Use of Language in Internet Communication and its Impact on Standard Portuguese

Use of language in CMC and its impact on daily used Portuguese Bachelor Thesis Portuguese Philology Charles University in Prague Author: Kamila Kohoutová Supervisor: PhDr. Jan Hricsina, Ph.D. Abstract The present thesis concerns use of a specific language code, typical for computer-mediated communication and online environment. Such code is more often than not associated with younger generations, namely the millennials and generation Z, and have been raising worries as to what impact it might have on teenage literacy and their capacity to properly communicate. The aim of the thesis is to verify whether use of Internet by these generations indeed may influence Portuguese language in a negative way. First, we present the topic in a concise way in the introduction part and then move to describing not only the social changes, but also technology innovations, remodelling the linguistic landscape over past centuries. We further investigate the direct impact that the Internet, as a medium, has had on language genres in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 is dedicated to categorizing the characteristics of netspeak and Chapter 4 focuses on the theory of code-switching. Finally, the thesis is concluded by our own analysis of written works by Portuguese secondary school students. Key words: Portuguese, Internet, computer-mediated..