Because Internet: Understanding how language is changing - Softcover

McCulloch, Gretchen

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1529112826 ISBN 13: 9781529112825

Publisher: Vintage, 2020

Synopsis

THE ACCLAIMED NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER.

Have you ever puzzled over how to punctuate a text message? Wondered where memes came from? Fret no more: Because Internet is the perfect book for understanding how the internet is changing the English language, why that's a good thing, and what our online interactions reveal about who we are.

'McCulloch is such a disarming writer - lucid, friendly, unequivocally excited about her subject - that I began to marvel at the flexibility of the online language she describes, with its numerous shades of subtlety.' New York Times

About this title

About the Author

Gretchen McCulloch writes about linguistics for a general audience, especially internet language. She writes the Resident Linguist column at Wired. McCulloch has a master’s in linguistics from McGill University, runs the blog All Things Linguistic, and cohosts the Lingthusiasm podcast. She lives in Montreal, but also on the internet.

www.gretchenmcculloch.com

From the Back Cover

Because Internet is for anyone who's ever puzzled over how to punctuate a text message or wondered where memes come from. It's the perfect book for understanding how the internet is changing the English language, why that's a good thing, and what our online interactions reveal about who we are.

Language is humanity's most spectacular open-source project, and the internet is making our language change faster and in more interesting ways than ever before. Internet conversations are structured by the shape of our apps and platforms, from the grammar of status updates to the protocols of comments and @replies. Linguistically inventive online communities spread new slang and jargon with dizzying speed. What's more, social media is a vast laboratory of unedited, unfiltered words where we can watch language evolve in real time.

Even the most absurd-looking slang has genuine patterns behind it. Internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch explores the deep forces that shape human language and influence the way we communicate with one another. She explains how your first social internet experience influences whether you prefer 'LOL' or 'lol', why ~sparkly tildes~ succeeded where centuries of proposals for irony punctuation had failed, what emoji have in common with physical gestures, and how the artfully disarrayed language of animal memes like lolcats and doggo made them more likely to spread.

'McCulloch is such a disarming writer - lucid, friendly, unequivocally excited about her subject - that I began to marvel at the flexibility of the online language she describes, with its numerous shades of subtlety.' New York Times

Edition details

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1529112826
• ISBN 13: 9781529112825
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336