Peculiarities And Gender Differences In Language Usage (стр. 2 из 2)

A: tad jau gribeeja akal kauko organizeet irl

B: i real time. irt

A: nea in real lyf

B: irlat. in real life and time

A: navlat

B: haha, kas tas?

2.2.3. Emotes

Emotes are another group of specific e-mail vocabulary. These come from chats as well and serve the purpose of making the written dialogue oral communication-like. Like in real communication the speaker or listener would smile, grin, sigh, or wave, they do the same in e-mail messages by inserting theses words either accented by emphasising brackets – *emote* – or without. Most often it is an emotional reply to something the other person has written, “sigh… anyway… thanks for the URL that you sent to me” or an attitude towards one`s own text, “well.. stiil got chemistry to go… sigh”. Converting emotes to action words, the writer plays out farewell episode, “*smile* *hug* and *kiss in check*”. These words are very distinct, and do not vary in messages.

2.2.4. Spoken Inarticulations

In traditional letters, one thinks about the text before they write. In real oral dialogues, as well as in computer mediated communication, these processes often take place simultaneously. Therefor e-mail messages are full of spoken inarticulations, which one most probably will not find in snail mail letters. One message of the ones analysed consists only of these, “wow umm yeah wow”. Laughing appears rather often, “hahhaa.. arii emails

Peculiarities And Gender Differences In Language Usage

”. “Sounds” are different, and indicate thinking pauses or emotions, “No, grrrrrr… not via interet, why….”, “whoa, time frikkin out”, or “aaaa. tad jau gribeeja akal kauko organizeet”. Hackerish slang site suggests that this shows up with increasing frequency of spoken inarticulations in comic strips.

2.2.5. Word Formation

Conversion is the most productive means of word formation in e-mails. Actually, there are no rules: any noun can be verbed, any verb can be nouned etc. Converted words stay as individual peculiarity as well as come into common e-mail vocabulary. Nouns become verbs, “you will headache”, adjectives become verbs, “didn`t online for this morning”, adverbs become verbs, “childish will away from us”, exclamations become nouns, “big whoopee”, or adjectives, “it`s so wow”. Language is so freely used in messages that the distinction between the parts of speech has become very relative. This comes also into formal business mails. It is common to write, “I will DHL it to you”.

Other popular means of word formation is free compounding, either hyphened, “Mr. Henrik Don`t-know-whatta-hell-email-is“, “take a look-see” or not, “nemaproblema”. The borderline between languages is loose, and borrowings become another rich source of vocabulary, “hangupoja”. Hackers like changing the existing words, like “luverly”. Shortening is very popular. ‘Pic` often stands for `picture`, “i may send u a pic next time”, and `prolly` for `probably`, “u would prolly never stand me for five minutes”.

2.3. Spelling and Punctuation

While the traditional letters are usually much concerned about correct literary spelling and punctuation, e-mail writers break the rules both on purpose and unintentionally.

2.3.1. Spelling

Some of “incorrect” spellings are conventional within computer mediated communication, especially the ones representing informal American English: `bout`, `y`all`, `cause` or even `coz` or `becuz`, `tho`, `dunno`, or `gonna`. Therefore these appear in almost every message, e.g., “I was ready to cry, coz it was like a knife in my heart” or “Forget about those stories, real life is much better tho:))))”.

A sign of informality is contracted forms, which are also conventional within e-mails. Besides contracted forms like `won’t` or `don’t`, used in any informal writing, e-mail users have invented some more. In the messages concerned new inventions are `y`day` and `t`day`. In order to save time and avoid characters that are not essential for understanding, traditional contracted forms are often spelled without an apostrophe, “I wont argue”, “isnt it a shame”, or “the wages aint bad”.

Replacement of the final `g` in `–ing` forms with an apostrophe was started in comic strips. It occurs also in e-mail messages, “probably because you are diggin` in to some porno site again”. However, many e-mail writers have gone further than this, and have omitted `g` without any replacement, “time frikkin out` or “cause I see everyone bitchin”.

Necessity to use as few characters as possible first created the spelling used in chat rooms. They invented the one-letter word spelling, and this came into e-mails. Thus, a typical example is “why r u single?” or the ending phrase “cu”. Though all the readers understand this spelling, not all of them use it. This is also true with figure usage – it takes only one character and can be used instead of sound-like words, “4 example”, “u r 2 deep in it”. Whenever there is a necessity to express order or amount, e-mail users tend to choose figure characters rather than letters, “r we talking about the 1st time here?”. This spelling appears also in another field: advertisements, since they need shortness in character amount there as well.

Besides numbers, another character loved by e-mail users is the letter `x`. This also saves time and space. They use `pix` instead of `pictures` or `pics` or `thanx` instead of `thank you` or `thanks`, e.g., “thanx for your honesty”. In Latvian, it is almost a convention, “man sefs teica, ka 25Ls par mobilo maxaashot”.

Letter repetition is often used for the purpose of stressing: it represents prolonged pronunciation of the word, “so i am veeeeery hungry”.

Incorrect spacing is another peculiarity of computer mediated communication. However, the difference between hacker slang and e-mails by non-professional users is that the mistakes of the latter seem to be unintentional, “idon`t want him t oknow”.

Much of other non-traditional spelling in e-mail messages is unintentional. Messages are typed fast, seldom re-read, besides they are written by people who do not care much about rules. Sometimes, they do not know how the word should be spelled or just mistype it. One e-mail writer, tired of unintentional spelling mistakes in his partner`s mail, writes, “fo couser I got waht u wroet”.

In both spelling and punctuation, precision of expression is more important than conformance to traditional rules; where the latter fail to provide information it can be discarded without a second thought. Capitalisation is a perfect example of this. In e-mails, it has lost its primary meaning of indicating proper nouns and beginning of a sentence. There is a tendency to write all lowercase, “i guess i`ve heard about a girl named laura but who`s david?”. Text in caps is interpreted as loud or overemphasised. As the hacker Jargon File indicates, “a person who goes to caps-lock may be asked to “stop shouting, please, you`re hurting my ears” . The intonation is revealed by capitalisation in the following sentence, “OH MY GOD, i left my baby in a bus”. Angry, an e-mail writer switches to caps as he would raise his voice in real oral conversation, “HEY, KID, WHAT IS THAT FUCKING LANGUAGE U R USING???!!!”

2.3.2. Punctuation

In a manner which parallels spelling in computer mediated communication, e-mail writer s use punctuation marks unconventionally. Sentences are often ended without periods, and commas are positioned to indicate pauses rather than clauses.

Number of repeated punctuation marks is not restricted. If the pause is meant to be longer, the line of dots is longer. Maximum of dots in the messages concerned is 15, where the e-mail writer suggests a pause after the introductory sentence, “Hellllllllllllo, meine liebe liebende……………” Number of question marks reaches 70. This would not be so easy in a traditional letter, since one would have to draw every question mark and then – why 70? In e-mails, one just presses a bottom until the line seems long enough. A single question mark may form the whole message. It would mean, “why don`t you write?” If the question is rhetoric and the e-mail writer does not expect any answer, they may put no question mark at all because it would not be functional, “Do you believe that the world was created by God.”

Since it is easy to separate sentences by pressing *enter*, there is no need for punctuation marks in short sentences which form a paragraph each, e.i., are not united in theme. They are easily comprehensible just the way they are. For example, there is one message that contains no punctuation marks at all,

“HI

don`t worry if i reply late

i don`t have time right now because it`s my brother`s birthday

he`s getting 18

that`s an important age for us as u legally become an adult

i may send u a pic next time

bye”

This no-caps no-punctuation writing is laconic, rhythmical and keeps attention.

It is common to use bracketing with unusual characters to signify emphasis. The asterisk is most common, even though this interferes with the common use of the asterisk suffix as a footnote mark. The Jargon File suggests that “There is semantic difference between *emphasis like this* (which emphasizes the phrase as a whole) and *emphasis* *like* *this* (which suggests the writer speking very slowly and distinctly, as if to a very young child or a mentally impaired person). Bracketing a word with the `*` character may also indicate that the writer wishes readers to consider that an action is taking place or that a sound is being made. Examples: *bang*, *hic*, *ring*, *grin*, *kick*, *stomp*, *mumble*.” In the messages concerned, the emphasising asterisk bracketing is not a seldom occurrence. “Or else, there is no reason of why do we want something like as *own* Scorpion or *your* good GIF,” someone writes. One e-mail writer emphasises his question using all possible means, including repeated asterisks, “* ****WHAT`S THE MEANING OF THIS DAMN WORLD?????* *** *”.

3. GENDER DIFFERENCES IN LANGUAGE USAGE IN INFORMAL E-MAIL MESSAGES

Victor Savicki in his article “Gender Language Style and Group Composition in Internet Discussion Groups” investigates peculiarities of language usage according to e-mail writer’s gender in Internet discussion groups, i.e., chat rooms. He analysis 2692 messages and concludes, “Results were mixed in regard to the relation of language patterns and group gender composition.” His hypothesis were, “The larger the proportion of men in discussion groups the more the members will use language that a) states facts without personal ownership, b) challenges group members, c) calls for explicit action, d) is argumentative, e) uses four-letter and abusive language, and f) indicates the member status. The larger the proportion of women, the more the members will use language that a) self-discloses, b) states personal ownership of opinion, c) apologizes, d) asks questions, e) uses “we” pronouns, f) responds directly to others in the group, and g) seeks to prevent or alleviate tension or arguments.” This seemed rather reasonable, however, after the analysis only few of the expectations proved to be right. Men use more impersonal, fact oriented language and more call for action.

This research raises several questions:

1. Could gender differences be more distinct in e-mails, since there is less direct simultaneous interaction?

2. Do the described language peculiarities differ according to genders?

Of course, the messages selected do not make a satisfactory representation to conclude a clear reliable answer to these questions. However, it might give some preview for deeper analysis.

10 e-mail writers whose sex is clear were selected for gender comparison: 5 males and 5 females. The most characteristic peculiarities of their language use were found and indicated in the following table:

Use of language peculiarities according to gender

Name (nick) Four-letter words Emotes, action words Punctua-tion pecu-liarities Extensive smiley usage Abbrevia-tions and acronyms Spoken inarticula-tions Intentional spelling peculiarities All lowercase Typing mistakes

Romans x x x x x

Spandex x

Henrik x x x

Sandis x x x x x

Archie x x x

Males total 3 1 0 2 3 2 1 2 3

Baiba x x x x

Laura x x x

Lori x

Dorothy x x x x

Karen x x x x x

Females tot. 0 1 3 2 4 2 2 3 0

The table shows that there are almost no gender differences.

However, a deeper study might show some results about the peculiarities, in the columns of which “0” appears. The hypothesis might be:

? Four-letter words are used more by male than female writers

? Females ignore punctuation rules more often then males do

? Males make more unintentional spelling mistakes

Victor Savicki as one of the reasons why the differences are not so distinct indicates, “groups composed of all men or all women will represent extreme positions on several gender related variables, while mixed groups of both men and women will fall between the extremes.” This might be the case with e-mails as well. The messages analysed were mostly of a mixed character – a male writing to a female/ a group including a female or vice versa.

4. CONCLUSIONS

? There are specific peculiarities in language usage in e-mails which differ from the traditional letter-writing

? E-mail messages could most precisely be characterised by the term “written speech”

? Main source of these peculiarities is hackish slang, supplemented by inventions of creative e-mail writers

? Main reasons for usage of these peculiarities is a wish to prove experience, belonging to cyber-communities, and play and challenge within a community

? As to sentence structure, ellipsis, image creation, and introductory words are characteristic of e-mail statements

? Statement form, tags, ellipsis, and colloquialisms characterise e-mail questions

? Range of keyboard characters limit/ extend the vocabulary of e-mail

? Symbols (in particular the smiley), extensive usage of abbreviations and acronyms, emotes, and spoken articulations are the peculiar vocabulary of e-mail messages

? E-mail writers play with language, freely forming new words, mainly using conversion, compounding, and borrowing

? Spelling and punctuation in e-mail messages is simplified and function-oriented

? There are no obvious gender differences in usage of e-mail language peculiarities. However, the following hypothesis could be investigated:

o Four-letter words are used more by male than female writers

o Females ignore punctuation rules more often than males do

o Males make more unintentional spelling mistakes

5. BIBLIOGRAPHY

Berthold Michael. Clustering on the Net: Applying an autoassociated neural network to computer mediated discussions. http://jmcm.huji.ac.il/vol2/issue4/berthold.html

Brenda Danet. Hmmm… Where`s that Smoke Coming from?”.

http://www.ascusc.org/jcmc/vol2/ issue4/danet.html

Lee-Ellen Marvin. Spoof, Spam, Lurk and Lag: the Aesthetics of Text-based Virtual Realities. http://jcmc.huji.ac.il/vol1/issue2/marvin.html

Rogers, E.M. and Rafaeli, S. Computers and Cummunication. In Information and Behaviour, Vol. 1, 1985, ed. B.D.Ruben, 135-155. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books.

Savicki Victor. Gender Language Style and Group Composition in Internet Discussion Groups. http://jcmc.huji.ac.il/vol2/issue3/savicki/html

Tannen, D. Gender Gap in Cyberspace. In Newsweek, May 16, 1994, 54.

The on-line hacker Jargon File, version 2.9.10, 01 JUL 1992”, [pg/etext92/jargn10. txt]

Bibliography