The Hybrid Language Of Spoken Language

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Texting can be classified as a hybrid language due to the way in which it combines grammatical components of written language and of spoken language. Written language differs from spoken language in several ways for example in writing there is time to develop phrasing which makes personal attitudes clear, unlike speaking which is more spontaneous. These differences can lead to the reason as to why different people have different attitudes regarding the effects of this hybrid language. Transcript A demonstrates a text conversation between two teenage girls. Based on the age of the girls we are presented with many variations of words and punctuation. One of the features included in the text message are contractions. Many people would decide…show more content…
Abbreviations in texting are commonly used as a way of making the texts shorter and quicker to type. For example in the transcript one of the girls says “Omg” showing that she’d have preferred to have typed that as it’s far quicker as opposed to typing “oh my god”. John McWhorther does question the usage of certain abbreviations and whether or not they’ve become meaningless or not. This is because LOL has progressed into a whole new meaning because at one point it meant lots of love, then it meant laugh out loud. But what does it actually mean now? People just insert it into their texts recklessly and use it as a means of conveying an attitude. However, abbreviations aren’t necessarily used recklessly and they tend to have a purpose when being used. For instance LOL can be used to edit the meaning of what someone says because they don’t want any offense to be taken or sometimes it can be used simply to signal basic empathy. Despite this, it is becoming evident now how people meaninglessly insert LOL and OMG into their texts as they don’t always support the content of the text…show more content…
The use of repetition is used to portray a person’s attitude as well as their expression. For example we are shown the repeated use of an exclamation point as well as repetition in “soooo”. This shows us how the sender is trying to exaggerate their viewpoint in order to display their attitude so that the receiver understands what they were trying to say. Some people argue that there is vast difficulty in trying to portray emotions through texting because you don’t necessarily get the same effect you were always hoping for. But instead there is the idea that by repeating punctuation and letters you are adding emphasis to what you’re trying to say hence making it easier for the receiver to understand. For example there is a difference between saying that you’re so happy and that you’re soooo happy because the repeated letters exaggerate the word. Consequently the argument that suggests that it’s difficult to input emotion into texting isn’t too strong because you can simply add repeated letters for emphasis of what you’re trying to

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