Peculiarities and Gender Differences in Language Usage in Informal Email Messages
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 styl...
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In the article “Clive Thompson on the New Literacy,” writer Clive Thompson argues that the widespread use of technology and social media does not make kids illiterate and unable to form coherent sentences, but instead, keeps them actively writing and learning. Thompson’s article is based off of a study done by Andrea Lunsford, a writing professor at Stanford University. Thompson agrees with Lunsford that the use of social media and the Internet allow students to be creative and get better at writing. In his article, Thompson quotes John Sutherland, an English professor at University College of London, to inform the audience of the opposite side of the argument. He states, “Facebook encourages narcissistic blabbering, video and PowerPoint have
Nowadays, people can use computers or pencils to compile their works. “Which way is more competitive?” has become a controversial issue. “An Ode to the User-Friendly Pencil” by Bonnie Laing, explores “the pencil wins over the computer hands down” by using irony.
“Your Ability to Can Even: A Defense of Internet Linguistics” by Tia Baheri, is a great read. The article focuses on the new language that has been created among Internet users and how some critics think it is a negative impact on the English language and how others, such as Baheri herself, think that there is nothing wrong with the change what so ever. After reading the article, I agree with Tia Baheri, I also think that language is as she states, “Supposed to flex and shape itself to convey what we mean to say as directly and efficiently as possible”. Yes, some who do not spend a lot of time on the Internet may not understand some of the newly used phrases but for others it is the best way to express themselves.
While preparing for one of his college lectures, Dennis Baron, a professor and linguistics at the University of Illinois, began playing with the idea of how writing has changed the world we lived in and materials and tools we use in everyday life. This lecture slowly transitioned into “Should Everybody Write?” An article that has made many wonder if technology has made writing too easy for anyone to use or strengthens a writer's ability to learn and communicate their ideas. Baron uses rhetorical strategies in his article to portray to his audience his positive tone, the contrast and comparison of context and his logical purpose.
The high development of languages around the world is arguably humanity’s most remarkable feat. Without it, we would be not much better off than monkeys or gorillas. Whether seeking to persuade, to inform, to express emotions, to question, to transmit ideas, or even to deliver masterpieces in verse or prosaic, people use language in order to communicate effectively in ways that are simply too arduous to quantify. Language, furthermore, is also not limited to just writing or word of mouth, for it also is used in other fashions, such as codes. Smoke signals, body language, computer programs, as well as Morse and flag are just some examples. Since a person’s language, is essentially inherited, based on their birthplace, due to society’s standards, it is, at times, taken for
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Computer has made the life easier by providing various applications and technologies. For example, while computer has replaced typewriter, it helps the students to become a better writer as they can “revise text, rearrange paragraphs, and experiment with the tone and shape of an essay” () while using word processing. Thus, the computer helps the students to improvise their writing. Human relationship with co...
The technological revolution of the late twentieth century has arguably caused some of the greatest changes in the global society. Few realize the full effects of the computer age. The Internet in particular has brought the corners of the world closer together. Even in the most remote areas of the globe, such as Katmandu, one can see an advertisement for e-mail (Stefik 235). One might begin to wonder what the social consequences of this pervasiveness are. The Internet brings many diverse groups of people together to participate in many aspects of life from trade to conversations. Some might wonder if these interactions might lead to an end of diversity. In chatrooms and instant messages, the push towards uniformity in style is undeniable. However, this change is far from limited to these small areas of the Internet.
In Hamlet on the Holodeck, Janet Murray argues that we live in an age of electronic incubabula. Noting that it took fifty years after the invention of the printing press to establish the conventions of the printed book, she writes, "The garish videogames and tangled Web sites of the current digital environment are part of a similar period of technical evolution, part of a similar struggle for the conventions of coherent communication" (28). Although I disagree in various ways with her vision of where electronic narrative is going, it does seem likely that in twenty years, or fifty, certain things will be obvious about electronic narrative that those of us who are working in the field today simply do not see. Alongside the obvious drawbacks--forget marble and gilded monuments, it would be nice for a work to outlast the average Yugo--are some advantages, not the least of which is what Michael Joyce calls "the momentary advantage of our awkwardness": we have an opportunity to see our interactions with electronic media before they become as transparent as our interactions with print media have become. The particular interaction I want to look at today is the interaction of technology and imagination. If computer media do nothing else, they surely offer the imagination new opportunities; indeed, the past ten years of electronic writing has been an era of extraordinary technical innovation. Yet this is also, again, an age of incubabula, of awkwardness. My question today is, what can we say about this awkwardness, insofar as it pertains to the interaction of technology and the imagination?
The world of everyday life is a reality for granted : we act in the world of everyday life in an a- problem , according to routines or patterns ( typing ) that are use...
Days, months, and years go by and we do not notice them. Living in such a busy world, we are not always aware of the changes in our lives. Twenty years ago, if someone was told we would be able to buy groceries, pay our bills, buy stocks or even a car through the use of a computer, we might have laughed and blamed too much science fiction television for such wild accusations. However, as the next generation of children grows up, they may find it funny that people still send letters to each other through the post office. The development of the Internet has given us the ability to communicate and exchange information instantly across vast distances. The Internet has caused a huge impact in the communication field, and has made our way of living and working a lot easier, faster, and cheaper than before.
Surveying the Digital Future: How the PC and Internet are changing the world. (1999, June). Los Angeles, CA: UCLA Center for Communication Policy.
The younger generation particularly has seized on the strange communication through the Internet. Using chat groups on different subjects they are taking in school, they conduct live conversations by keyboard through the internet.
Instant messaging is a tool used by a vast majority of Internet users. This new tools has some advantages and some disadvantages. IM is used a lot of the time in education. It’s used for recruiting and admissions, student-faculty communications, library consultations, group projects, and immediate feedback, and discussions during lectures. Businesses are also finding instant messaging useful, as well as the deaf community. Some of the disadvantages are that teachers don’t feel comfortable using IM, instant messaging might interfere with students work, and viruses can be passed via instant messaging through links. Instant messaging seems to have a more positive side than negative.