Text language and spoken language influence each other in different ways
Firstly, the paralinguistic features used in spoken language can be conveyed in text language. This can be done via the use of two asterisks to recreate a physical gesture, an example being that if a person considered what they have said to be wrong, or idiotic, they would say ‘ *facepalm* ‘. This represents they would be resting their head in their hands, and have acknowledged what they have said is incorrect.
On the other hand, spoken language is influenced by text language. Evidence of this is the word ‘seeya‘. The words ‘see‘ and ‘you‘ have been shortened and merged together, to make it easier and quicker to type into a phones keypad. This example shows how text language has entered the everyday spoken language of normal people.
Finally, spoken language influences text language in the form of emoticons. These are used in a text conversation to express emotions. Emoticons replace the paralinguistic feature of facial expression that occurs in spoken conversation, which people can read to mean sarcasm and to show emotion. Without emoticons, sarcasm would be undetectable due to the fact that sarcasm is expressed through the paralinguistic feature of facial expression and the prosodic features of tone and pitch, which cannot be conveyed in text language.
To conclude, text language is primarily influenced by spoken language in the form of techniques used to make up for the lack of paralinguistic features, an example being emoticons. Furthermore, spoken language is influenced by text language in abbreviations, for example, ‘ seeya ‘, that are used to make typing words shorter.
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