Phonology In Text Messages

Abstract

Text messages operate on a protocol which allows from 148 to160 characters per message, including spaces between words. In such a highly circumscribed environment, writing is seriously hampered by the limited space and the usage of the numeric phone keypad. Thus, the advent of a new quality of the text language, sometimes referred to as "textese", was inevitable under those conditions. One of the characteristics of text messages is frequent deletion of letters in orthographical forms, like in the following example: IfYaMthWozNEBiGrUWdntHavNEFAcLft2Wsh (if your mouth was any bigger you wouldn't have anything else left to wash). In order to investigate the nature of letter deletions in text messages a study was undertaken, which analyzed ten examples of text messages coming from various sources. The aim of the study was to determine whether the deletion of letters was regular, the general prediction being that text messages are decoded via the mediation of their phonemic representations (or via mental reading). It was speculated that the regularities were governed by phonological principles such as the semiotic "figure and ground" principle (Dressler 1996) and the "rich-get-richer" principle (Donegan 1978/1985). The results demonstrate that phonology is very likely to govern reductions albeit without any recourse to the prosody level.More specifically, phonology apparently affects the pattern of deletions in text messages, whereas there is a marked tendency that stress assignment does not determine the nature of deletions.

Arabizi Among Kuwaiti Youths: Reshaping the Standard Arabic Orthography

“…The data also seems to partially conform to the linguistic principle of "textese" governed by the principle of "figure and ground" predicting that consonants appearing in unstressed positions are more likely deleted, vowels in unstressed positions might be either reduced or deleted (Kul, 2007). Arabizi, as our data shows in the Kuwaiti context, seems to preserve consonants regardless of their strength, yet weaken unstressed vowels and even more frequently delete them.…”

“…The techniques utilized in text messaging differs greatly from ordinary writing. Kul (2007) explores the nature of letter deletion in text messages in what he referred to as "textese", with the general prediction being that text messages will be decoded phonemically (via mental reading), as governed by the phonological principles of the semiotic "figure and ground" principle, predicting that figures to be foregrounded, grounds to be further backgrounded, with the phonological convention of consonants being figures and vowels being grounds (Dressler, 1996). Another phonemic principle investigated in Kul's study is the "rich-get-richer" principle, arguing that figures that appear in strong positions (such as consonants appearing initially, or at the initial position of stressed syllables) are preserved or strengthened by the process of stopping, whereas grounds appearing in weak positions are weakened; vowels, for example, in unstressed position tend to be reduced to schwa or even a zero; consonants in word final positions are deleted (Donegan, 1985).…”

“…Such downgraded linguistic properties highlight, as claimed by Bralczyk (2004) and Sutherland (2002), a lesser than writing style that establishes a deviated mode of communication. Kul (2007) calls such claims depreciation of the productivity of texting, and an underestimation of texting impact on people's everyday communication. Crystal (2008) stresses the predominance of English orthographic rules, due to its global widespread, even when EMC is composed in other languages, particularly in the ones where Roman alphabet is utilized.…”

Finnish and UK English pre‐teen children's text message language and its relationship with their literacy skills

“…Either of these playful uses of language shows sensitivity to the style and attitude of spoken language, as well as its sound. A phonological basis for textisms has been demonstrated in several languages, for example Polish (Kul 2007), French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish (Crystal 2008) and English (Plester & Wood 2009).…”

Review of Siever, Torsten: Texte i. d. Enge. Sprachökonomische Reduktion in stark raumbegrenzten Textsorten

“…A serious criticism of the book lies in the lack of explicit and explanatory references to theories of speech and text speech production and perception in context, evidenced already in Chapter 2. Little attention is paid to scientific explanation of constraints on written communication, over and above documentation and description, for instance as given by Kul (2007b) in terms of visual analogues to lenition and hypoarticulation in text messages and other restricted registers. Indeed, even general sociolinguistic concepts such as Bernstein's (1971) distinction between functionally motivated elaborated and restricted codes is highly relevant for the functional explanation of such registers.…”