9706 ISSN 2286-4822 www.euacademic.org EUROPEAN ACADEMIC RESEARCH Vol. II, Issue 7/ October 2014 Impact Factor: 3.1 (UIF) DRJI Value: 5.9 (B+) Analysis of Cyber Language: Identifying Gender Boundaries AMNA NAVEED Assistant Professor Department of Humanities & Social Sciences COMSATS, Lahore, Pakistan SHAZIA AZIZ Assistant Professor Department of Humanities & Social Sciences COMSATS, Lahore, Pakistan Dr. MUSFERAH MEHFOOZ Assistant Professor Department of Humanities & Social Sciences COMSATS, Lahore, Pakistan Abstract: Cyber language and internet linguistics have been subjects of linguistics debates among researchers in recent years with the proliferation of the use of technology for communication. Along with its various other aspects, its analysis in determining the gender boundaries is a useful area of research. The present study was conducted to analyze cyber language to identify the gender boundaries among one hundred Facebook users of various age groups (13-30 years). In the Pakistani context the study examined the hypothesis that gender based linguistic differences exist in cyber space. For this purpose, the corpus was collected in natural form from the Facebook walls of its users. Gender boundaries were examined on the basis of new word formation and reduction at lexical level. These parameters were further divided into blending, conversion, compounding, derivation and coinage for new word formation, acronyms, phonetic spellings, non-standard spellings, letter/number homophones, clippings and contractions for reduction. Having suggested new parameters for gender identification, the study draws on gender