BECAUSE INTERNET Understanding the New Rules of Language

McCulloch's critical exploration of how linguists better understand language fluidity in the age of the Internet will provoke and challenge listeners who lambast the demise of civilization writ large in changing forms and patterns of communication. Some listeners might find her narration a bit undesirable in that her projection and delivery sound overly enunciated and rehearsed--as if she were lecturing, not narrating. The result settles between the sound of a confident public speaker and an amateur narrator trying to overcompensate. Yet McCulloch's insightful research illustrates not a watering down of communication and ideas but an increasingly rich linguistic landscape that comes from humans integrating textspeak, emoticons, and memes to create more nuanced conversations. L.E. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine [Published: SEPTEMBER 2019]