A Study Of BBS Language As A Register

The past several decades have witnessed the rapid development of information technology, which has enabled more and more people to use the Internet. Web language, or we call computer-mediated language is the product of this rapid increase of information technology. From the majority's point of view, web language is usually regarded as the language used in the interaction and communication between net users (often referred to as netizens).The term BBS, as is often seen in papers on web language, stands for Bulletin Board System, which may be used to refer to any online forum or message board. It is a computer system that enables its users, usually members of a particular interest group, to leave messages and to share information and software. BBS language differs from other computer-mediated chattings in that it has a more fixed group of users (BBSers), and a more inclusive style of language.This paper uses SMTH (BBS of Tsinghua University) as its target. Currently SMTH has nearly 20 000 users, most of whom are regular participants. Inside SMTH, there are in all more than boards classified according to different functions, hobbies, interests etc.. These regular BBS participants (BBSers) usually become veritable addict spending several hours per day on it, having sustained interaction with other similar BBSers. Little by little, they will and have actually already formed their own virtual speech community.The unique features of BBS language have differentiated BBS language from other manifestations of language, and have distinguished BBS language as a special variety in contrast with many others.According to M. A. K. Halliday, what is actually taking place, who is taking part, and what part the language is playing are the three variables that together determine the range within which meanings are selected and the forms which are used for their expression. This is the Register Theory, which is one of the most important parts of Halliday's Systemic Functional Linguistics. In this paper, the register theory will be applied to analyzing the properties and features of BBS language in terms of field, tenor and mode, and in doing so, the feasibility and applicability of the register theory will be tested out as a theoretical framework in the study of BBS language.In the first chapter, a brief introduction is given to Internet language and relative studies and researches on it. Chapter two introduces the history and uses of BBS and the data collection for this paper. The third chapter, using the register theory, elaborates on the features and characteristics of BBS language in terms of field, tenor and mode respectively. Chapter four presents a case study, which gives a more concrete idea about BBS language. The last chapter concludes the present study and also points out its limitations.