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Cyberlingo-a jargon not for general use
If you've spent any time at all involved in any sort of text chat, you've probably seen a bunch of letters that seem like gibberish. You may have seen DD, 886, KPM, MM or one of many others. These cryptic letters are very popular among the younger generation. If today's pre-teens and teens didn't use this sort of Internet jargon in chat rooms and on IM (instant messaging), they would be considered "weird" and wouldn't be accepted by other teens. The use of Internet jargon is no longer confined to cyberspace, it has gone from the virtual world to the real world. The most glaring example is that primary and high school students have begun to use Internet jargon in their written work. A teacher in a middle school in Changsha, capital city of Central China's Hunan Province, recently was surprised to see scores of strange words such as "200" and "PMP" in a Chinese composition written by one of her students. The teacher had to ask the student to translate these words into standard Chinese, and the student explained that "200" means dongwuyuan (zoo) and "PMP" means paimapi (bootlicker). This secret language used by Internet nerds has different names - cyberlingo, Internet jargon, Internet language. Opinions vary about this new language used online. Some people believe that cyberlingo fully reflects the creativity and personality of young people. Some go even further, saying that the emergence of this new Internet language is a normal phenomenon and a necessary stage in the development of the Chinese language. Others worry that the abusive use of Internet jargon will finally undermine standard use of Chinese and even jeopardize its purity. In my opinion, this new language used by Internet users is essentially Internet chatterers' jargon. Every industry has its own jargon for people in the industry to communicate with each other. Online chat has its own lingo - cyberlingo. My advice is don't be scared of it, but let it take its natural course. There is no need to be excited or worried about the use of cyberlingo. Some people question whether cyberlingo is a normative language. Whether it is normative or not depends largely on whether it will gain wide acceptance. Whether a neologism is a correct word or not should not be judged by linguistic standards but rather by the test of time. If it is a good neologism it will slowly spread and become widely accepted, if not it will not survive. In the second place, new words are needed to describe new things and new concepts. New words will continually emerge in tandem with socioeconomic development and human progress, and the traditional language will be continually enriched with the emergence of new words. A living language both accumulates new words of value and preserves what is old and of value. Some Internet neologism, such as webaholic, hacker and e-mail, have gained widespread familiarity and acceptance. Some people may ask: Why invent new terms when the vocabulary already exists? However, these people are not aware that Internet jargon is a feature of the online culture, crossing race, gender and geography. As there is legal jargon for lawyers, there is Internet jargon for Internet users. For Internet users, cyberlingo somewhat extends and enriches vocabulary, serving to enliven conversation. However, the special Internet jargon is mostly used inside chat rooms, where communication needs to be easy and fast. My point is, a little Internet jargon is fine or funny, but too much jargon is never a good thing. Moreover, we must be cautious about using Internet jargon in real life. Inappropriate use or misuse of Internet jargon can give rise to misunderstanding, misinterpretation and other communication problems.
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