A Study On The Language Of Short Message Service

With the scientific progress and the improvement of material and cultural standard, mobile phones can be possessed by an average person. Text messages, which are terse, humorously witty, and convenient, quickly integrate into people's daily life. They not only add more enjoyment to life, but also extend people's communication. Text messages have become one of the most popular ways of modern communication.The success of text messages has close relation to their technological content, and the special, novel and fashionable language is the motive power of their long-lasting popularity and dynamic growth. The grasp of language materials by text messages has distinct time characteristics. They can make use of the musicality of Chinese syllables to produce harmony and variation. They can make new collocations, give new explanations for Chinese words, or skillfully bring in words from other fields. They challenge the grammar to create new ways of expression. They are not confined by a fixed language style but borrow the linguistic elements and forms of other language styles. They use graphic symbols to express feelings, combining English letters, punctuation, numbers or geometrical figures into a novel language form. They have various figures of speech filled with humor. Text messages do not adhere to traditional language standards. They try to overthrow the traditions, creating a unique, fresh and energetic mode of expression which reflects the inner world of the young. Text messages, which contain specific language glamour, can fully represent people's joy, anger, grief, happiness, wisdom and innocence, bringing Chinese into full play. However, the problems of the "illness of affluence" or "fashionable virus" brought by breaking down language barriers, of the irregular language usage, of the fresh-keeping of message language and of the construction of text message language environment also worth our discussion.To apply lexicology, stylistics, rhetoric and social linguistics to analyze the use of mobile message language and to find out its language mechanism is meaningful both in theory and in practice. Based on abundant language materials and relevant analysis, the thesis will do research into the characteristics of mobile message language's pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, style and rhetoric, discuss the positive and negative aspects of text messages'social value and promote some problems of text message language's construction which are in need of further discussion.