A Study On Gender Differences In Netspeak Use Of College Students From Sociolinguistic Perspective

Netspeak is a language variety resulted from the widespread of the Internet. It is an important research field in Applied Linguistics and has been studied by many people on its nature, characteristics,forms and norms etc. It is true that the researches are significant and fruitful, but the empirical studies and scientific surveys are rare. Moreover, Netspeak is frequently explained with theories of semiotics,pragmatics, linguistics and memetics, however, the relation between Netspeak and gender is not widely explored at present. As a result, based on the theories of sociolinguistics, the thesis is carried out to explore whether there exist differences in male and female students' use of Netspeak, perception of Netspeak, and attitudes towards Netspeak; whether these gender differences are statistically displayed.The application of questionnaires and interviews contributes a lot to the completion of the thesis.There are altogether 310 questionnaires collected from 27 capital cities and 4 municipalities in China mainland. The subjects are all sophomores in universities. Since ten subjects(5 male students and 5 female students) are chosen in each city, there are 310 subjects in all; as a result, 310 questionnaires are completed and analyzed in the thesis. Among 310 subjects of the 27 capital cities and 4 municipalities in China mainland, one of the subjects in each city is then required to do the interview. Altogether, there are 31 subjects who are interviewed. Specifically, 15 male students and 16 female students are invited for the interview.In consequence, it is mainly concluded that male and female students do not show statistically significant differences in use of Netspeak, perception of Netspeak, and attitudes towards Netspeak. The main findings are: firstly, males and females do not display crucial and significant differences in use of Netspeak. Specifically, according to the results of part A and part B in the questionnaire, it is concluded that the disparity between male and female students in the familiarity with Netspeak of different forms is subtle and not statistically significant, including Netspeak on society, abbreviations, homophonic,emoticons and numerals, as well as meaning-changed words. Secondly, male and female students do not indicate obvious and giant differences in perception of and attitudes towards Netspeak. In the questionnaire, male and female students' attitudes toward Netspeak and reasons why two genders like Netspeak are explored. As a result, based on the results of part C, part D, part E, part F, part H together with Part I of the questionnaire, it is concluded that most male and female students would like to use Netspeak and support the wide spread of Netspeak. The number of male students who are for the advent ofNetspeak is quite close to that of female students; in contrast, the numbers of male and female students who do not like Netspeak are both small.The reasons for the phenomenon that male and female students do not display statistically significant differences in use of Netspeak, perception of Netspeak and attitudes towards Netspeak are: in terms of the macro context, all the subjects investigated are living in a more open environment, where the traditional sexual stereotypes are shaken for the reason that humans are have a more and more better understanding of the two genders with the implementation of the one child policy, as well as the reform and opening up policy. In addition, as for the micro context, the subjects are parallel in age, educational level together with status, and the setting is much freer, in consequence, the differences and disparities are becoming more and more subtle. Besides, from the view of psychology, it is seen that the netizens of campus, both males and females, value solidarity much more highly than status, which results such similarities. In conclusion, due to the reasons mentioned above, the two genders demonstrate more similarities than differences in Netspeak use, the attitude towards Netspeak as well as in the perception of Netspeak.