The linguistic future of the Internet 237
presents a problem to those who have not yet developed a confident
command of the rulesperse.Ironically, learners can sometimes give
the impression that they are more fluent than they actually are, in
that their errors can superficially resemble the deviant forms flam-
boyantly manifested by chatgroup users.
Increasing the richness of languageWriters on the Internet struggle to find ways of expressing its un-
precedented impact. Here is John Naughton, continuing the vi-
sionary theme with which I introduced my Preface:^20
A force of unimaginable power – a Leviathan... – is loose in our
world, and we are as yet barely aware of it. It is already changing
the way we communicate, work, trade, entertain and learn; soon it
will transform the ways we live and earn. Perhaps one day it will
even change the way we think. It will undermine established
industries and create new ones. It challenges traditional notions of
sovereignty, makes a mockery of national frontiers and
continental barriers and ignores cultural sensitivities. It accelerates
the rate of technological change to the point where even those
who are supposed to be riding the crest of the wave begin to
complain of ‘change fatigue’.Language being such a sensitive inde xof social change, it would
be surprising indeed if such a radically innovative phenomenon
did not have a corresponding impact on the way we communicate.
And so it can be argued. Language is at the heart of the Internet,
for Net activity is interactivity. ‘The Net is really a system which
links together a vast number of computersand the people who use
them.’^21 These are Naughton’s words, and his italics. The Internet
is not just a technological fact; it is a social fact, as Berners-Lee has
insisted (p. vii); and its chief stock-in-trade is language.
What kind of impact might we expect a ‘force of unimaginable
power’ to make on language? We have seen, in the central chapters
(^20) Naughton (1999: 45). (^21) Naughton (1999: 40).