Peculiarities And Gender Differences In Language Usage (стр. 1 из 2)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. INTRODUCTION 3

2. DESCRIPTION OF PECULIARITIES IN LANGUAGE USAGE IN INFORMAL E-MAIL MESSAGES 5

2.1. SENTENCE STRUCTURE 6

2.1.1. Statements 6

2.1.2. Questions 8

2.2. VOCABULARY 9

2.2.1. Symbols 9

2.2.2. Abbreviations and Acronyms 10

2.2.3. Emotes 12

2.2.4. Spoken Inarticulations 12

2.2.5. Word Formation 13

2.3. SPELLING AND PUNCTUATION 13

2.3.1. Spelling 13

2.3.2. Punctuation 15

3. GENDER DIFFERENCES IN LANGUAGE USAGE IN INFORMAL E-MAIL MESSAGES 17

4. CONCLUSIONS 21

5. BIBLIOGRAPHY 22

1. INTRODUCTION

Computer mediated communication is a relatively new usage of language, and has a great potential for linguistic researches.

It is strikingly playful. Millions of people are playing with their computer keyboards, with such humble means as commas, colons, and backslashes. Not only hackers, computer addicts and children but even serious adults are playing with identity, frames of interaction, and typographic symbols – language.

On the computer keyboard, creative individuals sometimes produce amazing effects. Some of these peculiarities have become conventions of computer mediated conventions and will be described in the paper.

One might call digital writing “poor taste” or consider it being in conflict with standards of good writing associated with literate culture, however, for many of us it is a reality, a new cyberspace culture.

Computer mediated communication includes synchronous and asynchronous form of communication. This paper concentrates on the asynchronous form represented by e-mail messages. Only informal messages were considered, since they more differ from the traditional letter writing style and are closer to chat rooms or synchronous communication.

Informal e-mail communications is an active interaction, and its language reminds oral communication more than a written document.

In order to describe peculiarities of language usage in e-mail messages, a random selection of messages is analysed. The paper looks for differences between traditional writing and e-mails regarding sentence structure, vocabulary, spelling, and punctuation.

Since there are researches on whether the language usage peculiarities differ according to gender of the writer in computer mediated communication, it was decided to include also a little investigation on this question regarding the selected messages. However, this investigation includes a small number of messages and is not complete, therefore the results can be used only as hypothesis for deeper researches.

This paper consists of the analysis part and 3 appendices: A: list of symbols with explanations (in Russian, copy of an article published in the Russian newspaper “Subbota”, B: list of acronyms used in chat rooms, and C: selected messages for analysis.

This material has been prepared in co-operation with computer specialists krisjaniz and Romans.

2. DESCRIPTION OF PECULIARITIES IN LANGUAGE USAGE IN INFORMAL E-MAIL MESSAGES

Peculiarities of e-mail come from very different sources and have developed due to very different reasons and purposes. One of the dominant sources is hackish slang. Hackers, as a rule, love wordplay and are very conscious in their use of language . Since hackers are computer people, their slang is closely connected with programming languages, though it is not the only factor. According to “Jargon File”, there are “low-context” and “high-context” communication types, the first being characterised by precision, clarity, and completeness of self-contained utterances, typical of cultures that value logic, objectivity, individualism, and competition; the latter being elliptical, emotive, nuance-filled, multi-modal, and heavily coded, associated with cultures that value subjectivity, consensus, co-operation, and tradition. Hackerdom is themed around extremely low-context interaction and exhibits primarily “low-context” values, but cultivates a “high-context” slang style, which is so coded, nuance-full and emotional that could be placed next to poetry. Presence of emotions and nuances makes e-mail language close to the traditional letter writing style, while codes are characteristic of computer-mediated communication only.

One of the main purposes of e-mail peculiarities is shortness, being fast in expression, which is completely opposite to letter writing style. Therefore, there are e-mail “messages”, not “letters”. The word itself implies shortness. However, it is not always so. The length differs according to several factors, e.g. time of the day (night messages are longer, as there is more time to think, no immediate answer is expected, and more romantic mood), and frequency of communication (daily and more frequent messages are shorter).

These peculiarities serve as “markers of experience and belonging, metaphor for poetic expression, and resources for play and challenge within a community.” Since the identity of the e-mail writer is often vague, they can play whatever. They choose to stress their experience and knowledge of conventions in e-mail usage and their belonging to cyber-communities using the below described peculiarities.

2.1. Sentence structure

2.1.1. Statements

? Ellipsis

Ellipsis is very typical for e-mails. This is because e-mail is close to speech, where we often leave sentences unfinished or omit words. It is closer to the way we think. Shortness is another reason. Since it is interactive communication, one word is often enough for a logical unit. Besides, in the “reply” mode, context can be attached without typing it again. This is not possible in traditional letter writing, where context must be entirely created in every letter. Thus, “sorry. still am. and again. must be an awful staff to read.” is a completed message. Very often pronouns are omitted, especially in the beginning of the sentence, in order not to repeat them, “I got so carried away with your stupid “trauki” that I missed the *censored*ing buss 22 to the airport. was late for 5 minutes – isn’t it a shame?” or “Gee, we had a cool party on Friday night. Boosed up nearly for free – were at a casino.” Because of ellipsis, dots are one of the most common punctuation mark. They indicate thoughtful pauses, “well, … I guess love is what we belive in…”

? Image creation by sentence structure

E-mails are very emotional, and play with intonation by choosing sentence structure. E.g., a writer who calls himself `spandex` in a `love list` (group of e-mail friends discussing love) has developed serious and tragic image by using specific sentence pattern: sentences are short, and mainly start with the subject,

“i thought we had a perfect love. my wife and i. we would do everything together. – - – we were very happy i thought. never treated her bad, was always there for her. – - – i loved her with all my heart and soul. there is no guarantee that love will last forever. i found out the hard way. thank you spandex” Another e-mail writer creates a confusion image by abrupt elliptical set of sentences, “sorry about that… forgot… early morning… no coffee…”

? Introductory words

Since e-mail is interaction, a dialogue (while a usual letter is monologue mainly, though with other person involved passively), sentences often have introductory words, attracting attention or expressing an emotional view on the topic. This is a very common pattern. Introductory words are different, and may be classified according to their function:

a) Affirmative:

O`right, yes, ok, yeah, yah

“O`right, I wont argue”, “yes, Roman, I do understand” “ok, that was a comic relief” “yeah, I got the trash out and made your bed too”, “yah,,,,i`m a good fearing person”

b) Negative:

Nah, no, c’mon, hah, heh

“nah, forgetit it”, “NO, grrrrrr… not via internet, why…”, “c`mon, ppl, you don`t know what it is to love someone” “Hah, I am stupid”, “Heh, actually they can stink in dream if you want them to”

c) Attracting attention:

Hooo, now, ah, hey, gee, oh

“Hooo, sorry for being a philosopher”, “Now, this is an amazing response to this issue”, “Ah, I only wish I could mess around with compskis back at UKC”, “Hey… you are a guy… and you are talking”, “Gee, we had a cool party on Friday night.”, “oh, I helped one friend.”

d) Other

Shit, well, so, wow, ohh, haha

“*censored*, it really is Friday today“, “well, now I am spoiling my reputation of the tough guy – - -”, “so I online and type you a short email”, “wow, wow, wow, hold yr horses”, “ohh, you want me to share your fly so much?”, “haha, topic is… love”

2.1.2. Questions

Though most of the questions in the messages analysed have been formed in traditional way, several peculiarities were found.

? Statement-type questions

Some questions do not have the traditional (auxiliary) form, “she thinks you have cybersex?” Only the punctuation mark indicates that it is a question. Or, “Oh, you really washed dishes?”

? Tag questions

Close to statement-type questions are tag questions, which are not really the ones we are used to in the traditional English grammar. “ok”, “hugh”, and other short connotative words are used as tags, e.g., “I`ll write bout my trip tomorrow, ok?”, “still working your ass off, hugh?”, or “we gotta set an exact time to get in there allav us, huh?”. Tags are used in other languages as well, “muljkjiiga savstarpeeja apvainoshanaas bija no riita, vai ne?”, “cikos ieiet, nu piezvaniishu pirms tam, ok?” “it must be Freitag in Deutschland auch, oder?”

? Elliptical questions

Just as in statements, ellipsis is characteristic of e-mail question. The shortest one in the messages being analysed is the question “u?” Though consisting of one letter, the sentence is fully comprehensible in context. There are questions without both subject and predicate, “Really going to Lithuania? To da Vilnius market?” Questions divided into two sentences may have a question mark in both parts, “is sandis still on the list? or you kicked him out because of his shameless free-thinking?;)))))))” or in the first part only, “would u ever b together? Like physically together…”

? Colloquialisms

Since there are very many colloquialisms in the messages, they appear in question formation as well. “ain`t that cool Arch?” is typical colloquial auxiliary use. “how come you are writing a msg?” is another low-style example.

2.2. Vocabulary

As Lee-Ellen Marvin describes computer-mediated communication, “The text that may be communicated – - – is limited, as it is in most Internet forms, to the range of characters on a typical computer keyboard: all lower and upper case letters of the Roman alphabet, numbers 0-9, and the symbols !@#$%^*()**{}[]+=.,;:`”~” (I would add &?|-_/and \ – author) “ Participants “write in a way which is most accurately described as “written speech”. (Elmer-Dewitt, 1994) An informal, everyday quality is created through the use of smileys, non-standard spelling reflective of vernacular pronunciation, punctuation to indicate pauses rather than speech clauses, special symbols borrowed from programming languages and an extensive special vocabulary.”

2.2.1. Symbols

One of such peculiarities is symbols. Besides letters, keyboard provides an opportunity to use symbols and punctuation marks, which is widely used. Specific combinations have gained semantic meaning and have come into active e-mail vocabulary. The most frequent one, recognised by most e-mail writers, is the smiley. Its forms vary a little with different authors, however the main symbols involved are the same: a colon or semicolon, brackets, dash, and/or the letter `o`. Number of brackets depends on how much emotion it is supposed to express. As Lee-Ellen Marvin says, “Many smileys, and the spelled out gestures of “smile” or “grin” (emotes) are appended to statements which are not ironic or ambiguous. They are friendly gestures, indications of approval or appreciation, much as smiles are often intended in face-to-face interaction. However, smiles in face-to-face contexts can be strategic or spontaneous and unintentional. In the context of MOO, whether expressed with the iconic

or the symbolic “smile”, every smile must be consciously indicated.”

In private something flowing across the computer screen might cause a person to spontaneously smile, but a conscious choice must be made to type it out.

Smileys in the messages being analysed occur frequently. The forms are the following: `:)`, `;)`, `;o)`, `:)))`, `;)))))))))`, `,)`. `ooo ;(` – with a bracket in the other direction – is the opposite to smiley. Despite these rather free forms found in the messages, the popular computer mediated communication linguist Brenda Danet in her paper “Hmmm… Where`s that Smoke Coming from?” indicates very precise and distinct forms: `:-)` for a smile, `;-)` for a wink, and `:-(` for a frown.

In some cases, smiley expresses real laughing or smiling because of amusement, “hah, topic is….. love

)))”. In many places, smiley indicates that the sentence should not be perceived very seriously, “Have a cup of old green tea, and brake it ”, or “But don`t worry about the Bett thing, i`ll do it for you;))))))))))”. Sometimes it is added to express positive emotions, appreciation, or agreement, soothing, “Everyone is right for his/her own reality ”, or “thank you baiba )”

Of other symbols, *g* (grin) and ^_^ (smile) are used in the messages concerned.

For an extensive list of symbols used in e-mail, published in the Russian newspaper “Subbota”, see Appendix A. The article is so explicit that the author of the paper did not dare to spoil it by translation into English.

2.2.2. Abbreviations and Acronyms

E-mail is the means of communication that is often chosen because of its speed. Opposite to traditional letter style, messages are short and fast-typed. Therefore, abbreviations and acronyms are usual characteristics of e-mail language. Even ‘message’ itself is most often abbreviated and spelled `msg`.

Some of them are common ones, though besides e-mails they are more often used in documentation for shortness and space saving, not in letters, “u better tell us what u did in LT”. Wherever possible, message senders try to use some easy recognisable abbreviations or acronyms, e.g. for the days of the week, “I`ll send it sat or sun when my brother will come home”. Often common acronyms are adopted by changing caps to lowcase and/or introducing new punctuation, “ps: the birthday was perfect!” or “p/s: Jocelyn sends her regrad to you!”.

Another group is invented acronyms and abreviations, knowing that the reader would recognise resemblance with the word it represents. Some of these are inventions of the author that stay as a peculiarity of one specific mail or author, others get into more common use, “I really didn`t like reading it b/c it broke my heart”, “i`ll get your addy from Girt”, or “I have met many ppl on irc since I started”. `bf` appears in one message only, in “I only had feelings for my bf”, however it does not raise any questions since context makes it clear.

Hackerish slang has an extremely long list of abbreviations and acronyms, however, messages sent and read by others than computer specialists would contain only a small part of these. ‘btw’ (by the way) and `asap` (as soon as possible) are used even in formal business mails. These expressions seem to be never spelled in their full form, “btw: when did you wake up?”.

Acronyms like `lol` (laughing out loudly) or `rofl` (rolling on the floor laughing) come from simultaneous computer mediated communication, i.e., chat rooms. More and more acronyms of this kind are coming into e-mail messages. For an extensive list of acronyms used in chat rooms see Appendix B.

Since e-mail users mostly are people who use computers often and for different purposes, not only e-mailing, many of abbreviations and acronyms used regard the computer world, “I did meet one girl from Croatia via ICQ” or “I have boyfriend, therefor I cant act like your irc girlfriend”. The last example also indicates that acronyms are an integrated part of e-mail vocabulary and can be used as any part of speech.

Love for wordplay appears also in this field. Look how two boys play with the popular acronym `irl` (in real life – as opposite to virtual computer world):