On Cyber Language From Semantics And Pragmatics Perspectives

From perspectives of semantics and pragmatics, this thesis chooses approximately 300 Chinese chatting cyber indications collected from Internet as the subject of the study with regard to semantic and pragmatic analysis, which attempts to prove the variety of cyber language in terms of its pronunciation, form, meaning, feature, language style in web context and the reasons of the variety at three levels: the level of phonetics, the level of lexicon and the level of syntax. The study is undertaken mainly in the theoretic framework of "Theory of Saussure's Linguistic Sign", "The Theory of Context" proposed by Malinowski and his student Halliday, "Theory of Reference and Sense" proposed by John I. Saeed, Katz's "Semantic Theory", Austin's "Speech Act Theory" and Grice's Theory of Implicature. The author tries to study cyber language more comprehensive in order to enrich the cyber language study based on the present achievements in order to help people understand better the key role a context plays when deciding the meaning of a language.Qualitative research methodology is adopted in this thesis, for all data and literatures used as samples in the study are collected from library and websites.In this thesis, the author first analyzes the background of the emerging of cyber language, and then summarizes 10 types of formation of cyber lexicons, 4 kinds of features at four levels: the lexical level, syntactic level, stylistic and rhetorical level based on the descriptions and analysis of cyber language in terms of its definition, form, feature, nature and the way of transmission. The semantic and pragmatic meaning of cyber language are compared in normal context and in web context with the intention of finding out which theory is better in analyzing and interpreting the meaning of cyber language. In order to find out what causes the variety of cyber language, the author analyzes the reasons in two aspects: the external elements and the internal elements. The advantages and disadvantages of cyber language, the attitudes that people hold toward cyber language as well as the prospect of cyber language in the future are all discussed in the thesis. According to the findings of the study, the author points out that cyber language is a dynamic language system, which has a set of form of expressing and its features in terms of phonology, morphology, syntax, style, meaning and rhetoric, etc. The Theory of Context and Grice's Implicature Theory are more helpful in analyzing and interpreting the meaning of cyber language in web context. Cyber language is a kind of language variety in web context, which will continue to change with the change of time, context, and the way of communication in the future. At present, it is necessary and reasonable for cyber language to exist due to its popularity. However, it is a controversial language after all. Therefore people hold different attitudes toward it.The author holds that we should hold a tolerant attitude toward cyber language with an eye of development and meanwhile strengthen the study on it in theory. We should pay attention to the development of cyber language, discard the dross and select the essence so as to enrich Chinese.