A Perspective Of Language Deviation On Catchwords

Language deviation, as a kind of linguistic phenomenon which violates the standard norm, is a hot field in sociolinguistic study and is widely used in various styles. Catchwords, as a variated style, are widely employed in speech community in a certain period of time, and they present the characteristics of regionality, epocharity, humor and popularity.With linguistic research turning from internal linguistics to external linguistics, sociolinguistics has been gradually developing into a multidisciplinary subject. Firstly, this paper introduces the study of language deviation and catchwords at home and abroad, and explores the relationship between catchwords and the society as well as the relationship between catchwords and context. Then, the paper tries to analyze the catchwords from the viewpoint of language deviation by using the theory of orderly heterogeneity and speech community. It will mainly focus on campus catchwords and internet catchwords. Since the university students possess the characteristics of creativeness in vocabulary, acceptance new language forms, capability in using and spreading language, an investigation has been made among 200 university students in Hunan University of Technology by using questionnaires and face-to-face interviews. The purpose of the investigation is to find out the use frequency and young people's preference to the two types of catchwords. Based on the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the collected data, the paper discusses the deviation characteristics of the two types of catchwords from the angle of phonetics, lexis, syntax, semantics and semiotics. At the phonetic level, onomatopoeias, sound reduplication and homophones are widely used in catchwords. At the lexical and semantic levels, there are plenty of novel words, abbreviations, simple words, borrowing words in catchwords. As for the syntactic level, the sentences which violate the syntactical rules, over-simple sentences, exclamations and interrogative sentences are employed. At the semiotic level, catchwords own lots of signs, pictographic characters and Arabic numerals. Based on the above analysis, three social functions of catchword deviation are revealed, including marking identity, pursuing individuality and harmonizing interaction. Then, three deviation laws of catchwords are classified, such as creativity, simplicity and humor.Finally, the paper discusses the causes for the formation of catchwords from the society, the popularity of internet and characteristics of the youth. The social value, social influence and the developing tendency of catchwords have been explored, and the achievements and limitations of the paper have also been displayed at the end.