Language Change in Progress: Chinese Internet Lexicon and the Symbolic Meaning in the Harmonious Society
Language Change in Progress: Chinese Internet Lexicon and the Symbolic Meaning in the Harmonious Society

Summary/Abstract: Globalization and communication on the internet poses challenges to sociolinguistics.China is one of the engines of economic in the world. Since the Internet service started in1994, it has been developing rapidly. The rapid development of Internet communicationin China has created huge impact on the Chinese language and society. According toYates (1996), a new medium of communication such as the Internet not only draws uponexisting linguistic practices, but also generates new forms of Chinese Internet lexicon. Therapid diffusion of the Internet has prompted developments in the variety and creativityof language use. Internet users often create new words or appropriate the meanings ofexisting words. The resultant “Internet language” has unique lexical and discourse features.Li (2002) and Ma (2002) confirmed that Internet lexicon has brought the tremendousimpact and spread to everyday usage in Chinese society. In 2006 National LanguageResources Monitoring and Research Graphic Media Center has released the first time anannual report of Inventory of Chinese Language (汉语盘点 Hanyu pandian). Since 2011ten most popular Internet hot words have been released annually by National LanguageResources Monitoring and Research Graphic Media Center. This research is aimed todiscusses the emergence and use of most popular Chinese Internet vocabularies in therecent 10 years. Based on the data from National Language Resources Monitoring andResearch Graphic Media Center, the most popular Chinese Internet words and phrases(2011–2019) are analyzed and summarized into twelve categories. The implication andfindings of the symbolic meaning embedded in the Chinese internet lexicon are analyzed.This study sets out to examine the transformation of internet lexicon in China and toargue the equivalent relation between symbols, language and popular culture

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