Majority think creative Internet slang should be included in dictionaries: Survey

More than 62 percent of respondents to a joint survey by China Youth Daily and Wenjuan.com said meaningful and creative Internet slang should be included in dictionaries.

Almost 90 percent said they frequently came across Internet slang while 70 percent said they actually used it in daily life, with 57.7 percent regarding it as an inevitable outcome of the Internet era.

More than 42 percent said Internet slang enriches the Chinese language, and 44.7 percent said such terms help hot topics gain more public attention.

Yet 40.1 percent were worried that some vulgar Internet slang would taint the Chinese language, with 40 percent saying slang could lead to a decline in the reading of literature. About 34 percent said it could create barriers in communication.

To Zhao Wen (a pseudonym), a teacher of Chinese language and literature at Piano Academy in Gulangyu under the Central Conservatory of Music, said social networking sites including Weibo and WeChat were major channels for her to communicate and receive information, so she is familiar with the majority of Internet slang terms.

She told the paper she used Internet slang on social networking sites and also during chats with students, which "made communication with students simpler and more cordial", but she does not use it in class. In contrast, her students frequently use it, even in their homework.

"I correct or even criticize them for that," she said. She also expressed her worry that the wide use of Internet slang could adversely affect the development of student language abilities.

"I think it's okay to use it occasionally just for fun, but it would be inappropriate to have them replace regular words," said Zhu Hong (a pseudonym) in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province, who knew just a few Internet slang words.

Shen Xiaolong, a professor of Chinese language and literature at Fudan University, told the paper that the Internet lexicon would grow stronger and have a profound influence on modern Chinese, as well as language used by citizens and ways of thinking in the future.

"The development of a language depends on innovation," said Shen. "The freedoms offered by the Internet make language innovation highly possible."

"There's much work ahead for us linguists," he noted.

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