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CHAPTER 5:
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ONLINE LANGUAGE AND SOCIAL
INTERACTION
Reina Shafina (1805099)
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Introduction

Written language is consider to be the main tool for online communication. But, what

sparks a controversy amongst teachers, parents, and journalists is the way young

people would use the language (in terms of spelling, grammar, the use of

abbreviations and other non-standard forms) and calling it "substandard and

impoverished".
 ESP - MULTIMODALITY
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INTERNET LINGUISTIC
FEATURES
the language often used with interactive media like chat, instant
messaging, mobile text messaging and micro blogging

- Acronyms (e.g., 'btw,' 'lol'),

- Shortened forms (e.g., 'k' for 'okay')

- Less attention to standard spelling, capitalization and punctuation

- Letter homophones (e.g., ‘u’ for ‘you’, ‘oic’ for ‘oh, I see’)

- Creative use of punctuation (e.g., multiple punctuation such as ‘!!!!’ or ellipsis

marks ‘. . . . . .’)
— 01

- Spelling based on sound (e.g., ‘kewl’ or ‘cooooool’)

- Lexicalization of vocal sounds (like ‘umm’, ‘uh huh’, ‘haha’)

- Emoticons and other keyboard generated graphics (e.g., ‘=.=’)

- Creative use of typographical space and layout

- Formulaic openings and closings (e.g., ‘sup’; ‘bb’)-

 ESP - MULTIMODALITY
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— 01

Despite the controversy that these language use

would compromise students' ability to communicate

in proper manner, some researchers have come up

with evidence to debunk this theory.

Alf Massey and his colleagues (2005), for example,

have found that students who spend more time

instant messaging and texting tend to write more

complex sentences, use a wider vocabulary and

have more accurate spelling and capitalization in

their English examinations.

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MEDIA EFFECTS AND USER

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There are two main types that scholars have came up with to account for

the linguistic features of text-based digital communication, which are:

• those which focus on the media and how they constrain ‘normal’
— Concept and Definition

language use, and

• those that focus on the users of media, their social identities and their

relationships with the people with whom they are communicating.

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MEDIA EFFECTS

Constrains Constrains Constrains

For some people, it takes more time to Some digital media limit the number of Digital communications lack what the

type. And there is the inevitable delay characters allowed in one ‘turn’ (for example scholars would call 'rich cues' (tone of

between the time a message is typed and 160 characters for most SMS text messages voice, facial expressions and gestures)

the time it is received by one’s and 140 characters on Twitter). and 'contextualization cues' (context for

interlocutor. how our words should be interpreted.

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— Affordance
Text-based digital communication allows the users to interact

either in, more or less, 'real time' (synchronous) by chat and/or

Media Effects
instant messaging or 'delayed time' (asynchronous) through

emails and/or blogs

— Affordance
Acronyms and abbreviations are utilized to facilitate rapid

response and allow the users to say more things without using

too much space.

— Affordance

— 02
The use of emoticons and punctuation in digital communication

is available to compensate for the lack of contextualization

cues made by communicating through text.

— 02

VISUAL ARTS —
EASTSIDE LEARNING
ACADEMY
WHAT IS THE BIGGEST PROBLEM FACED BY
APPROACHES THAT FOCUS ON MEDIA EFFECTS?

People would see digital-based communication as a form of

'imperfect replica' of other forms of communication and how it
lacks the factors that other forms had. When in reality digital
communication has its own unique affordances.

Another, equally important, problem of this approach is the to

account for the great variety of language use within particular
media. The language that people use on the internet would
change according to the target that they want to speak to.
 — 02

User Effects
The scholars focuses on who they are, their relationships

VISUAL ARTS —
EASTSIDE LEARNING
ACADEMY
with and attitudes towards the people with whom they are
communicating, and what they are communicating about.

ex:

(a) Barack Obama

High-speed wireless service is how we’ll spark new

innovation, new investment,

and new jobs – and connect every corner of America to the

digital age.

(b) Kayla Dakota

truth is, I don’t like our health class at all. . . . UGHHH

ahahaha *holds up two fingers* . . . and I miss film club. we

should like . . . make our own film club: (

COMPARISON — 02

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Barack Obama Kayla Dakota

- Uses formal style with standard spelling and grammar, - Uses frequent ellipses, sound words, an emoticon, the

- Is addressing his constituents, intensifier ‘like', and a parenthetical description of a gesture

CY
- Of the older generation, (emoting),

- Holds an important status (presidency) - Is communicating with friends,

- Of the younger generation,

- Holds no particularly high social status (regular student)

User Effects — 02
Linguists have found different patterns of emoticon use, spelling, slang, code mixing
and even turn taking among people of different ages, different genders and from different regions.

The linguist James Paul Gee (2008) calls the different styles of speaking and writing associated with different kinds of

people and different social groups social languages. The more competent and creative they are at using these languages, the more

accepted or respected they are in the group. David Crystal (quoted in Kleinman, 2010) says that language is ‘like any badge of

ability. Sometimes people also use these social languages to exclude people who are not in their social group from their

interactions.
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WHAT ARE WE DOING WHEN WE INTERACT
ONLINE?

When using digital-based communications, people look for the convenience. Sometimes, you just want to tell your friend

about something without having the preface of small talks. The reason why people much prefer these short, instant way of

communicating is something called 'transaction cost'. Using text-based media decrease the amount of transaction cost that

someone would use.

— 03
 The transaction costs of traditional forms of verbal interaction include not just the necessity of

engaging in all sorts of conversational rituals like opening, closing and making small talk, but also the

necessity of constantly attending to one’s tone of voice, facial expressions and gestures as well as those

of one’s interlocutors, of constantly showing that one is listening, and of responding in a timely manner

to the utterances of others. Text-based communication, on the other hand, saves people the trouble of

having to pay attention to other modes like facial expressions and vocal quality.

— 03
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In addition...

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...text-based digital communication usually gives

people more time to compose and respond to utterances,

especially if the interaction is asynchronous.

Finally...
...because text-based communication does not require This is especially important when one wants to maintain a
users to devote so much attention to how they look and what separation between these different interactions.
they are doing when they are interacting, it allows them to do

other things at the same time, including having other

interactions with other people

 — 03
MODERN WAY TO MAINTAIN
FRIENDSHIPS.

One particular practice that text especially facilitates the process of conveying information, for example, is the
practice of ‘sharing’. Because of its low transaction costs, text makes it easy for people to share their thoughts, ideas,
experiences and feelings with others. It also makes it easier for people to reciprocate, or to ignore such messages if
they so choose.
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Meaning and Creativity

Making more modes of communication available in an interaction does not always result in ‘more meaning’ being conveyed,

in the same way that, more data does not always result in more information. In fact, linguists have been pointing out for some

time that quite a lot of communication occurs indirectly and that meaning is conveyed both in what is not said as well as in what

is said. Depending on the context and the relationship between communicators, a text message containing a single smiley can

express just as much as an elaborate verbal utterance.

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Text-based digital communication does not just encourage creativity through its limitations,

but also through its flexibility, especially the way it makes it easy for users to mix different kinds of

linguistic resources.
— 04

What is special about text-based digital communication is that it can be multi-scriptural as

well as multilingual, allowing users to add into the mix features like abbreviations that are only

possible in writing.
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This multi-scriptural capacity of text is particularly evident in the

communication of those whose language is not traditionally written with the

Roman alphabet. One variety of multi-scriptural language that has developed on

Russian and Ukrainian blogs, for example, is called ‘padronkavskiy zhargon’ – a

mixture of Russian and Ukrainian rendered phonetically and often full of puns

and profanity. Another example is what has come to be known in China as

‘Martian Language’ ( 火星文 ), a combination of Chinese characters, Romanized

Chinese words, English words, symbols, abbreviations and emoticons.

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One final affordance of text-based digital communication we would like to

mention is the way it facilitates the creation of new kinds of identities. There are, of

course, lots of potential problems with text-based identity play. It can, for example, be
— Concept and Definition

used as a tool for antisocial behaviour such as online deception or harassment. At the

same time, there are also many positive aspects of 'identity play'. Often when people

engage in text-based identity play, they are not so much 'pretending' to be someone

else as exploring different aspects of their 'real life' identities.

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CONCLUSION

The chapter we have discussed some of the reasons why the language of text-based

digital communication is so different from other kinds of written and spoken language. We have

also considered why text-based communication continues to be the most pervasive mode of digital

interaction, even when other more multimodal alternatives are readily available.
THANK YOU.