Finding an identity 67
thaneditorialdenialssuggest.Itisverymuchpresent,inanintrusive
and arbitrary form, in the spell-check and grammar-check aids
provided by software packages (see p. 212).
A strong personal, creative spirit imbues Netspeak, as an emerg-
ing variety. Internet users are continually searching for vocabulary
to describe their experiences, to capture the character of the elec-
tronic world, and to overcome the communicative limitations of
its technology. The rate at which they have been coining new terms
and introducing playful variations into established ones has no par-
allel in contemporary language use. Doubtless it will all slow down
in due course; but as we begin the new millennium the editors who
have set up sites to monitor new usages report no diminution in
the rate at which proposals for fresh jargon are made. TheJargon
File, which records ‘the language hackers use among themselves
for fun, social communication, and technical debate’, is quite clear
about its innovative, ludic, dynamic properties:^7
Hackers... regard slang formation and use as a game to be played
for conscious pleasure. Their inventions thus display an almost
unique combination of the neotenous enjoyment of language-play
with the discrimination of educated and powerful intelligence.
Further, the electronic media which knit them together are fluid,
‘hot’ connections, well adapted to both the dissemination of new
slang and the ruthless culling of weak and superannuated
specimens.Gareth Branwyn’sJargon watchis also illustrative, and his method
of handling the flood instructive:^8
When someone submits a term, we’re not overly concerned about
its origins (although we prefer words that have established usage).(^7) The introduction to theJargon File(http://www.tuxedo.org/∼esr/jargon/html/), a
work which as of August 2000 contained over 2,100 entries. The File has several senses
forhacker, of which the first one is: ‘A person who enjoys exploring the details of pro-
grammable systems and how to stretch their capabilities, as opposed to most users, who
prefer to learn only the minimum necessary’. In general English usage,hackerhas devel-
oped a pejorative sense: ‘A malicious meddler who tries to discover sensitive information
by poking around’. This usage is deprecated by true hackers, who refer to such individuals
8 ascrackers.Another online dictionary can be found at<www.netlingo.com>.
Branwyn (1997: Introduction).