Language and Technology

Telephone Conversation
1. Emanuel A Schegloff (1986)
  1. Canonical Sequence
  2. Summons/answer - opening the channel of communication
    1. Identification (and/or Recognition) - which may be necessary for non-face-to-face communication
      1. a Greeting Sequence - initiating a shared space
        "How are you" Sequences- strengthening the shared space
2. Pre-closings and Closings
  1. Pre-closing sequence - somebody wants to discontinue the conversation
    1. Carefully managed by speakers so as not to threaten the face of their co-speakers
      1. Often use positive and/or negative politeness strategies. e.g. "its been really good talking to you"
  2. Metatalk - talk that draws attention to the act of talking itself
    1. e.g. "well i better stop talking and get on with my work"
  3. Phatic Speech acts- turns designed to maintain a sense of cooperation or respect to the other speaker
    1. e.g. "well it's great talking to you.."
  4. Closings use different valedictions depending on the intimacy of the speakers and the context of the conversation.
    1. Valediction - an item that acts as a fairwell
      1. e.g. "see you", "goodbye"
3. Answerphone messages
  1. easier way of collecting data to analyse
  2. monologic
  3. languages choices, like formality, vary depending of the relationship between speakers, the degree of shared knowledge and the purpose of the message being left
Emails
1. Language of Emails
  1. Crystal (2006) suggests that diversity of purposes of emails means it is difficult to generalize about language features used.
    1. he suggests the structural elements to a typical email are the same
      1. Date, From, Sender, To, etc..
  2. mixture of writing and speech, shares conventional features of both.
2. Issues
  1. Once sent, may be modified and forwarded on to other people
  2. if people change the message by framing, words can be put out of context.
    1. Framing = cutting and pasting parts of an original message into a new message
  3. you could send it to the wrong person.
3. 15 years ago - uncommon
4. allows instantaneous communication
5. spelling is more standardized than in SMS
6. write to many people in 1 communication
Radio and Television
1. Radio Phone-ins
  1. members of the public give their opinion on a subject
  2. hosted by a presenter who can manage the conversation by selecting/deselecting speakers and by having the final say.
  3. appear to be spontaneous BUT production teams undertake a range of practices to eliminate unwanted problems
    1. callers called back and briefed before they go on air
    2. presenter trained to free the programme from tricky situations with speed and courtesy
    3. production team briefed on how to deal sensitively with contributors when it is a difficult/controversial subject
      1. support systems in place
2. Television Commentaries
  1. Similar to radio
3. Radio Commentaries
  1. turn taking - makes the commentary clear
  2. listener can't see so relies on heavy description
Texting
1. Hybrid items
  1. Many abbreviations are hybrids of vowel, omission, homophones, phonetic and variant spelling, initialism and acronymy.
  2. e.g. ttul8er and pls4givme
  3. register is like spoken language
2. Lexical Features
  1. David Crystal (2004) discusses "text speak" - comes up with the key terms
    1. many examples are outdated due to users' constant creativity and experimentation
  2. New abbreviations because of group membership or idiosyncrasies.
    1. people searching for economy of expression.
3. Key Terms
  1. Vowel omission - e.g. pls, ppl, hv
  2. Homophonic representation - e.g. 2L8, M8, 2day, qt
  3. Acronymy - e.g. lol, sal
  4. Phonetic spelling - e.g. omigod, iluvu, cos
  5. Variant spelling - e.g. wot, wen, cuz
4. There can never be a standardized form
5. Register depends on context: many examples are part of a sociolect
Message Boards and Chat rooms
1. Message Boards
  1. asynchronous discourse - discourse in which there are delays between turns that participants take
  2. Populated by users with an interest in a topic.
    1. Users create their own username, may be linked to the nature of the board.
      1. may give an indication of the speakers age, gender or geographical location.
  3. Some boards show the no. of posts a user has made + assign seniority to high posting users
  4. those running the board (moderator) can moderate the site
  5. messages are displayed as 'threads' + people can add to them
  6. as the thread continues some may go off topic
  7. lexical accommodation- the way in which speakers mirror each other's lexical choices as a sign of community membership
    1. participants act like close friends even if they have never met
      1. Solidarity and shared interests and passions promote this sense of community
  8. some contributions can be modified into stickies, which remain at the top of the message board
2. Web pages
  1. enormous variety in functions of web pages makes identifying distinctive elements almost impossible
  2. Informative, entertaining + persuasive all in the form of advertisements
    1. range of language features in order to communicate with their implied readers and audiences
  3. many pages resemble print documents (discourse structure)
    1. also exist as complex sites of navigation, offering a range of resources, links and encouraging reader participation.
3. Blogs
  1. Web log
  2. some contain links to other blogs/websites that may interest the reader
    1. provoke further discussion + exploration
  3. blogger - an individual who uses a web log
  4. invite readers to post comments
  5. some exist to share copyright downloadable material (mp3 music files)
  6. many bloggers use the site as a personal diary space
  7. falls between standard + non standard English
4. Chatroom
  1. synchronous discourse - discourse that takes place in real time
  2. R.D Parrish (2004) - "streams of conversations in chatrooms are far from mere linear progression"
  3. Paralinguistic signs - convey additional info as not face to face
    1. e.g. *shrug*, :)

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	Created by savanna q about 10 years ago