Лексичні та синтактико-стилістичні зміни в сучасній англійській мові: вплив комп’ютерних технологій

In the E-mail style of UNIX hackers in particular there is a tendency for usernames and the names of commands and C routines to remain uncapitalized even when they occur at the beginning of sentences. For many hackers, the case of such identifiers becomes a part of their internal representation (the `spelling’).

Behind these nonstandard hackerisms there is a rule that precision of expression is more important than conformance to traditional rules; where the latter create ambiguity or lossage of information. It is notable in this respect that other hackish inventions in vocabulary tend to carry very precise shades of meaning even when constructed to appear slangy and loose.

Hackers have also developed a number of punctuation and emphasis conventions.

One of these is that TEXT IN ALL CAPS IS INTERPRETED AS `LOUD’, a person that writes in this way may be asked to «stop shouting, please, you’re hurting my ears!»

Also, it is common to use bracketing with unusual characters to signify emphasis. The asterisk is the most common, even though this interferes with the common use of the asterisk as a footnote mark.

E.g.: «What the hell?»

The underscore is also common, suggesting underlining. This is particularly common with book titles.

E.g.: «It is often alleged that Joe Haldeman wrote TheForeverWar as a rebuttal to Robert Heinlein’s earlier novel of the future military, StarshipTroopers.».

Other forms exemplified by «=hell=», «\hell/», or «/hell/» are occasionally seen. Some hackers claim that «in the last example the first slash pushes the letters over to the right to make them italic, and the second keeps them from falling over».Finally, words may also be emphasized L I K E T H I S, or by a series of carets (^) under them on the next line of the text.

There is a semantic difference between emphasis LIKE THIS(which emphasizes the phrase as a whole), and emphasis L I K E T H I S (which suggests the writer speaking very slowly and distinctly, as if to a very young child or a mentally impaired person). Bracketing a word with the `’ character may also indicate that the writer wishes readers to consider that an action is taking place or that a sound is being made.

E.g.: `bang’, `ring’, `mumble’.

There is also an accepted convention for `writing under erasure’; the text «Be nice to this fool^H^H^H^Hgentleman, he’s visiting from corporate HQ.» may be interpreted as «Be nice to this fool, er, gentleman...»

Crackers, phone phreaks, and warez d00dz (mostly teenagers running PC-clones from their bedrooms) have developed their own characteristic jargon, heavily influenced by skateboard lingo and underground-rock slang.

Here is a brief guide to cracker and warez d00dz usage:

Misspell frequently. The substitutions

phone => fone

freak => phreak are obligatory.

Always substitute `z's for `s's. (i.e. "codes" -> "codez").

Type random emphasis characters after a post line (i.e. "Hey Dudes!#!$#$!#!$").

Use the emphatic `k' prefix ("k-kool", "k-rad", "k-awesome") frequently.

Abbreviate compulsively ("I got lotsa warez w/ docs").

Substitute `0' for `o' ("r0dent", "l0zer").

TYPE ALL IN CAPS LOCK, SO IT LOOKS LIKE YOU'RE YELLING ALL THE TIME.