#MondayReading: The Multilingual Internet: Language, Culture, and Communication Online

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Enjoy the beginning of the week with our new #MondayReading suggestion: The Multilingual Internet: Language, Culture and Communication Online. This book is written by Brenda Danet and Susan C. Herring and it was published by Oxford University Press, Inc. in 2007.

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Although English is seen as the Lingua franca of the Internet, this book takes a closer look of other languages that are used for online communication, in non-native English, or both. However, the English-based scholarly literature on computer-mediated communication (CMC) does not reflect this diversity. The book analyses text-based CMC in different languages that are not native English. The 18 Chapters of the book, most of them case studies, focus on a particular language or a plurilingual situation.

According to the publishers abstract those chapters are related to topics such as writing systems and the Internet;  linguistic and discourse features of local language use online; gender, language, and culture online; language choice and code switching; and linguistic diversity on the Internet, currently and projected into the future. Secondary themes presented include playfulness and creativity in CMC; romanization of languages ordinarily written in other scripts; and comparison of CMC-specific features in various languages. The languages described include French, Arabic, Chinese, Greek, Spanish, Catalan, Japanese, Thai, Portuguese, and non-native Englishes. A wide range of CMC modes is covered, from personal email, discussion lists, and text messaging on mobile phones (asynchronous) to instant messaging, ICQ, and graphical chat (synchronous) — as used by teenagers, university students and other young people, housewives, and professionals.

We hope you find this recommendation interesting! Enjoy this #MondayReading and have a lovely week!


Written by Efi Lousta – Terminology Study Visitor at the Terminology Coordination Unit of the European Parliament. She is doing a Master in Learning and Communication in Multilingual and Multicultural Contexts at the University of Luxembourg.

 

Source:

  • University Oxford Press Scholarship Online (2007). ”The Multilingual Internet: Language, Culture, and Communication Online”. Available at: http://bit.ly/2sd3LVu (Accessed: 29 May 2017)