POSTSCRIPT. New Language Varieties

continued from No. 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 20, 22, 24/2007

The electronic age has changed our lives as communicating human beings. New methods of sending and receiving information enable one to communicate with a bank or supermarket, interrogate a library catalogue or encyclopaedia database, or select from a series of menus, as in television data displays (teletext). In each case, we have to learn new conventions of communication – new techniques of accessing or asking, new techniques of reading and assimilating. Interacting with a computer is at present not the same as interacting with a human being. And strange things can happen to conversational language when people let an electronic device come between them.

Computer-mediated Communication (CmC)
Electronic messages (e-messages) and electronic mail (e-mail) are methods of exchanging letter-like messages on-line. In the former, both sender and receiver are simultaneously logged on to their computers, and the messages occur in real time. In the latter, a message is left in a ‘mail box’ for later reading. E-mail is a type of delayed dialogue, but unlike the situation of the answering machine, a reply is likely, using the same system, some time later. What makes it unusual, in the typology of communication situations, is the delay between stimulus and response, which may be of several days’ duration.
The delay between typing, sending, and receiving a message can cause unusual sequences of conversational turns. One study of this phenomenon (D. E. Murray, 1990) found the following example:

T1: THEY HAVE IT RUNNING DOWN AT THE LAB (ON SYS21)
P1: yeah – using lab ‘f’ for home terminal support I bet!
T1: ALSO ON SYS24. ISN’T IT SOMETHING?
P2: what would be the effect of having the home term with ymon using a high speed modem?
T2: ALEX WAS INTERESTED IN PUTTING IT UP ON SYS54. HIGH SPEED WOULD MAKE IT REALLY LOOK SWEET.

In this exchange, P’s e-message (P1) interrupts T’s turn, in which he is telling P where something is operating. P then sends a second e-message (P2). T then replies to both P1 and P2 at once.
Because time is of the essence, errors in typing may not be corrected. The sender usually ignores letter case, putting everything into either lower or upper case. Depending on the system used, the computer may print everything in upper case anyway. When mixed-case programs are available, they are often used inconsistently, because of the extra effort involved. Participants also tend not to use ‘time-wasting’ formulae such as greetings and farewells, and messages are characterized by space-saving conventions such as ellipses and abbreviations. Because participants are well aware of the possible time delays, they tend to avoid expressions which would be ambiguous over time (such as today, this afternoon). Otherwise, the style is very close to that of conversation – and indeed often incorporates emotional expressions and other information which one would otherwise find only in intimate face-to-face conversation.
These are very unusual conversations indeed – but they are conversations. They are preferred over other methods because they can be the most economical way of sending or receiving information. Also, like the fax machine, they do not require the participants to engage in time-consuming rituals of a phatic kind (asking about health, family, weather). In other circumstances, a conversation which omitted such pleasantries would be considered rude.
In systems using a list server, the conversation becomes even more unusual. Here, a message is sent to everyone belonging to a certain group; it is placed on a ‘bulletin board’, for consultation at any time. It is therefore a one-to-many conversation, in which a single stimulus can elicit many responses, scattered over a period of time, each of which can be read independently. Some responses quickly become out-of-date through the arrival of later messages. Equally, later messages can make earlier messages redundant. People who consult bulletin boards often have to process some extremely complex textual tangles.
Some of the features which identify the language variety of teletext are: the colour coding of different kinds of information, the succinct sentence structure (= clearly expressed in a few words: 57 die as troops storm plane), and the provision of page connectivity indicators. More is involved than the provision of information in monologue form.

Answerspeak
The answerphone also presents a new kind of conversational situation: delayed single-exchange pseudo-dialogue. For example, the usual ‘Hello. I’m sorry we’re not here at the moment, but if you’d like to leave a message you have just under three minutes after the tone. Thank you for calling. [BEEP]’It is pseudo because in the typical case there is no feedback and no further conversational turn. The situation is also asymmetrical, in two ways. First, the caller may choose not to speak, thus rejecting the callee’s recorded invitation. Secondly, through the monitoring facility the callee can listen to the caller as the message is being recorded and decide whether to cut in, thus turning the situation into a real dialogue.
The recorded message is unusual, as far as telephone linguistic history is concerned. The usual response to a caller is a number or hello. Here, neither of these items may be present (the number may be deliberately avoided for security reasons) and instead there is an explanation and a set of instructions, e.g. Hi, This is Arthur Jones. I’m responding to the letter I got from you this morning. I’m hoping to get to the meeting, but I’ll try and reach you later to talk about it – it’s 11.30 now – Tuesday – or you can ring me at the office. I’ll be there till 5. Thanks. Bye.
Situational constraints give such messages some of the features of a restricted language. Limited time makes them very short. People typically do not include information about how long they are absent, in case they put their home at risk. Some leave messages indicating where a real dialogue can take place, or give other kinds of instructions. Some dramatize their message, or introduce creative elements (e.g. musical accompaniment), which says more about their personality than about English.
When messages are left, they vary greatly in form. Some people treat the machine as if it were a person, and talk to it in a natural conversational style (introducing their remarks with Hi or Hello) and an identifying formula (This is…; I’m a friend of…). Some train themselves to leave a precise record of when their message was made. Some find any kind of communication with a machine awkward or impossible, and use a formal style, often highly elliptical and disjointed. Although beginning a message straightforward, almost everyone finds it difficult to end one. Many messages tail off into silence or uncertainty, or end with an unusual turn of phrase. What is the function of thanks in the above example?
With the development of electronic systems of communication, new restricted language varieties have emerged, one of the latest being EDIFACT – the international standard for the electronic exchange of goods trading information. It seems likely that this trend will continue.