Someday there should be an area of linguistics dedicated to text messages. Or, there could be a slew of theses about text messaging. It could be referred to as the time when everyone was studying text messages. This may be going on already, but I haven't seen a linguistics paper on text messages yet and I'm years away from writing a doctoral thesis.
Anyway, hopefully after reading this post you will never see text messages the same way again. Here is a list of interesting linguistic things about text messages:
-Different people have different texting styles. Some always add emoticons (like the one in the title of this post). Some use perfect standard American English grammar. Some use a strange grammar that doesn't look like a grammar at all and yet has very methodical rules.*
-Even the people who start out with the perfect standard grammar will usually use more of the texting grammar as time goes on.
-Is there a texting grammar?
-Some people feel the need to open up conversations. I know at least two people who preface their first text in a conversation with "hey girl" or "hey ladies." I tend to jump right in. Is there some kind of pattern to this? Would people from a particular dialect group prefer one way over another?
-How does one end a conversation in texts?
-When is it inappropriate to call someone vs. text someone?
-"Text" can be a verb.
And this is why text messages are fascinating.
*Linguists define grammar as the set of rules which govern the structure of a language. It encompasses so much more than what was in the elementary school grammar book. To fully explain the concept of grammar would take another post. For the sake of this one, I need to leave you with this concept: all natural human language is governed by grammar rules. This means that even something like a rural dialect has structural rules which would be called a grammar. Therefore it would be interesting to uncover the grammar underlying text messaging when it deviates from the grammar of standard American English. If anyone would like me to expand on this concept of grammar, please let me know. I will try to make it less tedious and technical than this explanation.
Anyway, hopefully after reading this post you will never see text messages the same way again. Here is a list of interesting linguistic things about text messages:
-Different people have different texting styles. Some always add emoticons (like the one in the title of this post). Some use perfect standard American English grammar. Some use a strange grammar that doesn't look like a grammar at all and yet has very methodical rules.*
-Even the people who start out with the perfect standard grammar will usually use more of the texting grammar as time goes on.
-Is there a texting grammar?
-Some people feel the need to open up conversations. I know at least two people who preface their first text in a conversation with "hey girl" or "hey ladies." I tend to jump right in. Is there some kind of pattern to this? Would people from a particular dialect group prefer one way over another?
-How does one end a conversation in texts?
-When is it inappropriate to call someone vs. text someone?
-"Text" can be a verb.
And this is why text messages are fascinating.
*Linguists define grammar as the set of rules which govern the structure of a language. It encompasses so much more than what was in the elementary school grammar book. To fully explain the concept of grammar would take another post. For the sake of this one, I need to leave you with this concept: all natural human language is governed by grammar rules. This means that even something like a rural dialect has structural rules which would be called a grammar. Therefore it would be interesting to uncover the grammar underlying text messaging when it deviates from the grammar of standard American English. If anyone would like me to expand on this concept of grammar, please let me know. I will try to make it less tedious and technical than this explanation.
Very interesting observation.
ReplyDeleteThis is, indeed, pretty cool. I'm brainstorming over what to set as the basic hypothesis for my BA Thesis, which i intend to be about texting in English. :) Your post was very thought-provoking! Thanks!
ReplyDelete