The Linguistic Features of Text Messages. Influence on Legibility and Meaning

Academic Paper from the year 2019 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1, University of Linz (Linguistik), course: Discourse Linguistics, language: English, abstract: This research paper explores texting as a language variety. It will summarize and explain the defining linguistic features, meaning-making elements of texting, and their frequency of use. Therefore, the works of the leading expert on the language of texting, David Crystal, serves as the theoretical basis. To determine how and how often certain features are used, a corpus of text messages will be analyzed. Furthermore, the paper will present the main causes and incentives responsible for the development of these features; it will start with general information on the corpus, followed by a description and analysis of the most commonly used linguistic features, their usage, and purpose.