A Study Of Web-English In Relation With Lexicon Evolution

Since the invention of computer in the 1950s and the appearance of Internet within the last 30 years, we have begun to embrace a brand new information age, and especially in the recent 20 years, the industry of IT (information technology) developed rapidly, which inevitably caused changes in the fields of economy, politics, culture and other aspects of social life, as well as language. Language is a system of symbols based on physiology, psychology and physics. It is a specific social action and a carrier of information used for human communication in a society. In the information age, with the development of Internet as an effective media, neologisms and new terms constantly appear in the English vocabulary, together with some newly appeared usage in the passages, which formed such a relatively special language phenomenon that many beginners of the cyber-world could not completely or properly understand some of the already existed expressions. This thesis aims at studying the features of this language phenomenon, i.e. web-English, so that we can make better use of the resources on Internet, and help the students learn English as a foreign language as well.The thesis explains some universal rules of the ever changing vocabulary and studies the lexical features of the neologisms in web-English by summarizing the lexicon evolution process, and analyzing the neologisms in web-English for the purpose of finding some inherent relations. In order to help those non-native speakers of English feel easier to communicate online and make more intensive use of the Internet resources, and furthermore to make more or less contribution to the second-language learning, this thesis presents an outline of how vocabulary changes and what the lexical features of web-English are. According to the knowledge of lexicology, this thesis analyzes the English lexicon evolution from the view point of diachrony, especially in the modern English, and the factors that influence the lexicon evolution. From the perspective of synchrony and the basic approaches of word-forming, the thesis studies how the neologisms of web-English form, and describes several lexical characteristics and semantic features of these neologisms. Meanwhile this thesis summarizes several distinctive features of the irregular usage in the sentences and passages.This thesis falls into six chapters. Chapter one offers a brief introduction of web-English. Chapter two deals with the theory of English lexicology. Chapter three traces the emergence of web-English and the reasons for such lexical changes in relation with the theory of lexicology and the real social conditions. Chapter four abstracts the lexical and semantic features of web-English. Chapter five studies the influence of web-English upon lexical evolution. Chapter six is a conclusion which consists of the limitations of the thesis and a summary for the whole thesis. After studying the reasons for the lexical changes in web-English and the influence of web-English upon the future lexical changing, it is clear that web-English neologisms play an important role over the period from the birth of Internet up to now. The appearance and existence of web-English is reasonable and web-English itself is undoubtedly a kind of impact upon certain existed norms of the English language. Web-English is a normal phenomenon in the historical development of language evolution. It is significant for us to compare web-English features with the extant linguistic rules in the social, economical and cultural context.