Language Change through Language Contact in Computer-Mediated Communication in Taiwan

Abstract

In consequence of its contact with English and Taiwanese in computer-mediated communication (CMC), online Taiwan Mandarin has formed as a new variety of Mandarin. From the observation of the data collected from one of the most famous bulletin board systems in Taiwan, a variety of Englishised and Taiwanesised linguistic features have been found and analysed from the lexical, syntactic, and discoursive perspectives. In addition, to create humorous effect on messages and to post articles in an informal written-spoken style are the other two typical characteristics examined in this study. The findings not only confirm that English and Taiwanese are of much importance in shaping and constructing online Taiwan Mandarin, but also reveal that this contact-induced influence may spread to language used in other non-CMC domains and lead to both the change in Taiwan Mandarin and the rising of the status and popularity of Taiwanese in Taiwan society in the near future.