A Cognitive Sociolinguistics Analysis of how Cognition and Society Affect the Formation of Internet Slang开题报告

1. 研究目的与意义

Nowadays, many netizens follow the trend of using Internet slang without fully understanding the meaning, resulting in inefficient or even wrong communication. Therefore, the analysis of meaning construction of Internet slang is needed. It can help netizens better understand Internet slang and accurately use it in daily communication, making communication more efficient.Besides, due to the relatively few restrictions of Internet communication, trans-regional communication and even transnational communication become easier. Therefore, it is possible for Internet slang in a certain country to enter other countries through Internet communication and exert influence. Foreigners can get to know other countries through Internet slang transmitted to their own countries. To some extent, Internet slang represents the image of a region or a country, or a certain kind of person or thing. It is necessary for us to understand the formation mechanism of Internet slang, and then carry out certain supervision and guidance, so as to ensure a healthy Internet atmosphere and a good national image.In addition, cognitive sociolinguistics, as a new study field, is in the important process of combining theory with practice. Most of the current studies take literary texts and Chinese Internet slang as cases to analyze, but less attention is paid to English Internet slang. This paper tries to fill this gap and enrich the study of Internet slang and the study of cognitive sociolinguistics.

2. 研究内容和预期目标

This paper focus on the English Internet slangs popular abroad in the past five years by analyzing their origins and meanings. The key question that need to be answered in the study is how the forming process of Internet slang is affected by human cognitive mechanism and social factors.The outline is as follows:1. Introduction2. Cognition2.1. Prototype theory2.2. Conceptual integration theory 2.2.1. Metaphor 2.2.2. Metonymy3. Society3.1. Social events 3.1.1. Election 3.1.2. COVID-19 3.1.3. Social news3.2. Subculture 3.2.1. Animate 3.2.2. Hip Hop 3.2.3. LGBT3.3. Social changes 3.3.1. Technological breakthroughs 3.3.2. Social atmosphere 3.3.3. Living standard4. Conclusion

3. 国内外研究现状

According to Crystal (2001, p.18), the term Netspeak refers to a type of language displaying features that are unique to the Internet. Some linguists called it Internet slang. Expressions like 3Q, BTW, no zuo no die, catfish, :), which we often see when chatting online, all belong to Internet slang.In the early studies, scholars often focused on the constitutive rules of Internet slang.Yin [殷燕] (2006) have made a relatively detailed summary of this aspect. The constitutive rules of Chinese Internet slang and English Internet slang have a lot in common. Both of them mostly rely on word-formation, including abbreviation, shortening, clipping and contraction, unconventional spelling, word-letter replacement and so on. In addition, the two kinds of network slang also have various characteristics of the constructive rules. For example, English grammar blends into the formation of Chinese Internet slang, such as ''X-ing'' structure (Zhang [张薇], 2015). The above research focuses on the formation and usage of Internet slang, but they do not answer the two questions: what deep connection does Internet slang have with people and society, what role does Internet slang play in modern society and people''s life and why does Internet slang can have a particular meaning?The first two questions have been partially answered in other scholars'' studies. Internet slang is popular with netizens and helps people and organization build their multicultural identities, transform traditional social relationships, and accomplish a range of social actions and activities (Zhang [张薇], 2012). For example, Zhou and Pan (2016) observed Chinese Non-Governmental Organization in Weibo for months and found that these organizations used Internet slang to get close to the Internet users. It''s similar in advertising. Embedding Internet slang can enhance creative quality of advertisements, generate positive brand awareness and product evaluation and increase advertising attention (Liu, Gui, Zuo amp; Dai, 2019). The above studies focus on the influence of Internet slang on society and people and the role it plays, but do not discuss the influence of society and people on Internet slang. Besides, the third question involves meaning construction related to society and culture, which is rarely fully Firstly, select the English Internet slang popular abroad in the last five years. Secondly, trace their origins and summarize their meanings. Then analyze the formation and the process of meaning construction from the angle of cognition and society. Through the analysis, it can be found out that how the forming process of Internet slang is affected by human cognitive mechanism and social factors.explained in papers.From the perspective of cognitive sociolinguistics, which is a new interdiscipline based on sociolinguistics and cognitive linguistics, society, language and cognition are closely related. Human cognize the real world through experience and then project it into language. This process is bound to be influenced by society (Zhao [赵永峰], 2013). Prototype theory and conceptual integration theory are important cognitive strategies. The former is about a mode of categorization with fuzzy boundary. Members of it enjoy family similarity and unequal status, that is, some attributes might be shared by only a few members (Taylor, 1995. p.51). The latter assumes that meaning construction involves the selective integration or blending of conceptual elements and employs the theoretical construct of conceptual integration networks to account for this process (Fauconnier amp; Turner, 2002, p.17-18). At present, many scholars have used these two theories to analyze words, sentences and texts. For example, Huo [霍中惠] (2010) analyzed the euphemism and Walker and Harbus (2020) analyzed the poem “Under a Certain Little Star”. Regrettably, English Internet slang accounts for only a few of these studies.Therefore, the following research is necessary to fill in the gaps mentioned above. To be a comprehensive and in-depth study, it needs to be carried out from both social (external, objective) and cognitive (internal, subjective) perspectives of language (Wang [王天翼] amp; Wang [王寅], 2012).

4. 计划与进度安排

Firstly, select the English Internet slang popular abroad in the last five years. Secondly, trace their origins and summarize their meanings. Then analyze the formation and the process of meaning construction from the angle of cognition and society. Through the analysis, it can be found out that how the forming process of Internet slang is affected by human cognitive mechanism and social factors.

5. 参考文献

[1]crystal, d. (2001). language and the internet. cambridge: cambridge university press.

[2]fauconnier, g. amp; m. turner. (2002). the way we think. new york: basic books.

[3]liu, s., gui, d., zuo, y., amp; dai, y. (2019). good slang or bad slang? embedding internet slang in persuasive advertising. frontiers in psychology, (10), pp.1251.