Texting:How we communicate in 160 letters (or less)

By: Brittany Fix

Purpose

How is languageused to express meaningwhen texting?

ParticipantsSix sorority sisters in their fourth year at the University of Florida

Studying nursing, nutrition, animal science, political science, business, and journalism

Activities- tennis, investment club, service organizations, teaching assistantships, jobs at the Reitz Union, Tutoring Zone, Gainesville Health and Fitness, O’Connel Center

Relationship Statuses- 2 long distance boyfriends, 1 in-town casual dating, and 3 single

Language Lenses

-Syntax-Context-Utterances-Voice-Purpose

Syntax-Capitalization

From SaltyChic: Queen latifa, michael Jordan, usher, pDiddy, and the guy from the stocked fridge video

From St. Patty: I want a big salad. Zaxbys? Designer Greens?From SaltyChic: Designer greens sounds good!

From Orlando: Are you still looking for roommates?From Nurse: YES!!! Why…? Don’t u get my hopes ups!

• First letter of EVERY text was capitalized due to automatic settings

• All others for proper nouns and beginning sentences were random (even within a single participant’s conversations)

• Used to show enthusiasm

Syntax- PunctuationFrom Roommate: Uggh ran into annoying internFrom SaltyChic: On Campus? That’s so scary. I hope I never run into herFrom Roommate: Hahaha Peace out Spanish class

From LilyPulitzer: Idk where I’m going- prob midtown. I’ll be at mothers at 9am that day :)

From Nurse: Lol silly girl. I’ll be on the hospital floor amusing my patients of my funny best friend at mothers at 9am ;)

From Broseph: They are way to peppy in the morning. Literally one skipped into

assembly this morning. At 8am.

Research-Showed little use of punctuation except in cases when “?” was used to make the phrase interrogative

Common Trends-Part of the person’s texting “voice”-Used to break messages into phrases, most commonly dropped at the end of a message-Give emphasis

Emoticons/Slang-Emoticons used to end sentences :)-abbreviations used at end instead of traditional punctuation haha

Syntax- Spelling/Grammar

From SaltyChic: We’re forming a smooth jazz band. What will you contribute?

From Blondie: Manager maybe? I’m not musicly inclined

From Roommate: You missed to pop oFrom SaltyChic: Why were the police there?

From TennisGirl: Wow, you sent me a ext that was more than 2 words:)

• Largely correct- typos most common error

• Meaning never lost

“I think all grammar in texts should be correct - it gives off the impression that you're uneducated otherwise. The only exception being abbreviations to make a text shorter.”

~Nurse

Syntax- Slang/Abb

From LilyPulitzer: St. Augustine. It was supposed to be savannah, buttttt then someone went and broke a set of French doors costing the frat over 3k bc no one would s

From LilyPultizer: ay who all it was, so as a punishment b/c they had to, the money came out of formal budget

From Nurse: St aug will be beautiful too-that’s my fav fl city :)

AbbreviationsLol Idk Haha GottaR u O NOLA FmlAbt Wanna Ok, K HuhEmails W Ya FyiB4 Omg Btw SuckaWkend Wed Prob St AugT/tshirt Gonna In 20 KindaDis Ville Gville Fb P.S. 40s Am Pm Nyu Luv PK UF

Soo…is there syntax in texts?

Lindfors-“young children use whatever means they have to communicate” (37)-“Attention to form doesn’t precede a focus on meaning, nor does it substitute for it or take precedence over it.” (49)

Kutz-“apparent messiness and underlying sense of structure” (86)- Chomsky’s deep vs. surface structure (87)

Context

From OhioGator: Cassie is preggers? Ahhhhhhhhhhhh

From SexyMexi: Yup! Koalas bred, hogs bred and bonobos bred. Hopefully we get a lot of babies!!!

From OhioGator: Omgggggg sooooooo excited!!!!!!!!!!

From OhioGator: Who is cassie’s baby daddy, anakka? (sp?)

From SexyMexi: Yes i believe so

From OhioGator: Steve just texted me ;-)

From OhioGator: Steve just texted me :-/

From OhioGator: Steve just texted me :)

From OhioGator: Steve just texted me :(

• Emoticons• Previous shared experiences• Subculture

From SaltyChic: Sunday funday?

From Mr.Ireland: What are you doing on Wedneday?From St.Patty: Getting Schiavo’d

From OhioGator: P.S. I’m on farmville From Tally: Hahahaha yes Farmville!!!!

Building Context• Vygotsky

“If the thoughts of two people coincide, perfect understanding can be achieved.” (139)

• Bruner“the culture soon equips us with new powers of

narration through its tool kit..” (80)

• Kutz“different ways are absorbed into the larger,

collaborative and cooperative act of meaning making” (64)

Utterances “Usually they are just passing thoughts.”

• Conversations– Rejoinders

(Bakhtin 72)– Coherence and

Cohesion(Kutz 300)

• Speech Plan“embrace, understand, and sense the speaker’s speech plan or speech will, which determines the entire utterance, its length and boundaries” (Bakhtin 77)

Utterances

From StPatty: I just counted the weeks left of school and almost vomited.

From LDBF: How many?From StPatty: 7!From LDBF: Holy crap!

From OhioGator, 12:42pm: Someone decided to play their guitar at 9:53am so I had to migrate to pemby’s bed. Someone is gonna get cut tomorrow morning if this happens again

From Tally, 2:35pm: I cant believe they did it two days in a row. I would be furious.

……………………………………………………….

From OhioGator, 5:10pm: Guitar againnnnnnnnnnnn argh

From Tally, 5:33pm: Hahahaha

……………………………………………………….

From OhioGator, 12:19am: Oh goddddd just heard a guitar wtfffffffff

From Tally, 2:50am: Nooooway….That is so hilarious.

From SaltyChic: Travolta in jeans

From Roommate: I have your paycheck

From St.Patty: Have you seen the Smart Mop informercial?! I want!

From OhioGator: Just saw a bumper sticker that said, “Milk sucks, Got margaritas?”

VoiceFrom TennisBoy: Abt to work (1)

From TennisBoy: Eh (8)

From TennisBoy: Busy sorry (5)

From TennisGirl: Awwwww, that stinks! (4)

From TennisGirl: Ooooh what a lucky ducky!!!! (6)

From Tennis Girl: Whaaaaaaaat?????? (2)

From Nurse: No u didn’t…what did u say??? (7)

From Nurse: No really what did u say? (3)

From Nures: Side of queso for my chips please! Love uuuuu (9)

1. Abt to work

2. Whaaaaaaaat??????

3. No really what did u say?

4. Awwwww, that stinks!

5. Slept ok

6. Ooooh what a lucky ducky!!!!

7. No u didn’t…what did u say???

8. Eh

9. Side of queso for my chips please! Love u

Voice– Word length

• Shorter for boys

– Message length• Only 2 people went over 160 characters for 1 message

– Punctuation• Lots vs little

– Abbreviations/Slang• Personal preferences

Voice- Code Switching?From Dad: Then maybe they should get their

act together

From Sister: Cool! Thanks, but I don’t want you to have to spend. I’ll check it out.

From Friend: Howd your first day go?

From Work: That’s ok, thanks for getting back to me!

Dad Sibling Friend Co-Worker

Voice • Lindfors

“We inevitably bring our individual selves into our written communication with others, just as we do in our face-to-face conversations.” (82)

• Bakhtin“Various genres can reveal various layers and facets of the

individual personality.” (63)

• Kutz“We can educate ourselves for participation in a

multidiscoursed society.” (163)Is texting its own discourse community?

“I think I type and write the same way I talk”

PurposeChildren’s Speech

• Instrumental• Regulatory• Interactional• Personal• Heuristic• Imaginative• Representational

(Halliday)

Texting• Instrumental• Regulatory• Interactional• Personal• Heuristic• Imaginative• Representational

•Information Giving -Planning -Story telling

•Information Seeking -Ambient Awareness

•Task-Avoidance

“To make plans, tell friends short stories, ask simple questions, remind friends of inside jokes to make them laugh or smile, tell loved ones I love and/or miss them, make plans, communicate when I cannot talk on the phone (in class or the library)”

“to communicate quick thoughts to my friends or to receive an answer for a question quickly”

“to communicate short thoughts that don't require a formal phone call”

Implications

Digital Natives

How do we play?

Nelson and Gruendal

“The development of topic relevant dialogue structure may profitably be viewed as a function

of building up of shared social scripts which specify the structure and content of familiar

events in the child's experience.”

What is the social script of texting?

Classroom Management• Multi-taskers

-How do we engage students who are used to typing/listening/interacting all the time?

-What is think time? How do we reflect?

• Ambient awareness-Students communicate to

everyone, anytime-Easy transition to language for learning?

How can we incorporate familiar tools and experiences into students’ education?

Does it require critical thinking skills?

What is salient and meaningful to students?

ClassroomTools

“Writing needs to be a friend, and it needs to be

a tool” (Lindfors, 33)

Community building, interactive lessons

Writing Instruction• Students already…

– Make phoneme/grapheme representations– Construct meaning– Choose concise, strong words

• Extra emphasis on….– Correct spelling– Complete sentences!– Formal tone/language

• What skill sets do students need?

f u cn read dis u spnd wA 2 mch tym txtng ;)