Language and the Internet

by David Crystal

According to popular mythology, the Internet will be bad for the future of language--technospeak will rule, standards will be lost, and creativity diminished as globalization imposes sameness. David Crystal, one of the foremost authorities on language, argues the reverse in his new book: that the Internet is enabling a dramatic expansion of the range and variety of language and is providing unprecedented opportunities for personal creativity. In order to grow and be maintained as a linguistic medium, the principles and standards of the Internet must evolve--and they will be very different from other mediums. Is the Internet a revolution? Is it a linguistic revolution? Beyond the visual panache of the presentation on a screen, the Internet's "linguistic" character is immediately obvious to anyone online. As the Internet has become incorporated into our lives, it is becoming clearer how it is being shaped by and is adapting language and languages. Language and the Internet is the first book by a language expert on the linguistic aspects of the Internet. Opening up linguistic issues for a general readership, Crystal argues that "netspeak" is a radically new linguistic medium that we cannot ignore. David Crystal is one of the foremost authorities on language, and as editor of the Cambridge Encyclopedia he has used the Internet for research purposes from its earliest manifestations. His work for the technology company Classification Data Limited has involved him in the development of an information classification system with several Internet applications, and he has extensive professional experience of Web issues. Crystal is author of several books with Cambridge, including the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language (1997), Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (1995), English as a Global Language (1997), and Langugage Death (2000) and Words on Words (University of Chicago, 2000) . An internationally renowned writer, journal editor, lecturer and broadcaster, he received an OBE in 1995 for his services to the English language. His edited books include The Cambridge Encyclopedia (Fourth Edition, 2000) The Cambridge Paperback Encyclopedia (Third Edition, 1999), The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia (Second Edition, 1997) and The Cambridge Factfinder ( Fourth Edition, 2000).

Genres: Linguistics, Language, Nonfiction, Contemporary, Internet, Sociology, School

282 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

David Crystal works from his home in Holyhead, North Wales, as a writer, editor, lecturer, and broadcaster. Born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland in 1941, he spent his early years in Holyhead. His family moved to Liverpool in 1951, and he received his secondary schooling at St Mary's College. He read English at University College London (1959-62), specialised in English language studies, did some research there at the Survey of English Usage under Randolph Quirk (1962-3), then joined academic life as a lecturer in linguistics, first at Bangor, then at Reading. He published the first of his 100 or so books in 1964, and became known chiefly for his research work in English language studies, in such fields as intonation and stylistics, and in the application of linguistics to religious, educational and clinical contexts, notably in the development of a range of linguistic profiling techniques for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. He held a chair at the University of Reading for 10 years, and is now Honorary Professor of Linguistics at the University of Wales, Bangor. These days he divides his time between work on language and work on internet applications.

source: http://www.davidcrystal.com/

Reviews

[Ottavia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Again, why do I have to read stuff that has nothing to do with what I'm studying? University is so stupid, sometimes..

[Evie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Charmingly/painfully dated (and with a particularly ugly cover), yet still quite interesting :)

[Akbar Madan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I often listen to the conversation that takes place between the two sons of Israphil and my other son, Elia, as they talk about things related to the computer and its contents, especially games. It consists between the modern generation and the world of the Internet, there is a language that is born from the womb of this world, modern linguistic structures that have arisen with modern applications of human communication in the Internet world, broad abbreviations of modern terms, enormous encodings.

[Alexander Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's hard, today, to read this book without giggling. This book is a piece of history of Internet language, not an analysis of what is happening 'now' or will be happening. Certainly this was very descriptive of its time and very explanatory for those who were not "born digital".

That said, this book is useful as a reference for knowing how people once thought, the humble beginnings of Internet communication and language, and what has traversed time online... but also what hasn't. In some ways you might learn more from what has NOT lasted rather than what has.

There are certainly some spaces where this book is essential to your research or interests, but in most cases, there are much more relevant, up-to-date resources which will explain these things to you in a more detailed fashion. That said, this book helps frame the areas of interest which you wish to know in detail. If you are interested in ANY kind of Internet style communication, this book is a good way to place what kind of area of communication or language you're interested in even if the information here is beyond dated.

[Ivan Zullo · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting picture of a very fluid and rapidly evolving matter. In this book, David Crystal offers a linguistic perspective on the use of the language at the beginning of the 20th century (I read the 2006 updated edition).

[Mark A.]

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[Lucy Trojanovich · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dated but that means it's still entirely useful for my A level 😆🥲
Also he's so real for citing himself in his reference I love it

[Alicia · Rating 3 out of 5]

In comparison to all of the media we have available to us as means of communication, the internet is still incredibly young. As such, any kind of analysis of the linguistic style(s) of the internet is greatly limited by the (comparatively) minimal amount of available data. Crystal's attempt is mostly descriptive, and he admits that there is no way of knowing what kind of impact on language the various areas of the internet he explores will have. He does this well, and quite humorously, coming to the final conclusion that whatever effects the medium has on language, they will be interesting and ultimately good.

This is the second edition, printed 2006, of a book originally published in 2001. Because of the relatively limited nature of the information he is using, I would be interested to see another revised edition of this work in another five years, when the author can perhaps reach some more satisfying, or, at the very least, grounded, conclusions.

[Lilí Lanz · Rating 2 out of 5]

This might be interesting for people that've never used the internet, maybe. But right now, in this moment of time this book seems unnecessary and very obvious. It brings nothing new to the table, in my opinion.

[C1113726 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Informative but only a brief overview. Crystal uses a very narrow view of context as determined by the properties of the medium and focuses heavily on medium-specific features of language use, ignoring the socially situated discourse in which these features occur.

[Eva · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting read especially because it's written in a "layman's" language so uncharacteristic for many linguists. However, the author repeats his ideas quite often.