Language and Technology

Language and Technology

1. Telephone Conversation

   • Emanuel A Schegloff (1986)
     • Canonical Sequence
     • Summons/answer - opening the channel of communication
       • Identification (and/or Recognition) - which may be necessary for non-face-to-face communication
         • a Greeting Sequence - initiating a shared space
           • "How are you" Sequences- strengthening the shared space
   • Pre-closings and Closings
     • Pre-closing sequence - somebody wants to discontinue the conversation
       • Carefully managed by speakers so as not to threaten the face of their co-speakers
         • Often use positive and/or negative politeness strategies. e.g. "its been really good talking to you"
     • Metatalk - talk that draws attention to the act of talking itself
       • e.g. "well i better stop talking and get on with my work"
     • Phatic Speech acts- turns designed to maintain a sense of cooperation or respect to the other speaker
       • e.g. "well it's great talking to you.."
     • Closings use different valedictions depending on the intimacy of the speakers and the context of the conversation.
       • Valediction - an item that acts as a fairwell
         • e.g. "see you", "goodbye"
   • Answerphone messages
     • easier way of collecting data to analyse
     • monologic
     • languages choices, like formality, vary depending of the relationship between speakers, the degree of shared knowledge and the purpose of the message being left

2. Emails

   • Language of Emails
     • Crystal (2006) suggests that diversity of purposes of emails means it is difficult to generalize about language features used.
       • he suggests the structural elements to a typical email are the same
         • Date, From, Sender, To, etc..
     • mixture of writing and speech, shares conventional features of both.
   • Issues
     • Once sent, may be modified and forwarded on to other people
     • if people change the message by framing, words can be put out of context.
       • Framing = cutting and pasting parts of an original message into a new message
     • you could send it to the wrong person.
   • 15 years ago - uncommon
   • allows instantaneous communication
   • spelling is more standardized than in SMS
   • write to many people in 1 communication

3. Radio and Television

   • Radio Phone-ins
     • members of the public give their opinion on a subject
     • hosted by a presenter who can manage the conversation by selecting/deselecting speakers and by having the final say.
     • appear to be spontaneous BUT production teams undertake a range of practices to eliminate unwanted problems
       • callers called back and briefed before they go on air
       • presenter trained to free the programme from tricky situations with speed and courtesy
       • production team briefed on how to deal sensitively with contributors when it is a difficult/controversial subject
         • support systems in place
   • Television Commentaries
     • Similar to radio
   • Radio Commentaries
     • turn taking - makes the commentary clear
     • listener can't see so relies on heavy description

4. Texting

   • Hybrid items
     • Many abbreviations are hybrids of vowel, omission, homophones, phonetic and variant spelling, initialism and acronymy.
     • e.g. ttul8er and pls4givme
     • register is like spoken language
   • Lexical Features
     • David Crystal (2004) discusses "text speak" - comes up with the key terms
       • many examples are outdated due to users' constant creativity and experimentation
     • New abbreviations because of group membership or idiosyncrasies.
       • people searching for economy of expression.
   • Key Terms
     • Vowel omission - e.g. pls, ppl, hv
     • Homophonic representation - e.g. 2L8, M8, 2day, qt
     • Acronymy - e.g. lol, sal
     • Phonetic spelling - e.g. omigod, iluvu, cos
     • Variant spelling - e.g. wot, wen, cuz
   • There can never be a standardized form
   • Register depends on context: many examples are part of a sociolect

5. Message Boards and Chat rooms

   • Message Boards
     • asynchronous discourse - discourse in which there are delays between turns that participants take
     • Populated by users with an interest in a topic.
       • Users create their own username, may be linked to the nature of the board.
         • may give an indication of the speakers age, gender or geographical location.
     • Some boards show the no. of posts a user has made + assign seniority to high posting users
     • those running the board (moderator) can moderate the site
     • messages are displayed as 'threads' + people can add to them
     • as the thread continues some may go off topic
     • lexical accommodation- the way in which speakers mirror each other's lexical choices as a sign of community membership
       • participants act like close friends even if they have never met
         • Solidarity and shared interests and passions promote this sense of community
     • some contributions can be modified into stickies, which remain at the top of the message board
   • Web pages
     • enormous variety in functions of web pages makes identifying distinctive elements almost impossible
     • Informative, entertaining + persuasive all in the form of advertisements
       • range of language features in order to communicate with their implied readers and audiences
     • many pages resemble print documents (discourse structure)
       • also exist as complex sites of navigation, offering a range of resources, links and encouraging reader participation.
   • Blogs
     • Web log
     • some contain links to other blogs/websites that may interest the reader
       • provoke further discussion + exploration
     • blogger - an individual who uses a web log
     • invite readers to post comments
     • some exist to share copyright downloadable material (mp3 music files)
     • many bloggers use the site as a personal diary space
     • falls between standard + non standard English
   • Chatroom
     • synchronous discourse - discourse that takes place in real time
     • R.D Parrish (2004) - "streams of conversations in chatrooms are far from mere linear progression"
     • Paralinguistic signs - convey additional info as not face to face
       • e.g. *shrug*, :)