Internet linguistics

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This article needs to be updated. The reason given is: most of the article is based on sources from 2010 and earlier; many things have changed significantly since then. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information. (August 2022)

Internet linguistics is a domain of linguistics advocated by the English linguist David Crystal. It studies new language styles and forms that have arisen under the influence of the Internet and of other new media, such as Short Message Service (SMS) text messaging.^[1][2] Since the beginning of human–computer interaction (HCI) leading to computer-mediated communication (CMC) and Internet-mediated communication (IMC), experts, such as Gretchen McCulloch^[3] have acknowledged that linguistics has a contributing role in it, in terms of web interface and usability. Studying the emerging language on the Internet can help improve conceptual organization, translation and web usability. Such study aims to benefit both linguists and web users combined.^[4]

The study of internet linguistics can take place through four main perspectives: sociolinguistics, education, stylistics and applied linguistics.^[1] Further dimensions have developed as a result of further technological advances, which include the development of the Web as corpus and the spread and influence of the stylistic variations brought forth by the spread of the Internet, through the mass media and through literary works. In view of the increasing number of users connected to the Internet, the linguistics future of the Internet remains to be determined, as new computer-mediated technologies continue to emerge and people adapt their languages to suit these new media.^[5] The Internet continues to play a significant role both in encouraging people and in diverting attention away from the usage of languages.^[6]