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I for one am too tired of “linkbaiting” titles (ala “XX lists”, rants or how-tos). In an effort to find examples of some creative titles I’ve been browsing hot Digg posts and the most viral celebrity blog I am aware of - Perez Hilton - to spot some linguistic and semantic tactics behind linkbait:

1. Abbreviations - using popular abbreviation reflecting either slang or professional jargon vocabulary:

2.  Playing with antonyms (words with opposite semantic meanings), e.g. substituting a word in a well known (or set) phrases with its antonym:

3.  Playing with colloquialisms (a word or phrase that is used in casual / informal conversation):

4.  Using oxymoron - combining what normally cannot be combined (e.g. poor and rich):

5.  Playing with homophones (words with a different origin and meaning but having the same pronunciation) or using “pun” - deliberately mixing two similar-sounding words:

6.  Incomplete sentence (i.e. “you guess what should follow“):

7.  Lexical “distortion” - often used in slang - creating new words by intentionally incorrect word spelling:

8.  Semantic “distortion” (somewhat related to #2) - substituting one word in a set phrase with any other word for comic / unexpected meaning:

9.  Playing with neologisms (i.e. creating new words):

10.  Creating words that have two meanings and can be interpreted in two (often opposing) ways:

11.  Question-answer play: asking and instantly answering a question:

12.  Repetition: intentional usage of one and the same word twice:

Post image: fish cartoon

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