LINGUIST List 22.4536 Sat Nov 12 2011 Review: Applied Linguistics; General Ling.; Socioling.: Crystal (2011) Editor for this issue: Joseph Salmons <jsalmonslinguistlist.org> New! Visit LL's Multitree project for over 1000 trees dynamically generated from scholarly hypotheses about language relationships:             http://multitree.linguistlist.org/ This LINGUIST List issue is a review of a book published by one of our supporting publishers, commissioned by our book review editorial staff. We welcome discussion of this book review on the list, and particularly invite the author(s) or editor(s) of this book to join in. If you are interested in reviewing a book for LINGUIST, look for the most recent posting with the subject "Reviews: AVAILABLE FOR REVIEW", and follow the instructions at the top of the message. You can also contact the book review staff directly. Directory         1.     Mariza Georgalou , Internet Linguistics Message 1: Internet Linguistics Date: 12-Nov-2011 From: Mariza Georgalou <m.georgaloulancaster.ac.uk> Subject: Internet Linguistics E-mail this message to a friend Discuss this message Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/22/22-2638.html AUTHOR: David Crystal TITLE: Internet Linguistics SUBTITLE: A Student Guide PUBLISHER: Routledge (Taylor and Francis) YEAR: 2011 Mariza Georgalou, Department of Linguistics and English Language, Lancaster University SUMMARY David Crystal has been writing, editing, lecturing, broadcasting and consulting on language and linguistics for almost 50 years. In front of the largest reservoir of language that the world has ever seen, namely the Internet, Crystal advocates that it is high time a new branch in linguistics was recognized and established: Internet linguistics. ''Internet Linguistics: A student Guide'' is a follow-up to Crystal's (2001) groundbreaking ''Language and the Internet''. Despite their unavoidable overlap, these two books can function independently, as the first examines the medium from a stylistic perspective, while the current one is more methodologically-oriented. Here the author's aim is to inform as well as to propel more linguists towards a field which warrants attention In chapter 1, ''Linguistic perspectives'', Crystal delineates Internet linguistics as a new area of academic enquiry which poses two exciting challenges for researchers. On the one hand, the Internet constitutes a vast language corpus. The increasing amount of communication accomplished electronically, on the other hand, has given language an unparalleled stylistic diversity. Yet, the author maintains that merely investigating the new kinds of language introduced online is not considered an adequate contribution to the field. Linguists have to be on their guard for potential pitfalls, such as the moral panic that typically accompanies the arrival of new technologies, the terminological misconceptions, the inaccessibility and anonymity of the data plus their ethical ramifications. In chapter 2, ''The Internet as a medium'', having provided a brief but comprehensive treatment of communication channels, the author concludes that Internet language cannot be identified with either speech or writing; instead, it selectively and adaptively displays properties of both, giving rise to a fresh, mixed medium. Despite its lack of simultaneous feedback, its limited message size and message lag, the distinctive features of the medium include the use of emoticons, hypertext links, and the opportunities offered by multiple, simultaneous conversations and multi-authored texts. Chapter 3, ''A microexample: Twitter'', shifts from theory to practice with a linguistic analysis of the popular microblogging service. By typing ''language'' as a single search term, Crystal gathered 146 tweets within 25 minutes and studied their content (shortening techniques, contractions, logograms, abbreviations, spacing, ellipsis, punctuation), grammar (fragments, complexity, minor sentences, self-reference, cohesion) and pragmatics (purpose, tone). It follows from his thorough account that Twitter can be characterized as a variety since no other use of language combines message and identity in the way that tweets do. Chapter 4, ''Language change'', elucidates why vocabulary is the area in which linguistic change becomes immediately evident as innovative technology introduces new words, social media platforms invent their own terminology, and old words acquire new meanings. Orthography is influenced by factors such as users' age, gender, educational background, linguistic taste, personality and the nature of the content they produce. Grammatical changes are less noticeable, resembling those found in non-electronic media. Traditional pragmatic models of communication cannot be easily applied to all instances of Internet discourse, while stylistic analysis is still in its infancy due to the stylistic diversity of the web. Chapter 5, ''A multilingual Internet'', deals with how the Internet has come to encompass all languages. The impression that English dominates the Internet no longer holds, and the presence of other languages, such as Chinese and Spanish, is steadily rising. Although the web tends to propagate an image of itself as entirely global and democratic (Boardman 2005: 50), Crystal highlights that not all languages are equal online. For a truly multilingual Internet there needs to be policy agreement and technological implementation. For a start, he proposes the availability of content in non-Roman based scripts and the encouragement of endangered and minority languages (Welsh, Basque, aboriginal languages). In chapter 6, ''Applied Internet Linguistics'', the author tackles problems that call for a solution in the context of the Internet, namely irrelevance, incoherence, inaccuracy and polysemy within search engine assistance, document classification, e-commerce and online advertising. For a fully developed Internet applied linguistics, Crystal endorses the implementation of approaches that take into consideration various aspects of language structure and use such as semantics (lexical, grammatical and lexicopedic approaches), morphology, graphology, discourse analysis, pragmatics, sociolinguistics and stylistics. Irrespective of the approach researchers adopt, it is essential to see Internet linguistics from a diachronic perspective. Chapter 7 presents a forensic case study of a paedophile conversation which took place on an instant messaging site. Drawing on semantic tools and calculating a Cumulative Paedophile Index for each conversational sample, Crystal identified suggestive words, phrases and sentences which expressed the paedophile's intent. Such studies, conducted by linguists and supported by speech therapists and remedial language teachers, can assist children in coping successfully with innuendos along with developing appropriate response strategies. In chapter 8, ''Towards a theoretical Internet linguistics'', Crystal puts forth the argument that language on the Internet forces us to rethink and reinterpret every question we have asked about language till now. Yet, it is unclear whether we can have a unique theory of Internet language owing to the rapid pace of innovation in technology and the indispensable alliance with non-linguistic modes of communication (e.g. multimodality, multimedia). Social factors, such as the emergence of new language styles as fashions change, also come into play while “Internet language death”, the demise of certain Internet forums, is the worst case scenario. For a valid Internet linguistics, a full set of languages must be investigated. EVALUATION ''Internet Linguistics: A Student Guide'' is specifically tailored to the needs of English language, linguistics, media and communication students, at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. Of course, it speaks to all who are passionate about the web rhetoric. Whichever the case, readers should have some background in basic linguistics. On the other hand, instructors responsible for designing and teaching courses on the above disciplines will find it invaluable as a textbook as well as a resource for assigning activities aimed at consolidating and practising what has been learned. Using a wealth of real-life examples and written in a pleasant and accessible style, this book succeeds in presenting and analyzing everything we need to know about online linguistic behavior. Crystal acknowledges the limitation of working with examples only in English, inviting researchers to determine whether his conclusions are universal. For present purposes, the author proposes the linguistically stripped term ''output'' to refer to and define the various entities that form Internet discourse (email, chats, tweets and so on). He disagrees with calling them ''genres'' given that genre implies a certain degree of linguistic homogeneity which is virtually impossible, at least for the time being, to be encountered across the Internet universe. As appropriate as this term may be, it seems to have a long way to go before it is widely established within the Internet research community. A praiseworthy feature of the book is the chapter on Twitter. Conceding that linguistic attention to this rapidly growing Internet output is still scant, Crystal, in line with Herring's (2007) flexible scheme of classifying digital discourse in terms of technological and social facets, provides a meticulous account which paves the way for conducting detailed descriptions of the stylistic features of new media platforms. Another asset is the forensic case study in which the writer illustrates how the hidden intentions of people who perform illegal acts using simultaneously the Internet can be diagnosed by means of language. Such studies, being complementary to psychiatric and criminological analysis, are highly likely to be conducive to the fruitful investigation of serious crimes such as the ghastly massacre in Norway in July 2011. Apart from the perpetrator's lengthy manifesto, linguistic evidence of his plans can also be traced online, in his YouTube channel and his social network profiles. Returning to activities, chapter 9, ''Research directions and activities'', not only provides fertile soil for further research, but also gives students impetus to reflect critically on Internet issues adopting different linguistic approaches and collecting data from a plethora of electronic outputs (forum posts, VoIP systems, chatrooms, blogs, IM services, texting, social network sites). Topics include argumentation, latency and conversational rhythm, turn-taking, distinctive forms and punctuation, spam messages, online translation, cultural localization, taxonomies, and semantic targeting. It should be noted that suggestions for research are not limited to this chapter but are interspersed throughout the book. The cover of the book is eye-catching, white like the Google homepage. David Crystal's name has replaced Google's logo, featuring the same colours, typeface and size. ''Internet linguistics'' is in the search box. In the ''Google Search'' button we read ''A Student'' while ''Guide'' is positioned at the button ''I'm Feeling Lucky''. The parallelism is neat: Crystal is the source of knowledge; Internet linguistics is a critical new field which needs to be explored; students are the ones who set off this quest; the present guide is the first of its kind and thus an ideal starting point. The only typographical error I found was on page 171 where ''Androutsopolous'' is written for ''Androutsopoulos''. On the whole, ''Internet linguistics'' is much more than a mere course book; it is the cornerstone of a fresh and challenging research agenda. And to all those who work in the field, including myself, and feel that their Internet linguistic studies will be outdated almost before they are finished, Crystal sounds sufficiently optimistic in the end: ''The Internet is the largest area of language development we have seen in our lifetimes. Only two things are certain: it is not going to go away, and it is going to get larger'' (p. 149). REFERENCES Boardman, M. (2005) The language of websites. Abingdon: Routledge. Crystal, D. (2001) Language and the Internet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2006, 2nd edn.). Herring, S. (2007) A faceted classification scheme for computer-mediated discourse. LanguageInternet. http://www.languageatinternet.de/articles/2007/761. ABOUT THE REVIEWER Mariza Georgalou is a graduate of the Faculty of English Studies, University of Athens, Greece (2005). She holds an MA (with Honours) in Language Studies from Lancaster University, UK (2006) where she is currently a PhD student in linguistics. Her areas of interest include new media discourse, critical discourse analysis, social semiotics, digital literacies and online ethnography. She works as a copy editor at PC Magazine (Greek edition). 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