English language essay question

How has the language of the text been influenced by technology?

         The language in the texts has been influenced by technology in many different ways, for example, abbreviations have been used; ‘wed’ ‘Tb lv n.’ People use to have to pay for the length of each text, therefore the shorter the text the cheaper it was, consequently people started abbreviating words and missing out vowels. This method of ‘texting’ is still used because it makes it quicker to type out messages, and therefore a group of people can exchange in text messages within seconds, holding conversations fluently without long gaps waiting for replies. This also links to the number, ‘2moz’ and letter homophones used; ‘r u?’ These make it possible to shorten whole words into just a few letters and numbers; are you = r u and 2moz = tomorrow. Consequently resulting in speedier texting.

          Text messages are normally between two people that know each other and are therefore a private matter, however more and more companies, ie banks, are starting to use them as a way of getting information out to their customers. The examples given show a private set of text messages, showing a conversation between some friends. Therefore the messages are all informal, you can tell this due to the use of non-standard English, spelling and grammar, ‘havnt.’ This shows an example of the use of elision without the use of apostrophise, this makes it’s quicker and easier to text without using standard grammar, and also because the majority of people text people whom they know, and therefore text in a conversational tone, just like they would if they were talking in person. As well as this, it also shows how culture has had an effect on text messaging because it has become thought to be ‘cool’ to ‘text’ using a certain style, such as phonetic spelling and non-standard English.

            There is also the use of punctuation to imitate suprasegmental features, ‘xxx’ = kisses. This adds recognition to the reader of the text, as to what context it is meant in. For example ‘x’ on the end of a text shows friendliness. This is influenced by technology because it’s hard to show tone on voice over writing and therefore people add things like this to help add tone to their messages. This is very similar to the use of emoticons in the text; ‘:).’ This shows how ‘texting’ has been adapted to show the emotion that the text is meant to be read with. For example a text with ‘:)’ in it, is said in a happy way, ect. This is also because this ‘tone’ doesn’t come across in text due to the lack of facial expressions from the two people holding the conversation. Therefore you only get the words of the conversation, but you can’t hear the tone of which they were said in or facial expressions, therefore emoticons and punctuation to imitate suprasegmental features helps to show these in the text.

          There has also been the use of youth socialect within some of the texts; ‘wanna.’ and ‘I’m like on already.’ This adds to the informal feel of the texts, allowing each individual to express their own ‘tone’ to a message. ‘Chil @ mine” shows an example of how words can be shortened, making texts shorter and quicker; one of the ‘l’s’ on ‘chill’ has been removed, but still leaves the word recognisable. As well as with, punctuation has been used to replace words such as ‘@’ instead of the word ‘at’. This makes texting quicker amd shorter, therefore saving on time and money.

           All in all, the language in the texts has been influenced by technology in many ways, but the main influence has been that people abbreviate words, trying to write as much as possible in as little time and letters possible. This is because it use to be that the longer the text the more it would cost to send, and the quicker you send a text, the quicker you get a reply, which then keeps up the ‘face to face’ feel to the conversation. The other main influence has been the use of emoticons, these are used to reflect the emotions and face expressions of the ‘texter’ to make up for the fact the conversation isn’t happening face to face.