LIVE via WEBCAST: Language and the Internet

David Crystal

Sunday, 02 Mar 2014 at 3:00 pm – Doziel Auditorium, 127 Curtiss Hall

Linguist David Crystal is perhaps best known as the author of The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language and The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language. He has authored more than one hundred books on the English language, with topics ranging from phonetics and grammar to Shakespeare to clinical linguistics. He has also been a presenter or consultant for several television programs, including the BBC's The Story of English. His latest book, with his wife and business partner, Hilary Crystal, is Wordsmiths and Warriors: The English-language Tourist's Guide to Britain. Crystal is an Honorary Professor of Linguistics at the University of Wales, Bangor. Quentin Johnson Lecture in Linguistics
What influence is the Internet having on language, and what is happening to language as it comes to be used on the Internet? There is a great deal of misleading popular mythology, which needs to be replaced by precise linguistic description. This talk presents the view that the Internet is in some respects a linguistic revolution, introducing new opportunities for communication, but that its influence on individual languages has so far been quite limited.

Cosponsored By:
  • English
  • Linguistics Program
  • Committee on Lectures (funded by Student Government)
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