网络英语新词的构词特点及其发展趋势(4)

of the computer technology. These terms are practical and gradually turn into common words that are known and accepted by masses.

Among the very few certain examples is “dongle”. The word “dongle” (protection of the software) is created by the software researchers. Look at another two examples. “Matrix” and “@” are made up by novelists William Gibson and computer engineer Ray Tomlinson respectively. The word “grrl” is the variant of “girl” on the Internet, created by the feminists.

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6. Emoticon—a special Internet English neologism

6.1 The definition of emoticon

On September 19th, 1982 Scott Fahlman at Camegie Mellon University in American, wrote several characters on the electronic call-board at the first time: :-). Thus, the first smile face on a computer came into being. From then on, emoticons are gradually accepted by the netizens and getting their popularity on the Internet all over the world. [16]

As to the definition of emoticon, it is described that an emoticon is a textual portrayal of a writer's mood or facial expression. They are often used to alert a responder to the tenor or temper of a statement, and can change and improve interpretation of plain text. The word is a portmanteau of the English words ?emotion? (or emote) and ?icon?. In web forums, instant messengers and online games, text emoticons are often automatically replaced with small corresponding images, which came to be called emoticons as well[17].

Emoticons are better known as \avoiding misinterpretation of the writer's intents. While there are no standard definitions for the following emoticons, we have supplied their most usual meanings. Most emoticons will look like a face (eyes, nose, and mouth) when rotated 90 degrees clockwise.

6.2 Classification of Emoticon

Various kinds of emoticons are created to convey different meanings. It could be a facial expression, an action, a person and his/ her appearance, an animal, an object, and even the tone of the speech. Here emoticons are classified into the following

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groups:

1). Facial Expression. At the beginning, emoticons are created for the purpose to serve as a computer of online communication to provide more emotional information to recipients in chat rooms.

:) or :-)

Expresses happiness, sarcasm, or joke :( or :-(

Expresses unhappiness :] or :-]

Expresses jovial happiness :[ or :-[

Expresses despondent unhappiness :D or :-D

Expresses jovial happiness :I or :-I

Expresses indifference :-/ or :-\\

Indicates undecided, confused, or skeptical. Also: / or: \\. :Q or :-Q

Expresses confusion :S or :-S

Expresses incoherence or loss of words

2). Action. In addition to the basic facial expression, emoticons can also convey

some information which presents one?s body language and movements.

:#) Indicates smoking while talking 1^o Expresses yawning or snoring (((H))) Indicates big hug :-@ Expresses screaming ?:-) Expresses sweating :-* Indicates kiss

3). Picture of Objects, People and Animals. Little by little, more and more

complicated and delicate emoticons are made to represent vivid pictures of objects, people and animals.

8(:-) Represents Mickey Mouse

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=:-H Represents football player })I({ Stands for butterfly >:-> Represents devil @>--;-- Stands for a rose

4). Appearance. In order to be close to a real face to face conversation, people?s

physical characteristics, dress, and hairstyles are cleverly replaced by a mixed set of letters, punctuation marks, numbers and other special symbols.

&:-) Shows curly hair B-) Indicates wearing glasses :-{} Indicates wearing lipstick (:-) Represents a big face (-: Indicates left handed

6.3 The formation of emoticon

Emoticons are mainly constructed by punctuation marks, letters, figures and special

symbols. Even though there are various ways to combine, punctuation marks play the basic role in each emotion.

1). Sequence of punctuation marks ; -) wink : -) smile

:-{} wearing lipstick

2). Punctuation marks and special symbols : -? Smoking a pipe/ tongue sticking out : @ what are you talking about? : * kiss

3). Punctuation marks and numbers 8(:-) Mickey Mouse :-7 wry face :8) pig

4). Three or more than three keyboard symbols 3:*> Rudolph the red nose reindeer

C=:-) A chef

1^o yawning or snoring

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7. The development tendency of the Internet English

Neologisms

The language is changing all the time and the Internet language is no exception. Despite its continuous changing, we can find its development tendency from what has been discussed before.

7.1 Internet English neologisms coming into daily usage

When you search for ?Internet terms dictionary? on Google, more than 33,600,000 results will be found, each one can offer thousands of entries. Besides, the neologisms are not only disseminated and used within the Internet communication, but also spread into realistic daily life, which can be illustrated by the following examples.

The language of network appears in the instant messages of cell phone. The short messages first appeared in the middle period of the 1990s. With the development of mobile communication technology, up to the last decade, it has become an indispensable way in the daily communication. There are similarities in network communication and instant messages.

Internet English also appears in the advertisers? original ideas. On the bill-board of the brand Fanta under the coca-cola flag, we can see “tell your M8s, Fanta tastes GR8.” In this sentence, “M8s” refers to “mates” and “GR8” refers to “great”.

The early smiling symbol :-) and recently, the?. At first they merely appeared in the environment where we chatted online by keyboard, to make up the deficiency that no sound can be heard and no actual image can be seen in the early period, and moreover, to make the dialogues vivid. Unconsciously, the dialogues on the computer screen have become the languages that are universally used. Let?s take the symbol ?smile? for example, in the past, it only appeared in the network language. Now, more

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