The Language of ICT

Acknowledgements List of abbreviations Introduction: Hype and evidence in the information revolution UNIT ONE: WHAT IS IT? - THE NATURE OF ELECTRONIC TEXT Old technologies were once new What do ICT texts have in common? The implications of machine-readable cyborg text Properties of electronic text Power and technological literacy Participative reading and constraints UNIT TWO: LAYING IT OUT - GRAPHOLOGY AND MULTI-MODEL TEXTS Text analysis and the clues given by layout Cyborg graphology and punctuation Animating words in multi-modal texts UNIT THREE: SELLING IT - HOW NEW TECHNOLOGIES ARE REPRESENTED Advermation Informalisation and marketisation Eliza and the chatterbots Does your computer have mood swings? UNIT FOUR: SPECIALISING IN IT - JARGONS AND SUBCULTURES SPECIALISED REFERENCE AND SEMANTIC FIELD JARGON FOR EXCLUSION ANTI-LANGUAGE AND COVERT PRESTIGE NERDS, ANORAKS AND NEWBIES UNIT FIVE: NAMING IT - HOW NEW WORDS ENTER THE LANGUAGE Where the words come from Linguistic recycling How new words come into the language Loanwords and metaphorical extension Who started it? The computer bytes back UNIT SIX: FORMING IT - HOW NEW WORDS ARE STRUCTURED Patterns in new technology Affixation Compounding Functional shift Backformation Acronomy Initialism Clipping Blending Hacker morphology UNIT SEVEN: WATCHING IT - TRACKING NEW WORDS Bodies of text Using computers to track words over time Early citations of Internet words UNIT EIGHT: PICTURING IT - MAPPING MEANINGS ON TO ELECTRONIC SPACE Metaphors we live by Words and icons, bells and whistles Metaphorical language change UNIT NINE: MAILING IT - IS THERE A LANGUAGE OF E-MAIL? Research commens Speech, writing and mixed modes Research on e-mail and asynchronous CMC UNIT TEN: SPEAKING IT IN WRITING - CHAT LANGUAGE AND IDENTITY What is IWD? The formal features of IWD Virtual identity Appendix: Researching IT - using ICT to investigate language Index of terms Notes Bibliography