DOCSLIB.ORG

Linguistic Features in the Online Discussion Forums

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Linguistic Features in the Online Discussion Forums International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, Vol. 2, No. 3, May 2012 Linguistic Features in the Online Discussion Forums Z. A. Kadir, M. Maros, and B. A. Hamid In a synchronous setting, electronic interactions take place Abstract—Due to the revolution of technology in in real time. Some systems are designed to facilitate communication, a unique form of communication has emerged communication between at least two users or several users, involving the use of new word forms, structures and style of e.g. IRC. The scenario of two people talking in parallel and at expression. Therefore, this study examined the linguistic a length while gaining full mutual understanding is features used in a discussion forum among the e-distance learning students in Universiti Teknologi MARA Malaysia. The inconceivable. With multiple interactions, the situation may data of this study were collected from messages posted by the be potentially confusing as it is difficult to know how many students to their friends and lecturers. The online forums are people are involved, who they are and what they are talking platform for the students in this program to communicate with about. This type of setting is mainly associated with their fellow classmates, lecturers and other e-distance learning nicknames-system. Clashes of nicknames never occur. students. The study indicates students use linguistic features Topics normally obsolete very quickly and it is not easy to such as rebus writing, internet specific acronyms, reduplication of letters when communicating with their friends. This study keep track of conversation after some time [2],[3]. also hopes to enrich the knowledge on the study of Online discussion forum is also a type of asynchronous computer-mediated communication and to motivate other setting of communication whereby the sender can leave and researchers to conduct further studies in this area. expect responses to his/her messages. In other words, the users are not only able to discuss and share information, but Index Terms—About four key words or phrases in also exchange ideas and opinions. The discussion forum alphabetical order, separated by commas. allows communication with many participants’ structure. The discussion forums can be divided into three different components which actually depend on the display format; I. INTRODUCTION non-threaded, semi-threaded and fully-threaded. The Computer-mediated discourse is the communication non-threaded forum function is similar to notice bulletin produced when human beings interact with one another by board as it does not encourage discussion or reply to transmitting messages via networked computers. The study messages. The messages are normally display in of computer-mediated discourse is a specialization within the chronological order. The semi-threaded online discussion broader interdisciplinary study of computer-mediated forums, on the other hand display the initial messages on top communication, distinguished by its focus on language and and allows other users to reply to the messages. The replied language use in computer networked environments, and by messages will then line up under one another below the initial its use of methods of discourse analysis to address that focus message which is normally in chronological with the most [1]. It encompasses all kinds of interpersonal communication recent messages display below or vice-versa. Finally, the carried out on the Internet, e.g. by email, instant messaging, fully threaded online discussion forums enable other users to web discussion boards, and chat channels. reply to the initial messages. The basic layout is similar The Internet allows people to engage in a multi-party between the semi-threaded and fully-threaded online conversation online, either synchronously, in real time or discussion forum. However, users in fully-threaded asynchronously, in postponed time. Such interactions take discussion forums are allowed to response to the replies of place in various forms of Internet communication such as the initial messages which later on can develop into a string chatgroups, newsgroups, usergroups, chatroom [2],[3]. In of discourse. This format draws the closest to face-to face asynchronous setting, users are not required to log on at the discussion that supports turn-adjacency. same time in order to receive and send messages as their messages are sent to a central computer address and inserted into a permanent refreshing screen along with contributions II. BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY from other users. The online members of the group see their contributions appear on screen after they make them and E-learning, a type of learning that is considered important hope for a prompt response [1], [2],[3]. The group members in the emerging knowledge of society. Hence, communicate for various reasons such as interest in a computer-mediated communication has been adopted in most particular subject matter, entertainment or communication. e- learning setting. Computer-mediated communication The groups may comprise of people from various fields; refers to any form of communication enabled through the use academic, professional, governmental, commercial or social of computers. In the computer-mediated communication [2],[3]. literature, the term generally refers to communication modalities dependent on computer-based networks or meta-networks, particularly the Internet and commercial Manuscript received February 25, 2012; revised April 5, 2012. Zaemah Abd Kadir is with the Academy of Language Studies, UiTM online services. Language plays an important role in the Shah Alam.(e-mail: [email protected]). communication activities in the computer-mediated M.Maros and B. A. Hamid are with the School of Language Studies and communication. Due to the revolution of technology in Linguistics, Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities, UKM. 276 International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, Vol. 2, No. 3, May 2012 communication, a unique form of communication has messages was calculated using the standard Microsoft word emerged involving the use of new word forms, structures and count function. Based from the investigations, Thurlow style of expression. asserts that each individual does not have one style of The online discussion forum, an asynchronous mode of language in any environment, instead, she/he will have a communication, is a platform for Universiti Teknologi repertoire or a range of style to suit different context. The MARA students who are in the e-distance learning program following common patterns were found; to discuss academic and non academic matters with their • shortenings (missing end letters), e.g. ‘lang’ for learning facilitators and classmates. The forum has no ‘language’. moderators, but the students are expected to abide to the • Contractions (missing middle letters), e.g. ‘gd’ for ethical code published online (politeness and respect for ‘good’ others). Each course has its own discussion forum designed • ;g’ clipping (final letter missing, e.g. ‘goin’ for them. All students who are studying part time, full time or for’going’ e- distance learning at the Universiti Teknologi MARA are • Other clippings, e.g. ‘hav’ for ‘have’ taught in English. Therefore, these students who are taking • Acronyms and intialisms, e.g. ‘v’ for ‘very’ English courses are expected to use English language either • Letter/number homophones, e.g. ‘1’ for ‘one’ in offline or online communication. However, an interesting • Non-conventional spelling, e.g.’sum’ for ‘some’ phenomenon seems to appear in the online discussion forum • Accent stylization ( speaker tries to represent a among the e-distance learning students; that is particular pronunciation, for example regional code-switching and the use of paralinguistic features. It speech), e.g. ‘wivout’ for ‘without’ appears that these students use various linguistic features • Non-alphabetic symbol when they write their messages online in spite of the fact that • Emoticon the discussion forums are designed for English courses and (page 19) should be written in English. Therefore, the main objective of Based on the above findings, Thurlow concludes that a this study is to examine the linguistic features used in the number of sociolinguistic maxim or triggering factors are discussion forum. required to explain some of the features above: • Speed-txters have to speed up their pace of communication, so they need to take short cuts. III. LITERATURE ON LINGUISTIC FEATURES IN • Brevity-txters have only limited space for their COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION communication, so they need to omit any elements In computer-mediated communication, writers have to use that are not strictly necessary for understanding other manipulation of written signs in order to accomplish • Paralinguistic restitution-txters need to find ways to replace the aspect of physical communications such pragmatic work that could be achieved through phonological as body language that are absent variation, prosody, gesture and other cues in ordinary spoken • Phonological approximation-txters want to build in conversation. Segerstad [4] examined the linguistic feature in ways their readers to ‘hear’ their voice, so try to computer-mediated communication found that writers use all change the written language to represent this. capital letters, repetition of words, emoticons, asterisk, symbol replacing words to as paralinguistic cues in the Although research conducted by Thurlow was based on interaction. In addition, Crystal [5] in his book, Internet mobile
Load more

Recommended publications
  • O Crystal, D., Internet Linguistics: a Student Guide
    BOOK REVIEWS c CRYSTAL, D., INTERNET LINGUISTICS: A STUDENT GUIDE. (NEW YORK, ROUTLEDGE. 2011. PP. IX, 179) Review by Sean Rintel School of Journalism and Communication, The University of Queensland ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I approached this book as a teacher of novices, taking seriously David Crystal’s proposition that Internet Linguistics:A Student Guide is an introduction to a nascent field for someone with no subject-matter knowledge beyond raw experience and no language research expertise beyond simple thematic analysis. From that perspective, Crystal succeeds in building an easily grasped overview of the way in which the linguistic discipline might approach the Internet as a principled research enterprise. Generalist overviews of fields of research always encounter debates over disciplinary roots, inclusion and exclusion of fields,
    [Show full text]
  • Internet Linguistics (Ling 004B) Syllabus
    Swarthmore College Works Digital Humanities Curricular Development Faculty Development 2020 Internet Linguistics (Ling 004B) Syllabus Miranda Weinberg Swarthmore College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://works.swarthmore.edu/dev-dhgrants Part of the Linguistics Commons Recommended Citation Miranda Weinberg. (2020). "Internet Linguistics (Ling 004B) Syllabus". Internet Linguistics. https://works.swarthmore.edu/dev-dhgrants/38 This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. This work is brought to you for free by Swarthmore College Libraries' Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Digital Humanities Curricular Development by an authorized administrator of Works. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Internet Linguistics Ling 004B Spring 2020 Course meetings Mondays 1:15-4:00 pm Sci Center 103 Instructor Dr. Miranda Weinberg [email protected] Office: Pearson 103, office hours Thursdays 1-3pm Course Description Despite predictions to the contrary, it seems that the internet has not destroyed English. But how has the internet changed language use, and the study of linguistics? This course will be an exploration of the various forms that language takes online and in other digital formats, such as texting. We will explore questions such as: • Why do my parents insist on texting in full paragraphs? • Is the internet good or bad for the future of indigenous and minority languages? • Is there a difference in meaning between :), :-), ^_^,? • What are the differences and similarities between face-to-face and online communication? We will look at a range of sources and methods for investigating language use online, and use some of these methods in our own investigations of internet language.
    [Show full text]
  • Towards a Philosophy of Language Management David Crystal
    Towards a philosophy of language management David Crystal Keynote paper at the conference 'Integrating Content and Language in Higher education', Maastricht, 28 June 2006 Abstract Over the past twenty years, in a number of different domains, I have been preoccupied by the relationship between content and language. Finding myself the editor of a family of general encyclopedias in the late 1980s brought an encounter with 'knowledge' which had to be integrated with my professional linguistic concerns. This has since developed to include issues in document classification, search, e-commerce, and Internet security. Other directions of integration emerged in higher education, notably the need for a synergy between linguistic and cultural studies and between language and literature. And accompanying all this has been a major change in public attitudes to language, following the reaction against institutionalized linguistic prescriptivism and the evolution of a fresh understanding of the relationship between standard and nonstandard language. The varied nature of these examples suggests the need to consider the question of integration at an appropriately general level. and it is this - on analogy with established domains such as the philosophy of science or the philosophy of religion - that the title of my paper is intended to address. Integrating content and language. It is the story of my life - and especially during the last 20 years or so of it. [ have learned how difficult it is to do. And also how wOlthwhile it is to do it. [ cannot address the conference themes to do with the implementation of this aim in educational programmes, for I have not worked in that context for some time.
    [Show full text]
  • Language and the Internet
    This page intentionally left blank Language and the Internet David Crystal investigates the nature of the impact which the Internet is making on language. There is already a widespread popular mythology that the Internet is going to be bad for the future of language – that technospeak will rule, standards be lost, and creativity diminished as globalization imposes sameness. The argument of this book is the reverse: that the Internet is in fact enabling a dramatic expansion to take place in the range and variety of language, and is providing unprecedented opportunities for personal creativity. The Internet has now been around long enough for us to ‘take a view’ about the way in which it is being shaped by and is shaping language and languages, and there is no one better placed than David Crystal to take that view. His book is written to be accessible to anyone who has used the Internet and who has an interest in language issues. DAVID CRYSTAL is one of the world’s foremost authorities on language, and as editor of the Cambridge Encyclopedia database he has used the Internet for research purposes from its earliest manifestations. His work for a high technology company involved him in the development of an information classification system with several Internet applications, and he has extensive professional experience of Web issues. Professor Crystal is author of the hugely successful Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language (1987; second edition 1997), Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language (1995), English as a Global Language (1997), and Language Death (2000). An internationally renowned writer, journal editor, lecturer and broadcaster, he received an OBE in 1995 for his services to the English language.
    [Show full text]
  • Putting the Democracy Into Edemocracy
    Putting the Democracy into eDemocracy: An investigation into the arguments for the democratic potential of the Internet ALLISON VERITY ORR 2120304 1 CONTENTS Contents ................................................................................................................................................ 2 CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................... 5 Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 10 The Internet ..................................................................................................................................... 13 A Brief History of the Internet ......................................................................................................... 15 Language and the Internet .............................................................................................................. 18 CHAPTER 2 - METHODOLOGY .............................................................................................................. 26 Essentially Contested Concepts ....................................................................................................... 29 Constellations of Concepts .............................................................................................................. 30 Political Disagreement and Rhetorical Arguments .........................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Is Internet Really Ruining the English Language?
    http://elr.sciedupress.com English Linguistics Research Vol. 5, No. 2; 2016 “I Have Lost All Ability To Can”: Is Internet Really Ruining The English Language? Oyedokun-Alli Wasiu Ademola1 Ph.D 1Department of English and Literary Studies, Federal University, Oye –Ekiti, Nigeria Correspondence: Oyedokun-Alli Wasiu Ademola, Ph. D, Department of English and Literary Studies, Federal University, Oye –Ekiti, Nigeria Received: March 22, 2015 Accepted: May 6, 2016 Online Published: May 26, 2016 doi:10.5430/elr.v5n2p28 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.5430/elr.v5n2p28 Paper Presented At The 31st Annual National Conference Of The Nigeria English Studies Association (NESA), At The Federal University Lokoja, 26 -29 October, 2015. Abstract Language is an important instrument through which members of a given community express their thoughts, feelings and emotions; it is one of the most fundamental means of human communication and a primary object of the study of linguistics. It is perhaps no more than trite to suggest that the internet has become a fact of social life globally. However, proving this fact needs an ordered frame of reference. Internet linguistics is yet another domain of linguistics advocated by the English linguist, David Crystal. It studies “new language styles and forms that have arisen under the influence of the Internet and other New Media, such as Short Message Service (SMS) text messaging”, (Wikipedia). There have arisen great disputations on whether or not the use of the Internet is hindering language development. This paper examines these arguments in relation to students’ proficiency in language use, generally. To what extent can one generalize the findings in other climes within the Nigerian context? Using both the Critical Discourse Analysis theory and Braddock communication model, the study examines “sent” and “received” SMS and e-mails from the sample population, with a view to determining the impact on the users’ proficiency level in English language Keywords: Language, Internet linguistics, Text messaging 1.
    [Show full text]
  • Media, Power and Representation Clara Neary & Helen Ringrow
    Media, power and representation Item Type Book chapter Authors Neary, Clara; Ringrow, Helen Citation Neary, C., & Ringrow, H. (2018) Media, power and representation. In P. Seargeant, A. Hewings, & S. Pihlaja (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of English Language Studies (pp. 294-309). London: Routledge. Publisher Routledge Rights Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States Download date 26/09/2021 08:09:56 Item License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/ Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10034/621529 1 Media, Power and Representation Clara Neary & Helen Ringrow ABSTRACT: As the influence of the media continues to grow – largely powered by ever- changing and increasingly rapid technological changes – continued investigation into how it uses language to create meaning is crucial. In addition, media institutions play a significant role in society as they simultaneously construct and maintain societal norms and values. Media English is a broad term referring to the ways in which language is used to construct reality on media platforms, ranging from the front cover of a print newspaper to magazine advertisements, radio programmes, text messages and tweets. This chapter summarises the key linguistic approaches to and debates within the study of Media English. It explains key contemporary media terminology; considers the dominance of English in Media English; and details research into media power and representation(s) in terms of social class, race, ethnicity, gender and so on. Both ‘traditional’ and ‘new’ media texts are considered while changes wrought by digitisation in general are discussed, particularly in terms of the rise of social media. The chapter concludes with a look at future directions in the study of Media English, highlighting new and developing research on the changing communicative choices and shifting contexts of media output.
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction: Sociolinguistics and Computer-Mediated Communication
    Journal of Sociolinguistics 10/4, 2006: 419–438 Introduction: Sociolinguistics and computer-mediated communication Jannis Androutsopoulos University of Hannover, Germany This theme issue of Journal of Sociolinguistics comprises a number of empirical studies focusing on a range of ways in which people use language in computer-mediated communication (CMC). This introduction contextualizes the contributions to this issue by providing an outline of linguistically focused CMC studies. A critique of the research on the ‘language of CMC’ is given, and aspects of CMC research from a sociolinguistic viewpoint are presented: the move from the ‘language of CMC’ to socially situated computer- mediated discourse; its grounding in the notion of online community; and the application of sociolinguistic methodologies to its study. It is argued that CMC provides a new empirical arena for various research traditions in sociolinguistics; conversely, sociolinguistics can contribute to the interdisciplinary theorizing of CMC by demonstrating the role of language useandlinguisticvariabilityintheconstructionofinterpersonalrelationships and social identities on the Internet. KEYWORDS: Computer-mediated communication, sociolinguistics ‘WEBSLANG’ AND ‘NETSPEAK’: CHALLENGING NEW LANGUAGE MYTHS In early 2005 the Bild, Germany’s most popular tabloid newspaper, launched on its website a series of quizzes dedicated to language use on the Internet. Bearing headings such as ‘Do you understand Internet slang?’ and ‘Do you speak Chattish?’ these quizzes consist of a mixture
    [Show full text]
  • Register in Computational Linguistics Arxiv Version
    Computational Register Analysis and Synthesis Shlomo Engelson Argamon Department of Computer Science Illinois Institute of Technology Chicago, IL 60616 [email protected] Abstract The study of register in computational language research has historically been divided into register analysis, seeking to determine the registerial character of a text or corpus, and register synthesis, seeking to generate a text in a desired register. This article surveys the different approaches to these disparate tasks. Register synthesis has tended to use more theoretically articulated notions of register and genre than analysis work, which often seeks to categorize on the basis of intuitive and somewhat incoherent notions of prelabeled “text types”. I argue that a integration of computational register analysis and synthesis will benefit register studies as a whole, by enabling a new large-scale research program in register studies. It will enable comprehensive global mapping of functional language varieties in multiple languages, including the relationships between them. Furthermore, computational methods together with high coverage systematically collected and analyzed data will thus enable rigorous empirical validation and refinement of different theories of register, which will have also implications for our understanding of linguistic variation in general. Keywords: computational linguistics, natural language processing, style, stylistics, text classification 1. Introduction Register, broadly construed, refers to variation in language usage within different
    [Show full text]
  • Guricova Internet Slang in Rel
    Masaryk University Faculty of Arts Department of English and American Studies Teaching English Language and Literature for Secondary Schools Bc. Kristýna Guricová Internet Slang in Relation to ELT Master‘s Diploma Thesis Supervisor: James Edward Thomas, M.A. 2013 I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography. …………………………………………….. Author‘s signature Acknowledgement First and foremost, I would like to like to express my gratitude to my supervisor, James Edward Thomas, M. A., for his guidance, kind help and valuable advice throughout the process of writing this thesis. I would also like to thank all the teachers and students of English who took part in my research and in my e-learning course. Finally, I would like to thank Petra Erbanová for her invaluable support and help. Table of Contents 1 Introduction .............................................................................................................................................. 6 2 Internet slang - the linguistic perspective ............................................................................................. 8 2.1 Defining slang ............................................................................................................................... 10 2.2 Internet language as a variety of language ................................................................................ 17 2.2.1 Speech or writing? ..............................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Linguistic Feature Spread in Online Social Networks
    LINGUISTIC FEATURE SPREAD IN ONLINE SOCIAL NETWORKS by HAYDEN YGARTUA A THESIS Presented to the Department of Linguistics and the Robert D. Clark Honors College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts June 2018 An Abstract of the Thesis of Hayden Ygartua for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in the Department of Linguistics to be taken May 2018 Title: Linguistic Feature Spread in Online Social Networks Approved: _______________________________________ Spike Gildea Sociolinguists studying computer-mediated communication often study the effects of categorical variables on online language use, but studies of the effects of community membership have lagged behind. Such studies of traditional, in-person communities have found that individuals tend to speak more like those in their immediate community, and less like those with whom they are distant, but comparable studies have not been carried out for online communities. To explore whether this trend may hold true online, I have conducted a study of the use of conversational, text-based communication on the social network site Twitter. I find that a variety of linguistic features characteristic of computer-mediated communication correlate with community membership in their usage, indicating that Twitter users do tend to “speak” more similarly to those in their immediate social circles. ii Acknowledgements I would like to thank my Thesis Committee Professors Spike Gildea, Charlotte Vaughn, and Casey Shoop for helping me solidify my approach, explore ideas from different perspectives, and always explain thoroughly what I am doing. Thank you all for supporting me and answering my questions, even as I struggled to make things work.
    [Show full text]
  • Persuasiveness in Political Discourse on Twitter Персуазивність У Жанрі
    Psycholinguistics (2018), 24(2), 29–46 doi: 10.31470/2309-1797-2018-24-2-29-46 UDC 811.111:004.738.5:32 Persuasiveness in Political Discourse on Twitter Персуазивність у жанрі твіттінг в англомовному політичному дискурсі Olena Goroshko1 Олена Горошко1 HabDoc in Philology and доктор філологічних наук, Sociology, Professor, Chair holder доктор соціологічних наук, of Cross-Cultural and Foreign професор, завідувач кафедри Languages Department міжкультурної комунікації та іноземних мов E-mail: [email protected] orcid.org/0000-0002-8592-1022 Tetiana Poliakova2 Тетяна Полякова2 Ph.D. in Philology, кандидат філологічних наук, Assistant Professor, доцент, завідувач кафедри Chair holder of the Department мовної підготовки of Language Training E-mail: [email protected] orcid.org/0000-0002-3353-2228 1 National Technical University 1 Національний технічний «Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute» університет «Харківський 2, Kirpichov Str., Kharkiv, політехнічний інститут» Ukraine, 61002 вул. Кірпічова, 2, м. Харків, Україна, 61002 2 Kharkiv Petro Vasylenko 2 Харківський національний National Technical University технічний університет сільського of Agriculture господарства ім. П. Василенко 44, Alchevsky Str., Kharkiv, вул. Алчевського, 44, м. Харків, Ukraine, 61002 Україна, 61002 Original manuscript received April 29, 2018 Revised manuscript accepted September 25, 2018 ISSN 2309-1797 (print) / 2415-3397 (online) psycholing-journal.com 29 Персуазивність у жанрі твіттінг в англомовному політичному... ABSTRACT The article focuses on the question
    [Show full text]