Interpreting Internet Buzzword in Social Media from the Perspective of Language Changes

Liangyu Hong, Maya Luo and Shuxian Ding
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Liangyu Hong: Xi'an Jiaotong Liverpool University, Suzhou 215123, China
Maya Luo: Jiangsu Second Normal University, Nanjing 210036, China
Shuxian Ding: Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China

British Journal of Business and Psychology Research, 2025, vol. 1, issue 3, 55-63

Abstract: This paper systematically analyzes the classification, lexical characteristics, and social interaction mechanisms of Chinese Internet buzzwords from 2020 to 2024, using the annual lists published by Yao Wen Jiao Zi as corpus and adopting a language change perspective. The buzzwords are categorized into social phenomenon, political, economy, culture and technology, and emotion and psychology categories through content analysis. The number of emotion and psychology-related buzzwords has been high in recent years, which is related to people’s increasing emphasis on inner feelings in modern society. In terms of lexical characteristics, Internet buzzwords show features such as using abbreviation, homophony, giving old words new meanings, creative expressions and new sentence patterns. These buzzwords also bring about language changes at lexical, grammatical, semantic, pragmatic, and formality levels. Internet buzzwords have a close interactive relationship with society. They are inspired by social events and reflect social issues and public opinions, but also cause debates due to grammar violations. Therefore, social media platforms should strengthen supervision to promote their standardized and beneficial development.

Keywords: Internet buzzwords; Language changes; Lexical characteristics; Code-mixing; Social interaction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ris:bjobpr:022017

DOI: 10.47297/ppibjbpr2025010305

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