| Properties of chat-room English |
Verb-formation: 'emoted' verb as short form: 'Mike cools',
'Anthony ohboys'
contractions: 'anne gonna go see' , 'Lenny
bops you onna head', 'Jon runs atta Ted'
Deletion: prepositions 'Jon laughs lynn', 'Karen giggles Rick'
'is' 'Penfold bad mood', 'Rick getting
there'
Reduplication: 'Ray nodsnodsnods', 'laughslaughs'
Abbreviations: 'LOL' ('laughs out loud'), 'filfre' ('feelfree'), 'bbl'
('be back later')
Antisocial commands (word typed in is converted by program:) 'whuggle Y' > 'X
whuggles Y' (a virtual hug); 'cathedral Y' > 'X comes down on Y
like a ton of cathedrals'
Punctuation: speech bubbles: '. o 0' ('whew')'
Extra letters: 'slooooowwww', 'hmmmm', 'arrgh', 'ummmm', 'noooo00ooo'
Source: Cherny, L. (1999), Conversation and
Community: Chat in a Virtual World CSLI |
| Chat-room abbreviations |
A/S/L - Age/Sex/Location
ASAP - As Soon as Possible
BFN - Bye For Now
CU - See You
GF - Girl Friend
IAE - In Any Event
LOL - laughing out loud (Lots of love)
PLS - please |
AFK - away from keyboard
B4 - before
BRB - be right back
F2F - Face To Face
GR8 - great
LOE - lack of education
LY - Love you
SY2SB - send you to sin bin
Tanx - thank you |
Chat-room sample
Users' names have been removed and replaced by letters in square
brackets |
A: what did he have surgery for, [B]?
C: you handsome thing
D: would you believe it or not [B] last night fishman Jim's name was lit up on my friends list?
B: he had 3 vertebra fused [A]
C: my wine person left here now, where
am i gonna get more??
E: nanna??????
D: but when i pmmed him,, no-one
answered my pm
D: yes [F]?
A: ewww, my brother had that, it's no
picnic
B: probably one of his brothers names |