Language and technology
In a nutshell
Technology's impact on the creation, dissemination, interchange and consumption of texts in the 20th and 21st centuries has simultaneously increased and decreased people's language options. Lexis, grammar, orthography and phonology have all been significantly impacted by how quickly technology has advanced. In this summary, you will address how language varieties are influenced by communication mediums and also the social practices that surround them.
The telephone
The discourse structure of the telephone continues to have an impact on how people communicate online. In fact, there is a general social rule as to how a call will go:
- Answer
- Identification
- Greeting
- Phatic talk
- Hanging up
Despite the speech structure appearing to be organised, according to sociologist Emanuel A. Schegloff, telephone conversations are collaborations between speakers which depend on the context of the call. In the absence of paralinguistic (e.g. visual) cues, turn-taking is determined by intonation, questions, hesitances, interruptions, overlaps and discourse markers like "Wait! what did you say?" backchannelling. Language philosopher and theorist Paul Grice claims that the maxims of quantity, quality, relation and manner are essential to effective discourse because they make it simpler to present sufficient, accurate information that is timely and well-articulated.
Digital English
The prevalence of digital media has been argued by some scholars to directly influence and constrain people's use of language. However, others argue that technology has been a source of enrichment for personal and social development.
The 'typographic man' phenomenon
According to Marshall McLuhan, a new phenomenon is emerging, whereby the media that we use has a significant impact on our identity and beliefs as well as how our beliefs are shaped. For example, websites and applications like Twitter can be argued to directly influence the user into using a desired speech pattern and mindset. According to Elizabeth Eisenstein, on the other hand, technology lends itself to more enriched possibilities for personal and social change and is not a constraint.
Text messaging
When text messaging was first brought to mobile phones in the 1990s to improve communication for engineers, it was first offered as SMS (Short Message Service), which might have been constricting due to its 160-character limit. This technology, however, soon became adapted to people's social and personal needs as people recognised its advantages. With the advent of text messaging technology, a written form of digital talk has emerged called textspeak, which incorporates many of the creative and innovative features of spoken and written language. Within the constraints of text messages came new ways to communicate:
Adaption
| Example |
Punctuation used to communicate emotion | :) - Happy |
Logograms - words and phrases by numerals and symbols | @5 - at Five |
Acronymy - a word but is made up of the first letters of other words | LOL - laugh out loud |
Variant orthography - nonstandard spelling
| baso - Basically |
Vowel omission
| sry - Sorry |
Rebus abbreviation - a syllable represented by a letter | CUL8R - See you later |
Adapted from Crystal (2008)
Example
Hey wuu2? Meet @mine l8r?
It is difficult to determine how much synchronicity there is in a digital text: interactions over Zoom or Skype require multiple people to log on simultaneously, while the author and reader may interact at very different times with text messaging.
Writing on the internet
Digital communication relies heavily on writing, and the range of communication can be extensive, ranging from blogs to search engines, websites, social media, chatrooms and forums.
Vernacular literary practices
Blogs and other commonplace writing styles are referred to as "vernacular literacy activities" by Mary Hamilton and David Barton.
Vernacular literary practice
| Effect |
Blog | A blog is a type of online diary that can potentially reach a very large audience thanks to the internet. Many bloggers amass sizeable followings, assuring the survival of their blog and influencing the writer's agenda and linguistic style. For instance, numerous interactive features are available, including message boards and different links and extensions.
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Emails | Due to the asynchronous nature of emails, users might not instantly reply to one another. Digital talk may not share the same language features as spoken language. According to David Crystal (2006), it is exceedingly challenging to identify specific linguistic elements in email communication because they depend heavily on context.
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Micro-blogging | The apparent limitations of digital texts described by technical determinism have quickly changed into affordances. Sites such as Twitter and Facebook serve as conduits for bulk information spreading, regardless of factual integrity. Micro-blogs also create a permanent footprint of a person's thought process.
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Chatrooms | Despite the fact that chatroom speech has many similarities to spoken language, the asynchronous form eliminates the improvisational quality of face-to-face communication. Although the agenda in chat rooms might seem more rigorously set, it is nevertheless possible for it to shift tangentially during interactions.
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Typography
One of the most significant non-linguistic communication mediums is typography. It is used in a variety of scenarios, from text messaging to advertising, for varying effects. As a result of previous uses, typefaces are used to construct meaning. Typography is the practise of placing type in a way that makes it legible, readable, and visually beautiful when it is shown. Choosing typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line spacing, letter spacing, and changing the space between letter pairs are all part of the type arrangement process. This is heavily used to effect in political campaigns.
Social media
As a result of the features of social networking technologies, users can now establish a unique online persona. Carefully curating information and images can project an identity to an anonymous worldwide audience. The physical distance provided by social networking might be advantageous for some users who find it challenging to form friends in offline situations. However, the increase in criminal activity that results from the anonymity of social media is made worse. With the use of social media, anyone can create an online persona by selecting the language that best represents them.
Twitter
Twitter has a strict set of rules that constrain language choices on the site. These are:
- No tweet can be more than 140 characters (since increased to 280 characters)
- To begin a username, the symbol @ is used
- # (hashtags) are used to group tweets by topic
- Increased use of contractions
- Elliptical sentences
- Sentence fragments
References
Barton, D. & Hamilton, M. (1998). Local Literacies | Reading and Writing in One Community. London: Routledge, 1.
Crystal, D. (2006). Language and the Internet (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Crystal, D. (2008). Texting. ELT, 62(1). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Eisenstein, E.L. (1980). The Printing Press as an Agent of Change. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Grice, P. (1975) "Logic and Conversation". In Cole, P.; Morgan, J. (eds.). Syntax and semantics. Vol. 3: Speech acts. New York: Academic press.
McLuhan, M. (1962). The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
Schegloff, E. (1986). The Routine as Achievement. Human Studies, 9. 111-151.
