The Role of Social Networks in Changing Languages

Abstract

The article is devoted to the complex problem analysis of the role of social networks in changing modern languages. The factors of the organization of the communicative space in social networks are considered, which are suppressing the change of the norms of communication still established and, consequently, are affecting the use of language in the paradigm of network communication, which further influences changes in the language in general. The most distinctive feature of the language of social networks is the erosion of the boundaries between written and oral speech, which are no longer clearly differentiated. Today, there are serious grounds for identifying a special linguistic style – the style of social media. There are many researches that are devoted to this problem due to the novelty and scale of the phenomenon of language and network interaction. In addition to purely descriptive works, attention is drawn to those who analyze this phenomenon in synchronous and diachronic measurements. The careful analysis and future perspectives are in many respects alarming, since the current state of the problem indicates an increase in illiteracy under the influence of the popularized highly simplified attitude of users towards the norms of literary language and the prevalence of non-normative features inherent in spoken language. Consequently, the article analyzes the general tendencies of the influence of social networks on the language, specifies the specific changes in the language at the concrete structural levels that exist today and which go beyond the limits of use in the sphere of social networks, but instead penetrate into other spheres of language usage; further prospects are outlined and an adequate scientific assessment of the existing processes of expansive influence of social networks on the language was given.