Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 637

2021 International Conference on Education, Language and Art (ICELA 2021)

Understanding and Studying Internet Culture by the

Tool of Internet Language
Fengshunyu Chen1, †, Quanying Li2, *, †, Haoqing Yao3, †
1
Hunan College of Foreign Studies, Changsha City, Hunan Province, China
2
Jiaying University, Meizhou City, Guangdong Province, China
3
ULink College, Guangzhou City, Guangdong Province, China
*
Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]
†
Those authors contributed equally.

ABSTRACT
Language is a tool for understanding culture. The internet culture studied in this paper, as a heated research cultural
category, not only has an impact on the internet social space and on the real society. Some studies have recognized
and put forward that while internet language is an important part of internet culture, it can also be used as a tool to
better understand internet culture. After people acquire internet language, they communicate their emotions and
thoughts through internet language, thus achieving a wide range of social emotional communication, which has also
become the reason for the diversity of internet culture. The purpose of this paper is to explore the internet language for
the understanding of internet culture. To achieve this goal, the paper collects the speeches of relevant objects on
various social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, and sort them into text analysis.

Keywords: Internet language, Internet Culture, Second Language Acquisition, Linguistics

influence people's social consciousness. In the process of

1. INTRODUCTION
information transmission, internet language becomes
Internet slang is a social dialect that is influenced by more and more diversified through the dissemination of
culture in various fields through the Internet. It is also different classes and people with different cultural ideas,
defined as a language variant that facilitates online and gradually becomes a new social dialect. Such social
communication, with variations in pronunciation, dialect helps people expand social internet by
vocabulary, syntax and discourse [1]. They have their establishing weak ties through group communication on
own virtual speech communities and a language code the Internet and promotes quantitative changes in the
with their own vocabulary and grammar. Internet culture spread scope and qualitative changes in individual
is becoming increasingly diverse and the content of emotions, thus forming social emotional public opinion
online language as a not only an organic whole but is [4]. This means that not only have people unknowingly
also considered a linguistic variation of internet culture, picked up a social dialect, but the language has
allowing new words to develop and change into a new influenced internet culture through its dissemination and
social discourse through various colloquialisms, innovation.
homophones and real-time social phenomena [2][3]. Therefore, this paper investigates Internet language
Therefore, internet language can not only be used as a as another aspect of second language acquisition and in a
sign phenomenon of social dialect and internet culture view of psychology explores how Internet language is
that people have acquired after acquiring the first regarded as a social dialect (a form of internet culture) to
language, but also can be a useful tool for understanding understand Internet culture. This study will focus on
internet culture. these main points. First, to find out how the Internet
As a language variant with strong fluidity and language influences Internet culture. And how the
plasticity, internet language can not only influence teenagers learn the internet language. Finally, this study
internet culture but also penetrate daily social will analyse the extent to which the online language used
communication. In a mostly networked society, internet has an influence and role in analysing young people's
language becomes more and more likely to impact and understanding of online culture.

Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Atlantis Press SARL.

This is an open access article distributed under the CC BY-NC 4.0 license -http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/. 1045
 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 637

2. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN teenagers are not only affected by the existing internet
INTERNET LANGUAGE AND INTERNET terms, but also can use internet media to create new
CULTURE internet terms to express the current social environment
and living conditions. And Guy Merchant also believes
As a social dialect of various varieties of that teenagers and young adults are the pioneers of these
conventional languages, internet language also has the processes of change because they skillfully take
characteristics of conventional languages and the original advantage of the possibilities of digital technology
concept of "language". Gary B. Palmer, an American through the use of mobile phone SMS, email, web pages
linguistic anthropologist, believes that language is just a and online chat rooms, has fundamentally changed the
symbol with sound, and all symbols are based on face of literacy in all media [8]. Therefore, to a large
imagery, which can reflect people's direct experience and extent, teenagers are the most vulnerable to the influence
feelings of physical properties and abstract concepts [5]. of internet culture and the main group that changes
At the same time, he also believes that language can not internet culture the most, as well as the largest group that
only be used to express ready-made images provided by has acquired, applied and created internet language.
experience and world outlook, but also cause or create Therefore, this study will explore the relationship
new images, indicating that there is a co-construction between the internet language learned by the largest
relationship between image and language [5]. According group of creators of internet language and internet
to the above characteristics, it can be inferred that culture.
internet language, as the most brand-new language
variant in the contemporary century, not only has the 3. TEENAGERS AND INTERNET
above characteristics, but also shows the image of the LANGUAGE ACQUISITION
youngest generation and is constantly innovating.
Some studies have showed that teenagers not only
Like the conventional relationship between language acquire internet language because of the internet culture
and culture, internet language and internet culture are involved in social internet media or the popular language
mutually influenced and inseparable. Malinowski points used by people around them and also acquire internet
out in 1987 that "language is a part of the overall culture, language as an unconscious instinct. Second language
but it is not a system of tools, but a part of a set of acquisition researchers believe that the acquisition of a
pronunciation customs and spiritual culture." [6]. So, it second language after the acquisition of the original
can be concluded that the vocabulary, semantic grammar mother tongue usually occurs during adolescence or later,
and cognitive mode of internet language are constructed which also corresponds to the age of the group with the
in internet culture, and internet language also can be used most online activity [9]. Second language acquisition is
as the carrier of internet culture, reflects the inherent usually guided or controlled. Teenagers consciously
nature of internet culture. On the other hand, from the learn and absorb the internet terms they want to use in
perspective of diachronic linguistics, internet language their field or in their interest and internalize the
has a certain time nature, which can reflect the changes information for future use. According to the linguistic
of internet culture and the phenomenon of internet conclusion of Chomsky in 1959, human beings have a
society and unconsciously inherit the internet culture of set of physiological functions in the brain or mind that
the early and early generations [6]. According to the are specifically responsible for language acquisition and
internet language in different periods, people can the use of natural language [9] [10] [12]. Because of this
understand the changes of internet culture and reveal the talent, human beings can process language with abstract
values and views of internet culture in different periods. rules to produce structured expressions [12]. According
In addition, from an academic point of view, to the conclusion above, after teenagers acquire internet
teenagers as the youngest generation are the group that is language, they externalize their original internal
most likely to change internet culture today. According language for the second time, and thus generate new
to previous research and investigated, 14- to 20-year-olds words and sentences, and then turn into a new generation
are more active online than any other age group. Dr. Max of internet language and internet jokes through their
j. Coppes, M.D., PhD, MBA conducts an online survey speeches and communication on social media.
in 2019, the results depict that more than 90% of
adolescents use social media, and about 75% of 3.1. Internet language acquisition and second
adolescents have at least one active social media profile language vocabulary acquisition model
before the age of 17 [7]. And a study from the Pew
Research Center finds out that more than 50 percent of Teenagers can associate internet language with their
13- to 17-year-olds go online several times a day [7]. The mother tongue and acquire the initial acquisition of
above survey shows that teenagers are more susceptible internet language. According to Zhao Haiyong, Luo
to the influence of internet terms and the current situation Shaoqian & Xing Jiaxin, in the formal stage of the L2
of daily use of internet terms is more obvious. In addition, word acquisition model, L2 words are learned only
with the development and changeability of "we media", through forms, because new words can be acquired only

1046
 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 637

if the meanings of L2 words are connected or similar to When the acquisition stage of teenagers to the second
the meanings of their mother tongue counterparts [11]. language integration stage, they can directly use internet
However, some compound words in internet languages language subconsciously for thinking communication
are synthesized by combining two or more words and and communication. As their language learning
taking part or all of them to form a new word, which can experience increases, the semantic and syntactic
act as a word in both grammar and semantics. The descriptions of their native language counterparts are
pronunciation and spelling of these phrases are different copied into the L2 lexical clauses, resulting in the
from traditional languages to some extent. Take English formation of an entry containing the L2 lexical forms and
for example: Microserf refers to people who are addicted the native language head [11]. For example, when they
to the Internet. The normal expression is "people who are often want to express that a person is often addicted to
addicted to the Internet". Focus on the native language the Internet, they do not use the sentence pattern of
corresponding words and use pointer to connect native "people who are addicted to the Internet." instead, they
words and second language words to split the word directly and subconsciously convert to the mode of using
"microserf" into two parts to understand with the original internet language and use the concise way of "microserf"
English meaning: “Micro” refers to internet, “Serf” to express. Then applying the theory proposed by Zhao
refers to slave. These two words together mean being a Haiyong, Luo Shaoxi and XingJiaxin [11]. So, this
slave to the Internet, but they can be used metaphorically shows that in the process of teenagers acquiring internet
to describe People who are addicted to the Internet, and language through second language acquisition, the
to a certain extent they can be described as addicted to formal representation of internet words as second
the Internet. This shows that by using the corresponding language words is gradually stabilized, and the
words of their mother tongue to understand internet connection between internet words and the concept they
language, teenagers can be quickly understood and want to express is gradually strengthened. Finally, they
remembered when they understand the preliminary can get rid of the help of their mother tongue counterpart
grammar rules of internet language [11]. words. It has completed the transformation from
vocabulary connection to ideological and conceptual
After activating the corresponding connection
adjustment, enabling teenagers to communicate with
between internet words and their mother tongue words,
each other in a barrier-free and flexible way [11].
with the growth of teenagers' language learning
experience, internet words are further connected with
their mother tongue counterparts more closely. In this 4. CHANGES BROUGHT BY EMOTIONAL
stage, the lexeme information of the mother tongue is COMMUNICATION TO INTERNET
copied into the morpheme of the second language, CULTURE
forming a dichotomous entry with the semantic and
After teenagers acquire internet language, the
syntactic information of its mother tongue counterpart.
emotional speeches they post through various social
Although in this stage, the connection between the
media websites contain some internet words, or the
dichotomous term and the concept representation of the
internet language they create contains their emotions and
second language is very weak. This is because the
thoughts. In this sense, more people learn and create new
morpheme information of binary lexical items is copied
internet language.
from their mother tongue counterparts [11]. Take the
Internet word "microserf" for another example: from the
perspective of English grammar and meaning, "micro-" 4.1. The emotional communication led the
is an adjective usually used at the beginning of a word, internet language have a widespread
and "serf" is a noun usually used as the object of
The rise of the Internet has given teenagers more
description, so the combination of the two will form a
occasions and opportunities to express their emotions
word with descriptive or figurative meaning. However, it
and ideas besides on campus. This communication
is obvious that "microserf" and other such internet words
behavior is called "emotional social sharing" -- an
are created by the original sentence meaning and
academic term in the field of psychology. Some
grammar of mother tongue. It takes a short time to
psychologists have also proposed that this social sharing
understand and imitate such words, but it takes a certain
of emotions is universal, repetitive and repeated.
amount of time and use to fully learn them. In a word,
Therefore, it can be inferred that the speech with internet
this process is very similar to the acquisition process in
language published by teenagers can be spread to a
the first stage, but the difference is that at this stage,
certain extent and affect the emotions and ideas of a
teenagers begin to learn to use internet language instead
considerable number of people. Sui Yan and Li Yan also
of their mother tongue to express the concepts and words
believe that any information on the Internet is no longer
they want to express, although they still need the help of
controlled by the information source once it enters the
the relevant words in their mother tongue to achieve this
communication channel, and the social sharing of
process [11].
emotions is no exception [4].

1047
 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 637

Internet language not only has a certain humorous social emotions contained in internet language will
nature and the function of spreading various cultures but remain in internet language for a long time. As Sui Yan
can also truly convey the ideas of the new generation and and Li Yan refer to Collins: "Interactive rituals are linked
can serve as a symbol to reflect the social status quo. in chains over time, with the result that the last
From the perspective of social structure theory combined interaction (through emotions and symbols) becomes the
with emotion, it can cause a condensation effect in the input for the next interaction; So emotional energy tends
process of communication, that is, to promote the to build up over time [4].” Therefore, it can be known
emotional integration of the masses and form a new that internet language can bring some changes in the
social public opinion. For example, one of the current social nature of internet culture through the spread and
buzzwords in China, "involution" can also be called a resonance of groups.
pair of coils. Some people compare "involution" to a
conch that grows inward and compresses (conch), or to a 5. CONCLUSION
top that must spin faster or fall immediately [13]. In fact,
this description is quite consistent with the meaning in This study sets out to analyze the relationship
the current context: "an irrational vicious competition between teenagers' internet language and internet culture,
that reduces the overall happiness at the cost of to sum up the extent to which the nature of internet
eliminating competitors", which expresses people's language has an impact on internet culture. This study
dissatisfaction and mockery of this undesirable social has identified the internet language as a social dialect and
phenomenon. As the emotional carrier of contemporary an important part of internet culture, can be regarded as a
internet culture, this kind of vocabulary enables others to second language for people to acquire and can also be
empathize with the parties or real-time events better, thus used as the carrier of internet culture to convey its
generating new social public opinion. In addition, Sui spiritual value. It can be seen from the previous survey
Yan and Li Yan also believe that social culture data and the theories of second language acquisition that
influences emotional expression, emotional expression in teenagers are the easiest group to acquire and innovate
turn constructs social culture and people use internet internet language. Their emotional or experiential
language to express emotions and store emotions, which internet speech spreads through the Internet, making
also forms a unique internet mass culture [4]. Then it can internet language and internet culture constantly innovate
be learned, the internet language is quite so a social together, and making the internet culture in the
language variant, this with a nature of the connotation of contemporary stage to a large extent express the thought
the internet language became the mainstream of the and spiritual value of the youngest generation --
internet culture to some extent, enables the internet teenagers. Therefore, in the case of the continuous spread
culture and the social morals to clasp and make the of such internet speech, it can be inferred that the
internet culture share social emotions and learning the spiritual thoughts contained in contemporary internet
culture of moral values. culture will become the mainstream thoughts of modern
society to a large extent, and some thoughts with
4.2. The communication function of internet traditional nature and religious nature become
language secularized. However, it should not be ignored that
internet language can convey negative emotions as well
As the analysis presented above, Internet languages as positive emotions, which affect the trend and nature of
are mostly created and spread by teenagers, mostly internet culture to a great extent. If the state of the real
creating new words or giving new connotations to society cannot be maintained well, or there is no correct
existing words through collage of forms and combination guidance for teenagers to learn what internet language
of meanings [4]. The internet language created by them and how to use it correctly, the appearance of the future
combines the current rising cultural trend and language internet culture is unimaginable. Therefore, the future
rules in line with the prevailing moral values to make up study can combine the views of this study to explore how
for and satisfy their inferiority and vanity of being to correctly acquire and use internet language, so that the
noticed by many people. But it can be seen from the internet culture is based on positive values and moral
previous information that most people who are active on norms, to promote the positive development of realistic
the Internet are teenagers, which means that the words of social thoughts.
those young speakers can greatly arouse the empathy of
many people, because most of them are at similar age or REFERENCES
have similar experiences. Therefore, this not only
achieves the purpose of the speaker, but also forms a [1] Coltelli, Laura, ed.Winged Words: American Indian
popular social speech -- public opinion through the Writers Speak[ M] .Lin- coln: U of Nebraska . 1990.
dissemination of a considerable number of people. This [2] Cao Wangru, 2010. [Internet Language in the
kind of speech will continue to spread and precipitate Perspective of Sociolinguistics], Journal of Inne r
and build a new social culture. This effect is the
precipitate effect. Even after a period has passed, the

1048
 Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 637

Mongolia Agricultural University (Social Science <https://med.unr.edu/news/archive/2019/coppes-

Edition), No.4 2010(Vo l.12 Sum No .52). teens-and-social-media>. [Accessed 14 October
2021].
[3] Google Books. 2021. Learning Language and
Culture Via Public Internet Discussion Forums. [8] Guy Merchant,2001, Teenagers in cyberspace: an
[online] Available at: investigation of language use and language change
<https://books.google.at/books?hl=en&lr=&id=VC8 in internet chatrooms, Journal of Research in
WDAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR2&dq=understandi Reading, ISSN 0141-0423, Volume 24, Issue 3,
ng+internet+language+and+culture&ots=rl-iWbeG- 2001, pp 293-306.
V&sig=VWIVAzMhZCS8-
[9] Patricia K. Kuhl, 2000, A new view of language
XFwH4CeGWHNR64#v=onepage&q=understandin
acquisition, PNAS, vol. 97, no. 22, pp 11850-11857.
g%20internet%20language%20and%20culture&f=f
alse> [Accessed 15 October 2021]. [10] Uni-due.de. 2021. Language acquisition. [online]
Available at: <https://www.uni-
[4] Sui Yan, Li Yan, 2020, [On the Role of the Internet
due.de/ELE/LanguageAcquisition.htm> [Accessed
Language in the Social Communication of
15 October 2021].
Individual Emotions], Chinese Journal of
Journalism & Communication, ISSN：1002-5685, [11] Zhao Haiyong, Luo Shaoqian & Xing Jiaxin,
No.01, 2020. pp.79-98. [Mental Lexicon and Second Language Vocabulary
Acquisition Model], English Language Learning,
[5] Palmer, G. B. Toward a Theory of Cultural
ISSN：1002-5553, No.04, 2018, pp60-64.
Linguistics[M]. Austin: University of Texas
Press,1996. [12] Wei Xing, Yuan Fang, 2015. [Chomsky's
internalism language view and its enlightenment on
[6] Gao Qingzhi, 2008, [On the relationship between
second language acquisition], Journal of Language
language and culture], Anhui Literature (the second
and Literature Studies, No.05, pp 6-9.
half of the month).
[13] Clifford Geertz, Agricultural Involution: The
[7] Max J. Coppes, 2021. Teens and social media:
Processes of Ecological Change in Indonesia,1960s.
When is it too much?. [online] University of
Nevada, Reno School of Medicine. Available at:

1049