The influence of social media in language change: Changes in vocabulary

Abstract

Nowadays, social media such as Twitter, Instagram or YouTube and computer mediated communication have become quite relevant not only in people's lives, but also in the way language is used. Language change, and in particular changes in vocabulary, seems to be accelerated in the last decades connected with the Internet and social media. They have a great impact on the terms and expressions we use, on which ones become popular, sometimes even bringing back terms that have not been used for a long time, or changing their meaning to fit de needs of the new reality. The aim of this dissertation is to explore how these social platforms may influence language in particular, both lexical and semantic change. The dissertation will consist of two different parts: in the first part, which will more theoretical, Iwill give an account of the appearance of the Internet and the social platforms I am going to study. I will also deal with the different types of lexical and semantic change. For the second part of the study I will compile a list of terms typically found in social media and computer-mediated communication, such as "spill the tea", " to roast somebody" and "shipping". These terms will be studied paying attention to the kind of word formation strategy they illustrate; their lexical story (when were they first used; are they neolegisms just found in computer mediated communication, or are theyalso part of general vocabulary?); their meaning whether they have been borrowed from English to other languages. For this purpose I will make use of various dictionaries, ranging from the Oxford English Dictionary (OED), dictionaries of usage of Present Day English (such as Cambridge Dictionary, WordReference, Collins) and the Urban Dictionary (www.urbandictionary.com).Hoxe en día, as redes sociais como Twitter, Instagram ou YouTube e a comunicación mediada por ordenador volvéronse bastante relevantes non só na vida das persoas, senón tamén no uso do idioma. O cambio de lingua, e en particular os cambios de vocabulario, parece que se acelerou nas últimas décadas conectado a Internet e aos medios sociais. Eles teñen un gran impacto nos termos e expresións que usamos, sobre os que se popularizan, ás veces incluso traendo de volta termos que non se usaron hai tempo, ou cambian o seu significado para adaptarse ás necesidades da nova realidade. O obxectivo desta disertación é explorar como estas plataformas sociais poden influír sobre a linguaxe en particular, tanto o cambio léxico como o semántico. A tese constará de dúas partes diferentes: na primeira parte, que será máis teórica, darei conta do aspecto de Internet e das plataformas sociais que vou estudar. Tamén tratarei os diferentes tipos de cambio léxico e semántico. Para a segunda parte do estudo recompilarei unha lista de termos que normalmente se atopan nos medios de comunicación social e na comunicación mediada por ordenador, como "derramar o té", "asar a alguén" e "enviar". Estes termos estudiaranse atendendo ao tipo de estratexia de formación de palabras que ilustran; a súa historia léxica (cando se usaron por primeira vez; ¿os neolegismos só se atopan na comunicación mediada por ordenador ou tamén forman parte do vocabulario xeral?); o seu significado se foron prestados do inglés a outros idiomas. Con este propósito, farei uso de varios dicionarios, que van dende o Oxford English Dictionary (OED), diccionarios de uso do Present Day English (como Cambridge Dictionary, WordReference, Collins) e o Urban Dictionary (www.urbandictionary.com).