It has been established that the mobile phone industry caters mainly for the younger market and that texting is part of the youth’s mobile phone use. Early to late evenings are the preferred time to text, this is maybe because students are out of school and have time to spend on leisurely activities, including texting.
To find what influence text messaging has had I will also look at:
E-mails are sent usually on computers or on other devices like mobile phone, they can be used within companies to send information or reminders, to distribute junk mail (‘Spam’) or just between friends as a form of communication. Because this service is instantaneous it is often used to send information quickly and therefore is sometimes typed using the abbreviated language in text messages.
Instant messages are used to communicate on the internet through a piece of specially designed software.
If notes are written from dictation they often include abbreviations and acronyms.
Because diaries are often filled in quickly at the end of a lesson they are likely to include abbreviations.
Essays may have an accidental abbreviation.
Letters between friends are often very informal so to save time abbreviations will be used.
Abbreviations
The people I asked admitted to abbreviating saying that saving space was the number one reason for doing so. Other reasons include that it was cheaper or that they did not know the spellings of the words.
It is apparent from the studies that people prefer to use ‘texted English’ or the abbreviated form of English if they send messages or reply to messages that take the form of ‘pure’ or straight English and the texted or abbreviated English.
The peak time for text messaging is interestingly close to the pubs last call, between 10:30 and 11:00pm which may be another reason to account for the wild abbreviations and easy to understand new spellings that have taken over.
Acronyms
Acronyms take common phrases an use letters to represent each word or sound.
Examples of acronyms:
Emoticons
Emoticons are fun and novel to use but if they are overused a statement without a smiling emoticon can often be taken offensively.
Examples of emoticons:
:-) - Happy
:-( - Sad
;-) - Winking
%-( - Confused
:-O - Shocked
Written speech-writing the way you talk
All capitals are often used for emphasis or shouting.
‘WHY NOT!’
Spaces are also used between letters for emphasis.
‘W H Y N O T!’
This is used to elongate the sound.
‘Aaaaah!’
- Repeated punctuation marks
This is used to emphasise a question.
‘What???’
Actions can also be included.
*Walks away*
Difference between Spoken and Written Speech
Written
Speech
Profiles
Erin
Sends 11 — 30 text messages a week
Uses abbreviations
Only uses ‘txb’ (text back) as an acronym
Reasons for abbreviation:
• Save time
• Save space
• Cheaper
• Don’t know the spellings
Does use abbreviations in everyday writing
Has unintentionally abbreviated in school work
Emma
Sends 11 — 30 text messages a week
Uses abbreviations
Does not use acronyms
Reasons for abbreviation:
• Convenience
• Save time
• Save space
Does use abbreviations in everyday writing
Has unintentionally abbreviated in school work
Wayne
Sends 31 – 60 text messages a week
Uses abbreviations
Does not use acronyms
Reasons for abbreviation:
Does not use abbreviations in everyday writing
Has never unintentionally abbreviated in school work
All these students believed that texting has no negative effects at all on their language competencies, such as grammar and spelling or enforced sloppy or undisciplined habits.
Text Examples
1. Emma
Hey im not walkin 2mos cos ive got a 3 first and footy kinda took it out of me 2day so i cld do with da extra rest!Em
(114 characters)
2. Emma
Oh dear! We lost aswel 2-1! Oops dnt wory bout tea for me! We shud b leavin soon neway!Em
(89 characters)
(Sent in reply to a message)
3. Emma
Ah if ud askd me yesterday dat wld hay bin cul but i cant 2nite cos ive alredy made plans!Soz!cos I havnt chated 2 ya in ages!Em
(126 characters)
(Sent in reply to a message)
1. Erin
Hi me n em wer wondrin if u ad goin 2 yovil 2day xox ez
(55 characters)
2. Erin
Yep im abot 2 leve du house cu im a long mm xox ez
(50 characters)
3. Erin
Hi, hop u jus dan de,do u knw wat wer duin on bex bday? Im tidin me rom! Dats a first, thout id tx as der wer so fuw from me in ur fon hav a nc day xox ez
(160 characters)
1. Wayne
Liz said she might go depending on how she feels so yeah aceness see if your friends are still going
(98 characters)
2. Wayne
I GET HOME AT HALF SIX KINDA SUCKS, WHAT TIME DO YOU START/FINISH TOMORROW COS I DON’T START WORK TIL 3.15 AND HAVE JACK TO DO
(Sent in reply to a message)
(125 characters)
3. Wayne
SORRY I DIDN’T TEXT BACK I WAS ASLEEP HOPE THIS DON’T WAKE YOU UP COS IT’S TRES EARLY YEAH WE CAN DO SUMMIT TODAY, HEY IT’S LIKE 4AM AND I’M WELL AWAKE
(150 charcters)
Data table 1. Text Language Used
This data shows that length of message does not make a difference because on average Wayne’s SMS messages are longest however he has the least amount of abbreviations, numbers or acronyms. More evidence for this is that Erin, who has the shortest average messages has the most abbreviations out of the three. Although length of the text message does have a positive correlation to the number of abbreviations used, the longer the message the more abbreviations which makes sense as they longer it is the more words it contains that can be abbreviated.
No acronyms have been used, even though both Emma and Erin admitted to using them in messages, this could be because there were no well known phrases in their messages that could have been shortened to acronyms or that their knowledge of them was not full or that the recipient of the message may not have understood.
Both Erin and Emma have used numbers in their messages to replace words and Wayne has not, this may be because he didn’t need to in most cases but he does however include the word ‘six’ which could have easily been shortened to ‘6’.
Data table 2. Number or abbreviations used
The main results from analysing the data in this table is that the words that were abbreviated most often, for example, ‘2’ (to) and ‘cos’ (‘cause) are words that are used most commonly in everyday language so it is expected for them to occur often in the messages.
Another point I have noticed is that words that are the same have been abbreviated in different ways, for example, ‘leavin’ and ‘leve’ or ‘abot’ and ‘bout’. This shows that there is no standard way for abbreviating certain words and that the ‘texters’ creativity decides the best way for the word to be shortened.
I will take this thought further by grouping abreviations into the different methods of shortening the words.
Table 3. Types of abbreviations used
I have classified some of the used abbreviations into common ways of abbreviating them:
Numbers that replicate the sounds made by letters are often used to replace letters or even whole words, (3 to replace free).
Taking the g off the end of a word is done because the word can still make sense and sound similar without it. People often say words in this way in spoken language because of laziness.
In abbreviations vowels are often left out leaving only the important consonants because the sounds can either form a sound similar to the word or the important consonants can be recognised as their words.
Missing out apostrophes in words relies on the recipient knowing that word already and recognizing it rather than sounding it out because without the apostrophe the word loses it’s original sound.
Using ‘D’ to replace a ‘th’ sound is recent development and replicates the sound of…?
Other forms of written language
Problems arise when people use the quick-casual language in other forms of written communication, such as e-mail, in which the sender may not receive the message for some time, or in times when the author may not even know the reader.
Findings and Limitations
Because language is such a sensitive index of social change, so it would be surprising if such a huge innovative phenomenon did not have a corresponding impact on the way we communicate. And as you will have seen in the project, there is a range of new and even still evolving linguistic varieties in graphology, grammar, semantics and discourse.
Text messaging can serve as an ‘image maker’ for teenagers who are finding their own identities, for example by using emoticons, (eg. :-) ) or in the case of my examples ‘xox’ which was at the end of all of Erin’s messages. Innovating with language isn’t dangerous, like e-mail and instant messaging it is making it easier for people to communicate whilst expanding people’s writing skills and imagination with the creation of new words. As long as students are mature enough to distinguish the difference between the technology and their academic work.
Much text messaging lingo was first used in instant messaging programs on personal computers, and some phrases, such as ‘SWAK’ for ‘sealed with a kiss’ have been used for decades. As text messagers discover and share new abbreviations and acronyms, the language becomes familiar to a growing population of mobile phone users. And as more people use the lingo for text messaging, it is more likely to spill into speech or writing.
My data has show that there are no significant differences in the grammar and spelling scores of both Wayne who sends 31 – 60 messages a week and Emma and Erin who only send 11 - 30, showing that their language skills are independent to the fact that they send SMS messages.
However, I may have noticed more recognisable effects of texting on students’ grammar and spelling if the people studied were the more vulnerable ones like high school or primary school students who are just beginning to develop language and communication skills as older students are able to discern the formal language, the kind that is used in the classroom, from the non-conventional form of English.
Technology is not a recent development. People have always had technology and people have always had language, it is just the nature of technology that changes. Changes in technology will involve changes in minor aspects of language, like the lexicon and writing. The core of language, the phonology and syntax, do not appear to have been affected my technological change.
Bibliography
Websites:
Little shadows of phones for bullets
Pictures of phones with texts on