Expressing the Cybermedium in English and French [1998, rptd. 2008]

Abstract

The fact that it is the English language that drives the electronic medium means both that there is a richer lexicon in English than in other languages, and that agreement on usage is achieved faster. These other languages have to contend with the opposing forces of the practical need to root non-English terms in the referential world of the English-language-driven medium (borrowing) and the ideological need to justify neologisms in terms of the language's own resources (internal creation). The determining characteristic differentiating English and non-English expression of the Internet is creation vs. translation. The most striking characteristic common to English and non-English (or at least, in the present observation, French) expression of the cybermedium is creativity. Examined, typologically and illustratively, in the present paper — through on-line glossaries (metalinguistic corpus) and AltaVista searches (linguistic corpus) — are: the multiple French equivalents for browser, home page and freeware; the productivity of -ware (English), -ciel (French), and cyber and surf (English and French); the vitality of médium and the vitality of the medium.