An Analysis Of Iconic Signs Of Netspeak From Peirce’s Semiotic Perspective

Netspeak belongs to language, which is a kind of sign or a system of signs. Obviously, we can regard netspeak as a kind of sign or a system of signs, and it has the semiotic features. After being shaped, netspeak has attracted many scholars’ attention widely at home and abroad.The iconicity of semiotic signs challenges Saussure, the father of modern linguistics, who thinks that signs are arbitrary. In Peirce’s opinion, signs are not arbitrary, while they have iconicity. The expressive differences of onomatopoeia and interjection cannot deny the external connection with iconicity. In addition, the function of iconicity in language is far more than the two categories of onomatopoeia and interjection. In another words, in spite of iconicity in sound, which is referred by Saussure, there still exists iconicity in some aspects. Netspeak has not only iconicity in sound, but also has iconicity in emotion and expression.The position of netspeak in linguistics and the position of linguistics in semiotics both have the relationship with semiotic iconicity. The netspeak shows the iconicity from three dimensions- word, sentence and text. After that, it will make us have a profound understanding of the features in netspeak, especially iconicity.The innovation of this thesis is that though there are many researches on the characteristics of netspeak and Peirce’s semiotics respectively, there are few researches of characteristics of netspeak on semiotic perspective, let alone on Peirce’s semiotic perspective. Therefore, this thesis has an innovation in research direction and field of characteristics of netspeak, and also enlarges scope of iconicity, which is not limited by natural signs.This thesis is mainly divided into five chapters. Chapter one is the introduction part. In this part, the thesis mainly talks about the research background based on the previous researches, which are at home and abroad, as well as the purpose, the significance and the method of this thesis.Chapter two is the literature review. In this part, the thesis looks back to the results of the netspeak at home and abroad, analyzing the fields or the aspects that scholars choose on this subject. By doing this, we can summarize the rules of those researches which is beneficial for this thesis. After knowing this, the thesis proposes the content of this research and claims the creativity of this research.Chapter three is Peirce’s semiotics on iconic signs. This part is the theoretical foundation, and it is an introduction of Peirce’s semiotics. The center part mainly analyzes the definition of iconic signs and the properties of signs in semiotics, which mainly introduces the properties of arbitrariness and iconicity. At the same time, the thesis also makes a brief introduction of the position of iconic signs in Peirce’ s semiotics, including the function of language in semiotics, the function of iconic signs in language and mechanisms of iconic signs in semiotics.Chapter four is an analysis of iconic signs of the netspeak. And it is the main body in this thesis. First, it gives the general survey on the netspeak, including the definition and the characteristics. Second, it classifies the netspeak on its characteristics. The third part is the accounts of iconic signs in the netspeak, which is the most important part in this thesis. It analyzes the netspeak signs from three dimensions-- morphology, syntax and semantics, exploring how iconicity plays a part in the netspeak.Chapter five is conclusion. In this part, it talks about the main findings, the future of the netspeak signs and the limitations of the present thesis and suggestions for the future research.