Internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch explores the deep forces that shape human language and influence the way we communicate with one another. What’s more, social media is a vast laboratory of unedited, unfiltered words where we can watch language evolve in real time.Įven the most absurd-looking slang has genuine patterns behind it.
Internet conversations are structured by the shape of our apps and platforms, from the grammar of status updates to the protocols of comments and Linguistically inventive online communities spread new slang and jargon with dizzying speed.
Language is humanity’s most spectacular open-source project, and the internet is making our language change faster and in more interesting ways than ever before. It’s the perfect book for understanding how the internet is changing the English language, why that’s a good thing, and what our online interactions reveal about who we are. Reading her work is like suddenly being able to see the matrix.” -Jonny Sun, author of everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aliebn tooīecause Internet is for anyone who’s ever puzzled over how to punctuate a text message or wondered where memes come from. “Gretchen McCulloch is the internet’s favorite linguist, and this book is essential reading.
Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Languageįrom Riverhead Books (Penguin, US) and Harvill Secker/Vintage (Random House, UK), available in hardcover, audiobook, ebook, and paperback!
