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The Web of Language</h3>
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<span style="color: rgb(64, 64, 64); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-left; font-weight: bold; ">The 2012 Word of the Year is #hashtag</span><br style="color: rgb(64, 64, 64); font-family: Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 18px; text-align: -webkit-left; ">
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<p class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0px 0px 12px; ">#hashtag is the 2012 Web of Language Word of the Year. That’s #hashtag, complete with the #, or ‘hash,’ also called the ‘number sign’ or ‘pound sign’—used in computerese to signal a comment, instruction,
or bit of metadata, but made popular on Twitter to identify keywords or concepts. </p>
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<div>Read the full post on the Web of Language: <a href="http://bit.ly/weblan">http://bit.ly/weblan</a></div>
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<font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">Dennis Baron</font></div>
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<font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">Professor of English and Linguistics</font></div>
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<font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">Department of English<span class="Apple-converted-tab"> </span><span class="Apple-converted-tab"> </span></font></div>
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<font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">University of Illinois<span class="Apple-converted-tab"> </span></font></div>
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<font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">608 S. Wright St.</font></div>
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<font face="Helvetica" size="3" style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal Helvetica; font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; ">Urbana, IL 61801 </font></div>
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<font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica">office: 217-305-0067</font><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Helvetica"></font></div>
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<font class="Apple-style-span" color="#0000EE" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 12px; text-decoration: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(72, 72, 72); font-size: 11px; "><a target="_new" href="http://illinois.edu/goto/debaron" title="My faculty home page" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 128); text-decoration: none; ">http://www.illinois.edu/goto/debaron</a></span></span></font></div>
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