sms lang analysis
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The document provides an overview of SMS language as a novel genre of communication. It discusses how SMS language emerged in the late 20th century and has since revolutionized language through abbreviations and other conventions driven by the need for brevity in text messages. The document also examines some key features of SMS language, such as abbreviations and emoticons. It reviews previous research on SMS language and discusses approaches that will be used to analyze sample text messages, including Gricean cooperative principles and politeness theory.
sms lang analysis
- 1. SMS Language Presented to: Miss Shagufta Jabeen Presented by: Hina Javaid ID# 100884006 Mphil Applied Linguistics Batch VIII 1
- 2. SMS Language University of Management & Technology Table of contents Sr.no Topics Pg.no 1 Topic for analysis 2 Abstract 3 The selection rationale 4 Introduction 4.1 What Is Sms 4.2 Objective of SMS language 4.3 History of Sms 4.4 SMS Language 4.5 Features of Sms language 4.4 Use of Sms 5 Literature review 6 discourse analysis of SMS/text analysis sample selection rationale 6.1 Gricean co-operative principle and Maxim’s 6.2 Language play and ethnography and politeness 6.3 Code-switching 6.4 Psychoanalysis of the Sms language 6.4 Critical Discourse Analysis 6.5 Difference in teen and elderly people’s text language 7 Discussion (Scope of this analysis/new directions) 2
- 3. SMS Language 8 Conclusion 9 References 10 Appendix Chapter 1 Topic for analysis Discourse analysis of SMS language as e novel genre SMS language has revolutionary and influential effect on everyday language SMS language of teens differ from the elderly people 3
- 4. SMS Language Chapter 2 Abstract This project intends to analyze the SMS language ethnographically and psychologically within the domain of discourse analysis and critical discourse analysis. CMC technology (Computer-mediated Communication) has diversified the way of communication to many genres. Texting emerged as a novel genre in 20 th century and caused the revolution of language at its heart. ‘Texting’ or ‘SMS’ language has great potential to influence language inclusively and is a growing area of interest within Applied Linguistics. Its non-gloom-and-doom impression has convinced the linguists that this innovative, extended and diversified modality of communication has proved itself in every aspect whether it is an issue regarding its lexicology, morphology and syntactic levels or its apprehension by the sociolinguists to roll over the process of pidgin and Creole. SMS language brings into play abbreviations, acronyms, random-seeming jumbles of letters and numbers. This typo-texting has obtained many permanent terms and also lots of ephemeral neologisms, but who knows what is next? As from gaming chats to blog comments to text messages more and more terms, within this new genre language, are cropping up every day. In this project of CDA I intend to analyze these three dimensions specific to SMS language: Discourse analysis of SMS language as e novel genre SMS language has revolutionary and influential effect on everyday language 4
- 5. SMS Language SMS language of teens differ from the elderly people To analyze these assumptions I would apply discourse analysis, ethnographical analysis, code- switching and psychoanalysis. The discourse analysis will help me to delve deep into the nature of SMS language. Further I would apply ethnography approach on SMS language to scrutinize the impact of this novel genre on other spoken and written languages. In order to refine and substantiate my analysis I would pour comparative study and psychoanalysis into the project which will assist in conforming and to reflect the underlying assumptions regarding the use of language in SMS, teens language and language used in SMS by elderly people. Chapter 3 The selection rationale: Instead of selecting stereotypical discourses to analyze, I opted for a distinctive and digressive field which is absolutely novel, entirely modern and utterly influential on traditionally constructed language. Short Messaging Service (SMS) has started contributing a major role in our life; it became a necessity and culture. It has its own moods, styles, expression, alphabets (or I must say alphanumeric) but no rules, no regulation and no check and balance. A general assumption is prevailing that SMS language is corrupting our language as Lee, 2002 states, “(it is) a continuing assault of technology on formal written language use.” This project will facilitate further research proposals as it varies from psychological to social and ordinary language to revolutionary diversified language which itself is replete with free hand variations like code-switching, code mixing, abbreviation, acronym, smiley, pictogram, rebus emoticons and so on. 5
- 6. SMS Language 6
- 7. SMS Language Chapter 4 Introduction: Think like a wise man but communicate in the language of the people. William Butler Yeats (1865 - 1939) Computer-mediated communication (CMC) whether synchronous (real-time) or asynchronous (delayed time) has manifested many divergences and convergences of language and paved way for a revolutionary influential novel genre. And now we can see that mobile phones are everywhere, in our hands, sitting on our desks, in the media, in the class, in the meeting and constantly buzzing, jumbling and fluttering fingers tips can be witnessed. CMC Internet-based/PC based Mobile/cell-based IM chat Chat rooms Language: language: anterior message e-mails netspeak, weblish, netlish, cyberspeak texting, text, SMS, message, www MUD & MOO According to statistics there were 2.4 billion active users of SMS text messaging, but in 2008 it augmented to 3 billion (Moore, Anderson) and at the present 76% of the mobile phone users are texters as well. As compared to other communication mediums, SMS and its language has great potential to influence language inclusively and is a growing area of interest within Applied Linguistics. Social acceptability of SMSs has fully-grown to the extent that there are approximately 30 billion SMS messages sent globally each month (Courtesy: GSM digital mobile phone standard). 7
- 8. SMS Language 4.1 What is SMS? Short Message Service (SMS) is the text communication service component of phone, web or mobile communication systems, using standardized communications protocols that allow the exchange of short text messages between fixed line or mobile phone devices. (Wikipedia) Short Messaging Service, otherwise known as text messaging, mobile messaging, or alphanumeric paging is a digital cellular network feature which emerged during the 20th century and now is widespread enough to be established as a novel genre within the domain of language and communication.(courtesy:funSMS.net) Basically a message is meant to be a way of communication or a way to pass on the information through some sources. Short Message Service or text messaging has paved the way of transmitting information in a fast and furious way which is time saving, swift and available easily to everyone now-a-days. SMS is an asynchronous mode of communication as it does not require receiver to be online simultaneously rather there are lapses of time between replies (exception is for some latest iphones). It employs writing as means of expression and is considered unimodel or monomodel in its setting. 4.2 Objective of SMS language The objective of SMS is to send speedy information while sacrificing the grammar, punctuation, which has become a habit and acceptance in our culture. 4.3 History of SMS: SMS is considered to be originated from radio telegraphy in radio memo pagers using standardized phone protocols. Later, it was defined as part of the Global System for Mobile 8
- 9. SMS Language Communications (GSM) series of standards in 1985 as a means of sending messages of up to 160 characters, to and from GSM mobile handsets. 4.4 SMS language: Wikipedia defines SMS language that,“SMS language or Textese (also known as txtese, chatspeak, txt, txtspk, txtk, txto, txtk, texting language, txt lingo, or txt talk) is a term for the abbreviations and slang most commonly used due to the necessary brevity of mobile phone text messaging, in particular the widespread SMS (short message service) communication protocol. SMS language is also common on the Internet, including in email and instant messaging. It can be likened to a rebus, using pictures and single letters or numbers to represent whole words (e.g. "i <3 u" which uses the pictogram of a heart for love, and the letter u replaces you).” We can generally say that the terms ‘text messaging’ or just ‘texting’ refer to the brief typed messages sent using the SMS (‘short message service’) of mobile/cell phones, PDAs (‘personal digital assistants’), smart phones or web browsers. This service had developed enough that there are images, videos and music embedded in text messages to modify the need of communication. SMS language emerged in previous century as a complete new language far more deviated from the traditional grammar stricken language. There is an assumption that SMS language is patterned according to the age, gender, region and qualification of the people. These are new dimensions to be studied under the province of discourse analysis and other linguistic studies. Sms technology has developed so far that the phenomenon of convergence and divergence of the boundary between social, personal, interpersonal, marketing and broadcast messages is fused or we can say rather confused. 4.5 Features of SMS language As compared to the Computer mediated communication, mobile phone technology provides small equipment eponymously ‘mobile’ that is more affordable among texters as an 9
- 10. SMS Language unobtrusive and relatively inexpensive means of communication. As far as language of SMS is concerned it includes formal and informal features both i.e. the use of written facial expression (emoticons), the choice of words with amalgamation of numeric and so on. The dominant features of Sms language are: Abbreviations Contractions, shortening, clippings Acronym or initialisms code-mixing code-switching Slang Syntactic reductions Accent stylization Asterisk emoting Letter/number homophones Misspellings an typos Emticons Smileys Rebus Onomatopoeic, exclamatory spellings (e.g. haha! arrrgh! WOOHOO! rahh, ahhh Deletion of parts of speech: o subject pronoun o preposition o punctuation o articles o copula o auxiliary/model verbs o contractions o ignore capitalization The variation of using words, alphanumeric or acronym depends on the type of message and also the context of the texter’s time and effort. The representative keypad of mobile phone is designed in a way that the texter has to type on ‘multitap’ that means to press same key 3-4 times to get the desired alphabet (not applicable to iphone and 3g phone) and also have to keep in mind the 10
- 11. SMS Language character limitation of words to 160 which results in cumbersome, terse and rude text input. Although a T9 mode that is dictionary mode is offered in almost all mobiles but the use of type/style is specific to the texter. With the advent of SMS language a whole new alphabet emerged because SMS messages took a long time to enter and were quite abrupt as people attempted to say as much as possible with as few keystrokes. Abbreviations such as “C U L8er” for “See you later” sprung up for timesaving and coolness. The use of “smileys” to reduce the abruptness of the medium and to help indicate the mood of the person in a way that was difficult with just text became popular. 4.6 Use of Sms language The product of short space and typing complexity has its users of all ages. From teens to adults, elders to older ones can be spotted texting everywhere. But the use of texting has increased its scope to marketing, advertising and commercial field so much that the President of America Obama was marked using text message to journalists and Democratic Party senators and supporters to announce his choice of vice-presidential running mate. This act has raised a lot of questions on the advent and scope of SMS language use. 11
- 12. SMS Language Chapter 5 Literature Review: Being a modern technology based language, SMS language only really went ‘live’ in the mid- 1990s, and it took scholars a while to attend to texting (Thurlow & Poff 2010). Since the early 2000s, however, research from a range of disciplines and a number of countries has been growing. The increasing work done within this field shows the great interest of the scholars/researchers to the importance, acceptance and application of texting but simultaneously much fuss has been made over the dangerous or poisonous nature of SMS language too. Carter (2003) research indicated that the computer mediated communication environment precludes the exchange of nonverbal communication cues normally present in face-to-face conversations. Ling (2005) has studied and documented the tenant linguistic characteristics of text messaging which include infrequent abbreviation (343) and infrequent punctuation and capitalization (344). Ling & Baron (2007) created a more specific and thorough list of these and other linguistic characteristics of SMS language. Segerstad (2005), Fandrych (2007), and Carter (2003) also opined that SMS language mimics the spoken word. Researches on SMS/text language vary from medicine to academics, environmental development psychology have looked at many dimension like compulsive texting, cyberbullying, use of texting for patient reminders, texting as library support, as a pedagogical tool, political campaigning. Within the Cross-cultural contexts, gender and age pattern with reference to syntactic complex sentences in texts and stylistic techniques has shown a discrepancy to new vistas. In the Pragmalinguistic contexts, more emphasize is put on stereotypical features including use of abbreviations (e.g. txt), letter number homophones (e.g. gr8), and non- 12
- 13. SMS Language standard spelling (e.g. luv), dropping the closing and opening words, texting as status symbol and code-switching Books related to the topic: 1. SMS Language - Text Message Abbreviations: quick reference ebook 2. Txtng: The Gr8 Db8 by David Crystal 3. Language and the Internet by David Crystal 4. A glossary of netspeak and textspeak by David Crystal 5. Computer-mediated communication: linguistic, social, and cross-cultural perspectives by Susan C. Herring 6. The Language Revolution by David Crystal 7. CyberSociety 2.0: revisiting computer-mediated communication and community by Steve Jones 8. Always on: language in an online and mobile world by Naomi S. Baron 9. The inside text: social, cultural and design perspectives on SMS by Richard Harper, Leysia Ann Palen, Alex S. Taylor 10. Email, SMS, MMS: the linguistic creativity of asynchronous discourse in the new media age by Carmen Frehner 13
- 14. SMS Language Chapter 6 Discourse analysis of SMS/text messaging Sample selection: For the analysis of SMS/text messaging, I have taken sample from my own friends, their messages sent to me, my replies to them and also available examples available on Google image search. The justification for using such online data is to give glimpse at a general conception of messages overall. Approaches to be used for text analysis Gricean maxims Politeness theory Code-switching Ethnography Psychoanalysis Analysis: 6.1 Gricean co-operative principle and Maxim’s: Based on my own corpus of real text messages and some variant online available text iphones and other messages, Gricean cooperative principle and maxim’s can be analyzed against the orthographical/typographical practices in these messages. Grice defined the principle of cooperation as follows: 'during the talk the current stage, you talk to the party as a participant in your turn-out in the discourse should be in line with common speech recognition goals or direction.’ Thus the mechanism of text language works under the cooperation principle and its four basic criteria or maxims to provide its texters socialize in a positive way. A broad analysis of these messages indicates that these texts bolster three of the key discourse/pragmatics maxims of Grice which all serves one general principle of ‘sociality’. These being 1. Brevity and speed 14
- 15. SMS Language 2. Paralinguistic restitution 3. Phonological approximation 6.1.1 Brevity and speed: First maxim, being a twofold maxim of brevity and speed in manifested in terms of most commonly used a) Abbreviations of lexical items ( alphanumeric or including letter number homophones) b) Relatively minimum use of capitalization and standard, grammatical punctuation (e.g. commas and spaces between words) Now if we go for the reasons of such typo reduction, it will be clear that such so-called discourse is context-based or pragmatically motivated. As I have discussed in introduction that the limit of an SMS is 160 characters only so the brevity is little dependent on technology constraints but the option to send as many as messages as texter can send and the SMS packages at lowest rates minimize this vulnerability of this factor. Under the manifestation of Grice’s maxim we can analyze the pragmatic or contextual factor of the texter as well. In sample 14, 15, 17 we can see the ease of turn-taking (i.e. back-and-forth exchanges) which is totally mingled up. There is more fluidity of social interaction but still there are variations in the reciprocity and response time of the texters because synchronous and asynchronous tools lack the face-to-face conventions of turn-taking, floor taking and adjacency pairs, with implications for rate of topic decay, coherence and cohesion, and simultaneous and overlap of messages. 6.1.2 Paralinguistic restitution: It reasonably seeks to restore the visible loss of such socio-emotional or prosodic features as stress and intonation, while phonological approximation (e.g. accent stylization) adds to paralinguistic restitution and creates the kind of playful, informal register appropriate to the relational orientation of texting. On occasion, the second and third maxims appear to override the brevity-speed maxim (Spilioti 2009), but in most cases all principles are served simultaneously and equally. Thus, for the sake of paralinguistic restitution, capitalization (e.g. WHAZZUP) and multiple punctuation (what???!!!) may be more desirable for texters. Lexical 15
- 16. SMS Language items such as ello (‘hello’), goin (‘going’), and bin (‘been’), meanwhile, serve both the need for abbreviation and phonological approximation. It is noteworthy here that the texters follow ‘write it as if saying it’ to set up a more informal register, which in turn helps to do the kind of small-talk and bonding they desire for maximizing sociality. 6.2 Language play and ethnography and politeness: ‘Besta luck’, ‘boo hoo’ are such playful acts and means on behalf of the texters which they use to affirm their social identities by deviating from conventional forms; in doing so, they differentiate themselves (from adults, for example) and align themselves with each other. Texting facilitates an interesting mix of intimacy and social distance. There develops a relative anonymity between the sender and the receiver that is universal in its nature because still if the texters know each other, there are complicated traditional boundaries between private and public image. The face-saving capacity of this type of anonymity likewise accounts for texters who send messages to say something they would ordinarily avoid having to say face-to-face, such as breaking up with a romantic partner or, in the case of our own study, discussing an unexpected pregnancy. Ling and Yttri (2002:164) have referred it as the ‘culture of concealed use’ as texting nicely facilitates this kind of co-present exchange, allowing texters to interact covertly in an immediate and potentially very intimate form of communication. Analysis: In the samples 1-9 and 16 there is syntactic brevity of morphological items. No punctuation and contraction of words to few letters conforms to the above discussion. Thus the use of ‘fyr’ in place of ‘fire’, s’’ in place of ‘is’, deletion of ‘e’ at the end of ‘house’, small ‘i’ indicate the texters’ intention to be brief as much as he/she can and also to restore the paralinguistic features. 16
- 17. SMS Language In the sample 14, 15 there is another example of brevity and speed, not morphological but discourse related. What does ‘pizza tonight?’ has to do alone with the ‘sounds good to us….’ This kind of ellipsis takes form of sentential contraction whose sole aim is to be speedy, less wordy and more socialize. 6.3 Code-switching: “In linguistics, code-switching is the concurrent use of more than one language, or language variety, in conversation” (Wikipedia). People of multi language use the codes and registers of their own language and amalgamate it with the metalanguage to converse in a new style. This code-switching is different from other language contact phenomena, such as borrowing, pidgins and creoles, loan translation (calques), and language transfer (language interference). Now the question arises that what are the latent reasons to use code-switching or to use multi- languages in Sms. The answer lies in the paralinguistic features related to the text messaging i.e. the fluency effect, dominancy maintaining, as a fashion code or to give a intimate relative anonymity effect. Code mixing is a thematically related term, but the usage of the terms code- switching and code-mixing varies. Both terms denote the same practice, but still some scholars apply code-mixing to denote the formal linguistic properties of said language-contact phenomena, and code-switching to denote the actual, spoken usages by multilingual persons. Whatever the use is, code-switching relates to, and sometimes indexes social-group membership in bilingual and multilingual communities. Socio-linguistics describes the relationships between code-switching behaviors and class, ethnicity, and other social positions. Analysis: The exemplified corpus is an example of code-switching, in which ‘challo’ is an Urdu word taken in place of expression of ‘let it go, well etc’. Such type of code-switching can be interpreted as fashion symbol or language style/attitude or may be as gaining approval in a social situation or to show intimacy. In Urdu such words are used as fillers or habitual terms and its translation in 17
- 18. SMS Language English also vary within the discourse markers and fillers. 6.4 Psychoanalysis of the Sms language: The underlying psyche of texters, with regard to my own corpus, indicates the creative process of social and personal consciousness of the society and the texters as well. The effect of one newly developed alpha-numeric and use of symbols within language is not solely bound to a single region or person or society. Rather it, along with other features, has profound effects on the cultures, societies and individuals. At individual level, the unconscious mimicking of symbols, contraction, numeric use, acronyms etc reflects the hidden desire of texters to come up with the social status level with the peers. Texting in a more irregular or untraditional way has also made teens and adults a kind of fashion freak which clearly mirrors the core complexities of human personalities. Other areas discussed under psychoanalysis within the domain of SMS are text bullying, anger shown via smiley and emoticons (:@ = angry). Analysis: The corpus 7 & 8 represent the forwarded messages in its true terminology. The language and discourse can be interpreted as a way to persuade and socialize the thought of texter. Regardless of its typical text message orthographical/typographical form, such type of text messages reflect the interest and inclination of behavior of the texter, whereas the reason to forward such messages are to socialize, motivate, convey own thoughts via quotations, jokes etc, to peruse some dear one in covert way and so on. In the sample 7, no spelling consideration ‘semi-column’ states the intellectual level of the texters as well, as this message has been forwarded through many mobile holders who are masters level qualified but still no one has bothered to correct the spelling. It clearly indicates the indifferent attitude of young ones toward the language and its deterioration. 18
- 19. SMS Language 6.4 Critical Discourse Analysis: “The strengths of CDA lie in making connections between social and cultural structures and processes on the one hand, and properties of text on the other” (Fairclough & Wodak, 1997:277). The social interaction happens within the discursive practices, which produce text, so through the analysis of text messages; evidence of social practices can be revealed or noted. The discursive practices are influenced by the situation or environment in which a participant is. Fairclough (1992) contends that every discourse instance has three dimensions: 1. either spoken or written text; 2. it is an interaction between people involving processes of producing and interpreting the text; 3. Or it is part of social action, and in some cases, virtually the whole of it. Copyright © 2008, IGI Global Within this framework of analyzing Sms/text language, the dimension of discursive practice upon which texters draw a new style of language is identified and linked to the underlying power relations, which may be reproduced by the interaction. The production of text draws its meanings from the social practice and vice versa. Thus the ethnographical practice also deals with the text within the context of interaction as a part of social action. The production of this type of new genre is bound to the social production and social conditions of interpreting it. 19
- 20. SMS Language 6.5 Difference in teen and elderly people’s text language: My analysis of difference in SMS language according to age pattern couldn’t affirm my assumption but the reason behind can be the lacking of sample as I could avail only one SMS from an elderly person and one from teen. Both were same in contracting the words, although use of ‘x’ which is more modern use occurred in the sample of the teen. 20
- 21. SMS Language Chapter 7 SMS/text language as a new genre: The linguistic and communicative practices of text-messages emerged from a particular combination of technological affordances, contextual variables and interactional priorities. Thus SMS/text language came into being as a new hybrid or a creolizing blend of written and spoken discourse. The kinds of orthographic (or typographic) choices that texters make in their messages are motivated primarily by pragmatic and communicative concerns. Research focuses on the linguistic (and orthographic) form of texting; the defining feature of text messages is ultimately their sociable function. Text-messages are thus communicative events only superficially recognizable from their look; their real significance (in both semantic and social terms) lies primarily in their discursive content and communicative intent. Useful genre-defining feature of texting ot text messages thus lies in typical discursive features: (a) The comparatively short length of text-messages; (b) The relative concentration of non-standard typographic markers; and (c) Their predominantly small-talk content But it is noteworthy here that these generic and stylistic features are not plenty individually to characterize texting. If we compare this genre to other formal letters and academic essay they also com up with chatty features and short length but what makes this language distinctive genre is its social usefulness in any culture scenario. 21
- 22. SMS Language Discussion (Scope or new direction): I started this project with a passion of a zeitgeist and my analysis embodies the same pattern of thought at the end. We are living in an age where the diminutive, the brief and the simple are highly prized in communication. Clearly, texting embodies this zeitgeist. The history of the development of so-called new communication technologies i.e. IM chat, MUDs ad so on, has been marked by periods of excessive hype and hysteria about the kinds of cultural, social and psychological impacts each new technology is likely to have. Study within these technologies warrant many researches and same is the case with SMS language especially from discourse analysts and other language and communication scholars. It would be bad luck not to mention here that US President Barack Obama and his campaign organizers announced his vice- presidential running mate in August 2008 via text massage. Such use of SMS language in political discourse as a persuasive content has extended the mental constituency of researchers to turn and do research in this specific field which has attained so much importance. I also came in account an example on internet used by President Bush to warn Iraq by using SMS language including rebus, contractions and aggressive language. The use of rebus has some psychoanalytical implications as well. As the use of pictogram indicate the mental phenomenon of the texter to socialize via societal terms and conditions. The pictograms used in this text are universally known (although not all). Such innovation in political discourse province also accounts for the face-saving strategies as the pictograms help the texter to deviate the attention of the reader from the aggressive impression of the text. 22
- 23. SMS Language References: Lee, Carmen forth. Texts and practices of micro-blogging: Status updates on Facebook. In Language in the New Media: Sociolinguistic Perspectives, C. Thurlow and K. Mroczek (eds). Oxford: Oxford University Press. Shortis, Tim 2007a Gr8 txtpectations: The creativity of text spelling. English Drama Media Thompson, Lee and Julie Cupples 2008 Seen and not heard? Text messaging and digital sociality. Social &Cultural Geography 9 (1): 95-108. http://www.google.com.pk/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=gM6&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen- US%3Aofficial&q=language+attitudes+towards+text- messages+%28SMS%29+in+pakistan&oq=language+attitudes+towards+text- messages+%28SMS%29+in+pakistan&aq=f&aqi=&aql=f&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=3798490l3802672l0l 13l13l0l12l0l0l552l552l5-1 http://www.oppapers.com/subjects/does-sms-language-affects-english-language-page1.html http://kshif01.wordpress.com/ http://www.funsms.net/sms_dictionary.htm 23
- 24. SMS Language Appendix: Transcripts: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 24
- 25. SMS Language 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 25