A Study Of The Variant Of The Chinese On The Internet:

Because of the popularization of Internet, more and more people communicate with Internet language. The thesis aims to study the Internet language variant and its surviving laws from the perspective of memetics. Internet language is characterized by the concision, characterization, vividness, and non-standardization. As a language variant in the Internet environment, the Internet language has both the colloquial characters and the property of the Internet.Memetics is a science based on biology. The variant of Internet language has close relation with memetics; therefore, we can consider the Internet language variant as an Internet language meme. From the perspective of memetics, the author discusses the copying-fidelity, fecundity, longevity, fitness of the Internet language meme in terms of vocabulary, syntax, and discourse. In addition, the author presents the selection, replication, transmission, and causes of the Internet language meme in detail.The lexical variant of Internet language meme contains the variant based on the phonology and the morphological variant, while the variants of syntax and discourse mainly include the imitation of the structure of the language source. Internet language meme should be selected through certain criteria. The survival is always the fittest one. The netizens are influenced mainly by subjective factors when they select the Internet language meme. The Internet language meme with the novelty, simplicity, and expressivity has the priority to be selected. The replication of Internet language is selective and works in two ways:the replication of phonology and the replication of structure. The genotype and phenotype are main forms of the Internet language memes’transmission. The selection, replication, transmission, and variant of Internet language always coexist. The causes of the Internet language meme can be summarized from three aspects: technology, culture, and psychology. The author hopes that this thesis can deepen the insight into Internet language and the evolution and the surviving law of Internet language variant.There are five chapters in this thesis. The first chapter contains the introduction to the significance and the structure of this thesis. The second chapter contains the definition, current studies, features of Internet language, and the theories of language variant. The third chapter concerns the definition, previous studies of memetics, the relation between memetics and Internet language variant, the characteristics, the selection, and the transmission of Internet language meme. The fourth chapter explores the variants of vocabulary, syntax, discourse, and the causes of Internet language meme variant. The fifth chapter is conclusion, discussing the main findings, the limitations of the present studies and the suggestions for further research.