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Language Beyond the Text: txt msgs 4 a new gnr8n
Corissa
Bush (bio)
caraggie00@hotmail.com
Millions of people use
digital technology in their daily lives from turning on a computer for data
processing, communication, information, and playing games, to accessing the
Internet as well as using mobile phones to communicate verbally and textually
across space and time. As this technology races forward to create new ways
to communicate, we must pause and question the drastic changes in our culture,
language, and values, in the last thirty years due to technological advances
in communication. What specific technologies are changing languages? How and
why are those technologies changing languages? What are the effects of those
technologies on language?
1. Text
Messaging Changing Written Discourse
Born into the Information
Age, a world with fast and easy access to information, growing up with the
Internet, email, chat rooms, handheld computers, and phones capable of multiple
medium formats, how are people managing the new communication tools? What
is the critical response to these new modes of communication? Analyzing the
latest trend in technologically advanced communication, text messaging, also
called short messaging system (SMS) or texting, I will show how people are
manipulating written discourse to fit their needs for communication and how
other countries and languages, specifically France, have reported similar
changes in language when their citizens use text messaging. Before explaining
how text messaging is changing written discourse, I first provide background
information as to how and why text messaging became such a prevalent mode
for communication.
2.
History of Technological Shifts Affecting Language
Technology throughout
the last several centuries has greatly influenced human language.
The first big revolution of technology affecting language was the
invention of the printing press. As a result of the printing press,
language became more standardized because of the ability to print
in mass and make copies available to the public; in return, regulation
of spelling and grammar became a concern among academics. The great
English lexicographer, Samuel Johnson, undertook the important prescriptive
task of regulating spelling by creating the first dictionary in
the English language. In his preface, Johnson asserts:
When
I took the first survey of my undertaking, I found our speech copious without
order, and energetick without rules; wherever I turned my view, there was
perplexity to be disentangled, and confusion to be regulated; choice was to
be made out of boundless variety, without any established principle of selection;
adulterations were to be detected, without a settled test of purity; and modes
of expression to be rejected or received without suffrages of any writers
of classical reputation or acknowledged authority.
The most significant
technology in the 16th century, the printing press, caused a transitional
shift in the English language and though many technological advances have
been made since then, none has affected language beyond the creation of new
words and redefining old words until recently. The digital technology in the
21st century is causing another transitional shift in language
moving beyond naming and redefining to creating a shortened language system
with accompanying rules. Both Samuel Johnson, a revered scholar of the 18th
century, and the average Internet and phone user in the 21st century,
attempt to prescribe rules of the language to work with the technology of
the time.
Today, networked computer-mediated
communication technologies are the latest ways to communicate quickly since
the invention of the telephone. People who use the Internet, referred to as
"users" in popular culture and throughout this paper, must wade
through a sea of new and changing semantics because of space and/or time constraints.
In Hale"s (1996) guide to computers and computer language, she questions
the recent semantic changes. "Writers today must navigate the shifting
verbal currents of the post-Gutenberg era. When does jargon end and a new
vernacular begin? Where's the line between neologism and hype? What's the
language of the global village? How can we keep pace with technology without
getting bogged down in buzzwords?" (p.2). Although there are no easy
answers, users are changing written discourse to work with the technology,
changing the language first in the chat rooms and making even greater changes
when using text messaging. Traditional prescriptivism, grammatical rules about
written language, originating with Samuel Johnson and others, does not exist
in the digital world; users are attempting to define themselves stylistically
to their groups by playing with the language and creating new prescriptive
rules for written language in the process. Scholars are not making the rules
any longer; our language is distinctively being changed by technologically
savvy users who are primarily young adults.
3.
Recent Technology Causing Semantic Shifts
The invention of the computer
does not belong to one person, rather it belongs to various individuals who
contributed toward technological advances in creating "machines"
that aide in the computation of numbers. Not until the 1980"s did companies
build computers available for the public that did not require a punch card.
The invention of the desktop computer and the software that utilizes the computer
is the cause of a language revolution creating new prescriptive rules. The
pc (personal computer) not only caused significant semantic changes in English
by adding new vocabulary and expanding/generalizing existing vocabulary, but
also delivered the capability to retrieve information as well as communicate
remotely through the Internet. Although a few individuals and the United States
military were attempting to network computers in 1968, Tim Berners-Lee, a
researcher at the infamous CERN institute in Switzerland, is the person to
credit for starting the World Wide Web. The Internet soon became a medium
for a select group of people to communicate. As more citizens connected to
the Internet, these newbies either had to learn the new prescriptive rules
original users created to communicate selectively with one another or forfeit
an understanding the new modes of communication. The Internet allowed users
to create something similar to a new dialect or vernacular only people using
the this technology would understand, often called "netspeak", "netlish",
"weblish", "cyberspeak", "electronic discourse",
"electronic language", and "computer-mediated communication
(CMC)" (Crystal, 2001, p. 17).
3.1
Language in Media Discourse
In a postmodern society,
contradictions define our lives. Linguists Aitchison and Lewis (2003) discuss
these contradictions in the introduction of a collection of articles from
a conference on Media and International Communication. The first contradiction
they discuss is globalization versus fragmentation. In a world where technology
allows us to connect to the world through instantaneous news and communication,
the world has thus become smaller to us than it was to our forbearers, even
our parents. Yet as this world seemingly becomes smaller, it also becomes
more fragmented. Our technology separates us from others, because we no longer
solely use face-to-face communication, but also communicate with others using
a computer at home or work through email, chatrooms, instant messenger, etc.
The Internet, especially, connects us to the world and others, making us feel
as though many people surround us, but according to Wilbur (1996), the physical
isolation of sitting in front of a computer fragments our experience because
is it nothing more than a virtual reality. Also, digital technology has fragmented
the audience because a homogenous mass audience does not exist anymore, but
rather small communities of niche market (Hale, 1996). The users who belong
to these small communities are the ones shaping and defining communication
changes including, but not limited to, written language.
Aitchison and Lewis (2003)
discuss a second contradiction of postmodern society, linguistic expansion
versus language compression. The television and the Internet can be accessed
for news around the clock, news reports for "special events" are
extended, websites provide links for more information; however, the information
we receive is compressed as well. Although we know more, we compress the language
into headlines in newspapers that provide a summary of the article in a few
short words and tickers in news shows with brief updates flashing across the
bottom of the television screen. Other technologies, such as the Internet
and mobile phone, have expanded the ways in which we can communicate with
others across time and space; however, the users must compress the information
due to the formatting of certain mediums of communication. For example, people
in chat rooms must shorten language because of the required quick response
and text messages can only have 140-160 characters due to the limitations
of the technology. Scholars are also noticing trends that support postmodern
tendencies in the information society; Green (2001) compares characteristics
of modern and postmodern societies. She lists the following as postmodern
characteristics in an information society: ambiguity, chaos, random, no certainty,
surface (lack of depth), niche market, overlapping layers, shifting meanings,
fragmentation (p. 71). Text messaging reflects these postmodern problems because
the language is fragmented, text is abbreviated and words often left out;
the language is ambiguous due to the elimination of words or letters in a
word, as well as removing paralinguistic communication like facial expressions
and hand movement from a conversation; lastly, communication lacks depth when
stripping language to the basic element.
3.2
How Recent Technology is Changing Written Discourse
The Internet provided
a new source for written language to change rapidly due to the ability to
communicate with others, asynchronous (delayed time) at first and synchronous
(real time) later. Unfortunately, the communication that occurred could only
happen between those individuals with a computer (with a fast enough processing
speed), and those who paid for an Internet connection, which formed the small
communities of users who created unique language to communicate exclusively
with one another. Laypeople using asynchronous communication, such as email
and posting services (Listserv) began experimenting with language in terms
of style and formatting. With the advancement of technology, faster computers
and Internet, synchronous communication, like Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and
Instant Messenger, became the popular way to communicate crossing the line
between speech and writing.
The Internet strips written
language to the most fundamental properties because of time limitation and
lack of paralinguistic signs that exists in face-to-face communication or
even a phone conversation. Millard (1996), a professor of communication at
Oxford, refers to "Netspeak" or Internet lingo as "metacommunicative
minimalism," which he describes as "Textual cyberspace filters away
all qualities of a personal self save the highly mediated, acutely self-conscious
elements that appear in written language. Phatic or metacommunicative cues,
the linguistic and paralinguistic signs that maintain cognizance of the social
relation between the sender and receiver of a message, are drastically reduced
in this medium" (p. 147). As a result, users created their own prescriptive
rules for written language and phatic interaction while chatting since none
existed in the new communicative medium. Although there is still turn taking,
the turn may be interrupted, or even out of order due to the amount of time
taken to type a response and the users' physical capabilities, hardware, software
and bandwidth. Due to a need for quick responses, a phenomenon occurred with
synchronous discourse in the chat room; users shortened written language and
responses as opposed to asynchronous forums like email. Crystal (2001) took
100 chat room samples from three studies including Werry, Bechar-Israeli,
and Paolillo and found an average of 4.23 words occurred per contribution,
80 percent of the utterances were five words or less, and 80 percent of words were monosyllabic
(p. 157). Users simplified language to save time and enable them to respond
faster.
As the phone technology
advanced to push communication from verbal to textual, many people used the
language rules from chat rooms and expanded those rules for text messaging.
In 1992, Vodafone Network sent the first SMS from a personal computer to a
mobile phone (Kesseler and Bergs, 2003). Text messaging can be asynchronous
or synchronous depending on if the receiver and sender are both available
to use his/her telephone, and fuse speech and writing much like chatrooms
on the Internet. The advancement in digital technology enables everyone to
communicate easily through text messaging, because mobile phones do not require
a user to be connected to the Internet, but rather the user can send a text
message from anywhere a signal is available and to anyone with the phone capability.
The limitations of the technology, 140-160 characters depending on the phone
and the company, forced users to be creative with language, expanding the
abbreviations observed in chatrooms.
Just as the Internet is
a communicative tool utilized globally, so is text messaging. Text messaging
is far more popular in Europe and Asia than it is in the United States. In
2003, according to The Mobile Data Association, users in England alone sent
20.5 billion text messages and this number is expected to rise to 23 billion
in 2004 ("UK will send," 2004). According to the Economist, the
global average for text messaging is 30 messages a month, the average in parts
of Asia is as high as 200 messages a month, and the average in America is
7. Americans prefer to talk because it is cheap and companies offer "free"
minutes as opposed to other parts of the world where it is cheaper to text
than to call. In addition, texting is not a standard in packages in the US,
and it is difficult to know who has the option enabled, as well as incompatible
technologies of the different mobile operators ("No Text Please,"
2003). Due to the popularity of text messaging in other countries that speak
English as well as other languages, English is not the only language affected
by text messaging shaping the language.
Within each country, adolescents
make up the primary group utilizing text messaging and are therefore often
responsible for changing the language. In 2001 the BBC reported that 90 percent
of 11-16 year olds in England have a mobile phone and the top reasons to text
someone include sending a greeting like happy birthday and arranging or canceling
a date ("Txting heads for," 2001). By 2003, adolescents made up
43 percent of those sending messages, as opposed to 25 percent of those 30-34
("R ur txt," 2003). Kesseler and Bergs (2003) suggest in their study
that text messages are replacing love letters between adolescents and even
though text messages are simplified, the love mail still contains the same
images, metaphors, and codes. Prior to text messaging, adolescents in most
countries used slang to define their specific group, but language used in
text messages goes beyond the creation of new words to redefining the rules
for the language.
4.
Text Messaging Data
The data I present in
this paper is a collection of abbreviations from five Internet text messaging
"dictionaries"[1]; I extend "dictionary" to
include websites that provided the latest text messaging abbreviations and
the "definition," which is a word or phrase. There are some discrepancies
between the dictionaries. Not all of the dictionaries had the same spelling
or the same definition for the abbreviations, which is a result of the fact
that there is a lack of "defined" or "fixed" prescriptive
rules for digital communication. The five dictionaries combined contained
665 different abbreviations, and I separated the abbreviations into nine separate
semantic categories: Homophonic Single Grapheme, Numeric, Aphesis/Abbreviation,
Dropping Vowel, Acronym, Alphanumeric, Grapheme Changes, Abbreviated Phrase,
and Contraction. Table 1 represents the total number of examples found in
each category.
The people sending text
messages, texters, are experimenting with written language, manipulating it
to fit the technological limitations of space and style. Many of the abbreviations
originated in chat rooms to allow for faster response time and texters expanded
the abbreviations to create a writing system that contains new prescriptive
rules and reflects a better phoneme-grapheme match in spelling than traditional
English spelling. Since texters are limited to approximately 150 characters,
75 percent of the abbreviations in this study are phrases, as opposed to 25
percent of single word abbreviations. I also show how similar semantic experimentations
with written language are occurring in other languages; I only found research
pertaining to French, however, critics from other countries articulate similar
changes in language. Natalie Pomier, Editor of Oxford French Dictionary completed
a similar text messaging study using French words, which I include limited
examples to prove these changes are not restricted to countries that speak
and text in English.
Table 1.
Percentage graph of the number of abbreviations for each linguistic category
discussed

4.1
Revisiting Existing Linguistic Devices
When communicating through
text rather than speech, paralinguistic communication is lost, such as facial
expressions, gestures, and body language critical for determining meaning
in context. First appearing in email and chatrooms, texters borrowed smileys
(also spelled smilies) and emoticons; both are modern forms of ideograms designed
to show emotional and facial expression. Smileys and emoticons use letters
and symbols on the keyboard to create the appropriate emotion: symbols such
as :) or :-), for smile or happy, ;) for a wink, :-O for shock, and the list
continues. Many applications now recognize the ideogram code and turn it into
a pictogram such as J L
on Internet applications. However, in text messaging, texters still use the
original smileys and emoticons if the phone has the keyboard capabilities,
or if texting from a computer. Only one dictionary listed smileys/emoticons,
possibly because they are not abbreviations of the language, they are mainly
used for IRC (internet relay chat), and few texters have the capability to
send or receive smileys/emoticons. Therefore, I only mention smileys/emoticons
and do not include them in the research.
4.2
Homophonic Single Grapheme Abbreviation
In
the chatroom, users began changing words, appearing as phonetically transcribed
sounds to shorten the language, thus allowing for faster response time and
similarly texters abbreviate language due to the limitations in the number
of characters allowed per message. I have found no agreed name for this occurrence,
but Victoria Clark, a graduate student at Jesus College, discusses in her
dissertation this same phenomenon in Internet chatrooms, labeling it "homophonic
single grapheme abbreviation" and Natalie Pomier (2004) labels it "phonetic
transcription" when discussing text messaging in her article. Although
phonetic transcription may not be the best term since many of the examples
may not qualify using that specific term.
In
English, some common phonetic transcriptions include "c" replacing
"see", "u" replacing "you", and combinations
such as "cu" replacing "see you". Texters use thirteen
letters in the English alphabet for homophonic single grapheme abbreviation.
Out of the five dictionaries, three dictionaries agreed "u" for
"you", however the dictionaries had discrepancies on "b",
which varied from "be", "bee", "bye"; "n"
varied from "and", "no", "an", "in";
"r" varied between "are", "or". In French, texters
are using the same linguistic devices, for example "k" replaces
"qu", "c" replaces "c"est", forming combinations
such as "cki?" which means "c"est qui" (Pomier, 2004).
Table
2. Homophonic Single Grapheme Abbreviation
Abbreviation
b |
Definition
be/bee, bye |
c |
See |
cu |
see
you |
f |
If |
i |
eye,
I |
k |
Okay |
n |
and,
no, an, in |
o |
or,oh |
q |
Queue |
r |
are/
or |
ru? |
are
you? |
s |
Is |
t |
tea,
tee |
u |
You |
ur |
you
are, your |
y |
why,
yes |
4.3
Numeric Characters Replacing Homophones
In
the English language, texters use four distinct numbers to replace the sound
in a word. The number 8 replaces the sound /et/, 4 replaces /f™r/, 2 replaces
/tōō/, 1 replaces /wun/. See Table 3 for abbreviation listings and
definitions. There are two special cases with using numeric characters. The
first is the use of the number 3 to indicate the amount three; "a3"
means "anytime, anywhere, anyplace", "3some" means "threesome".
Also, 9 appears in only one dictionary, which references the saying, not necessarily
using the number to replace the homophone, "cld9" for "cloud
9". Another anomaly using 9 is in the abbreviation for "g9"
for "genius". Texters similarly use numeric characters to replace
letters in French as well, "6ne" for "cinema", "K7"
for "cassette" (Pomier 2004).
Table
3. Examples of numeric characters replacing homophones; I did not list all
examples.
Abbreviation
a3 |
Definition
anytime, anywhere,
anyplace |
activ8 |
Activate |
adctd2luv |
addicted
to love |
b2 |
back
to |
b2b |
back
to businesss, back to back |
b4 |
Before |
b4n,
bfn |
bye
for now |
cld9 |
cloud
9 |
cr8 |
Create |
cu2moro |
see
you tomorrow |
cu2nite |
see
you tonight |
cul,
CUL8R |
see
you later |
cul8r
alig8r n whl crcdl |
see
you later alligator, in a while crocodile |
cw2cu |
Can't
wait to see you |
d8 |
Date |
d8ing |
Dating |
db8 |
Debate |
dict8 |
Dictate |
dv8 |
Deviate |
e2eg |
ear
to ear grin |
every1 |
Everyone |
f2f |
face
to face |
f2t |
free
to talk |
g2cu,
g2sy |
glad/good
to see you |
g2g |
got
to go |
g2r |
got
to run |
g9 |
Genius |
4.4
Aphesis and Abbreviation
Although
there are only seventeen examples of aphesis and abbreviation, less than three
percent of the total abbreviations, it is still worth mentioning as a technique
texters use in sending text messages. I combined aphesis and abbreviation
because both sever the word; aphesis severs the beginning of the word and
abbreviation severs the end of the word. "lo" for "hello"
is an example of aphesis and "sec" for "second" is an
example of abbreviation. The most common abbreviation mentioned in three of
the five dictionaries is "cos" or "cuz" for "because".
In the French language, texters also use aphesis, "zic" for "musique",
or abbreviation, "poss" for "possible" (Pomier, 2004).
Table
4. Examples of all aphesis and abbreviation found
Abbreviation
lo |
Definition
hello |
mob |
mobile |
mom |
moment |
rad |
radical |
sec |
second |
stats |
your
sex and age |
tel |
telephone |
tom |
tomorrow |
w |
with,
were, where |
@coll |
at
college |
add |
Address |
attn |
Attention |
brill |
Brilliant |
bros |
Brothers |
bye |
Goodbye |
cos,
cuz, |
Because |
Fun |
Funny |
Info |
Information |
4.5
Dropping Vowels
Similar to the aforementioned,
dropping vowels from a word is a quick way to shorten the language, but retain
the consonants for word for recognition. Not all of the words dropped every
vowel in the word, like "chlya", which suggests the need to keep
at least one vowel to help understand the meaning of the word. Texters in
French dropped vowels as well, "tt" for "tout", and "bcp"
for "beaucoup" (Pomier 2004).
Table 5. Only words that dropped vowels are listed below; phrases that dropped
vowels are not listed.
Abbreviation
lch |
Definition
lunch |
fwd |
forward |
bn |
been,
being |
btr |
better |
chln |
chilling |
chlya |
chill
ya |
cn |
can |
dd |
dead |
emsg |
email
message |
fst |
fast |
ftbl |
football |
mbrsd |
embarrassed |
msg |
Message |
mtng |
meeting |
ppl |
people |
rcvd |
received |
rgds |
regards |
spk |
speak |
sry |
sorry |
thn |
then |
txt |
text |
wckd |
wicked |
wk |
week |
wknd,
wkd |
weekend |
@hm |
at
home |
@schl |
at
school |
@wrk |
at
work |
4.6
Acronyms
Acronyms are the most
common way texters have shortened the language through text messaging. With
377 acronyms in this study alone, there is an infinite amount of acronyms
texters use for their specific group and/or region. Using acronyms allows
a texter to write more in a condensed space; however, there are many drawbacks
to using acronyms. The use of acronyms is growing so rapidly that it is becoming
a complex language system, every few months books are published to help define
the acronym for new texters.[2] Many texters are unable to decipher the acronym because they are not familiar
with the acronym or the definition. Also, the acronym can often be obtuse
or imprecise. Thirteen of the acronyms listed have more than one way to abbreviate
the word and/or phrase, for example "wuwh", or "wywh"
for "wish you were here", also "uw", or "yw"
for "your welcome", as well as "ttul", "ttul8r", "ttyl", "ttyl8r",
or "tlk2ul8r" for "talk to you later", and "jas",
or "jac" for "just a second". About fifty percent of the
acronyms use the aforementioned single grapheme, for example using "u"
as an acronym for "you". Many of the acronyms listed are very conversational
and colloquial like "dns" for "don"t think so", "gol"
for "giggling out loud", "kc" "keep cool", "wfm"
for "works for me". Texters communicating in French also use acronyms
such as "sup" for "s`il vous plait" and "asu"
for "‰ge sexe ville" (Pomier 2004).
4.7
Alphanumeric Ellipsis
I
found very few alphanumeric ellipses in my search, but since I found a few
examples, I felt the examples are worth mentioning. The use of alphanumeric
ellipses for communication became popular when people began using pagers as
a way to communicate with each other and used a strictly numeric system to
represent text, for example "07734" for "hello" when the
numbers are turned 180 degrees. People were limited to communicating text
through a numeric sequence until text pagers became available. As the mobile
phones advanced to include text capabilities, people stopped using a strictly
numeric sequence and combined numbers and letters. I have seen many examples
in my own experience, but there is only one example in the data, "d00d5peak"
for "doodspeak". Other examples are extensions of the alphanumeric
that include symbols instead of numbers, "c percentl" for "cool",
"c%d" for "could", and "dem&" for "demand".
These abbreviations are limited because many phones do not have the symbols
available.
4.8
Grapheme Changes
Texters
often change the prescribed spelling so that only the letter needed for the
sound is applied and they eliminate any extra grapheme that is not necessary.
Out of 665 abbreviations, 52 have grapheme changes in the word or phrase (only
words are listed in table 6). For example, "bcum" which is phonetically
represented /bikam/ drops the initial grapheme <e> because the pronunciation
of the grapheme <b> encompasses the sound /e/, the phoneme /a/ replaces
the grapheme <o>. Consider the phoneme /a/ in /kam/ representing grapheme
<u> in "cut" and "hut", so therefore it is logical
for texters to follow the rules of the writing system and attempt to improve
spelling to accurately reflect pronunciation. Another example, "ezi"
or "ezy" keeps the initial grapheme <e>, drops the grapheme
<a> because it is silent, replaces the <s> with <z> because
the grapheme <z> represents the phoneme /z/, and keeps the <y>
as the original spelling, or replaces the <y> with an <i> which
both can represent the phoneme /I/. Why do texters not change "easy"
to just "ez" if the purpose is to shorten the language? Shortening
the language is only one reason for prescriptive changes to the language,
the other is stylistic preference and self-expression, which are just as important.
Similarly, in French, "o+i" is often "oua" or "moua",
which does not shorten their language either (Pomier, 2004).
Table
6. Grapheme Changes
Abbreviation
luv |
Definition
love |
ne |
any |
bcum |
become |
C
zin |
season |
cud |
could |
czin |
season |
D |
the |
dat |
that |
dis |
this/these |
doin |
doing |
dxnre |
dictionary |
ezi,
ezy |
easy |
fone |
phone |
gimme |
give
me |
giv |
give |
givza |
give
us a |
gizza |
give
me a |
gonna,
gona |
going
to |
juz |
just |
ned |
need |
nethng |
anything |
nutn |
nothing |
ohmigod,
omg |
oh
my god |
ofis |
office |
ova |
over |
pls,
plz |
please |
qix,
qik |
quick |
qt |
cutie |
sez |
says |
stra |
stray |
thnq |
thanks |
thnx,
thx, tnx, tks, tx |
thanks |
truluv |
true
love |
uwot |
you
what! |
vri |
very |
wen |
when |
wot |
what |
xlnt |
excellent |
xtra |
extra |
yer |
your,
you"re |
yr |
your |
4.9
Contraction
Contraction
is another way to condense the language by severing the middle of a word as
in "bday" for "birthday" or severs the middle of a phrase
as in "werru" for "where are you". The contractions listed
do overlap with other abbreviations, such as grapheme changes and homophonic
single grapheme, but I categorized the samples below because texters are dropping
the middle of the word or phrase primarily. As you can see in Table 7, using
contractions is not a popular way to abbreviate written language with only
six examples, ranking slightly higher than alphanumerics.
Table
7. Contraction
Abbreviation
bday |
Definition
birthday |
cmon |
come
on |
wassup |
what"s
up |
wenja |
when
do you |
werja |
where
do you |
werru |
where
are you |
4.10
Abbreviated Phrase
Many
of the phrases used for text messaging combined several techniques, including
using combinations of acronyms, contractions, numeric characters, dropped
vowels, and homophonic single graphemes. For example, "howru" uses
the homophonic single grapheme for "are" and "you", but
keeps the word "how"; "aliwanisu" drops the last consonant
off of "all" and "want" and uses homophonic single grapheme
for "you"; "hldmecls" drops vowels from "hold"
and "close". Out of the 84 abbreviated phrases, 76 combined more
than one abbreviation technique and 8 combined three techniques.
Table
8. Abbreviated phrases are a separate category, but also utilize other semantic
categories previously mentioned.
Abbreviation
grovbab |
Definition
groovy baby |
gudam |
good
morning |
gudnite |
good
night |
guidpm |
good
afternoon/good evening |
hdepiyluv? |
how
deep is your love? |
hldmecls |
hold
me close |
gotluv |
hot
love |
howru?,
hru |
how
are you? |
Ic**wenuxme |
I
see stars when you kiss me |
igotubab |
I"ve
got you babe |
Iounotn |
I
owe you nothing |
Iwanu |
I
want you |
aliwanisu |
all
I want is you |
csthnknau |
can"t
stop thinking about you |
luvu,
luvya |
love
you |
m$ULkeCrZ |
miss
you like crazy |
msulkecrz |
miss
you like crazy |
obab |
oh
baby |
werubn |
where
have you been |
wlubmn |
will
you be mine |
wlumryme |
will
you marry me |
XclusvlyUrs |
exclusively
yours |
xmeqk |
kiss
me quick |
yrplcomn |
your
place or mine |
5.
Region, Group Dependence
Some of the abbreviations
texters use are common enough that a majority of individuals who text message
are familiar with the abbreviations because they are easily identified. For
example, "every1" for "everyone", "cuz" for
"because", or the abbreviation is one that people have used for
an extended period in written communication like, "iou" for "I
owe you", "wk" for "week", "swak" for "sealed
with a kiss". However, many of the words and phrases are region and group
dependent. For example, texters in England and Australia would be more likely
to use "m8" for "mate" rather than texters in the United
States who do not refer to their friends with the aforementioned word. Many
abbreviations are specific to a group and the group defines when to use and
how to abbreviate the phrase and/or word through everyday usage. Text messaging
is becoming a revised language system that has similar problems to the language
system we use today where different regions use different words and meanings.
After analyzing the text
messaging dictionaries, I found that not all phrases or words had the same
abbreviation, nor did all of the abbreviations have the same definition. Twenty-two
phrases or words had differing abbreviations and fourteen had a different
definition for one abbreviation, which suggests that this new vernacular created
from text messaging is unstable just as any language going through a transitional
period where there are attempts to prescribe rules and create dictionaries
in order to fix meaning. This data also suggests differences between region
and groups like most languages.
6. Effects
of Internet & Text Messaging on Language
Linguists
do not agree on the effects of language because of digital communication,
regardless of whether it is synchronous or asynchronous. In an interview for
BBC, Crispin Thurlow, a specialist of Language and Communication at Cardiff
University, declares people will bend to technology, manipulating the technology
for their needs. He also states that as more people access the technology,
more dialects and subcultures will emerge (Eddo 2002). Also Crystal (2001)
avidly believes, "the sheer scale of the present Internet, let alone
its future telecosmic incarnations, has convinced me that we are on the brink
of the biggest language revolution ever" (p. 241). Aitchison argues that
most of these "new words will fade away and the rapid colloquial informality
of "e-speak" is merely a reflection of a bigger language shift in
society" (Eddo, 2002). She also states in her review of Crystal"s
book, "language changes continually, and the Internet is unlikely to
leave it unaffected" (Aitchison, 2002, p. 361).
However,
Jesse Sheidlower, editor of the U.S. office of the Oxford English Dictionary,
believes text messaging is going through a "natural progression of language"
and is likely to affect speech and writing. As stated previously, texting
is more popular in Europe than in America and texting in Europe is going through
stages. Alex Bergs, a linguistics professor, observed that as more adults
used text messaging in England and Germany, the lingo became unpopular ("R
ur txt", 2003). Although the CNN article fails to state why, I believe
teenagers and young adults are the ones who text the most and want to keep
the lingo as their own. Naomi Baron, an American University linguistics professor,
argues that text messaging is a trend in written communication and it adds
to American society of sloppy or laissez faire ideals on the mechanics of
writing ("R ur txt", 2003). Crystal (2001) also has concerns about
how texting will affect our language, "There must be serious limit to
the amount of information which can be conveyed using abbreviation, and a
real risk of ambiguity as soon as people try to go beyond a stock set of social
phrases. [. . .] what do we lose, informationally speaking, when a graphically
elaborate text is reduced to such a scale? [. . .]" (p. 230). However,
other linguists disagree, such as Carolyn Adger, director of the Language
in Society Division of the Center for Applied Linguistics in Washington, who
believes there is nothing harmful in innovating with language because languages
change. Adger further states that due to the ability to communicate easier,
digital technology is expanding peoples" writing skills. Jon Katz, media
critic, calls online communication "a whole new fractured language Ð
definitely not as elegant or polished as English used to be, but in a way,
much more vital" (Hale, 1996). Andrew Wilson, editor of "Onesixty",
a new text message poetry magazine argues, "The restrictions are liberating,
forcing you to be clear and exact. You can be playful with language and in
the way you connect things. That is very positive for creative writing"
("Text Messaging "boosts creativity"", n.d.). Gabrielle
Mander, author of a text messaging dictionary, believes "texting is about
articulating a cultural movement. There is a grammar and logic to it. The
symbols of the text messaging language were invented by young people who were
incredibly clever" ("Text Messaging "boosts creativity"",
n.d.).
7. In Sum
In
order to expand communication to cross time and space, people
are manipulating current digital technology and changing written
discourse to work with the various teachnologies of communication.
This progression started with the invention of the personal computer
and the ability to network all computers through a program, the
World Wide Web. Users manipulated the computer programs to enable
communication through synchronous and asynchronous forums. Now,
large numbers of people are using mobile phones to communicate
through text. The data shows how written language is more compressed
and there are new prescriptive rules texters use to abbreviate
the language. I do believe how users are abbreviating written
discourse online and through mobile phones will influence how
we write and communicate in the future. Already, an author published
a fiction book written entirely in IRC (internet relay chat) format.[3] And many news articles
are expressing concern about students using abbreviations in their
formal writing at school.
For
some teachers, they will have to translate the text message abbreviation
used in essays as this new vernacular seeps into formal writing.
One teacher from Britain asked her students to write about their
summer and received the following essay: "my smmr hols wr
CWOT. B4, we used 2go2 NY 2C my bro, his GF & thr 3 :- kids
FTF. ILNY, it"s a gr8 plc." The translation for those
of you who are not text message savvy: "My summer holidays
were a complete waste of time. Before, we used to go to New York
to see my brother, his girlfriend and their three screaming kids
face to face. I love New York. It"s a great place" ("Girl
writes", 2003). Educators will need to address this issue
of separating conversational text from formal writing if our language
goal is to continue using traditional prescriptive rules to communicate
written discourse. Another concern for educators when teaching
students writing and communication skills is how the postmodern
tendencies appearing in the changing language will affect how
we communicate when there is as lack of depth, ambiguity, and
fragmentation.
The
abbreviations for text messaging are very complex and young people have taken
the medium of text messaging to create a new vernacular with its own prescriptive
rules. I do not believe as Aitchison (2002) that "e-speak" will
fade. Specific abbreviations may not stay because language changes over time;
however, text messaging will affect how we communicate with one another. The
general populace will be more exact with words because the discourse used
in everyday communication like email, IRC, chat room, and text messaging is
compressed; however, the brevity of words will cause more ambiguity and the
loss of paralinguistic features of communication. No longer can a person easily
distinguish emotions when communicating which causes problems. A gap has always
existed between scholars and the common people, but the gap has decreased
in the last few centuries as more people have access to education. However,
as more people turn to technology to assist them in communication, the further
the gap will once again grow between scholars and everyday users of technology
as the idea of written discourse changes.
References
Aitchison,
J. & Lewis, D. M. (2003). Introduction. In J. Aitchison & D.M. Lewis
(Eds.), New Media Language (pp. 1-3). London: Routledge.
Aitchison,
J. (2002). Language and the Internet. Literary & Linguistic Computing:
Journal of the Association for Literary and Linguistic Computing,
17 (3), 361-367.
Clark,
V. (n.d.). Internet English: an analysis of the variety of language
used on Telnet talkers. Retreived February 19, 2004, from http://www.tartarus.org/~vicky/talkers.pdf.
Crystal,
D. (2001). Language and the Internet. Cambridge: Cambridge UP.
Do U Text?
i wireless (2004). Retrieved March 23, 2004, from http://www.iwireless.com/ipower_
txtdictionary.asp
Eddo, M.
Text Talk. BBC World. Retrieved February 19, 2004 from http://www.bbcworld.com/content/ clickonline_archive_08_2002.asp?pageid=666&co_pageid=2.
Girl writes
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Green,
L. (2001). Communication, technology and society. London: Sage Publications.
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(ed.). (1996). Wired Style Principles in English Usage in the Digital Era.
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No text
please, we"re American. (2003). Economist, 366 (8318),
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Pomier,
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R ur txt
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2003/TECH/ptech/02/13/text.messaging.ap.
Text messaging
"boosts creativity." Ananova (n.d.). Retrieved March 23, 2004, from
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Text Messaging
Shortcuts. Retrieved February 19, 2004, from http://www.swalk.com.
Txting
heads for 1 billion a day. News.BBC (2001). Retrieved February 19, 2004, from
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UK will
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[2] Random House
Text Me: Everything you need to know about text messaging.
Gabrielle
Mander Wan2tlk? Lil Bk of Txt Msgs
[3] ttyl (Talk to You Later) by Lauren Myracle
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