A Study On The Variety Of Language: Netspeak

The appearance of netspeak is based on the popularization of the Internet. Alongwith the development of information industry and the Internet, netspeak has graduallybecome part of people's daily life. In this high technology society, people more or lessget in touch with the Internet to work, learn and play, no matter which kinds ofprofessions people engage in. Thereby it is inevitable to use netspeak to communicatewith each other. And the network as Internet community exists and thrives because ofthis effective written communication. Therefore, the paper will adopt sociolinguisticsas theoretical foundation to study on netspeak.The qualitative analysis is adopted to explore the following three questions: 1.what are the main features of netspeak? 2. How are the words of netspeak formed? 3.What are the functions of numbers and emoticons in netspeak? It is found thatnetspeak is a new variety of traditional language, and numbers and emoticons innetspeak have also special functions for expressions. The raw materials are mainlyfrom post bar on the Internet, search engines and interact with other netizens, andinclude words, phrases and sentences both in Chinese and in English.The paper is divided into six chapters. Chapter 1 proposes research questions,significance and application value of netspeak, and organization of the thesis. Chapterprovides the reviews of the emergence, development and influence of the Internet,simple knowledge about netspeak, and netspeak study abroad and at home. Chapter 3introduces carefully the theories of sociolinguistics that the paper is based on. Chapterdescribes the data collection and research method of the paper. Chapter 5 analyzesthe main features of netspeak, word-formation of netpeak and functions of numbersand emoticons in netspeak. Chapter 6 summarizes the major findings of the thesis, theexistence of some problems in the course of the study and some possible directionsfor further study.Due to the rising and popularity of the Internet in new century, the emergence ofnetspeak is not only the needs of new century, but also the necessity of developmentof language. Therefore, the continual development of language will make morelinguists and learners study on this field.