Abstract
Unrelated homonym is a common phenomenon of language use in contemporary internet, in which the newly created homonyms have no relevance to the meaning of the original words. Unrelated homonym is not a way of making neologism, but a special usage conditioned by cyber communication techniques and it has become a kind of normalized language play. There are two purposes in using unrelated homonyms: to attract readers' attention through signifier noise, and to achieve an ironic effect through conveying the intended original content in an arbitrary phonetic form. The target of the irony reflects the group psychology of the contemporary society.
First Page
69
Last Page
76
Recommended Citation
Xu, Mofan. 2013. "A Cultural Study of Unrelated Homonym in Internet Language." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 33, (6): pp.69-76. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol33/iss6/3
