UNIVERZITA PALACKÉHO V OLOMOUCI

PEDAGOGICKÁ FAKULTA

Katedra anglického jazyka

Tereza Valíková

III. ročník – prezenční studium

Obor: Český jazyk a literatura se zaměřením na vzdělávání – Anglický jazyk se zaměřením

na vzdělávání

Influence of the “netspeak” on modern Internet

user’s language

Bakalářská práce

Vedoucí bakalářské práce:

Olomouc 2014 Mgr. Jana Kořínková, Ph. D.
Prohlášení

Prohlašuji, že jsem svou bakalářskou práci vypracovala samostatně s využitím

uvedených zdrojů a literatury.

V Olomouci dne ________________________

2
I would like to thank Mgr. Jana Kořínková, Ph. D., for all the provided help and valuable
comments, and also thank my family and closest friends for their psychical support.

3
Abstract

This thesis deals with the influence of “netspeak” (internet language) on

the vocabulary of the users of social networks and online game players. The goal of
the theoretical part is to acquaint the general public with terminology and the basic
principles of this issues and then to describe the news in the field of the development and
usage of the internet language, mainly abbreviations. The practical part deals with
evaluation of questionnaire concerning “netspeak” in the everyday life.

4
Contents

Abstract ..................................................................................................................................4

Contents..................................................................................................................................5

Introduction ............................................................................................................................7

I. THEORETICAL PART
1 Terminology ........................................................................................................................9

1.1 Internet .....................................................................................................................9

1.2 Online communication ..........................................................................................10

1.2.1 Nick .....................................................................................................................10

1.2.2 Chat room ............................................................................................................11

1.3 Social networks .....................................................................................................11

1.4 Netholism ..............................................................................................................12

2 Netspeak ............................................................................................................................13

2.1 Language development ..............................................................................................13

2.2 Vocabulary .................................................................................................................14

2.2.1 New vocabulary ..................................................................................................15

2.2.2 Abbreviations ......................................................................................................16

2.2.2.1 Common chat acronyms ..............................................................................16

2.2.2.2 Leet speak ....................................................................................................17
2.3 Emoticons ...................................................................................................................19

II. PRACTICAL PART

3. Questionnaire evaluation ..................................................................................................20

3.1 About the respondents ....................................................................................................21

3.2 The results ......................................................................................................................22

Conclusion............................................................................................................................29

5
Bibliography .........................................................................................................................30

Appendix ..............................................................................................................................32

Annotation ............................................................................................................................34

6
Introduction

With the development of the internet in the last few years, the number of its users
grows proportionally. The usage by more and more people may be the main reason why all of
them got used to it – because it is comfortable to meet the others in one place and do not have
to leave our houses. These people are more likely to get addicted to the internet because
anything they would want to find is there in their grasp. People get indolent and easy about
important issues because it is comfortable to find everything in one spot – all the things they
want to know more about or even the people they could or could not normally meet around.

For some of us it is rather incomprehensible that some individuals sit at the computer
all day long and they keep chatting with other people’s accounts. Not the real people, just
accounts. It is simple to pretend we are different than we really are on the internet and this may
be the reason why certain individuals get addicted to it. They are anonymous and they can do,
in actual fact, whatever they want (some of them do not mince their words, indeed). These
people are called “netholists”.

While there are people like this, who spend the whole day chatting and contributing in
forums, and who need to answer or comment on these quickly, it is obvious that the language
aspect must be also affected. And it is, in depth. In the last few years when the internet is found
literally everywhere, the language changes started to occur. There are lots of new words,
abbreviations, Anglicisms in almost every language etc. Some of them were made on purpose,
some of them are just made by mistake but still they took their roots and became extremely
popular. This innovation is called “netspeak”.

The main goal of the theoretical part of this thesis is to acquaint the general public with
terminology and the basic principles of the issues dealing with the internet and its
sociolinguistic aspect, and also the influence of the new grammatical shifts of the online
communication on the user’s language. I consider setting and explaining of the basic
terminology and background information highly important and I assign extraordinary meaning
to it because while gathering the information and the results of the questionnaire published in
the practical part of this thesis, I encountered unpleasant misapprehensions many times.

7
 There were only 88 out of 100 people who understood what is the questionnaire about
and who were able to answer the 10 questions about it. Still, there were 7 out of the 88
respondents who do not use the online chatting or play online games at all. Therefore, they are
not privy to these issues and if there is somebody who wants to understand what “netspeak” is,
he or she needs to know where and why it is used.

Even though the expressions such as hard disc or port became an integral part of many
languages, there are lots of expressions that cannot be adopted. In addition it is not a rule that
anybody, who is able to speak English well, will be able to understand the netspeak
automatically because the communication through the screen varies from the face-to-face
communication.1

1
ROSENBAUM, Oliver. Anglicko-český slovník Internetu : Chat slang. Vyd. 1. Praha: Ivo Železný , 1997,
s. 5. ISBN 80-240-0061-1.

8
 I. THEORETICAL PART

1 Terminology

The Internet and the communication through it has become extremely popular in
the past fifteen or twenty years because as Crystal (2006) claims the Internet is “providing
an increasing range of services and enabling unprecedented numbers of people to be in
touch with each other through electronic mail (e-mail), discussion groups, and
the provision of digital “pages” on any topic.”2 On the grounds of this fact it is important
to describe some basic terminology because there are still so many people who have never
used the Internet even at its elemental level such as reading or sending e-mails,
and therefore they are not able to use the internet properly or to use the opportunities that
the internet gives us.

It is certainly a major problem of the grandparents of our generation – they are used
to claim the Internet as an entertainment for their grandchildren. The reverse is true.
It would be an unquestionable advantage for the elderly to develop their computer literacy.
As they have never had any personal computer on their school desks, they can still learn
something new even today but it is crucial to acquaint them with the terminology and some
basic principles.

1.1 Internet

“The Internet is an association of computer networks with common standards

which enable messages to be sent from any registered computer (or host) on one network
to any host on any other. It developed in the 1960s in the USA as an experimental network
which quickly grew to include military, federal, regional, university, business, and

2
CRYSTAL, D. Language on the Internet. 2. vyd. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006, s. 3. ISBN
978-0-511-24721-7.

9
personal users.3 We can find a computer with the possibility of connection to the internet
in almost every building nowadays. There are also many open places where we are allowed
to connect to the local Wi-Fi. This abbreviation simply means a possibility to connect to
the Internet without any wires.

1.2 Online communication

In the past, the access to the computers and the skill to operate them was a business
of the experts such as programmers, technicians, mathematicians, or designers. It extended
to the other spheres of society progressively and this led to certain increase of the circle
of its users. Therefore the communication must be adjusted to “work” properly. 4 The fact
of the rapidly growing extension of this possibility of pseudo-communication results in
many respects from simplification of the rules of grammar in particular language to
addiction to the internet connection.

There are lots of different means of communication using the Internet. In the recent
past, when the computers started to appear in almost every household, there were already
a few servers providing the possibility to create a new user’s profile represented by
“nick”. With this profile, the user was able to visit and participate in conversations in
particular chat room.

1.2.1 Nick

Nick is the abbreviation of nickname. According to Jandová (2006) it means

the name with which the participants of chat communication appear to the other users.
The difference between nicks and nicknames as we know them from the ordinary oral
communication is that the originator of the nick is identical with the bearer.5 This is where
we can form an opinion on the person beyond the screen but we cannot be sure whether

3
CRYSTAL, D. Language on the Internet. 2. vyd. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006, s. 3. ISBN
978-0-511-24721-7
4
DANEŠ, F. Český jazyk na přelomu tisíciletí. Vyd. 1. Praha: Academia, 1997, s. 105.
ISBN 80-200-0617-6.
5
JANDOVÁ, E. Čeština na www chatu. Vyd. 1. Ostrava: Ostravská univerzita, Filozofická fakulta, 2006, s.
43. ISBN 80-736-8253-2.

10
the nick bearer is exactly of the same gender or age as it sounds to be. This is not
a problem of the new social networks because their terms of use often recommend the real
name of the user.6

1.2.2 Chat room

As Jandová (2006) explains, chat room is a space where relatively great amount of
people, who are being connected, are able to communicate in the real time. They appear
anonymously with their nicks and they can chat with all the other attendants (many-to-
many) or they can “whisper” to one person separately (one-to-one).7 The activity of the
people who used to visit those chat rooms has decreased nowadays. The reason is that
many of them got used to the one-to-one chat windows on many other social networks.

1.3 Social networks

Social network (or social community) is an interconnected group of people who

influence each other in certain ways. It is created on the basis of common interests, family
relationships, or other reasons. Man is naturally a social creature and therefore it is crucial
for us to create the social networks around us and this might also be a reason why
the online social networks became to exist. The most known of all of them is Facebook
that has been created by Mark Zuckerberg as a social network for his schoolmates
at Harvard University.8 It is widespread all over the world nowadays and even though it
is used the most, there are also some alternatives such as Google+, MySpace, or Twitter.9

It is usual to have a personal account on Facebook nowadays. It is a free and

comfortable way how to keep in touch with our childhood friends, with the friends we have
now, or friends that moved away and normally we would not have any other contact.
Facebook also serves as a place where sharing of photos, videos, and information is

6
Facebook. [online]. 2013 [cit. 2014-04-16]. Dostupné z: https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms
7
JANDOVÁ, E. Čeština na www chatu. Vyd. 1. Ostrava: Ostravská univerzita, Filozofická fakulta, 2006,
s. 18. ISBN 80-736-8253-2.
8
Internet pro všechny. BUGNER, M. Sociální síť, dobrý sluha, zlý pán [online]. 2009 [cit. 2014-04-16].
Dostupné z: http://www.internetprovsechny.cz/socialni-sit-dobry-sluha-zly-pan/
9
Sociální sítě. Facebook [online]. 2011 [cit. 2014-04-16]. Dostupné z:
http://www.socialnisite.123abc.cz/facebook

11
possible or there is even a possibility to plan new events for our friends. 10 This description
suits all the other social networks generally. There is, however, a problem with
the increasing need to communicate with people who are always staying at home and also
chat with other people. This phenomenon is like an avalanche and that is why certain
people became internet-addicted.

1.4 Netholism

As Tomczyk (2013) describes, the risk of an addiction to the new media is mostly
alarming among the youngest generation of the Internet users.11 Due to the contemporary
accelerated lifestyle, the parents have apparently not enough time to devote to their
children and to lead them to a friendship with their neighbour’s children or with their
classmates. This might be the reason why the children usually come home from school and
go directly to their computer to chat with friends or people they have never met before.

The problem occurs when a child gets used to associate with other pseudo-
characters in cyberspace where he or she is able to communicate on an artificial
anonymous interface at the expense of face-to-face communication and real-life
relationships. This type of addiction is certainly very underrated because it comes almost
invisibly at its early stage.12

Due to the growing number of those people who are addicted or who use
the communication through social networks too often, the need for speed and simplicity of
the communication process is also increasing rapidly. This increase is still in progress and
there are vast numbers of new expressions arising. This phenomenon of the new
or simplified expressions and words is known as the “Netspeak”.

10
Sociální sítě. Facebook [online]. 2011 [cit. 2014-04-16]. Dostupné z:
http://www.socialnisite.123abc.cz/facebook
11
KOPECKÝ, K. Rizika internetové komunikace v teorii a praxi. 1. vyd. Olomouc: Univerzita Palackého v
Olomouci, 2013, s. 102. ISBN 978-80-244-3571-8.
12
KOPECKÝ, K. Rizika internetové komunikace v teorii a praxi. 1. vyd. Olomouc: Univerzita Palackého v
Olomouci, 2013, s. 103. ISBN 978-80-244-3571-8.

12
2 Netspeak

Now, when there is no problem in understanding the commonly known

terminology, it is time to introduce the “netspeak” because as Rosenbaum (2001) points
out the fact that after the connection to the internet there will appear another problem –
the language one. Especially in chat rooms, the style of expression is so remote from
the common speech nowadays that a user who had learned the English only in school, has
trouble to understand it.13

“The term „Netspeak‟ is an alternative to „Netlish‟, „Weblish‟, „Internet language‟,

„cyberspeak‟, „electronic discourse‟, „electronic language‟, „interactive written discourse‟,
„computer-mediated communication‟ (CMC), and other more cumbersome locutions.”14
The word itself is a coinage of two words – “internet” and “speak”. As Crystal (2006)
claims, it originates in the Orwellian introduction of Newspeak and Oldspeak in 1984, and
other developments from these, such as Doublespeak or Royalspeak.15

“Netspeak is succinct, and functional enough, as long as we remember that „speak‟

here involves writing as well as talking, and that any „speak‟ suffix also has a receptive
element, including listening and reading. The first of these points hardly seems worth
the reminder, given that the Internet is clearly a predominantly written medium, and yet, as
we shall see, the question of how speech is related to writing is at the heart of the
matter.”16

2.1 Language development

The main aspect of the language development may be the adoption of new words from
a different language. It can also be creation of new expressions within a particular language or
reshaping the existing ones. Here asserts the need for new expressions, conscious intention as

13
ROSENBAUM, Oliver. Anglicko-český slovník Internetu: chat-slang. 3., podstatně přeprac. a dopl. vyd.
Praha: Ivo Železný, 2001, s. 5. ISBN 80-240-2058-0.
14
CRYSTAL, D. Language on the Internet. 2. vyd. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006, s. 19.
ISBN 978-0-511-24721-7.
15
CRYSTAL, D. Language on the Internet. 2. vyd. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006, s. 19.
ISBN 978-0-511-24721-7.
16
CRYSTAL, D. Language on the Internet. 2. vyd. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2006, s. 19-20.
ISBN 978-0-511-24721-7.

13
well as subconscious need. Sometimes it is just a coincidence, sometimes the pleasure of
something new. It is also natural to be as good as the others; therefore we try to emulate them
if we do not want to be in arrears.17

Sociologists characterise the contemporary condition of the “Euro-Atlantic society” by

these dominant types of development process: The first one of them is modernisation – new
branches of science, new technologies, industrialisation, urbanisation, etc. Second one is
mass culture – there is a high standardization occurring in the way of life, due to mass
media the society began to be considerably uniform. The third transformation is related to
the globalisation of the society – the politics, economic system and the culture are in
the focus of interest.18

2.2 Vocabulary

The choice of vocabulary we will use in particular instances is determined by many

factors. According to Čmejrková19 these are fleetingness vs. permanency, spontaneity vs.
preparedness, immediacy vs. metodicalness, possibility vs. impossibility of correction of
the mistakes and errors.

There is a considerable difference between an informal chatting with a friend on

Facebook where the amount of people, who are able to see the particular chat window, is
only two, and between a discussion forum where anyone can stray and read
the contribution. It is quite required to answer immediately when chatting and some little
mistakes are usually tolerated. In case of writing a contribution to a blog or a forum, it is
usual to re-read the whole piece of work and to correct potential mistakes.

According to Crystal (2007) there are lots of children and even adults who have
problems with writing, reading and spelling despite they are intelligent. These people are

17
DANEŠ, F. Český jazyk na přelomu tisíciletí. Vyd. 1. Praha: Academia, 1997, s. 19.
ISBN 80-200-0617-6.
18
DANEŠ, F. Český jazyk na přelomu tisíciletí. Vyd. 1. Praha: Academia, 1997, s. 12. ISBN 80-200-0617-6
19
ČMEJRKOVÁ, S. 1997. Čeština v síti: Psanost či mluvenost? O stylu e-mailového dialogu. Naše řeč, 80,
4, s. 225-247

14
dyslexic.20 This should not be confused with the “new” language of the internet where
anything is possible and even the mistakes are often considered to be a standard.
For example a child that keeps skipping letters or even the whole words is probable not to
do the “approvable” mistakes on purpose.

2.2.1 New vocabulary

The new vocabulary is recognizable in many different languages rather than in

English. This may be caused because the majority of the innovations in the branch of
computer technologies come from the English speaking world. As Daneš et al (1997) point
out, in the past ten years, the contact between Czech Republic and the rest of the world is
more open, and the world is more open for us, and due to this fact we are oversaturated
with a huge number of new information and our vocabulary is full of brand new words –
Anglicisms.21 This situation is given because the society undergoes certain social
transformation constantly.

Some of the Anglicisms are adapted because they have not any equivalent in our
language, such as hamburger, walkman, jazz, football, tramway, jam ... The next are the
ones that adapted in the Czech language but also have an original equivalent, such as cash
– v hotovosti, public relations – vztahy s veřejností, P.O.Box – poštovní přihrádka.
Borrowing certain words from different languages is a dynamical, open process and it is
still being expanded.22

The Anglicisms dealing with the computer communication became extremely

popular nowadays. They are called internationalisms because they are not used only in one
language different from English but these expressions mean the same thing all over the
world. These are probably more attractive to the users, apposite and stronger in the terms
of meaning. For example: mail, comp, link, smile, net, colour23

20
CRYSTAL, David. How language works: [how babies babble, words change meaning and languages live
or die]. Publ. in pbk. London [u.a.]: Penguin Books, 2007, s. 140. ISBN 978-0-141-01552-1.
21
DANEŠ, F. Český jazyk na přelomu tisíciletí. Vyd. 1. Praha: Academia, 1997, s. 271. ISBN 80-200-0617-6
22
DANEŠ, F. Český jazyk na přelomu tisíciletí. Vyd. 1. Praha: Academia, 1997, s. 272-273. ISBN 80-200-
0617-6
23
DANEŠ, F. Český jazyk na přelomu tisíciletí. Vyd. 1. Praha: Academia, 1997, s. 117. ISBN 80-200-0617-6

15
 2.2.2 Abbreviations

Specific type of new vocabulary form abbreviations newly emerged from

the necessity of quick and outright communication by means of chat. It is not meant only
an online chatting on the social networks but even the language of the players of online
games, such as League of Legends, World of Warcraft, Quake Live ... In this case it is
common to use those abbreviations even in the spoken language when the players are
connected with communication programmes such as Skype or Team Speak.

Even though it is often ascribed to the today’s communication, the necessity of

reducing the words was here long before the online chat usage. “The technical properties
of SMS define its communicative possibilities. One SMS message can contain up to
140 bytes (1,120 bits) of data. If characters (letters, punctuation marks, etc.) are encoded
with 7 bits ... then the maximum size of the message is 160 characters.”24

There have been many text-messaging poetry competitions, where “the

requirement was to write a poem within the 160-character constraint of the mobile phone
screen.”25 Here is one example that was given the special prize to the most creative use of
SMS. It went to Julia Bird.

14: a txt msg pom. 14: a text message poem.

his is r bunsn brnr bl% his eyes are Bunsen burner blue,
his hair lyk fe filings his hair like iron filings
W/ac/dc going thru. With ac/dc going through.
I sit by him in kemistry, I sit by him in chemistry,
it splits my @oms it splits my atoms
wen he :-)s @ me. When he smiles at me.26

There is an obvious similarity and overlap with nowadays phenomenon of

abbreviating anything that is possible. Crystal (2009) emphasises that it is not a proof

24
CRYSTAL, D. Txtng: The gr8 db8. 1st pub. in pbk. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, s. 5-6. ISBN
9780199544905.
25
CRYSTAL, D. Txtng: The gr8 db8. 1st pub. in pbk. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, s. 14. ISBN
9780199544905.
26
CRYSTAL, D. Txtng: The gr8 db8. 1st pub. in pbk. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, s. 15-16.
ISBN 9780199544905.

16
of dyslexia, mental laziness or being an illiterate.27 In the online communication we need
to save time and we expect the immediate answer from the counterpart.

2.2.2.1 Common chat acronyms

The mostly known acronyms nowadays that are used in online chatting are those
we find anywhere we go to the internet discussions. They express the momentary feelings
or circumstances.

The most frequently used acronyms:28

Acronym Meaning Example of usage

lol laughing out loud lol my cat just fell into the toilet!

lmao laughing my ass off She can't get out! lmao

brb be right back Alright, I need to help her before she drowns. brb.

rofl rolling on (the) floor laughing Fine, she's alive. rofl! She fell there again!

wtf what the f*ck?! wtf is wrong with her? is she high?"

ftw for the win I'll get a dog next time. Dogs don't fall into toilets. Dogs ftw!

imho in my (humble) opinion Cats are no good as companions anyway, imho.

ffs for f*ck's sake Oh come on! She fell there YET AGAIN. FFS!

cya see ya (see you later) I'm gonna take her to the vet. Cya.

wb welcome back wb. That was quick. How's your cat?

Not good. The vet kept her. He said something about putting
iirc if I recall correctly
her to sleep, iirc. I guess she just needs some rest.

omg Oh my god! OMG, he's gonna kill her! Quickly call him!

idk I don't know Should I? idk, he clearly said "sleep".

ofc Of course OFC! This is how they say it. Call him! Fast!

27
CRYSTAL, D. Txtng: The gr8 db8. 1st pub. in pbk. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009, s. 13. ISBN
9780199544905.
28
AJ slovíčka. Zkratky v online komunikaci [online]. [cit. 2014-04-20]. Dostupné z:
http://www.ajslovicka.cz/clanky/zkratky-v-online-komunikaci.html

17
 I talked to him. You were right! Fortunately it wasn't too late.
ty/thx thank you/thanks
Thx mate, you saved my kitty!

yw You're welcome yw, happy to help.

I'm so happy. It'll be pita to live with her but I still wanna keep
pita pain in the arse
her.

nvm nevermind Maybe you should... nvm. bad idea.

Anyway, gtg before the vet guy changes his mind. Thanks again
gtg got to go
for your help I really appreciate that.

np no problem np, don't mention it. I'm off, it's getting late over here.

gn/nn good night/nighty night gn then

gl good luck nn and gl. Say hi to your kitty for me.

kk ok kk, I will. bye

bb bye bye bb

2.2.2.2 Leet speak

According to Jandová (2006), acronyms such as sk8, L8er, F2F (face to face) can
be an element of the language play.29 Not only are they useful for that they save space and
time, it is also fun to create them, for example: 10Q – thank you. These acronyms made of
letters and numbers are also often called 1337 = L33T = Leet speak.
It is commonly used among the online games players, for example pwn3d = pwned
(owned) – embarrassed, n00b = noob – newbie, 1up = one up – extra life, etc.30

The term leet is derived from the word elite.31 In the gaming world it means a
language among people who play a particular game for so long, they know almost
everything about it. They also use acronyms invented by the game developers just for
the game even in the spoken language, for example PvP – player versus player, DPS –
damage per second, GuM – Guild master, or simply WoW – World of Warcraft.32

29
JANDOVÁ, E. Čeština na www chatu. Vyd. 1. Ostrava: Ostravská univerzita, Filozofická fakulta, 2006,
s. 140. ISBN 80-736-8253-2.
30
Chat slang. Online gaming slang [online]. [cit. 2014-04-19]. Dostupné z:
http://www.chatslang.com/terms/online_gaming
31
Wikipedia. Leet [online]. [cit. 2014-04-19]. Dostupné z: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leetspeak
32
Herniweb. Slovníček zkratek [online]. 2009 [cit. 2014-04-19]. Dostupné z:
http://wow.herniweb.cz/readarticle.php?article_id=327

18
 2.3 Emoticons

As Rosenbaum (2001) claims even though the necessity of personal encounter

disappeared with the arrival of all means of communication, the transfer of emotions and
moods of the participants is not lost (e.g. in phone calls). This statement is not applicable
to the online communication. There is no personal contact and no voice to hear (except
video calls) or any expressive handwriting. It is important to “read between the lines” to
understand what the counterparty wants to convey because there is only a small step to
the inconvenience known as “communication chaos”.33

On the contrary there is a possibility how to express the way we mean what we
write whether it is ironically, sadly, jokingly etc. The emoticons added a new dimension to
the online communication. They usually consist of a colon representing the eyes, dash
stands for a nose and there can be almost anything representing the mouth. There are lots
of variations. Here are some of them but these are the most frequently used. Surely there
are many of them invented each day.

:-) smile
;-) wink, joke
:-D laughter
:-( trouble
:’( cry
:’-) cry of happiness
:-S disagreement
>:-( frown
:-P tongue stuck out
:-@ shouting
:-O surprise
:-I indifference
:-X secret
:-* kiss
*<:o) clown

33
ROSENBAUM, Oliver. Anglicko-český slovník Internetu: chat-slang. 3., podstatně přeprac. a dopl. vyd.
Praha: Ivo Železný, 2001, s. 5. ISBN 80-240-2058-0.

19
II. PRACTICAL PART
3. Questionnaire evaluation

The practical part of the thesis is a research that sets the task of mapping
the development in language of people, who use the online communication, whether they
adopted all the expressions easily or if they are rather sceptical. The questionnaire was
given to 100 random respondents but only 88 were reliably useable. The remaining 12
questionnaires were either incomplete or untrustworthy so I decided not to take them into
consideration in the results below. The respondents are divided into four main groups
sorted according to their age.

1. 15-20
2. 21-30
3. 31-40
4. 40+

There were totally 75 adults (46 women, 29 men) and 9 girls and 4 boys at the age
of less than 19 years old. This division is necessary to differentiate the university students
and older people from youngsters in high schools. Their activity on social networks or in
online games is higher than the others’ so the results divided only by gender would not be
accurate.

To the question No. 3, whether they use social networks or if they play any online
game or not, 7 respondents of total 88 answered negatively. These 7 people are not taken in
consideration in particular results. These graphs are marked with *. Thus, there are 81
respondents who answered positively and they are counted in the statistics.

Surely there are many other social networks that have not been mentioned here in
the results. The main reason for this is that they are not used so frequently among the
respondents. In the graphs for question No. 4 there is the “Other” column which covers a
couple of few more networks such as Lide.cz, Libimseti.cz, but mainly LinkedIn.

20
 3.1 About the respondents

A) Age groups

The first graph contains information of how many percent of the total 88 people
belong to each group divided by their age. In the first group there were 22 respondents, in
the second one 51, in the third 12 and in the fourth 3.

B) Men, women, youth

In the second graph we can see the percentage of how many members of each
gender took part in the research. To separate the youngsters from the adults was important
because they obviously have different needs and conventions. There were 46 women, 29
men and 13 youngsters.

21
 3.2 The results

C) Comparison of the users of the social

networks according to the gender*

The question no. 4 asked the respondents to cross every social network they were
using regularly at that time. It is obvious that the most frequently used network is
Facebook. There were only 1 woman and 1 man who did not ever use Facebook and they
do not have their own profile. All the youngsters are using Facebook.

The results discovered the stagnating interest in Google+ among the adult users.
This may be the result of that they do not have enough time to observe what is happening
on two big networks at a time, especially when Google+ is not that widespread in Czech
Republic. The result is higher among the youngsters at high schools who generally spend
more time online than the rest of the respondents, according to the graph E).

Nearly the half of the youngsters uses Twitter. This network is obviously not that
popular in Czech Republic. There are only 2 men who responded that they have their
Twitter account and they regularly actualise their “tweets”. The least common social
network in this research is MySpace. There were 10 people who crossed the “Other”
column which means they use some of the social networks that were not offered.

22
 D) Comparison of the users of the social
networks according to the age*

This graph is also corresponding with the question No.4 and it is divided not by
gender but by the age of the respondents. It shows us that 100% of the questioned people
between 15 – 20 years use Facebook. This is not very surprising in relation to the result in
the previous graph where also 100% of the people younger than 19 years use it.

Only 1 respondent between 21 – 30 years of age does not have a Facebook profile
and 7 out of 12 at the age between 31 – 40 years do. These three results confirm us in
the fact that Facebook is the most frequently used social network.

The second observed network is Google+ again. Only 4 out of 22 people between
15 – 20 years do not have their own profile and, with taking the previous graph into
account, it means that 5 people in the age of 19 or 20 use the Google+ actively.
The frequency decreases with the increasing age. Google+ is not very popular among
the users older than 21 years.

Respondents who were older than 31 years do not have an account on MySpace and
only one of them has a “thread” on Twitter. There was 1 person at the age of more than 40
years who uses Facebook and 1 who uses Google+. This indicates that the social networks
are frequent among the people younger than 30 years. This is, however, a misleading result
because there were only 2 out of 3 respondents older than 40 years who used the networks.

23
 E) Daily attendance according to the age*

Question No. 5 was dealing with the time the respondents spend their free time
online on the social network on the daily average. The assignment required the time that
they not only use the network actively – chatting or commenting their friends’ photos, but
just the whole time they are connected to the site – browsing the news feed or their friends’
profiles.

People older than 31 years usually go there for around an hour. This is all right
because these people know how to spend their free time more effectively than the younger
respondents. The result of those between 21 – 30 years of age was quite predictable but
the result of the youth up to the age of 20 is rather alarming.

Imagine a high school student who stays for example from 8:00 am to 14:00 pm at
school, he or she comes home afterwards, and then he or she stays connected to a social
network for 5 hours or more. This fact says a lot about the passivity and lack of interest in
life achievements and the real world around the respondents at the age of 15 – 20.

24
 F) Usage of the abbreviations according to
the age*

Legend: a) I use the abbreviations and my friends use them too.

b) I use the abbreviations but it quite bothers my friends.
c) I use the abbreviations rarely.
d) I never use the abbreviations.

The results of question No. 6 were not very surprising. Limited usage of
the abbreviations by people older than 40 years was predictable, and also the respondents
of the age in between 31 – 40 use them variously – 3 of them do not ever, 2 of them do,
and 2 of them do also but there are few people who are annoyed at it.

There are different answers among the people younger than 30 years. Most of them
use abbreviations and their counterparts do not mind. The result of 7 people, who answered
that they use abbreviations but some counterparts do have problems with it, is rather
surprising, because among the people between 20-30 years of age some tolerance is
counted with. 16 of the respondents at this age answered they use the abbreviations rarely
which was also quite surprising because this number is quite high. 9 of them use them
never.

25
 G) Attitude to the abbreviations*

Legend: a) I am glad that the abbreviations are used even beyond being online.
b) I do not like it. I consider it as illiteracy and ignorance.
c) I do not know.

Among the respondents who were older than 21 years, there were quite
similar answers, except a few cases. 22 (18+4) of them do not agree with using
the abbreviations either at all or at least in the condition of not being online and
chatting with friends.

The biggest number of the sympathisers of abbreviations was among the

respondents between 15-20 years of age. Both the respondents at the age of more
than 40 years answered that they do not have any opinion on this issues.
The popularity among the youngsters was predictable.

26
 H) Usage of the abbreviations beyond
being online*

The results for question No. 8 were quite interesting and surprising. There were
always more respondents who did not use the abbreviations beyond being online. At least
in the group of the 15-20 years old respondents we expected far more people who do
because they spend more time connected to some of the social networks than the rest of the
respondents.

I) Automatic usage of abbreviations*

Question No. 9 was an open question: If the answer in previous question was YES,
is it happening only when forethought in certain circumstances or is it happening
automatically?

The most frequent answer was that they got used to it so much that they use it
automatically, as if it was a part of their ordinary vocabulary. Only 12 respondents use
these in certain circumstances, e.g. with friends but not with parents.

27
 J) Opinion on the influence on our language*

In question No. 10 the choice of more answers was possible. The respondents
had these options:
a) I differentiate the written communication with parents from the one with my
friends.
b) I do not differentiate the written communication with parents from the one with
my friends.
c) The netspeak expressions enriched my vocabulary (in good way, e.g. my
English got better.
d) The netspeak expressions degraded my vocabulary (I cannot remember
the exact naming so I use for example “WTF”).
e) I watch my grammar and spelling much better because I know that my
contributions can be read by anybody and I do not want to be dishonoured for
this.
f) I do not mind wrong usage of grammar of spelling while online; I consider
the speed of the interaction the most important.
g) If somebody (in chat, in forums ...) writes a spelling or grammatical mistake,
I tend to admonish them.

The most frequently chosen options were c), d), and e). This is rather equivocal
because some of the respondents feel good about using the abbreviations and some of
them do not. This is why we cannot deduce a definite conclusion or generalise
the ascertained data from question No. 10.

28
Conclusion

There were certain reasons why I decided to use the questionnaire as a tool for
the practical part of the thesis. The main of them was that it is always simple to count
an average from the ascertained pieces of information and also the evaluating is
sometimes very surprising.

There were certain assumptions and projections before the evaluating itself.
Some of them were confirmed, some of them were disproved, but the main statement
remains untouched: the netspeak is a developing feature and it slowly finds its place in
modern linguistics.

The youngsters’ vocabulary is the most affected by netspeak these days. This is
probably because they are used to come home from school and stay connected to
the evening. On the other hand, the university students and all the respondents older
than 21 years are not enthused that much. They are rather sceptical to these nowadays
trends.

On the contrary, there were diverse answers in the question No. 10 so

the conclusion is not so easy to deduce. Some people are glad that there are certain
trends and their vocabulary was enriched by netspeak. There are, however, many of
them who do not use the abbreviations at all, or who do not like it when somebody
around them uses it.

There are so many possible answers to the questions dealing with netspeak.
None of them is correct, none of them is wrong. This society always needs to come up
with something new and certain people consider it necessary to learn new things. Some
people, however, claim the netspeak to be a defacing feature of the languages today.

29
Bibliography

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2006, s. 3. ISBN 978-0-511-24721-7.

CRYSTAL, David. How language works: [how babies babble, words change meaning and
languages live or die]. Publ. in pbk. London [u.a.]: Penguin Books, 2007, 500 s. ISBN
978-0-141-01552-1.

CRYSTAL, David. Txtng: the Gr8 Db8. New York: Oxford University Press, c2008, ix,
239 p. ISBN 978-019-9544-905.

ČMEJRKOVÁ, S. 1997. Čeština v síti: Psanost či mluvenost? O stylu e-mailového

dialogu. Naše řeč, 80, 4.

DANEŠ, F. et al. Český jazyk na přelomu tisíciletí. Vyd. 1. Praha: Academia, 1997, 292 s.
ISBN 80-200-0617-6.

JANDOVÁ, E. et al. Čeština na www chatu. Vyd. 1. Ostrava: Ostravská univerzita,

Filozofická fakulta, 2006, 262 s. ISBN 80-736-8253-2.

KOPECKÝ, K. et al. Rizika internetové komunikace v teorii a praxi. 1. vyd. Olomouc:

Univerzita Palackého v Olomouci, 2013, 188 s. ISBN 978-80-244-3571-8.

ROSENBAUM, Oliver. Anglicko-český slovník Internetu : Chat slang. Vyd. 1. Praha: Ivo
Železný, 1997, 231 s. ISBN 8024000611.

ROSENBAUM, Oliver. Anglicko-český slovník Internetu: chat-slang. 3., podstatně

přeprac. a dopl. vyd. Praha: Ivo Železný, 2001, 305 s. ISBN 80-240-2058-0.

30
Online sources

AJ slovíčka. Zkratky v online komunikaci [online]. [cit. 2014-04-18]. Dostupné z:

http://www.ajslovicka.cz/clanky/zkratky-v-online-komunikaci.html
Chat slang. Online gaming slang [online]. [cit. 2014-04-18]. Dostupné z:
http://www.chatslang.com/terms/online_gaming

Facebook. [online]. 2013 [cit. 2014-04-16]. Dostupné z:

https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms

Herniweb. Slovníček zkratek [online]. 2009 [cit. 2014-04-19]. Dostupné z:

http://wow.herniweb.cz/readarticle.php?article_id=327

Internet pro všechny. BUGNER, M. Sociální síť, dobrý sluha, zlý pán [online]. 2009 [cit.
2014-04-16]. Dostupné z: http://www.internetprovsechny.cz/socialni-sit-dobry-sluha-zly-
pan/

Smajlíci. Pixy [online]. [cit. 2014-04-16]. Dostupné z:

http://www.pixy.cz/osobni/smajl.html

Sociální sítě. Facebook [online]. 2011 [cit. 2014-04-16]. Dostupné z:

http://www.socialnisite.123abc.cz/facebook

Wikipedia. Leet [online]. [cit. 2014-04-19]. Dostupné z:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leetspeak

31
Appendix
Příloha č. 1 - Dotazník

Vážená paní, vážená slečno, vážený pane,

dostal se Vám do rukou dotazník, který se zabývá tématem internetové jazykové

komunikace, a měl by mi posloužit jako průzkum pro praktickou část mé bakalářské práce
na téma Netspeak a jeho vliv na jazyk moderního uživatele internetu.
V dotazníku se zaměřuji zejména na sociální sítě a online počítačové hry, kde
abreviace (omg, lol, btw, fyi,…) jsou velmi častým jevem. Budu velmi ráda, pokud
v případě, že u otázky č. 3 odpovíte ANO, mi zodpovíte i všechny zbylé otázky.
Dotazník je anonymní, Vaše data nebudou zveřejněna.

1. Věková kategorie: 15-20, 21-30, 31-40, 40+

2. Pohlaví: žena x muž

3. Využíváte aktivně (chat, příspěvky) některou ze sociálních sítí nebo hrajete

počítačové online hry? (Jste v synchronní* komunikaci na online rozhraní aktivním
uživatelem?) * synchronní komunikací chápej takovou, kde si dva nebo lidé píší ve stejném čase.

ANO NE

4. Které z těchto sociálních sítí využíváte AKTIVNĚ? Můžete zvolit více odpovědí.

 Facebook
 Google+
 Twitter
 MySpace
 Jiné: ________________________

5. Kolik hodin denně průměrně strávíte přihlášeni na sociální síť nebo hraním online
her? (nejen aktivní – chat, přispívání do fór, ale i samotné prohlížení novinek atp.)

Méně než 1 hodinu 1-2 hodiny 3-5 hodin více než 5 hodin

6. Používáte běžně při PSANÉ online komunikaci (sociální sítě, hry) s přáteli
abreviace?

 Ano, běžně, a přátelé je taky používají.

 Ano, ale mým přátelům to spíše vadí
 Používám zřídka
 Nepoužívám vůbec

32
Jaký je váš vztah k abreviacím mimo online prostředí?

 Jsem rád/a, že se tyto moderní zkratky rozšiřují i mimo online

prostředí
 Nemám to rád/a, beru to jako negramotnost
 Nevím

7. Používáte tyto zkratky také v mluveném projevu mimo online prostředí?

ANO NE

8. Pokud ano, používáte je pouze při určitých situacích nebo je používáte automaticky
bez rozmýšlení? Případně v jakých situacích nebo případech?
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________

9. Jaký zastáváte názor, že mají tyto výrazy vliv na váš jazykový projev ať už psaný
nebo mluvený? Zvolte i více možností:

 Odlišuji psanou komunikaci s rodiči od té s přáteli.

 Neodlišuji psanou komunikaci s rodiči od té s přáteli.

 Netspeakové výrazy mi obohatily slovní zásobu (v dobrém slova smyslu –

např. zlepšily mi angličtinu, atp.).

 Netspeakové výrazy mi slovní zásobu spíše zdegenerovaly (nemůžu si

vzpomenout na nějaký výraz a místo něj použiji např. WTF, atp.).

 Lépe si hlídám gramatiku a pravopis, protože vím, že si může mé příspěvky

kdokoli přečíst, a nechci mít ostudu.

 V internetovém prostoru pravopis neřeším, důležitější je pro mě rychlost

interakce.

 Když někdo (v chatu, ve fóru, …) napíše hrubku, mám neustále tendenci

hříšníka opravovat.

33
Annotation
Jméno a příjmení: Tereza Valíková
Katedra: Katedra anglického jazyka
Vedoucí práce: Mgr. Jana Kořínková, Ph. D.
Rok obhajoby: 2014

Název práce: Vliv tzv. „netspeaku“ na jazyk moderního uživatele

internetu
Název v angličtině: Influence of the “netspeak” on modern Internet
user’s language
Anotace práce: Tato práce se zabývá vlivem tzv. „netspeaku“
(internetového jazyka) na slovní zásobu dnešních
uživatelů sociálních sítí a hráčů počítačových online
her. V teoretické části si práce klade za cíl především
obeznámit laickou veřejnost s terminologií a základními
principy této problematiky a následně přiblížit novinky
spojené s vývojem a užíváním internetového jazyka,
zejména abreviací. Praktická část se zabývá
vyhodnocením dotazníku, který se týká užívání
„netspeaku“ v běženém životě uživatelů.
Klíčová slova: Netspeak, internet, abreviace, internetový jazyk,
sociolingvistika
Anotace v angličtině: This thesis deals with the influence of “netspeak”
(internet language) on the vocabulary of the users of
social networks and online game players. The goal of
the theoretical part is to acquaint the general public with
terminology and the basic principles of this issues and
then to describe the news in the field of the development
and usage of the internet language, mainly
abbreviations. The practical part deals with evaluation
of questionnaire concerning “netspeak” in the everyday
life.
Klíčová slova Netspeak, internet, abbreviations, internet language,
sociolinguistics
v angličtině:
Přílohy vázané k práci: 1 příloha - Dotazník
Rozsah práce: 34 stran
Jazyk práce: Anglický jazyk

34
35