“Because Internet”, by linguist Gretchen McCulloch: a must read

by Pisana Ferrari – cApStAn Ambassador to the Global Village

Social acronyms, abbreviations, emphatic capitals, expressive word lengthening, creative respellings, keysmashing, hashtags, emoji, and a subtle use of punctuation are just some of the innovative ways to convey nuances of tone of voice that are changing the way we communicate online. With the explosion of “normal” people writing online, nuanced writing is no longer the exclusive domain of professionals, says author Gretchen McCulloch, and a new literary genre is being created, “informal” (unedited) writing: efficient, colourful, playful. An engaging and insightful book, rich in data from extensive research and examples from her own online activities, which will be particularly useful for “Old Internet People” (as defined by the author) who wish to keep up with the times. Has had excellent reviews. Author Gretchen McCulloch is the Resident Linguist at Wired magazine and co-creator of Lingthusiasm, a podcast about linguistics.

About the author: https://www.wired.com/author/gretchen-mcculloch/ & https://lingthusiasm.com/

Book reviews: https://bookmarks.reviews/reviews/all/because-internet-understanding-the-new-rules-of-language/ 

#language #internetlanguage #books