A Study Of English Netspeak In Chatrooms From Perspective Of Register Theory

This thesis aims to explore the register features of English Netspeak in Internet chatrooms. The Internet is one of the most remarkable things human beings have ever made. It has influenced various aspects of people's life, among which the change of language is obvious. In fact, this linguistic revolution results in the birth of a new language variety—Netspeak, which is active in various Internet situations, especially in the Internet chatrooms. The essence of register theory is language use is determined by the context. This new language variety has its particular field of discourse, mode of discourse and tenor of discourse. First, people communicate in the virtual communities. It could transcend the limitation of space but the topics in chatrooms are unstable and changeable. Second, communication in chatrooms is just through the keyboard language. The appearance of some speicfic Netspeak signs compensates for the absence of the non-verbal action in chatrooms. The interruption of the conversations usually happens in synchronous situation. Netspeak has the features of both spoken language and written language. Third, because the participants communicate in a virtual community, their real identifications are hidden. Most of the netizens are the young who are easy to accept the fresh things. Meanwhile, the development trend of Netspeak is predicted. It is hoped that this study will be helpful and beneficial to the evaluation of Netspeak.The data has been collected from several chatrooms under different topics. The register features of Netspeak would be analyzed from three variables of register theory. Netspeak has stirred heated debate. Different people hold different attitudes to Netspeak. This research shows that Netspeak is just a variety of language and it could not change the main developing trends of standard language. We should treat the Netspeak with the evolutionary principle: survival of the fittest.