The Internet has changed the way we work, the way we play, and clearly
the way we communicate. Some experts might even say the Internet has
spawned its own dialect, with words such as "dot com," "blog," and "Web
site" non-existent before the advent of the Internet. Some might call this
a substandard form of English, but one linguist maintains, "'Nobody speaks
"nonstandard" or "substandard" language,' Preston explains, 'unless they
are regarded as nonstandard or substandard human beings'" (Fox 683).
Therefore, the language of the Internet is just as viable and any other
form of English spoken or used today. The language of the Internet is
still forming, and evolving, and so, it is an interesting and even vital
piece of language study, for it is not often that linguists get to study
the very beginning and early evolution of a language or a dialect.
Clearly, people communicate differently, and on different levels.
This is true in everyday speech, and online, too. Teenagers speak a
different dialect with their friends than they do with their parents, and
bloggers online usually speak a different language than academic or news
Web sites. Probably the biggest constant in language is that it is always
changing. Someone that spoke and communicated in the same form of language
that was used two hundred years ago, we would sound stilted and quite
formal in today's world. One writer notes, "Fewer questions these days can
effectively be answered with yes or no, while at the same time, a tidal
surge of hype and mindless blather threatens to overwhelm old-fashioned
conversation" (Johnson 689). Written language also changes with the times.
The written language of an academic paper may resemble the formal English
of earlier times, but the written English of a newspaper or magazine
article may be more formal than spoken English, but it is still far less
formal than the language us...