∞ /notes/textual-conversation | 2005-10-23 | linguistics

Textual Conversation

Cross-posted to: https://fsteeg.wordpress.com/2005/10/23/textual-conversation/

What's interesting about textual conversation in chatrooms is that many aspects of communication are not given or fixed. Like there are neither mimics nor gestures and the setting is fixed: a chatroom. Yet this is real language. Another point that makes it suitable for analysis is that there is no observation problem: The fact that every conversation is recorded is true anyway, so it has no impact on the conversation (well it probably makes the whole thing special).