Technological Language

Question 1

Sharon Goodman (1996)

‘X’

Answer 1

• Notes that the letter X which appears infrequently in written words is a ‘supercharged typographic icon’
• The signifier X is a grapheric symbol and is used to create a range of meanings.

E. G.
X = a kiss
x = incorrect
X = an unnamed person
X = name for one who can’t write
X = mark for a vote
X = a draw on the football pools
X = sign in algebra
X = a cancellation written across other words
X = a site on a map
X = 10 in Roman numerals
X = times mathematically
X = deleted letters in taboo language business.
X = a replaced prefix in contemporary English - Xpress etc in a company name.

• Use of lower case letters where traditionally upper case had been used was popularised in the 1960s and has now been revived. E.G. BP has become bp recently in order to influence the way in which they are perceived; wanting to appear more in line with advancing technology and business.

Question 2

Hopper (1992)

Telephone opening routines

Answer 2

• Identified a pattern to telephone opening routines which alter according to context.
• In conversational phone calls, which are not co-present, greetings are not the first exchange as they are when the encounter is face-to-face.
• Summons - answer sequence:
  Caller - tone
  Answerer - hello
  Therefore the answerer speaks first.
• Identification / recognition sequence:»
  Caller - is that X?
  Answerer - speaking
  Therefore the answerer is identified.
• Greeting sequence (what Hopper calls ‘greeting tokens’):
  Caller - Hi, this is X
  Answerer - Hi X.
  Therefore self-identification of caller.
• This is then followed by what Hopper terms initial enquiries:
  Caller - how are you?
  Answerer - fine, and you?
• These are increasingly changing due to the use of mobile phones as the name of the caller can appear before the call is taken so the answerer can know the identification of the caller. (Caller ID)
• Multi-modal forms of communication such as e-mail, text messages, speakerphones and chatrooms are essentially new. The term multi-modal refers to how the sender can ‘speak’ to several people at once - a characteristic only previously enabled by a face-to-face encounter in speech.
• A similar process is seen in many aspects of computer technology, which operates in what Tim Shortis (2001) calls ‘a virtual environment of extended imagery’.

Question 3

David Crystal (2001)

Dialogic

Answer 3

• In Language and the Internet, Crystal refers to the ‘dialogic character of e-messaging’.
• The word dialogic suggests many e-mails are part of an exchange of communications in the way traditional letters are not. E-mails have a sense of immediacy of reply.
• Crystal claims it is the dialogic nature of e-mail, which is more significant than lexical informality.
• Crystal uses the term ‘asynchronous’ to describe groups where ‘postings’ are placed on ‘boards’ in chatrooms and ‘synchronous’ to describe groups who chat in real time.
• He also states, “In chatrooms silence is ambiguous. It may reflect a deliberate withholding, a temporary inattention, or a physical absence (without signing off) “
• Pragmatically in a face-to-face encounter, if someone is silent their presence is still registered

Question 4

Robert Burchfield (1981)

BBC announcers and pronuncation

Answer 4

• Advised BBC announcers on pronunciation.
• E.G.: Adult - stress 1st syllable
  Controversy - stress 1st syllable
  Ate - rhymes with bet not bait
• Burchfield writes: “ It is assumed that the speaker uses Received Standard English in its 1980s form. The form of speech recommended is Home Counties and educated at one of the established southern universities.”
• He gives preference to the ‘social package’ of region, education and, by implication, class.

Question 5

Pamela Fishman (1992)

Answer 5

• English is less well loved but more used because it has econo-technical superiority.

Question 6

Common features of answerphone messages

Answer 6

• Monologic - the speaker is talking to a machine, not another human.
• Range of formality - depending on what?
• Degree of shared knowledge employed.
• Always the option to delete your message or re-record.
• Instructions to speakers beforehand - you choose to leave a message
• Not face to face
• Set discourse structure - what is this?
• No fluency features
• Do they tend to be more precise? Names,, times etc?
• Use of politeness strategies
• First person pronouns
• Use of deixis - references that require shared knowledge - ‘Hi, it’s me’

Question 7

Thurlow, Text Functions (2003)

Answer 7

• Information/Practical
• Social Planning
• Friendship Maintenance
• Phatic/salutation
• Romantic/sexual
• Chain/corporate/advertising

Question 8

Functions of emails

Answer 8

• Interpersonal - between friends
• Organisational - between workplaces and organisations
• Social/leisure - hobbies and special interest groups
• Service sector - bookings, online orders etc.
• Advertising - promotional material, offers etc.
• Cybercrime - phishing emails and things like that.

Question 9

Chat Rooms and Message Boards

Answer 9

Synchronous discourse - discourse in which there are delays between participants’ turns.
Asynchronous - discourse that takes place in real time.

Question 10

Constraints

Answer 10

Linguistic and behavioural restrictions provided by technology.

Question 11

Multimodal

Answer 11

A text that uses more than one mode; often used for texts that have a combination of text and images.

Question 12

Carrington et al (2010)

Answer 12

• Difference of standard English and texting (linguistic compression).

Question 13

Wood et al

Answer 13

• No signifigant correlations between children’s grammar scores and the grammar violations in their text messages.

Question 14

Synchronous discourse

Answer 14

Discourse in which there are delays between participants’ turns

Question 15

Asynchronous

Answer 15

• Discourse that takes place in real time.