| Author: | Ho, Sheung-fun |
| Title: | An investigation into the features of Hong Kong ICQ |
| Degree: | M.A. |
| Year: | 2001 |
| Subject: | Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations Online chat groups -- China -- Hong Kong Discourse analysis -- China -- Hong Kong |
| Department: | Department of English |
| Pages: | 101, [48] leaves : ill. (some col.) ; 30 cm |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | The purpose of this paper is to understand the structure and patterning of Hong Kong ICQ language features through a collection of discourse analysis methods. How people communicate through this "on net" electronic medium which is deprived of "face-to-face" non-verbal cues ? How far ICQ simulates "live" conversation which is composed of linguistic, paralinguistic and extralinguistic means of communication? What are the particular features when people rely solely on the linguistic components to maintain an on-going "conversation" process in ICQ? Regardless of the fact that everybody knows ICQ is physically a written electronic text without any utterance of a word from interlocutors. People do think they are "talking" in ICQ. The study seeks to find out the similarity of linguistic aspects in spoken/written language with respect to that of ICQ corpus . A collection of discourse analysis methods from spoken/written discourse theories i.e Levinson (1983), Sinclair and Brazil (1982) etc., "email" theory of John Suler's (2000) and "chat in a virtual world" theory of Lynn Cherny's (1999) are adopted. ICQ scripts from four age groups are used as the primary real data in recording of linguistic behaviour in this environment. Since language is a direct reflection of the contemporary culture of the society, the code-mixing in the Hong Kong ICQ is the salient feature to exemplify the prevalence of bilinguals in our teenage group. The most frequent uses of short forms, abbreviations, symbols, Cantonese particles and aspect markers of Hong Kong ICQ are listed. The linguistics characteristics and various styles of the ICQ data are examined and the particular linguistic strategies to communicate without the non-verbal "face-to-face" cues are shown. Consequently, similarities revealing the spoken-like features will naturally be emerged. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | restricted access |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| b16082588.pdf | For All Users (off-campus access for PolyU Staff & Students only) | 5.86 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
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