It's all a bit upmessing - non-standard verb-particle combinations in blogs

Abstract

This article will explore how verb-particle combinations, for a long time one of the most productive segments of English word-formation, have changed with the advent of online real-time short communication forms such as blogs or their more sophisticated social networking or microblogging varieties like Twitter and Facebook. Following up on earlier research (Diemer 2008), evidence will be presented that that the long and seemingly unstoppable trend towards verb-adverb combinations and the decline of the prefixes has been partly reversed by these new forms of communication. Selected examples with the prefixes in and on will be discussed. It will be argued that the main reasons for this change are facilitation of syntax, need for innovation in specialized and peer group communication, analogy formation and the influence of other languages on English.