Web users’ language utilization behaviors in China

The paper focuses on the habits of China Web users’language utilization behaviors in accessing the Web.It also seeks to make a general study on the basic nature of language phenomenon with regard to digital accessing.A questionnaire survey was formulated and distributed online for these research purposes.There were 1,267 responses collected.The data were analyzed with descriptive statistics,Chi-square testing and contingency table analyses.Results revealed the following findings.Tagging has already played an important role in Web2.0 communication for China’s Web users.China users rely greatly on all kinds of taxonomies in browsing and have also an awareness of them in effective searching.These imply that the classified languages in digital environment may aid Chinese Web users in a more satisfying manner.Highly subject-specific words,especially those from authorized tools,yielded better results in searching.Chinese users have high recognition for related terms.As to the demographic aspect,there is little difference between different genders in the utilization of information retrieval languages.Age may constitute a variable element to a certain degree.Educational background has a complex effect on language utilizations in searching.These research findings characterize China Web users’behaviors in digital information accessing.They also can be potentially valuable for the modeling and further refinement of digital accessing services.