Internet linguistics

[2] At a personal level, CMC such as SMS text messaging and mobile e-mailing (push mail) has greatly enhanced instantaneous communication.

[7] These forms of academic social networking and media are slated to rise as educators from all over the world continue to seek new ways to better engage students.

For instance, in 2008, Apple announced their intention to actively step up their efforts to help companies incorporate the iPhone into their enterprise environment, facilitated by technological developments in streamlining integrated features (push e-mail, calendar and contact management) using ActiveSync.

[7] In general, these new CMCs that are made possible by the Internet have altered the way people use language – there is heightened informality and consequently a growing fear of its deterioration.

Examples of common acronyms include lol (for "laughing out loud"; a general expression of laughter), omg ("oh my god") and gtg ("got to go").

It is an important and crucial aspect, as it affects and involves the education of current and future student generations in the appropriate and timely use of informal language that arises from Internet usage.

There are also issues with spellings and grammar occurring at a higher frequency among students' academic works as noted by educators, with the use of abbreviations such as "u" for "you" and "2" for "to" being the most common.

[12] Naomi S. Baron argues in Always On that student writings suffer little impact from the use of Internet-mediated communication (IMC) such as internet chat, SMS text messaging and e-mail.

[13] A study in 2009 published by the British Journal of Developmental Psychology found that students who regularly texted (sent messages via SMS using a mobile phone) displayed a wider range of vocabulary, and this may lead to a positive impact on their reading development.

For example, traditional writing is static compared to the dynamic nature of the new language on the Internet, where words can appear in different colors and font sizes on the computer screen.

[16] Future research also includes new varieties of expressions that the Internet and its various technologies are constantly producing and their effects not only on written languages but also their spoken forms.

[2] The communicative style of Internet language is best observed in the CMC channels below, as there are often attempts to overcome technological restraints such as transmission time lags and to re-establish social cues that are often vague in written text.

The Internet language that has arisen through user interactions in text-based chatrooms and computer-simulated worlds has led to the development of slangs within digital communities.

[23] Communication in niches such as role-playing games (RPG) of multi-user domains (MUDs) and virtual worlds is highly interactive, with emphasis on speed, brevity and spontaneity.

Furthermore, the younger generation's high propensity for using e-mail may improve their writing and communication skills because of the efforts they are making to formulate their thoughts and ideas, albeit through a digital medium.

Digital archives of media such as audio and video recordings not only help to preserve language documentation, but also allows for global dissemination through the Internet.

Foundations such as the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project (HRELP), funded by Arcadia also help to develop the interest in linguistic documentation.

With the development and increasing use of telephone broadband communication such as Skype, language revitalization through the internet is no longer restricted to literate users.

In higher institutions such as colleges and universities where the Leoki system is not yet installed, the educators make use of other software and Internet tools such as Daedalus Interchange, e-mails and the Web to connect students of Hawaiian language with the broader community.

[34][35] In addition, the use of digital technologies, which the young generation think of as "cool", will appeal to them and in turn maintain their interest and usage of their native languages.

While developing a chat room child protection procedure based on search terms filtering is effective, there is still minimal linguistically orientated literature to facilitate the task.

The development of using the web as a data source for word sense disambiguation was brought forward in The EU MEANING project in 2002.

[47] The British National Corpus contains ample information on the dominant meanings and usage patterns for the 10,000 words that forms the core of English.

[51] According to Observatory of Linguistic and Cultural Diversity on the Internet, in 2024, around 750 languages have now digital codification, and amongst the estimated 50 billion webpages from 200 millions active websites, around 20% are in English or Chinese, and are followed by Spanish (7.7%), Hindi (3.8%), Russian (3.7%), Arabic (3.7%), French (3.4%) and Portuguese (3.1%).

[5] Stylistics arising from Internet usage has spread beyond the new media into other areas and platforms, including but not limited to, films, music and literary works.

Mark Lester in his book Teaching Grammar and Usage states: “The biggest single problem that basic writers have in developing successful strategies for coping with errors is simply their lack of exposure to formal written English ... We would think it absurd to expect a student to master a foreign language without extensive exposure to it.”[55] Since students are immersed in internet language, that is the form and structure they are mirroring.

[58] Shifman's definition of Internet-Memes also includes their status as "(a) a group of digital items sharing common characteristics of content, form, and/or stance, which (b) were created with awareness of each other, and (c) were circulated, imitated, and/or transformed via the Internet by many users.

[62] The very nature of commercial films being screened at public cinemas allows the wide exposure to the mainstream mass audience, resulting in a faster and wider spread of Internet slangs.

The Korean language has incorporated the English alphabet in the formation of its slang, while others were formed from common misspellings arising from fast typing.

The new Korean slang is further reinforced and brought into everyday language use by television shows such as soap operas or comedy dramas like “High Kick Through the Roof” released in 2009.