A Pragmatic Study Of Microblog Language

With the popularity of smart phones, human beings enter the new age of the Internet. The microblog, as a new media, has greatly influenced the communication way and the life style of people. The microblog language is affecting people's communication and word choices in real life and is worth researching. The author intends to study the microblog language from the pragmatic perspective.Firstly, the author introduces the background, objective, methodology and structure of the study. Secondly, she briefs the definition, features and development of the microblog and the definition, features and relevant researches on the microblog language at home and abroad. Then, the author presents the theoretical framework of this thesis, that is, Verschueren's Linguistic Adaption Theory, the contents of which include linguistic choices, the three properties of language and the four angles of investigation. Among the three properties, variability and adaptability of the microblog language are mainly investigated. The variability of the microblog language is reflected at both the lexical level and the syntactical level. At the lexical level, six kinds of words of the microblog language are used to demonstrate the variability of the microblog language, namely, homophonic words, alternative words, dialect words, loan words, obscure words and coinage words. At the syntactic level, six syntactical features also present the variability of the microblog language, namely simple sentences, unconventional sentences, dialect grammar, loan grammar, punctuations and emoticons. The adaptability of the microblog language mainly lies in human beings' adaptation to the mental, social world and physical worlds. After the summary of the functions of the microblog language, the author also gives the findings, significance and limitations of the thesis. The author hopes that the study of the microblog language based on the Linguistic Adaptation Theory can help people know more about the microblog, make better use of it and have smoother communication through it.