Dear Collagues, This book review of Language and the Internet, by David Crystal from World Wide Words, a free email newsletter. Details below. Ken Friedman Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2001 08:49:26 +0000 Reply-To: editor@WORLDWIDEWORDS.ORG From: World Wide Words <worldwidewords@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG> Subject: World Wide Words -- 10 Nov 01 To: WORLDWIDEWORDS@LISTSERV.LINGUISTLIST.ORG WORLD WIDE WORDS ISSUE 262 Saturday 10 November 2001 ------------------------------------------------------------------- Sent each Saturday to 13,000+ subscribers in at least 113 countries Editor: Michael Quinion, Thornbury, Bristol, UK ISSN 1470-1448 <http://www.worldwidewords.org> Mail: <editor@worldwidewords.org> ------------------------------------------------------------------- This newsletter is best viewed in a monospaced font. 3. Review: Language and the Internet, by David Crystal ------------------------------------------------------------------- It is not entirely unknown for World Wide Words subscribers to e- mail me, receive a reply, and then respond suggesting that my reply was terse or rude. That false perception arises because people new to the Internet are more familiar with the conventions of letter- writing. They regard the comparative brevity of e-mail, its lack of formal salutations and the inclusion of "framing" devices such as selective quoting from their messages as indications of a lack of courtesy. This is a good example of one way that online and offline communications differ, and one to which David Crystal pays special attention. He gives a linguist's appraisal of the Net, which he points out is not a monolithic creation, but rather a set of disparate methods of communications that include e-mail, chatrooms (a term he uses to cover media such as mailing lists, Internet Relay Chat and Usenet newsgroups), World Wide Web pages, and virtual worlds such as MUDs and MOOs. His book is aimed more to readers who are unfamiliar with these mechanisms than to those who are, so there are detailed explanations of the characteristics of each communication method. As a result, much description will be obvious enough to anybody familiar with a given technique, though few people are conversant with all of them. He largely dismisses the common view that online communication (he calls it "Netspeak") is illiterate and dumbed-down language. He agrees that much of it is non-standard, playful, highly deviant in bending the usual rules of language, tolerant of typographic and spelling errors, and full of new words. But he is fascinated by its variety and innovation and devotes much space to describing its special (and evolving) character. He takes a very positive view, suggesting that "The phenomenon of Netspeak is going to change the way we think about language in a fundamental way, because it is a linguistic singularity - a genuine new medium". He argues that the analogy of online communications with speech rather than formal writing is too simple: chatrooms, IRC and the like are too constrained by their response times and the slow speed of typing to be considered as a good analogy of speech; Web pages, e-mail and other mechanisms are too transient or easily modified to be equivalent to the printed word. "On the whole," he says, "Netspeak is better seen as written language which has been pulled some way in the direction of speech than as spoken language which has been written down." He suggests that online language is best viewed as neither of these things, but rather as a new species of interaction, a "third medium", which is evolving its own systematic rules to suit new circumstances. David Crystal writes as accessibly as ever. But by the nature of his theme his book is academically oriented and its readers need to know some basic linguistics. It will appeal especially to someone with a professional or informed interest in linguistics who wants to explore the special nature of language on the Net. [Crystal, David; Language and the Internet; published by Cambridge University Press; pp272; ISBN 0-521-80212-1; publisher's price GBP13.95. Professor Crystal is editor of - amongst others - the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language and the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language.] 6. Subscription commands and information ------------------------------------------------------------------- To leave the list, change your subscription address, or subscribe, please visit <http://www.worldwidewords.org/wordlist.htm>. Alternatively, you can subscribe or unsubscribe by sending an e- mail message to <listserv@listserv.linguistlist.org>: * To leave the list, type in the body of the message: SIGNOFF WORLDWIDEWORDS * To subscribe, type in the body of the message: SUBSCRIBE WORLDWIDEWORDS Your-first-name Your-last-name For a key to the IPA pronunciations used in these mailings, see <http://www.worldwidewords.org/pronguide.htm>, or send a blank e- mail message to <pronguide@worldwidewords.org>. ------------------------------------------------------------------- WORLD WIDE WORDS is copyright (c) Michael Quinion 2001. All rights reserved. You may reproduce this mailing in whole or part in other free media online provided you don't alter the text in any way, you give the source as World Wide Words, and you quote the Words Web site address of <http://www.worldwidewords.org>. ------------------------------------------------------------------- -- Michael Quinion Editor, World Wide Words <editor@worldwidewords.org> <http://www.worldwidewords.org/>