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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 September 2009
‘The vision I have for the Web is about anything being potentially connected with anything.’ This observation by the Web's inventor, Tim Berners-Lee, on the first page of his biographical account, Weaving the Web (1999), provides a characterization of this element of the Internet which truly strains the notion of ‘situation’ and the accompanying concept of a ‘variety’ of Internet language. After all, language, and any language, in its entirety, is part of this ‘anything’. The Web in effect holds a mirror up to the graphic dimension of our linguistic nature. A significant amount of human visual linguistic life is already there, as well as a proportion of our vocal life. So can it be given a coherent linguistic identity?
‘Graphic’ here refers to all aspects of written (as opposed to spoken) language, including typewritten, handwritten (including calligraphic), and printed text. It includes much more than the direct visual impression of a piece of text, as presented in a particular typography and graphic design on the screen; it also includes all those features which enter into a language's orthographic system (chiefly its spelling, punctuation, and use of capital letters) as well as the distinctive features of grammar and vocabulary which identify a typically ‘written’ as opposed to a ‘spoken’ medium of communication. Most web text will inevitably be printed, given the technology generally in use.
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