A discourse analysis of chatroom written language : a linguistic Innovation

Abstract EN

In the recent days, computer mediated communication (hence forth-CMC) has become the most popular social communicative way, as a result what is called "net speech" and interactive written discourse (henceforth-IWD) appeared.

the present study aims to explain how the interactive written discourse on the internet affects the written language deeply, and makes the written language a mixture between writing and speech.

on one hand, the study focuses on how the interactive written discourse breaks all the traditional rules and ways of writing, by adding new acronyms and abbreviations to remove the complexity of writing, and adding smiley expressions to overcome the ambiguity of written language.

on the other hand, it will clarify the spoken features which are added to written conversation on the internet.

to fulfill this, the researcher has chosen three participants from ICQ (I Seek You) chat rooms talking about their favorite food and analyses some data of their discourse which is a part of a long conversation.

the study concludes that the interactive written discourse (IWD) on the internet leads to the creation of" Net Speech", which breaks the traditional rules of writing and makes the written language so close to the spoken one.