Premium
Language contact and convergence in computer‐mediated communication
Author(s) -
Gao Liwei
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
world englishes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.6
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1467-971X
pISSN - 0883-2919
DOI - 10.1111/j.0083-2919.2006.00466.x
Subject(s) - mandarin chinese , language contact , mainland china , the internet , variety (cybernetics) , china , linguistics , chinese language , sociology , computer science , political science , world wide web , artificial intelligence , law , philosophy
With the rapid development of internet communication in Mainland China, there has emerged a new variety of Chinese online, which is generally referred to as China's internet language (Yu et al ., 2001a, among others). In this paper, I examine samples of Chinese internet language, represented on the lexical, sentential, and discursive levels. I present evidence of the impact of English upon Mandarin Chinese. Based on the analysis, I contend that, with the ever increasing use of computer‐mediated communication in Mainland China, the influence of English upon Chinese may become more robust, which may in turn have implications for change in the Chinese language. In this sense, internet communication serves as a mechanism to facilitate the evolution of the Chinese language in the digital age.