Finding an identity 79
maintain its place on the Internet as it does everywhere else in so-
ciety. Indeed, it is unusual to see material on the Net written in
non-standard English – such as regional dialect.^18 The vast major-
ity of Web pages are in standard English. Most of my e-mails are in
standardEnglish–someverycolloquial,butnonethelessrespecting
the conventions of the standard written language. Notwithstanding
the idiosyncrasy of chatgroup and virtual worlds language, a great
deal of it is written in standard English. And if we add up all the
non-standard English (or perhaps I should say, not-yet-standard
English) which is described in chapters 4–7, it is still only a small
part of the language used on the Internet as a whole. In which case,
principle (2), if used to fuel a general recommendation about Net-
speak usage, hides another manifestation of prescriptivism. One
style of language is being advocated as a norm, to the apparent
exclusion of others, and apparently flying in the face of the bulk of
Internet usage.
Similar arguments could be adduced about other recommenda-
tions in Table 3.1. ‘Celebrate the colloquial’ (principle 5) is a fine
principle, but there are many occasions where it proves equally
necessary to ‘celebrate the formal’. It is an axiom of linguistics that
all varieties of language must be celebrated, for each contributes a
dimension to the rich mosaic of expressive effects that constitutes a
language. It is understandable that, as the new medium grows,
with all its exciting possibilities, the stylistic pendulum should
swing away from the traditions of formal written language. In
chapter 2, I reviewed some of the factors which have made this
inevitable. But only an inclusive view of Netspeak will represent
the reality of what is actually ‘out there’ in Internet situations.
The same point applies to principle (4), ‘Transcend the technical’,
which appeals to vividness and clarity. Clarity is crucial; indeed,
it is a conversational maxim (p. 58). But one person’s lucidity is
another person’s nightmare, and vice versa.Wired Stylecondemns
(^18) The Dialectizer, with a straight face, converts standard English sentences into a number
of ‘equivalent’ dialect forms:http://www.rinkworks.com/dialect/.