CHAPTER 1

LINGUISTIC PECULIARITIES OF COMPUTER MEDIATED

COMMUNICATION

1.1Peculiarities of E-discourse and Features of Netspeak

Today the world of digital communication presents an intriguing and challenging

research domain to the linguist. The Internet has radically changed global
communication. With instant access to messaging and e-mails, the ability to circulate
commentary and option has revolutionized the way people communicate. The Internet, as
a medium of computer mediated communication, needs to be characterized in terms of its
formal character, which differs in fundamental respects from traditional conversational
speech and from writing. A sociolinguistic perspective is also required, examining the
way in which a language evolves new varieties, and especially increasing its expressive
range at the informal end of stylistic spectrum. The transfer of writing, pictures, sounds,
signs, etc via an electronic device is electronic communication. We exchange
information with communication. Electronic communication system consists of three
basic components: a transmitter, a communication channel (medium), and a receiver.
The electronic communication is considered as the important linguistic means.
The advent and the use of the Internet and computer technology have significant impact
on language change and usage. E-discourse is a new variety of language that leads to
variations in written structure of language. (Alexandr, Robin 2001:398-399).
The Internet is an association of computer networks with common standards which
allow to send massages from any computer to another. What is it like to be a regular
citizen of the Internet, a netizen? Those who already spend appreciable amounts of time
online are called netizens. The language of the internet is different. Language depends on
the situation and its factors, such as speech community, register, genre, text, and
discourse type. It is possible to say how people from a particular region will speak, how
lawyers will write, or how television commentators will present a type of sport. To
change an important element in any situation is to motivate a change in the language
people use there, if they wish to behave conventionally. There are distinctive features of a
language variety. Graphic features, page design, spacing, color, illustrations define the
written language. Orthographic features: alphabet, capital letters, spelling, punctuation
define the writing system of a language, for example favorite and favourite. Grammatical
features are distinctive use of sentence structure, word order and word inflections.
Lexical features: the vocabulary of a language defined in idioms and words. Discourse
features; coherence, relevance, paragraph structure, the logical progression of ideas,
which are the parts of structural organization of a text, for example each essay should
have an appropriate structure: introduction, body paragraphs and conclusion. Phonetic
features: voice quality, vocal register, voice modality, for example different vocal norms
can be used in telling different stories: horrors, comedy etc. Phonological features:
intonation, stress, consonants, pause, vowels, for example regional accents differ form
each other with these features.(Barnes:2002).
Features of netspeak
The term ‘Netspeak’ is an alternative to ‘Netlish’, ‘Weblish’, ‘Internet language’,
‘cyberspeak’, ‘electronic discourse’, ‘electronic language’, ‘interactive written
discourse’, ‘computer-mediated communication’CMC) etc. Each term has a different
implication: ‘Netlish’, for example, is derived from ‘English’, ‘electronic discourse’
emphasizes the interactive and dialogue elements; ‘CMC’ focuses on the medium itself.
Netspeak functional enough,‘speak’ here involves writing and talking. (Crystal, 2001:17-
18). Some categories were adopted for CMC.
Shortenings
Shortening means producing the words in shorter forms. And in computer-
mediated communication, people have to shorten words for the purpose of fast typing.
There are a great number of shortened words, which consist of clipping, blending,
contraction and acronym.
Clipping
Crystal(2001) defined clipping as the drop of initial or final letters of the word, but
the meaning of the word retains.
celeb-celebrity mom-moment PLS-please congrats-congratulations
rep-representative wil-will doc-doctor wher-where
goin-going info-information bro-brother vid-video
aft-after lang-language pic-picture sec-second
Contractions
 Contractions refer to shortened type of a word. It includes dropping the vowels
from the medial position of the word.
I am-I’m don’t- do not gd-good nx-next frm-from
It is-’tis bt-but abt-about nw-now bck-back

Blending
Blending is a process of word formation in which a new word is coined by
combining the meanings and sounds of two words.
Biopic (biography + picture) slanguage (slang + language)
Fanzine (fan + magazine) workaholic (work + alcoholic)
Infonet= information+ network sitcom (situation + comedy)
Acronym and Initialism
Initialisms and acronyms are used frequently in the internet and are considered as
obvious feature of e-discourse. According to Crystal (2001), acronyms and initialisms
refer to the initial letters of each word. Acronyms are merely abbreviations that are
seemingly pronounced as if they were independent words.
2D = Two dimensions RAM = Random access memory
AFAIK =As far as I know ASAP =As soon as possible
IDK = I do not know CMB = Call me back
USB - Universal Serial Bus IMO = In my opinion
IRL = In real life CD = Compact disk
Compounding
As is well-known to us, the compounding is a process of word-formation
consisting of two or more parts to form a new unit. Compounds are applied quite often
owing to brevity and vividness.
Pickup, subway, upload, download, webcam, bluetooth
Headquarters, hotmail, econet , webamil, hotlink

Unconventional Spelling
 Unconventional spelling refers to the written form of words as it sounds but they
are not standard spelling for the target word. Unconventional spelling is considered to be
one of the most important features of e-discourse.
gud = good shud = should sory = sorry thanx = thanks
sum = some masseg = message plez = please
Word-Letter Replacement
Word-letter replacement refers to the process of replacing word by single letter.
This strategy is considered one of the most important features of e-discourse used by
internet users because English language includes monosyllabic expression. This gives
rise to use single letter, which has the same sound of word.
Y = why U = you B = be R = are
S = is C = see, sea K = okay D = the
Word-Digit Replacement
Word-digit replacement is one of the salient features of netspeak in which digit is
used to substitute a word, syllable or phoneme. The internet users use digits to substitute
a word, syllable or phoneme, which have the identical pronunciation.
4 = For 2 = Two, too, to
1= One 8 = Ate
Word Combination
Word combination is considered one of the most significant characteristics of
netspeak. Word combination also refers to phonological approximation in which the word
is pronounced as informal speech.
wanna = want to gonna = going to lemme = let me dunno = do not know gotta = got to
Smileys and emoticons
The word “emoticon” is the combination of “emotional” and “icon”. It is
explained that emoticons are constructed by combining punctuation marks on the
computer keyboard to express emotions or semantic feelings such as sadness, happiness,
and so on. The following are some commonly used emoticons.(Crystal, 2001:35-36)
:) = smile :( = sad :D = laugh :'( = crying
;-) = wink :/ = annoyed :O = surprise ＞---＜ = annoyed
Thanks for listening to my rant. :-) OR Gotta go :-(
1.2 Internet Genres
.
A variety of language is a system of linguistic expressions whose use is governed by
situational factors (Crystal, 2001:6-10).
Internet genres are normally placed in several categories, as follows:
Electronic mail (e-mail) E- mail is the use of computer system with which people
transfer messages to each other. It takes small domain of Internet ‘space’, by comparison
with different pages on the World Wide Web. There is a diversity of e-mail contexts.
Incoming and outgoing messages can be varied greatly in length and style.
Chatgroups-Chatgroups are continuous discussion on a topic, organized at particular
Internet sites, in which computer users can participate. The interactions can take place in
real time (synchronous)) or in postponed time ( asynchronous).
Virtual worlds-Virtual world is an environment which people can enter to take part in
social interactions. Several adventure genres developed, giving players the opportunity
to experience imaginary environments, in which they adopt new identities, explore
fantasy worlds, use their effigy to communicate with other participants.
World Wide Web (WWW)-The World Wide Web is a full collection of the computers
linked to the Internet, which hold documents that are accessible through the use of a
standard protocol, usually abbreviated to WEB or W3, and in site addresses it is presented
as the acronym www. Its many functions include encyclopedic reference, archiving,
cataloguing, advertising, games, creative writing, news reporting, etc.
Instant messaging-An instant messaging service allow people (who know each other) to
have electronic conversation in real time. It differs from e-mail messaging and
chargroups. In e-mail messaging exchanges are asynchronous and in chatgroups
participants are numerous and unknown to each other. The participants see each unit of
text as soon as it is typed and sent, and are alerted when someone is typing a message.
Blogging-This is a distinctive Web application which came in the early 2000s: blog is a
shortened form of weblog. It is a personalized web page where the owner can post
messages at intervals. Many blogs are personal diaries, many are about interesting topics,
some contain essays, etc. Linguistically they have one point in common: the written
language is unmediated. The language of blogs displays the process of writing in its
naked, unedited form. (Kadir:2012).
1.3 Internet Discourse and Speech/ Writing

While writing typically takes the form of a monologue, speaking is more often
dialogic. Writing is monologic because in principle, the writer cannot know in advance
who his or her potential audience might be. Face-to-face speech is commonly dialogic,
although in practice there may be multiple participants. In either event, the speaker
knows who the participants are, and face-to-face discourse allows for immediate
feedback. The situation of e-mail, chatgroups, virtual words expressed through the
writing, have several properties of speech. They expect immediate responses, they are
time-governed and messages can be deleted immediately (in e-mail). Written language on
the Internet, especially in email or now instant messaging (IM), is more like speech than
like writing (Baron 1998, Crystal 2001). We ‘write’ e-mails, not speak them. But
chatgroups are for chatting and we can say when people are involved in virtual word,
they ‘speak’ to each other. With e-mail, we deal not in days and weeks, but hours and
minutes. As e-mail is asynchronous, our message can be opened by a receiver even after
a week.
There are some differences between Netspeak and face-to-face conversation.
Messages sent via computer are complete and unidirectional. When we type the
message, it does not leave our computer until we ‘send’ it, the whole message is
transmitted and arrives on the receiver’s screen at once. Another big difference between
Netspeak and face-to-face conversation also results from the technology. Typing and
sending the messages take much more time than speaking with a person. With e-mails
and asynchronous chatgroups, may take from seconds to months, which depends on
receiver’s computer (whether it announces the arrival of messages nor not), the user’s
personality and habits (maybe that person does not want to answer). In Netspeak people
should ‘write as they talk’. The use of capitals, spacing and special symbols is for
emphasizing and exaggerating. For example repeated letters (aaahhh, ooopsss, soo),
punctuation marks (no more!!!!, whole???), all capitals for shouting ( I SAID NO), letter
spacing for ‘loud and clear’ (WHY, NOT). There are combinations of keyboard
characters, designed to show emotional and facial expressions (Crystal, 2001:28-30).
Although Netspeak tries to be like speech, in e-mail, chatgroup, virtual-world and it
remains some distance from it. Netspeaks displays properties of writing and speaking.
 At the end of this chapter we understand that e-discourse is a new variety of
language, which has some categories such as shortenings, unconventional spelling, word-
digit replacement, emoticons which make speech more colorful and conversation-like.
Internet Genres help people to communicate with each other. E-mail and chatgroups are
most common and convenient ways for communication, which have similarities with
speech. And Netspeak tries to be like speech.