can be mixed with symbols, icons, pictures, numbers to transmit information vividly. For example: the e-mail address: [email protected] (the symbol “@” means “at”), the website domain: www.163.com, www.51.com. This feature of cyber English words construction is very active in online chat, letter transmission as well as website domain name registration. It always gives people a fresh, direct-viewing feeling.
The second feature of the compatibility of cyber English refers to that once entering into other countries, the cyber English and the language in that country will have a mutual influence until they can adapt to each other and be used together. This is especially true in the domain name‟s naming, application as well as the registration. For example: the domain name of the “ 就爱E书网” which is very popular among e-book lovers is www.9iebook.com, the number “9” is used because it is harmonic with the Chinese word “就” and “I” is used because it is harmonic with the Chinese word “爱” (love), by using “9” and “I” and adding the word “ebook”, this registration is not only easy to remember, but also show the characteristics of this website. It is a typical example in which Chinese and English are used together. There are also other domain names named by the similar way, for example: the domain name of “我爱E书网” is www.52ebook. com.
2.4 Great creativity and great influence
2.4.1 Great creativity
The cyber English vocabulary has great creativity because of the many processes of words construction. Since its birth, English has been a language with extremely great creativity, the traditional processes of English words‟ construction include: compounding, derivation, abbreviation, back-formation and so on. As a branch of English---cyber English undoubtedly inherited some traditional ways to create new words, among which the most common two are compounding and derivation. The words formed by these two ways are mostly related to computer or the network.
The first one is compounding, which is becoming more and more important in creating new cyber English words. “The seriation of compounding is one of the main features of cyber English vocabulary‟s construction, and there are many new words formed by combining with such words as electronic ( e ), cyber, hyper, web” (刘爱平 2004.10.8). The new words at first were two words, then be linked together by a hyphen, at last, become a word without using the hyphen. These new words are indispensable for the network users to express their thoughts. The massive use of them reflected the huge vitality and the potentiality of the cyber English. For example: e-business web page
e-journal web site
e-trade web master
e-mail affair web TV
cyber pub net speak
cyber brain net partner
cyber college net news
hyper media net magazine
hyper text firewall
hyper access freeware
The second is derivation. Derivations are mainly formed by adding suffix and prefix. The cyber English words formed by derivation are usually related to electronic or cyber. For example:
-naut: internaut, cybernaut
Micro-: micromoney, microself
Digit-: digitcam, digerait, digeer
-wave: freeware, shareware, groupware
Pre-: preview, preset, prescan, preprocesser
Re- : reboot, retry, recyclebin, refresh, replay
Inter- : internet, interactive, interface, interlace
Tele-: telecommuter, teletype, teleconference, teletext
Except for the traditional ways of words formation, web cams also create some new ways as mentioned above to create new words. For example: using homophonic letters and numbers, using symbolic language, using abbreviations and so on. For example:
Please = pls
F2f = face to face
OICU = oh, I see you
HAGO = have a good time
@ >>-> = many many roses
2.4.2 Great influence
Now, almost everybody knows what is “e-mail”, what “: )” means and what “Zzzz------“implies. We can also see many other expressions originally used on internet are transmitted into our ordinary life in a great number. There is no doubt that the cyber English vocabulary is having a great influence on our social life. This characteristic is firstly determined by its users and its other characteristics, there are a great number of web cams, and most of them are young people, the features of cyber English vocabulary such as innovation, arbitrariness and compatibility meet their need of pursuing innovation, conciseness, individuality and high efficiency, therefore provides condition for its wide spread in our ordinary life. Second, “the cyber English words which are used frequently are transmitted quickly by people on the internet and finally have a great influence on web cam‟s ordinary communication” (刘文燕 2006.7.3). Because of its‟ high use-frequency and its fast development, the cyber English vocabulary will fasten its‟ speed to spread, strengthen its popularity not only among the network users, but also among non-network users.
3. The future of cyber English
The language is not static, especially a language like the cyber English, it is a fresh thing coming out with the human‟s progress, so its‟ changes can be more
obvious. According to cyber English vocabulary‟s own characteristics and the tendency which displays in the developing process, we may foresee that it will develop along such a way------- that is further richness, standardization, collectivization and generalization. www.docin.com
3.1 Further richness
The richness of cyber English vocabulary first lies in the number of its vocabulary. With the development of the society, new things emerge one after another incessantly. Therefore, people have to create many new names to express them, even several names for one thing at the very beginning, which finally leads to the great increase of the number of cyber English vocabulary. for example: do business on the internet is called “e-business” or “e-commerce”; money on the internet is called “e-cash” or “e-currency”; buy things on the internet is called “shopping on the internet” or “tele-marketing”; Internet users are called “netizens”, “netpals”, or “internet population”. Second, cyber English vocabulary not only has the characteristics such as innovation, arbitrariness, compatibility and so on, but also has the tendency of fast derivation; therefore, one thing and one expression may be expressed in different ways. For example: utilizing the sense of vision, the sense of hearing, even the sense of touch and taste. As a language with great creativity, there is no doubt that the number of English vocabulary will be greater and greater. So is the cyber English vocabulary, it will certainly go forward under the influence of social development, and in the process of being used in daily life, its vocabulary will be expanded and renewed incessantly.
3.2 Standardization
We cannot deny that some of the cyber English vocabulary goes against the manner, but we cannot be against all of them just because of this. “Instead, we must believe the value of the interior self-choice, the filters system and web cam‟s value orientation; we must believe that because of the language and writing standard department's endeavor, the network language's richness will not intensify its vulgar, on the contrary, it will provide people with more choices” (刘文燕 2006.7.4). The vulgar cyber English words will fade out of the network for being lack of using market and the survivors will continue to develop along this process, its quantity will not maintain relatively stable until it goes into a mature stage, meeting the need of network communication on a large extent. As to the present network and the networks development, it was still in the initial period, and then the tendency of richness will not change in a short time.
3.3 Collectivization
Just as that the ordinary language will be divided into different communities unconsciously according to the use frequency after becoming mature; the same will be true to the cyber English vocabulary. Along with the increase of web cams, according to the difference of age, occupation, years of schooling, esthetic orientation and other factors. The cyber English vocabulary will unceasingly be grouped, together with its further richness and complication.
3.4 Generalization
The relationship between network and life is becoming closer and closer, they
influence each other. By now, many cyber Language has become an important part of people‟s social life and become generalized. The internet world‟s expansion is due to young people‟s participation and impetus, especially young people in today, the majority of them has received the higher education, has certain basic skills of English and is very familiar with cyber Language. Therefore, they not only use cyber English when they serve online, but also combine it with the language used in their daily life, which speeds the generalization tendency of the cyber English vocabulary .
4. Conclusion
Different from the traditional communication mediums, the main features of the network communication are quickness and high efficiency, it not only requires that the people communicating on the internet transmit information accurately but also require that they find out what they need from the abundant and incessant information quickly. In this case, in order to save time and complete the communication effectively in the shortest time, people engaged in the electronic commerce and people who go surfing on line all day hollow their thoughts to create a brief language which is easy to input. As a result, they made the cyber English vocabulary have the features such as innovation, arbitrariness, compatibility and so on. And these features make cyber English Vocabulary different from that of the general English. The development of computer technology and network causes the appearance of cyber English. The word “internet” made its first appearance in 1980s; therefore, the history of computer network is no more than 20 years. However, we cannot deny that the network is changing people‟s life style and work style, and the influence it has on the social life is greater and greater. The study on network language has attracted many scholars‟ attention. And the study on cyber English------the internationally recognized cyber Language is mainly carried out from the following aspects: its‟ origin and its‟ future, its‟ influence on English teaching and learning, the new cyber English vocabulary. In this passage, we had a study on the characteristics of cyber English vocabulary, which may help people promote their knowledge on cyber English, make them study English better, and communicate more efficiently on the internet.
Bibliography
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毕业论文
网络英语的词汇特征研究
学 生：刘
指导教师：吴红兵
系 别：外国语学院
年 级：
燕 英语系 09级
2012年6月
A Study on the Characteristics
of Cyber English Vocabulary
Student: Rosemary
Tutor: Ms Wu Hongbing
Department: School of Foreign Languages
Grade: English09
Tianjin University of Technology and Education
June, 2012
Abstract: With the development of computer technology, network goes into hundreds of thousands of households. Influenced by using environment and its‟ main users, it has some features different from the general English. By now, many scholars have studied it from the following aspects and have some achievements. For example: the origin and future of cyber English, the influence the cyber English has on English teaching and learning, the new cyber English vocabulary, the translation of cyber English. What this paper will study is the characteristics of cyber English, by citing examples and analyzing, we can know that the cyber English vocabulary has characteristics such as innovation, arbitrariness and compatibility.
Keywords: cyber English vocabulary; characteristics; future
摘要：随着计算机技术的发展,网络走进了千家万户。受使用群体和使用环境的影响， 网络英语具有了一些不同于普通英语的特征。目前对网络英语的研究在以下方面已有所 成果，如：网络英语的产生及其景，网络英语对英语教学的影响，网络英语新词汇，网 络英语的翻译。本文主要对网络英语词汇的特征进行探讨，通过举例说明，分析论证等 方法，得出网络英语具有创新性，随意性，兼容性等特征。
关键词：网络英语词汇; 特征; 前景
Outline
1. Introduction
With the development of computer technology, network goes into hundreds of thousands of households and more and more people begin using the internet for
real-time communication. The network which is a “hypothesized” world has provided people with a secret, free, relaxed and imaginable space which cannot be found in the real daily life. In this space, web cams formed a unique language
------- cyber Language. Since it was born, the cyber Language has been developing quickly and is having a greater and greater influence on social language life. By now, it has been studied by many famous experts and linguists. What this passage will study is the features of cyber English vocabulary, which may help people promote their knowledge on cyber English, make them study English better, and communicate more efficiently on the internet.
2. The characteristics of cyber English vocabulary
2.1 Innovation
2.1.1 Use homophonic letters and numbers
2.1.2 Form new words by abbreviation
2.1.3 Use symbolic language
2.1.4 Give new meanings to existing words
2.2 Arbitrariness
2.2.1 The informality of writing
2.2.2 Neglect some grammatical rules
2.2.3 Use a lot of informal words
2.3 Compatibility
2.4 Great creativity and great influence
2.4.1 Great creativity
2.4.2 Great influence
3. The future of cyber English vocabulary
3.1 Further richness
3.2 Standardization
3.3 Collectivization
3.4 Generalization.
4. Conclusion
Different from the traditional communication mediums, the main features of
network communication are quickness and high efficiency, it not only requires that the people communicating on the internet transmit information accurately but also require that they find out what they need from the abundant and incessant information quickly. In this case, in order to save time and complete the communication effectively in the shortest time, people engaged in the electronic commerce and people who go surfing on line all day hollow their thoughts to create a brief language which is easy to input, therefore make the cyber English have features like innovation, arbitrariness and compatibility. In this passage, we had a study on the characteristics of cyber English vocabulary, by which people may have a better knowledge on the cyber English, study English better and communicate more efficiently on the internet.
1. Introduction
With the development of computer technology, network goes into hundreds of thousands of households and more and more people begin using the internet for real-time communication. The network makes people break through the boundaries and the barriers among regions, countries, nationalities, languages, traditions, beliefs and so on, makes the humanity enter into the fast-developing information age. “In this age, by network, people can send electronic-mails (e-mail), carry on-line commercial business (e-business), go shopping online (online shopping), read network magazines (webzine), watch network videos (web TV), and in the chat room, they can make network friends (net partner) freely and even seek for network sweethearts (cyber lover)” (曾纪伟 2005.10.5). We can see from this that the network is an open system in which everybody is equal, the people‟s social background, occupation, sex, age, years of schooling and such other factors are hidden by the remote space and the unique network anonymous system. Therefore, the distance between them is shortened and the complex interpersonal relationship in the real life is also greatly simplified, people do not need to “pretend to be serious”, or need to constrain themselves. We may say, this “hypothesized” world on the internet provides people with a secret, free, relaxed and imaginable space which cannot be found in the real daily life. In this space, web cams form a unique language -------cyber Language. Since it was born, the cyber Language has been developing quickly and is having a greater and greater influence on social language life, and people‟s interest in studying it is greater and greater too. By now, many linguists have studied it from the following aspects, for example, the network vocabulary, the features and standards of network language, the origin of network language. In recent years, there have already been some achievements in this field. For example, in China, several dictionaries and works on network language have been published. The study on cyber English------the internationally recognized cyber Language is mainly carried out from the following aspects: its‟ origin and its‟ future, its‟ influence on English teaching and learning, the new cyber English vocabulary. What this paper will study is the characteristics of cyber English vocabulary.
2. The characteristics of cyber English vocabulary
2.1 Innovation
As we all known, the network is a “hypothesized” world and it has provided people with a secret, free, relaxed and imaginable place which cannot be found in the real daily life. In this space, people get rid of the bondage of the real world and the rules in the real world. By utilizing their unique and novel imagination, they find some new ways to create cleverly-constructed and astonishing words. For example: using homophonic letters and numbers, using symbolic language, using abbreviation and adding new meaning to existing words.
2.1.1 Use homophonic letters and numbers
The homophonic letters and numbers refer to those letters and numbers which are similar to the English words in pronunciation. The reason that people create homophonic letters and numbers lies in two aspects: first, these new homophonic
letters and numbers are simpler and shorter than those old English words, by using them, web cams can save time in inputting the information and promote the communication efficiency. Second, the young web cams is a group of people pursuing for innovation, therefore, they can find great fun in creating, using and transmitting the homophonic letters and numbers. For example:
r = are
c u = see you
OIC = oh, I see.
ICQ = I seek you
r u there = are you there?
2 = too/to
4 = four/for
me 2 = me too
4ever = for ever
CUL8R = see you later
2B or not 2B = to be or not to be
2.1.2 Form new words by abbreviation
In general English, there are also many words formed by abbreviations. These words are mostly from Proper phrases; they are recognized and widely used by the public. For example: IOC = International Olympic Committee; UNESCO = United Nations‟ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. But the cyber English words formed by abbreviation are a little different. Generally speaking, they‟re informal, lack the using rules which can make them be accepted and widely used in other careers, but they are simple and it is easy for people to understand, to remember and to transmit them. Therefore, they are very popular in network communication. For example:
NITE: night
SP: support
PLS\PLZ: please
IE: Internet Explorer
PPP: point to point protocol
BBS：Bulletin Board System
CPU: Central Processing Unit
VG: very good
TTUL: talk to you later
TIA: Thanks In Advance
IMHO: in my humble opinion
TYVM:Thank You Very Much
NOYB: None Of Your Business
Wassat: what‟s that?
ROTFL: Rolling On The Floor Laughing
2.1.3 Use symbolic language
The so-called symbolic language refers to a set of language formed by the symbols on the keyboard.
In the early time people communicate through the internet, neither can they see each other‟s expression, nor can they hear each other‟s sound, this limitation sometimes make people have some deviations and misunderstanding to what others say. In order to make up this flaw, web cams then make full use of those symbols, graphs, and numbers on the keyboard to transmit human emotions such as happiness, anger, sadness and smile, thus creates a set of unique network symbolic language (钟吉娅 2001.1.26).
The symbolic language is vivid, profound, thought-provoking and easy to understand, it makes up the deficient authenticity of on-line sentimental exchange. Therefore, it quickly becomes popular in the world. Even if today when people have already been able to communicate by video frequency and audio frequency, it is still commonly used in the chat room, forum, BBS and e-mail. But, being a specialized and strongly humorous language, it is mainly used by “the cybraian” and the active young people, and seldom used in formal situation. For example:
: ) smile
. ; -) wink
: - ) happy
: - I indifferent
8- ) sunglasses
: - @ screaming
. : - S confused
: - D astonished
: - ) make me sick
5555 ------- Crying
. : - e disappointed
(@@ childish, naive
Zzzz --------- sleeping
: - O shocked, surprised
?- (have question to ask, perplexed)
2.1.4 Give new meaning to existing words
Because of the similarity between two things, web cams often use the word describing one thing to describe another thing. Therefore, many existed word are given new meanings and become vivid. It is easier for people to understand them. We can see this process of word formation in traditional English words‟ formation too, but the cyber English vocabulary formed by this way is different, because most of them are given the meaning related to computer or the network. For example: “menu” which originally means “list of dishes available at a restaurant, or to be served at a meal” now refers to “a list of options from which a user can choose, displayed on a computer screen”; “mouse” which originally means “mall rodent with a long thin tails” now refers to “small hand-hold device that is moved across a desk-top etc to produce a corresponding movement of the cursor, with buttons for entering commands”; “ memory” which originally means “power of the mind by which facts can be remembered” now refers to “part of a computer where information is stored”; “window” which originally means “opening in the wall or roof of a building, car etc
to let in light and often air usually filled with glass in a frame” now refers to “screen of a visual display unit regarded as a means of displaying part of a drawing ,etc in a computer”.
2.2 Arbitrariness
The cyber English‟s main user is young people. In the process of personalization and socialization, the promotion of their self-awareness makes them want to be recognized by others, which gradually make them begin to separate from the social crowd. Then by the resistance to social mainstream and authority, by behaviors different from the traditional society, they show their maturity and self-existence to people. In this process, the informal, free, relaxed communication environment in the network provides condition for them. We can see it from the following aspects.
2.2.1 The informality of writing
The informality of writing can be seen from the following two aspects. the first one is neglecting the difference between uppercase and lowercase of letters. For instance: “China” is written as “china”; “Mary” is written as “mary”; “The Summer Palace” is written as “the summer palace”; “Nice to see you” is written as “nice to see you”; “Who are you ?” is written as “who are you ?”, the reason that people ignore the difference between uppercase and lowercase of letters mainly lies in that they want to save the time used in exchanging the two forms. The second one is seldom using the hyphens. For example: “e-mail” is written as “email”; “cyber English” is written as “cyberEnglish”; “e-book” is written as “ebook”.
2.2.2 Neglect some grammatical rules
We can see the ignorance of some grammatical rules from two aspects. „the first is the reduction of “ ‟s ” in noun possessive case” (孟雯玮、童芳华 2006.2.5), for example: we often say “ user interface” instead of “user‟s interface”; the second is the reduction of the phenomenon that use “-ing” after verbs to modify nouns, for example, the full title of the most famous British Broadcasting Company is “ British Broadcasting Corporation” in which “-ing” plays a role of modifying, but in cyber English, Broadcast usually does not have the morphological change, for example, we often say “Broadcast address” instead of “Broadcasting address”.
2.2.3 Use a lot of informal words
The network provides people with a secret, free, relaxed and imaginable space, in this space, people get rid of the bondages of the real world, they don‟t need to behave as the rules require or as the public recognize. So they don‟t ask for accuracy on the use of cyber English words, no matter the word is pejorative or appreciative, no matter it is official or unofficial, it is always acceptable only if it can express the meaning expected to express. For example:
Quit = resign
Leave = depart
Wanna = want to
Gotta go = got to go
Hi = how do you do? \ how are you?
2.3 Compatibility
“In computer domain, the compatibility refers to that after the installment of
different softwares, different hardwares or the different versions of identical softwares as well as hardwares, the computer can still work normally, and does not affect any other software or hardware” (孟雯玮、童芳华 2006.2.5).
The compatibility of the formation of cyber English vocabulary includes two aspects: the first is that cyber English can be mixed with symbols, icons, pictures, numbers to transmit information vividly. For example: the e-mail address: [email protected] (the symbol “@” means “at”), the website domain: www.163.com, www.51.com. This feature of cyber English words construction is very active in online chat, letter transmission as well as website domain name registration. It always gives people a fresh, direct-viewing feeling.
The second feature of the compatibility of cyber English refers to that once entering into other countries, the cyber English and the language in that country will have a mutual influence until they can adapt to each other and be used together. This is especially true in the domain name‟s naming, application as well as the registration. For example: the domain name of the “ 就爱E书网” which is very popular among e-book lovers is www.9iebook.com, the number “9” is used because it is harmonic with the Chinese word “就” and “I” is used because it is harmonic with the Chinese word “爱” (love), by using “9” and “I” and adding the word “ebook”, this registration is not only easy to remember, but also show the characteristics of this website. It is a typical example in which Chinese and English are used together. There are also other domain names named by the similar way, for example: the domain name of “我爱E书网” is www.52ebook. com.
2.4 Great creativity and great influence
2.4.1 Great creativity
The cyber English vocabulary has great creativity because of the many processes of words construction. Since its birth, English has been a language with extremely great creativity, the traditional processes of English words‟ construction include: compounding, derivation, abbreviation, back-formation and so on. As a branch of English---cyber English undoubtedly inherited some traditional ways to create new words, among which the most common two are compounding and derivation. The words formed by these two ways are mostly related to computer or the network.
The first one is compounding, which is becoming more and more important in creating new cyber English words. “The seriation of compounding is one of the main features of cyber English vocabulary‟s construction, and there are many new words formed by combining with such words as electronic ( e ), cyber, hyper, web” (刘爱平 2004.10.8). The new words at first were two words, then be linked together by a hyphen, at last, become a word without using the hyphen. These new words are indispensable for the network users to express their thoughts. The massive use of them reflected the huge vitality and the potentiality of the cyber English. For example: e-business web page
e-journal web site
e-trade web master
e-mail affair web TV
cyber pub net speak
cyber brain net partner
cyber college net news
hyper media net magazine
hyper text firewall
hyper access freeware
The second is derivation. Derivations are mainly formed by adding suffix and prefix. The cyber English words formed by derivation are usually related to electronic or cyber. For example:
-naut: internaut, cybernaut
Micro-: micromoney, microself
Digit-: digitcam, digerait, digeer
-wave: freeware, shareware, groupware
Pre-: preview, preset, prescan, preprocesser
Re- : reboot, retry, recyclebin, refresh, replay
Inter- : internet, interactive, interface, interlace
Tele-: telecommuter, teletype, teleconference, teletext
Except for the traditional ways of words formation, web cams also create some new ways as mentioned above to create new words. For example: using homophonic letters and numbers, using symbolic language, using abbreviations and so on. For example:
Please = pls
F2f = face to face
OICU = oh, I see you
HAGO = have a good time
@ >>-> = many many roses
2.4.2 Great influence
Now, almost everybody knows what is “e-mail”, what “: )” means and what “Zzzz------“implies. We can also see many other expressions originally used on internet are transmitted into our ordinary life in a great number. There is no doubt that the cyber English vocabulary is having a great influence on our social life. This characteristic is firstly determined by its users and its other characteristics, there are a great number of web cams, and most of them are young people, the features of cyber English vocabulary such as innovation, arbitrariness and compatibility meet their need of pursuing innovation, conciseness, individuality and high efficiency, therefore provides condition for its wide spread in our ordinary life. Second, “the cyber English words which are used frequently are transmitted quickly by people on the internet and finally have a great influence on web cam‟s ordinary communication” (刘文燕 2006.7.3). Because of its‟ high use-frequency and its fast development, the cyber English vocabulary will fasten its‟ speed to spread, strengthen its popularity not only among the network users, but also among non-network users.
3. The future of cyber English
The language is not static, especially a language like the cyber English, it is a fresh thing coming out with the human‟s progress, so its‟ changes can be more
obvious. According to cyber English vocabulary‟s own characteristics and the tendency which displays in the developing process, we may foresee that it will develop along such a way------- that is further richness, standardization, collectivization and generalization. www.docin.com
3.1 Further richness
The richness of cyber English vocabulary first lies in the number of its vocabulary. With the development of the society, new things emerge one after another incessantly. Therefore, people have to create many new names to express them, even several names for one thing at the very beginning, which finally leads to the great increase of the number of cyber English vocabulary. for example: do business on the internet is called “e-business” or “e-commerce”; money on the internet is called “e-cash” or “e-currency”; buy things on the internet is called “shopping on the internet” or “tele-marketing”; Internet users are called “netizens”, “netpals”, or “internet population”. Second, cyber English vocabulary not only has the characteristics such as innovation, arbitrariness, compatibility and so on, but also has the tendency of fast derivation; therefore, one thing and one expression may be expressed in different ways. For example: utilizing the sense of vision, the sense of hearing, even the sense of touch and taste. As a language with great creativity, there is no doubt that the number of English vocabulary will be greater and greater. So is the cyber English vocabulary, it will certainly go forward under the influence of social development, and in the process of being used in daily life, its vocabulary will be expanded and renewed incessantly.
3.2 Standardization
We cannot deny that some of the cyber English vocabulary goes against the manner, but we cannot be against all of them just because of this. “Instead, we must believe the value of the interior self-choice, the filters system and web cam‟s value orientation; we must believe that because of the language and writing standard department's endeavor, the network language's richness will not intensify its vulgar, on the contrary, it will provide people with more choices” (刘文燕 2006.7.4). The vulgar cyber English words will fade out of the network for being lack of using market and the survivors will continue to develop along this process, its quantity will not maintain relatively stable until it goes into a mature stage, meeting the need of network communication on a large extent. As to the present network and the networks development, it was still in the initial period, and then the tendency of richness will not change in a short time.
3.3 Collectivization
Just as that the ordinary language will be divided into different communities unconsciously according to the use frequency after becoming mature; the same will be true to the cyber English vocabulary. Along with the increase of web cams, according to the difference of age, occupation, years of schooling, esthetic orientation and other factors. The cyber English vocabulary will unceasingly be grouped, together with its further richness and complication.
3.4 Generalization
The relationship between network and life is becoming closer and closer, they
influence each other. By now, many cyber Language has become an important part of people‟s social life and become generalized. The internet world‟s expansion is due to young people‟s participation and impetus, especially young people in today, the majority of them has received the higher education, has certain basic skills of English and is very familiar with cyber Language. Therefore, they not only use cyber English when they serve online, but also combine it with the language used in their daily life, which speeds the generalization tendency of the cyber English vocabulary .
4. Conclusion
Different from the traditional communication mediums, the main features of the network communication are quickness and high efficiency, it not only requires that the people communicating on the internet transmit information accurately but also require that they find out what they need from the abundant and incessant information quickly. In this case, in order to save time and complete the communication effectively in the shortest time, people engaged in the electronic commerce and people who go surfing on line all day hollow their thoughts to create a brief language which is easy to input. As a result, they made the cyber English vocabulary have the features such as innovation, arbitrariness, compatibility and so on. And these features make cyber English Vocabulary different from that of the general English. The development of computer technology and network causes the appearance of cyber English. The word “internet” made its first appearance in 1980s; therefore, the history of computer network is no more than 20 years. However, we cannot deny that the network is changing people‟s life style and work style, and the influence it has on the social life is greater and greater. The study on network language has attracted many scholars‟ attention. And the study on cyber English------the internationally recognized cyber Language is mainly carried out from the following aspects: its‟ origin and its‟ future, its‟ influence on English teaching and learning, the new cyber English vocabulary. In this passage, we had a study on the characteristics of cyber English vocabulary, which may help people promote their knowledge on cyber English, make them study English better, and communicate more efficiently on the internet.
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