Language and the Internet

In recent years the Internet has come to dominate our lives. E-mail instant messaging and chat are rapidly replacing conventional forms of correspondence and the Web has become the first port of call for both information enquiry and leisure activity. How is this affecting language? There is a widespread view that as ''technospeak'' comes to rule standards will be lost. In this book David Crystal argues the reverse: that the Internet has encouraged a dramatic expansion in the variety and creativity of language. Covering a range of Internet genres including e-mail chat and the Web this is a revealing account of how the Internet is radically changing the way we use language. This second edition has been thoroughly updated to account for more recent phenomena with a brand new chapter on blogging and instant messaging. Engaging and accessible it will continue to fascinate anyone who has ever used the Internet.