Language Change in Progress: Evidence from Computer-Mediated Communication

With its ever increasing popularization, computer-mediated communication (CMC) has become a progressively well documented research area (e.g., Baron 1984, 1998a, 1998b, 2000; Crystal 2006; Danet & Herring 2007; Herring 1996). The linguistic aspects of CMC in the Chinese context have also been examined (e.g., Gao 2006, 2007; Yu et al 2001a, 2001b). In this paper, I present an analysis of emergent language usages in CMC in Chinese, which covers the lexical, syntactic, as well as the discourse dimension. Applying the construct of apparent time change (Labov 1963, 1966), I argue that some of the online usages may stay as part of the Chinese language. In other words, the use of Internet expressions in the Chinese CMC may signify language change in progress.

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