An Explanatory Study Of The Creation And Transmission Of Internet Numerical Homophones

Social psychologist Allport defined social psychology as:"social psychology is the discipline which sets out to understand how the thoughts, feelings and behaviors of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined or implied presence of others."In other words, social psychology is trying to explain social behaviors from inner characteristics of individuals such as personality and psychological process together with external social influence including the effect of social environment.With the rapid development of internet and the rising number of net users, internet language also develops quickly, which has great effect on oral communication in daily life. Thus, more and more scholars show their interests in the study of internet language. Language is related to culture, society, psychology and many other aspects. In this thesis, the author chooses internet numerical homophones as the research object and applies the theory of motivation and theories in social influence to the exploration of the creation and transmission of internet numerical homophones.First, this thesis explains the creation and transmission of internet numerical homophones from psychological motivations. We analyze the cause of formation of psychological motivations that cause the creation and transmission of internet numerical homophones. They are driven by net users'need for social communication and need for the realization of self-value. And the manifestation of psychological motivations includes affiliation motivation and achievement motivation etc.Then, the author explores the creation and transmission of internet numerical homophones from sociological motivations. Through concrete ways of social influence like the influence of public opinion on social attitude, the imitation factor and the pursuit of fashion in internet communication, the conformity and the minority influencing the majority emerge in the creation and transmission of internet numerical homophones which ultimately result in the rapid transmission of them.Based on the above illustration and analysis, the thesis proves the practicality and applicability of social psychology in explaining language phenomenon. Hopefully, this research could make some contribution to further studies.