2. Literature Review

2.1 Definition of Network Language

With the rapid development and wide utilization of Internet technology, human beings have been on the threshold of a new era, which is known as network communication time. It is easily found that the development of languages has a strong connection with the revolution of transmission medium, which offers good chances for the development of the network. However, so far, there is not yet a precise definition about network language in academic field. Generally speaking, “As product of the times, network la nguages are communicative symbols in the course of information exchanging and management on the Internet. ” (Qi Xiaojie， 2001：14) It can be classified into two levels: broad sense and narrow sense. In Liu Haiyan(2002:37) and Qin Xiubai’s(2003：2) view, network language falls into three language compositions. The first part is terminology related to computers and Internet technology. For instance, Chinese translation of hardware, firewall and database are “硬件”, “防火墙”, “数据库”. Secondly, terms related to cyber culture, like netbar, hacker, E-business, can be translated into”网吧”,”黑客”,“电子商务” correspondingly. The third kind refers to special terms employed in computer-mediated communication. Frequently-used words like w8（wait）, coz（because）, PITA（pain in the ass）in English and “潜水”，“打铁”，“菜鸟” in Chinese are all excellent examples. This language constituent contains many expression signs： “：-）”（smile）, “：-Ｄ”（laughter）, “：-(”（depression） and so forth. By and large, linguists tend to classify expression signs into vice language. The above is network language in a broad sense while only the third category is called network language in a narrow sense. Collot and Belmore (1996:14) regard network language as a “new variety of language” while Crystal. D, a famous linguist defines network language as “an alternative to ‘Weblish’ , ‘Netlish’, ‘cyberspeak’, ‘electronic language’, ‘electronic discourse’, ‘interactive written discourse’, ‘computer-mediated communication’ (CMC), and other more cumbersome locutions (Crystal，2001:18) ” .These variants of formations are chiefly influenced by the development of Internet technology and business expansion of mobile phones. Further progress of Internet technology will contribute to persified forms of cyber termination and increasing variations of network language.

2.2 Research on Network Language at Home and Aboard 文献综述

“With the popularity of the Internet and an increase of the number of netizens, the network language as a new social dialect, duo to its special features, especially the change of words, has caught the wide attention from all sectors of society.”(Wang Yanfang, 2008：72) Jin Huishu and other intellectuals believe that network language is the target of social linguistics study, among which network language is the object of new words and phrases. In China, works like Dictionary of Chinese Network language, Outline of Network language, Network language, are all involved in a comprehensive collection of materials and discussion of research. Some scholars studied word-formation on the basis of lexicology while others took three aspects into account, including inventing features, symbols and comparison. With pragmatic ideas, Xiao Yue analyzed “cyber abbreviations by realistic examples to prove that development of network words has infused fresh blood to daily communication and technical terms. Relative works expose that network language people refer to mainly means words on the Internet, namely Internet language” (Xiao Yue, 2010:109) .