Webof words

Language Variation

The Web of Words: Language and Technology

A brief overview of computer mediated communication It is very hard to imagine now, but fewer than 20 years ago most forms of computer mediated communication that we now take for granted either did not exist or were only available in very specialist situations. Home computers were a developing product, but had nothing like the power, sophistication or range of software and hardware that are now available. To give an example, the home computer had to be plugged into a TV screen to be used, and data or programs saved to cassette tape. Since then, however, there has been an incredible growth in the use and ubiquity of computers in all areas of our lives and most of us cannot imagine life without computer mediated communication. Although the forms and conventions are still evolving, there are some identifiable features of electronic texts which can make them quite different to other texts. In his useful book, Language and ICT, Tim Shortis identifies the properties of electronic texts as follows:

• plasticity: opposite of fixity; screen text is not permanent but subject to alteration, remodelling or combination.

• links: texts can be combined with every other type of ICT text and image;

allows the creation of infinitely malleable systems of information with multimedia animated combinations of visual, auditory, graphical and verbal information.

• tagging: texts can be tagged so that particular sequences of information are

associated with other types of information e.g. a word in a computer language corpus can be tagged with its part of speech. This is the organisational basis of web pages and allows complex searches of linked information.

© 2005 www.teachit.co.uk 4597.doc of 7

Language Variation

• searches: computers can be programmed to match up patterns of code,

allowing very rapid searches of complex info e.g. on CD-ROMs or web browsers. Different responses can be triggered e.g. unrecognised word in spellchecker brings up a dialog box.

• templates: many IT texts simulate human interaction by using a template

simulating the norms of human-human interaction e.g. word processing Wizard.

• footprints: many IT texts make electronic ‘footprints’ which can be traced

and used later e.g. ISP logs of customer use patterns.

• virtuality: IT texts can create a parallel world simulating the real one without being tied to geography e.g. IRC.

Either individually or in groups, collect two or three examples of the electronic text and discourse types listed below, which have developed during the last twenty years as a result of technological development in computer mediated communication.

1. word-processed letter 2. e-mail communication between known correspondents 3. spam 4. web pages 5. internet chat between friends 6. chatroom dialogue 7. helpline on a computer program 8. a post from a blog 9. online discussion forum 10. one other type of your choice, which differs from the above, eg e-newsletter,

live online game playing discussion, etc Consider each of your choices carefully and evaluate its application of the features identified above. How important is that feature to that text or discourse type? Present your findings in an appropriate format of your choice.


Language Variation

Contextual factors shaping the language use Consider the key contextual factors which influence the use of specific types of register and patterns of discourse in the two types of text you could be asked to consider in the exam. Record your ideas in the table below. Web pages Email Settings Remember to consider the extent communication is place-bound and time-bound

Participants Remember to consider the number and their relationship, and both interpersonal and mass communication

Activities Consider the possible social functions of this type of communication

The range of variations you identify here should be the basis of your own wider reading and investigation during the course of our work on this topic. Aim to collect examples of as many different types of email and web page as you can find.


Language Variation

How the social context and the technology shape the language use Now look more closely at the language use in two types of email and two types of webpage. Use the collection of texts you created in the first activity, and select pairs of texts to work on which have interesting differences in their contexts. For example, a webpage written to help UK students pass their AS/A2 English Language exams has a different context to a webpage written to promote the sale of books and DVDs; an email exchange between you and a cousin who lives overseas has a different context to a spam email in which someone purporting to be a foreign prince invites you to earn £50,000 just by looking after some of his money for a while. These differences will have a big influence on the way that language works.

1. Carefully consider the nature of the context shaping each of these specific examples: the settings, the participants, and the activities.

2. Analyse how specific features of language are shaped by both the social context and the use of the technology.

3. Record both your observations and examples in a copy of the table below. Note that not all frameworks will necessarily apply to each set of data.

Text 1 Text 2

Lexis

Grammar

Semantics


Language Variation

Pragmatics

Graphology

Phonology / features of spokenness

Discourse patterns and structures

What conclusions can you draw from this analysis?


Language Variation

Representations of computer mediated communication Below is a short extract from Bridget Jones’s Diary by Helen Fielding. If you have access to the internet, you can read a longer excerpt, including all of the entry for Thursday 5 January, at http://www.bookbrowse.com/excerpts/index.cfm?book_number=326. In this fictional diary entry, Bridget Jones takes part in a flirtatious email exchange with her boss Daniel Cleaver. Read either the short version below, or the whole entry for Thursday 5 January, and consider these questions:

• What issues does this fictional situation raise about language and technology?

• What other issues does it raise about language use in society, such as language and gender, language and power, and language in the workplace?

• How realistic is this situation? What evidence can you provide to substantiate your answer?

11 a.m. Office. Oh my God. Daniel Cleaver just sent me a message. Was trying to work on CV without Perpetua noticing (in preparation for improving career) when Message Pending suddenly flashed up on top of screen. Delighted by, well, anything - as always am if is not work - I quickly pressed RMS Execute and nearly jumped out of my skin when I saw Cleave at the bottom of the message. I instantly thought he had been able to tap into the computer and see that I was not getting on with my work. But then I read the message:

Message Jones

You appear to have forgotten your skirt. As I think is made perfectly clear in your contract of employment, staff are expected to be fully dressed at all times. Cleave

Hah! Undeniably flirtatious. Thought for a little while whilst pretending to study tedious-beyond-belief manuscript from lunatic. Have never messaged Daniel Cleaver before but brilliant thing about messaging system is you can be really quite cheeky and informal, even to your boss. Also can spend ages practising. This is what sent.

Message Cleave Sir, am appalled by message. Whilst skirt could reasonably be described as a little on the skimpy side (thrift being ever our watchword in editorial), consider it gross misrepresentation to describe said skirt as absent, and considering contacting union. Jones

Waited in frenzy of excitement for reply.

Bridget Jones’s Diary copyright © Helen Fielding / Picador


http://www.bookbrowse.com/excerpts/index.cfm?book_number=326

Language Variation

The debate about language and the internet Go to http://assets.cambridge.org/052180/2121/sample/0521802121ws.pdf and read the chapter from David Crystal’s Language and the Internet. Summarise the key points using these questions to guide you:

• What anxieties have been expressed in public discourse about language and the internet?

• How does Crystal use the history of communication to counter these anxieties?

• How has the internet developed? • What is a “netizen” and how do they spend their days? • What are the two key tasks Crystal says must be undertaken in order to gain an

understanding of language and the internet? • What is a language variety? • What are the distinguishing features of a language variety? • What is the initial question he identifies for people interested in internet

linguistics? • What are the five internet situations he identifies? Summarise the key features

of each one. • What is the “learning situation” for users of the internet that Crystal describes? • What problems are caused by this “learning situation”? • What research has been conducted into internet communication? • Ingenuity, idiosyncrasy and intelligibility. What connections does Crystal see

between these key concepts of internet communication? • What is Netspeak? List all of the features identified and give examples.

Now use this information, and as much other evidence as you can find, to discuss this question:

Crystal’s book, Language and the Internet, was published in 2001. To what extent would you agree that it is already out of date?


http://assets.cambridge.org/052180/2121/sample/0521802121ws.pdf

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