scholarly journals A pragmatic analysis of humour strategies and functions in 'Jenifa's Diary' and 'Professor JohnBull'

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 20-34
Author(s):  
Adesina B. Sunday ◽  
Ganiu A. Bamgbose
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Situation Comedies ◽  
Stand Up Comedy ◽  
Pragmatic Analysis ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Discourse Functions

Studies on humour in Nigeria have been extensively carried out from the perspectives of stand-up comedy and computer-mediated communication. There is a dearth of scholarly enquiries on humour in situation comedies (sitcoms). This paper investigates humour in the interactions of characters in Jenifa’s Diary and Professor JohnBull, with a view to accounting for the manifestations of humour, the humour strategies deployed and the functions that the humorous utterances serve in the sitcoms. The work is situated in Culpeper’s Impoliteness Theory. Eight excerpts from the sitcoms were subjected to pragmatic analysis. Two discourse functions of amusing and castigating are discovered in the data. The former serves the function of facilitating discourse and changing presumed power and status, while the latter serves the function of maintaining one’s own space and autonomy, and demanding respect. Allusion, parody, retort, tease, banter and putdown are the humour techniques employed in the sitcoms. The study corroborates the claim of earlier studies that humour in every sphere of language use serves certain functions beyond the interactional need to create amusement.

Task-based interactional sequences in different modalities

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 174-198
Author(s):  
Xiaofei Tang
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Learning Opportunities ◽  
The Other ◽  
Interaction Data ◽  
Potential Influence ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
L2 Learning

Abstract Recent research on Task-Based Language Teaching (TBLT) showed the efficacy of using computer-mediated communication (CMC) to promote second language (L2) learning (Ziegler, 2016). However, few studies compared the interactional sequences during task-based interaction across different modalities (e.g., oral and written chat). It is thus not clear how different task modalities mediate task-based interaction and L2 learning opportunities. To fill this gap, this study compared CMC written chat and face-to-face (FTF) oral chat for interactional sequences during decision-making tasks. Participants were 20 learners of Chinese (high-elementary to intermediate level) in a U.S. university. Ten participants completed the tasks in CMC, while the other 10 completed the same tasks in FTF. The interaction data were analyzed for frequency and patterns of interactional strategies. Three types of interactional sequences emerged in both groups: orientating to tasks, suggesting actions and evaluating suggestions. CMC participants suggested actions more frequently than FTF participants. While both groups predominantly agreed with proposed suggestions, CMC dyads expressed disagreement three times more than FTF dyads. CMC dyads also used more utterances to manage task progress. Findings are discussed in terms of the interactional organizations and their potential influence on task-based language use in different modalities.

scholarly journals Word Shortening Strategies: Egyptian vs. Non-Egyptian English Tweets

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 27
Author(s):  
Iman Mohamed Mahfouz
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Foreign Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Parallel Corpora ◽  
Social Media Platform ◽  
Message Length ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Media Platform

The language of Computer-mediated Communication (CMC) is known to deviate from standard language in many ways dictated by the characteristics of the medium in order to achieve brevity, speed as well as innovation. Together with the intrinsic features of CMC in general, the character limitation imposed by the popular social media platform, Twitter has triggered the use of a number of linguistic devices including shortening strategies in addition to unconventional spelling and grammar. Using two parallel corpora of English tweets written by Egyptians and non-Egyptians on a similar hashtag, the study attempts to compare the shortening strategies used in both datasets. A taxonomy for orthographic and morphological shortening strategies was adapted from Thurlow and Brown (2003) and Denby (2010) with particular focus on message length, punctuation, clipping, abbreviations, contractions, alphanumeric homophones and accent stylization. Given the scarcity of linguistic studies conducted on Egyptian tweets despite the vast amount of data they offer, the study compares the findings about tweets written by Egyptians in English as a foreign language to previous studies. The findings suggest that Egyptians tend to omit punctuation more frequently, whereas non-Egyptians favor abbreviations, contractions and clipped forms. The results also indicate that Twitter may be shifting towards longer messages while at the same time increasingly employing more shortening strategies. The study also reveals that character limitation is not the only factor shaping language use on Twitter since not all linguistic choices are governed by brevity of communication.

Language use in asynchronous computer-mediated communication in Taiwan

2009 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 12.1-12.22
Author(s):  
ZZZ dummy contact - do not alter
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Bulletin Board ◽  
Online Environment ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
English Alphabet

This paper describes how Chinese-English bilinguals in Taiwan use their languages in asynchronous computer-mediated communication, specifically, via Bulletin Board System (BBS) and email. The main data includes two types: emails collected from a social network and postings collected from two BBS websites. By examining patterns of language choice and language use in these two types of data, the aim of this research is to investigate how a language contact phenomenon – code-switching (CS) – is realized via different writing systems in online environmentThe data reveals that there are two levels of CS: CS between languages and CS between writing systems. In terms of CS between languages, three patterns are found: CS between Mandarin and Taiwanese, CS between Mandarin and English, CS between Mandarin, Taiwanese and English. In terms of CS between writing systems, three patterns are also identified: CS between Standard Written Chinese (SWC) and Zhuyin, CS between SWC and English alphabet, and CS between SWC, Zhuyin and English alphabet. This paper presents the two levels of CS by using the examples found in the data and describes the complex relationship between different writing systems and different languages. It is concluded that CS is found to be a common phenomenon on asynchronous CMC, where it fosters multilingualism and multi-orthography.

scholarly journals The Use of Politeness Strategies in Whatsapp Discussions about Sensitive Topics

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Junita Junita
Keyword(s):  
Language Use ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Gender Inequalities ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
The Past ◽  
Sensitive Topics ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
The Feminine ◽  
Politeness Strategies

The studies about language use in the past several years showed the existence of gender inequalities. According to Lakoff (1975), women are pressured to show the feminine qualities of weakness and frequently subordinate status toward men in a male-dominated society. However, nowadays, women's position in society is equal to men's position. The evidence that women are now equal to men invites the writer to study men's and women's language features and the politeness strategies used by men and women, especially in CMC (Computer-Mediated Communication). This study was a Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA) study used to describe the meaning of qualitative data systematically. The result did not align with the previous studies: it showed that women were also aggressive when giving an argument, and politeness strategies were not the most used in the forum discussion; it was bald of record instead. In sum, Herring's (1993) features of women's and men's language were not valid in this study, and some of them need to be revised. Further studies about politeness strategies in CMC should be explored more.

scholarly journals Language use in asynchronous computer-mediated communication in Taiwan

2009 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 12.1-12.22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daphne Li-jung Huang
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Language Choice ◽  
Bulletin Board ◽  
Online Environment ◽  
Writing Systems ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
English Alphabet

This paper describes how Chinese-English bilinguals in Taiwan use their languages in asynchronous computer-mediated communication, specifically, via Bulletin Board System (BBS) and email. The main data includes two types: emails collected from a social network and postings collected from two BBS websites. By examining patterns of language choice and language use in these two types of data, the aim of this research is to investigate how a language contact phenomenon – code-switching (CS) – is realized via different writing systems in online environment The data reveals that there are two levels of CS: CS between languages and CS between writing systems. In terms of CS between languages, three patterns are found: CS between Mandarin and Taiwanese, CS between Mandarin and English, CS between Mandarin, Taiwanese and English. In terms of CS between writing systems, three patterns are also identified: CS between Standard Written Chinese (SWC) and Zhuyin, CS between SWC and English alphabet, and CS between SWC, Zhuyin and English alphabet. This paper presents the two levels of CS by using the examples found in the data and describes the complex relationship between different writing systems and different languages. It is concluded that CS is found to be a common phenomenon on asynchronous CMC, where it fosters multilingualism and multi-orthography.

Spelling and simulated shibboleths in Nigerian computer-mediated communication

English Today ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 35-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Presley A. Ifukor
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Human Interaction ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Communicative Interaction ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Computer Mediated

Since its coinage by Hiltz and Turoff (1978) the term computer-mediated communication (CMC) has been adapted and broadly conceptualised as interactive communication by and among human beings via networked computers and mobile devices. Several definitions of CMC have been offered in the literature but Herring's (2007) definition of CMC as ‘predominantly text-based human–human interaction mediated by networked computers or mobile telephony’ is adopted in this article because it stresses the textual aspect of the communicative interaction and accommodates all forms of textual language use mediated by the Internet, the World Wide Web and mobile technologies. This approach to CMC focuses on the production, transmission and exchange of naturally-occurring text-based human language and highlights the fact that human beings (as opposed to automated or artificial systems) are both the agents or initiators and recipients of the communication under investigation. Although communication is not unique to humans, the ability to use human language for meaningful social interactions is the exclusive preserve of the human species. Thus the perspective human beings bring to virtual interactions is accounted for in CMC. Internet interlocutors (also known as online interactants, netizens or textizens in the case of regular SMS texts composers/senders) employ textual data to convey and exchange their thoughts, opinions, observations, feelings as well as messages from other people or sources (Ifukor, 2011). These interactive possibilities make CMC a technology, medium, and engine of social relations (Jones, 1995:11) and language use is at the core.

scholarly journals Language use variation of L2 writers in weblog across different gender and genres

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 42-50
Author(s):  
Dian Puspita ◽  
Suprayogi Suprayogi
Keyword(s):  
Multivariate Analysis ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Personal Pronoun ◽  
Personal Pronouns ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
R Program ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Dependent Variables

Despite the growing interest in investigating learners’ corpora, surprisingly little research has been conducted on the language use of L2 writers and its relation to the gender and genres in writing. Therefore, this study was aimed to find out the variation of language use in different genres or gender in weblogs, one of popular modes of computer-mediated communication (CMC). The study was done by conducting multivariate analysis using R program to weblog entries from a sample balanced of author gender (female or male) and weblog genre (diary or filter).  Taking linguistic preferential features by Argamon et al (2003) and Pennebaker (2011) as dependent variables, the effect of genres or gender toward the use of the features was analyzed. The results showed that significant effects of several features can be considered as predictors. Personal pronouns and hedges (I think, and I believe) were found as predictors for diary; while the indefinite articles a/an and numbers were found as predictors for filter. As for the different language use by gender, female predictors were personal pronoun, verbs, negation, certainty words, and hedges. Meanwhile, the indefinite articles a/an, numbers, and preposition were the predictors of male writers.

scholarly journals Language Use in Computer Mediated-Communication and Users’ Social Identity

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Miramar Yousif Damanhouri
Keyword(s):  
Young Adults ◽  
Social Identity ◽  
Language Use ◽  
Computer Mediated Communication ◽  
Modern Technology ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Mediated Communication ◽  
Bilingual Speakers ◽  
Computer Mediated ◽  
Middle Aged Adults

This study examines the relationship between language use in computer-mediated communication and the social identity of the user. The data were collected by surveying 298 Saudi bilingual speakers who are familiar with Arabizi, a blend of Latin characters and Arabic numerals to transliterate Arabic sounds, and then analyzed quantitatively by running tests for statistical confidence in order to determine differences in perceptions between young adults (ages 15-25 years) and middle-aged adults (ages 26-50 years). According to the findings of this study, English is the dominant language among most of the young adults surveyed, and when they do use Arabic, they use Arabizi because of its flexibility, compatibility with modern technology, and its acceptance among people of their age and sociocultural backgrounds. On the other hand, most middle-aged adults surveyed here tend to use Arabic, as they believe that they should show their loyalty to their origin. The results of the study demonstrate a mutual relationship between language use in computer-mediated communication and the user’s social identity, as language is used both to reflect and co-construct that identity.

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