At the end of each year, the National Language Resources Monitoring and Research Center, the Commercial Press, the Chewing Words Magazine, the Shanghai Language Weekly, and other language and writing publishing institutions will release the annual lists of "Top Ten Internet Hot Words" and "Top Ten Internet Buzzwords". Why do these institutions do such a selection?Is it an economic benefit, or is it the pursuit of social brand effect?Is there a clear criterion for judging, and which one of the most authoritative lists is selected?What social phenomena are reflected behind the popular language on the Internet?What should the public be aware of when using the language of the Internet?On these issues, a reporter from Beijing Youth Daily interviewed experts in the industry to listen to their views on the selection of Internet buzzwords.
Why Judge?
Internet buzzwords are close to the masses.
As a topic of sustainable discussion.
Xu Miaomiao, a professor at the Institute of Art and Aesthetic Education at Capital Normal University, has long studied online pop culture. She believes that many language publishers compete to select the Internet buzzwords and hot words of the year because today's public needs a huge amount of constantly updated contentAt the same time, there are also economic, brand and other considerations. But the most fundamental reason is that the commercial public** needs to continue to produce content in order to survive. The buzzwords of the year are very close to the public, and at the same time have a sense of continuity and discussion. Therefore, it is suitable as a ** topic.
In Xu Miaomiao's view, although the network has various forms of expression, the accuracy of transmitting ideas and expression still depends on language. The language of the Internet is different from the written language of the past, the spoken language, which is the spoken language. "From a media point of view, it can be referred to by the concept of 'screen language' that I proposed. It enriches the expressions of the past, has ambiguity, and can be fully explained;It's interactive and can change on the fly. Xu Miaomiao said that because teenagers love to express themselves and are emotionally rich, online language is mainly the language used by teenagers.
Which is more authoritative?
It depends on whether it is related to a wide range of social classes.
Whether it can accurately show the characteristics and changes in the social and cultural fields of the year.
Regarding the selection criteria for online buzzwords, Yang Lincheng, executive editor-in-chief of Shanghai's "Language and Writing Weekly", put forward five major selection principles when he first released the annual buzzwords in 2019: the principle of massity, the principle of continuity, the principle of fun, the principle of normativity and the principle of positivity. Not only that, in order to reflect the language life from multiple perspectives, the "Language Weekly" distinguishes between "popular" and "hotly discussed" and launches the "Bilingual List".
Huang Anjing, editor-in-chief of "Biting the Text and Chewing the Words", said when releasing the annual buzzwords in 2018 that the selection principle is to follow the two principles of linguistic value and sociological value, and the selected buzzwords need to be linguistically innovative. According to the introduction of the "Language Monitoring Center" and other ** when releasing the "Top Ten Popular Languages" in 2023, the center is based on the national language resources monitoring corpus, using language information processing technology and combined with manual post-processing to extract and screen, and the corpus scale reaches more than 10 billion words.
Regarding the above-mentioned evaluation criteria and authority, Xu Miaomiao believes that it depends on whether it is related to a wide range of social classes, and whether it can accurately show the characteristics and changes in the social and cultural fields of the year. "Internet language is the source of the vitality of Internet culture, and the popularity of hot words reflects the change of social mentality. ”
Jiang Bingbing, an associate professor at the School of International Chinese Language and Culture at East China Normal University, said that judging from the release of the list of the three popular words over the years, although the selected buzzwords are different, they all reflect the social life at that time from different aspects. Regardless of whether there is any overlap in the list of the three popular phrases, they can better deepen our understanding of current life. In fact, the three companies released not only the list, but also an invitation letter to inspire all levels of society to pay attention to the national situation, observe the people's livelihood, and cherish the development and inheritance of the Chinese language.
How to use it appropriately?
The expression should be in line with the style.
Teenagers should be guided in using Internet buzzwords.
In terms of the use of Internet buzzwords, Jiang Bingbing believes that buzzwords have their own use functions, and we should make good use of buzzwords. The highest criterion of verbal communication is decency. How to do it decently?One of the important points is that the expression is in line with the style. Different objects, different occasions, different methods, etc., the style of language is also different, and the characteristics of wording will also be different, such as the style of official documents and the style of news. Since the end of the 20th century, most of the buzzwords that people are talking about have become popular through the Internet, also known as Internet buzzwords, and the word "Internet" also indicates the communication occasion of such buzzwords.
Jiang Bingbing also said that for teenagers, they are in the stage of language learning and are easily attracted by novel forms of speech expression, but they are often misused due to lack of language awareness, so they need to be guided. Undoubtedly, the uncivilized language of "disguise" under the cloak of "Internet language" must be abandoned.
In Xu Miaomiao's view, Internet buzzwords are rapidly becoming popular, and they will be quickly forgotten and replaced, and its value mainly lies in rapid response, which is representative in the context of the times in a short period of time. In the long run, they enrich the corpus, but they are generally not used for a long time, and the Internet and the public have their own selection and memory standards. If it can really survive for a long time, it means that the word is indeed valuable and can intervene in the growth of the language system and become an organic part of it.
Text: Beijing Youth Daily reporter Zhang Enjie.
Edited by Gong Lifang.