A2 Level English Language Investigation
By Ashley Haldenby (Candidate number: 1976)
Barnsley College (Centre number: 36110)
To What Extent are Instant Message Conversations a
Hybrid Mode of Communication?
Contents
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
8)
Front Cover and Investigation Question
Contents
Introduction
Methodology
Hypothesis
Analysis
Analysis – Written Mode
8) Punctuation
8) Taboo Lexis
9) Abbreviations
10) Capitalisation
11) Brevity and Unnecessary Elongation of Messages
12) Analysis – Spoken Mode
12) Corrections
12) Smileys/Emoticons
13) Sentence Construction
14) Back Channelling
15) Phatic Messages and Small Talk
16) Evaluation
17) Conclusion
18) Bibliography
19) Appendices
19) Appendix 1.i
22) Appendix 1.ii
23) Appendix 1.iii
26) Appendix 1.iv
27) Appendix 1.v
29) Appendix 1.vi
32) Appendix 1.vii
33) Appendix 1.viii
35) Appendix 1.ix
38) Appendix 1.x
40) Appendix 1.xi
42) Appendix 1.xii
Introduction
I have had a keen interest in computers and the Internet for the past few years, and
have also made use of Instant Messenger (IM) programs during this time. When I
began to study Language and Technology for my AS course, I found I was able to
transfer what I did as a hobby, and apply what I knew from experience to what was
being discussed in class. We discussed the idea of mixed modes with mobile SMS
messaging, and it occurred to me that IM conversations also took conventions from
both spoken and written language. From this, I decided I would investigate those
Instant Messenger conventions, and whether it would be classified as a mixed mode.
For my language investigation, therefore, I will be examining the features of Internetbased Instant Message conversations.
Methodology
My investigation will take into account lexical, grammatical, and graphological
features of these IM conversations, and look at how they have diverged from
conventions of spoken and written language, and where similarities still remain.
The first thing I needed to do in order to gather data was find a friend who was willing
to supply some. I was not present in any of the conversations myself, as that could
have biased the data. Instead, I acquired the data from my friend (Internet alias: ‘CJ’),
after having gained consent from the contacts who took part. I used this for my raw
data. The original sample presented to me was 80 pages of conversations. From this, I
will draw a sample of 20 pages (See Appendix I)
In order to achieve the investigative aims of exploring the similarities and differences
between the languages of spoken and written media, and Internet chat, I shall first
outline what the conventions of spoken and written language are, so as to have a basis
to see what Internet chat language is deviating from or conforming to.
According to Crystal’s Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language (1), the “spontaneity
and rapidity of speech minimizes the chance of complex preplanning, and promotes
features that assist speakers to ‘think standing up’ – looser construction, repetition,
rephrasing, filler phrases (such as ‘you know’, ‘you see’ 2), and the use of intonation
and pause to divide utterances into manageable chunks.”
Speech can also make use of deictic expression impossible in writing, due to the fact
that it is face-to-face, and therefore whatever the speaker sees is usually visible or
known to the listener.
Grammatical and lexical differences between speech and writing are also apparent.
“Certain items of vocabulary are rarely or never spoken, such as many polysyllabic
chemical terms, or the more arcane legal terms. Conversely, certain items of spoken
vocabulary are not normally written, such as whatchamacallit, and certain slang or
obscene expressions.”
To summarise, spoken language is very much an instant, real-time occurrence. There
is no delay between the words spoken and their being received by the listener. It often
occurs face-to-face, and perhaps over the telephone. Since it is heard, prosodic
features of stress and intonation, as well as other non-verbal features of
communication (hand gestures, body language), all play a part. It is spontaneous, and
unplanned, and this leads to looser expression and paraphrasing, and also leads to
obscenity, profanity and slang that would not normally be used in written
communication. A final difference is that once something is said, it cannot be altered
or unsaid. It is “time-bound, dynamic, and transient.”
Written communication, on the other hand, is much the opposite. The “permanence of
writing allows repeated reading and close analysis. It promotes the development of
careful organization and more compact, intricately structured expression…sentences
and paragraphs are clearly labelled through layout and punctuation.”
The participants in written interaction are usually unable to see each other, and their
interaction is not real time, and usually involves in a person sending a letter or other
1
2
(Page 179 –Encyclopedia of Language – Crystal, D)
From Crystal
such message to another, and then waiting for a response. Therefore, “they cannot rely
on the context to help make clear what they mean.”, meaning that deictic expression is
not possible as it is in speech, where the meaning can rely on the situation.
“Written language displays several unique features, such as punctuation,
capitalization…there is little in speech that corresponds…”3
Written language also tends to be more formal, and has “special status, mainly
deriving from its permanence.”4
To summarise, writing is a permanent affair as opposed to an event, it allows a wider
use of vocabulary and more complex grammatical constructions rarely found in
speech. While it does not allow use of deictic expression or stress, emphasis and
intonation in the way speech can, it does allow use of graphological features such as
graphs, tables, colour and so on. It can be re-read or re-worded later, unlike speech,
which, once said, cannot be unsaid.
I shall attempt to use Crystal’s Modes as a basis for my analysis of the chat logs,
looking primarily at lexis, grammar and graphological features. I will also look for
features mentioned in Kandace Knuckolls’ study (5). She indicates use of “repair,
backchannels, topic, overlaps and specific instant message features, such as hyperthreads (6) and emoticons”, and I will look for evidence of these features in my own
data.
The participants whose chats were logged are:
CJ – 18 years old, United Kingdom
Addy – 17 years old, United Kingdom
Hybrid – 18 years old, United Kingdom
Xeno – 19 years old, United Kingdom
Squiggle – 16 years old, United Kingdom
H00lig4n – 16 years old, Netherlands
Blaat85 – 20 years old, Netherlands
Apollo – 23 years old, Finland
Internet is a global medium, and despite the fact that there are some non-British
nationals in amongst the sample, all have fluency in English.
I shall analyse the data collected and search for features of first written, and then
spoken language, including the unique IM features where appropriate. I will then
assess which, if either, IM conversations are closer to.
3
From Crystal
Also from Crystal
5
Page 30, IM Communicating – A Conversational Analysis of Instant Message Conversations –
Nuckolls, K
6
A term used to describe two conversations occurring simultaneously
4
Hypothesis
There will be significantly more features of spoken language in the IM conversation
than there are features of written language. These will be due to the near-real-time
interactions between participants, the use of emoticons to convey emotion, turn-taking
between the participants, and also idioms used within the field of IM conversations,
that would not be used outside of it.
Analysis
IM conversations have been in existence for years. The first system to enable these
conversations was IRC (Internet Relay Chat). These chat rooms were basic, providing
only the characters of the keyboard with which to interact. However, modern IM
clients such as MSN Instant Messenger give more appeal in terms of graphical user
interface and other eye-friendly features. There is also the option to set a user-defined
‘Avatar’. An avatar is a small picture (such as a photograph or other graphic) that
other users can identify with the person who has the avatar. Emoticons previously
invented in IRC conversations have full-colour graphics, rather than displaying a set
of keyboard characters. While it is much easier to personalise and give identity to
individuals through the Avatar and custom usernames, one must still type a message
in and hit ‘Return’ to send the message to any other individual in the conversation.
Below is an image of a typical MSN Messenger display window. While there are
images in the Avatar boxes, these are completely customisable depending on the
user’s wishes.
Invites another person
into the conversation
Activities that can be performed with
the contact, such as basic games,
Webcam or transfer of files
Contact’s
Avatar
Contact’s
Username
(removed)
Message box,
where all messages
(both yours and
the recipient’s) are
displayed
Message extras
(smileys and
Font options)
Your avatar
Message Input box. Your
messages are typed here, then
‘Send’ or a tap of the Return key
transmits them.
While MSN Messenger does facilitate audio- and webcam-assisted conversations, the
general mode of delivery is via the text messages. Simply put, it’s generally accepted
that typing is the preferred mode of delivery, as opposed to using a microphone.
However, having looked at and used MSN myself, it appears to me that IM
conversations are a hybrid of spoken and written language, with the text representing
speech in a code. Since the participants are indeed interacting in a way normally
impossible in writing, it is this idea upon which I have based my investigation.
Analysis - Written Mode
Punctuation
The first similarity with the written mode is that IM conversation is visual and textbased, and therefore needs basic punctuation features. While a number of individuals
in my data do flout standard punctuation, there is evidence to suggest that others do
try to follow the standards, with occasional errors due to quick typing. CJ, for
example, commonly sends messages in full sentences with use of full stops, commas
and capitals. Hybrid and Apollo, on the other hand, commonly omit the majority of
punctuation devices. It seems to be a very personal thing as to whether one uses these
devices regularly, or whether they are omitted. Universally, however, question marks
are applied to questions. They also sometimes serve as a question just by their
presence. An entire message comprising of one or more question marks would imply
that that chatter is confused, or doesn’t understand what the other participant is talking
about.
One commonly used feature is triple-dots (…) to connote a pause, trailing-off or an
incomplete sentence. There are 83 instances of such use of dots, even if only two dots
were used for speed. These are sometimes used in written texts for effect, but on
nowhere near this scale. Usage of common punctuation features by each person is
displayed below:
Participant
CJ
Squiggle
H00lig4n
Apollo
Xeno
Addy
Hybrid
…
58
1
12
10
2
0
0
Consistent and Appropriate use of…?
?
Capital Letters
.
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
No
Yes
Yes
No
No
Yes
Yes
No
Yes
No
No
Yes
No
No
,
Yes
Yes
Yes
No
No
No
No
It seems that it is also a personal choice as to whether to use dots to indicate pauses or
trailing-off. CJ uses them profusely, while others use them much more rarely or not at
all. Additionally, due to the volume of data and the likelihood of typos, it seemed
impractical to display use of capital letters, full stops and commas quantitatively.
‘Consistent’ signifies that the user, significantly more often than not, does use the
feature appropriately. It does seem that more individuals flout the basic punctuation
norms, but it does appear to be an individual choice.
Taboo Lexis
Contrary to Crystal’s definition of written language allowing flexibility of lexis, most
of the IM conversation messages tend to use the sort of everyday lexis one would use
in speech. Therefore, a lot of expletives occur throughout the data. Below is a table to
show the frequency of commonly used swear words from the text. Unlike regular
written text, there is a lot of such taboo lexis, perhaps showing the informality of IM
conversations.
Word
Frequency
Fuck
Shit
Dick
Ass/Arse
24
9
2
5
There is also a lack of obscure formal lexis (long-winded Latinate or Old Frenchorigin words), which could either confuse the recipient or would simply take longer to
type than a more everyday synonym. This indicates a contrast from the norms of
written communication, in that IM conversations are generally very much informal,
including a number of Internet-specific slang words that also feature in the dialogues.
One example of this is the word ‘own’ (or ‘owned’) which has come to mean ‘to beat
someone’, or ‘to be better than someone’ on the Internet, usually at computer games.
In this context, ‘owned’ is used a total of five times. 7
Abbreviations
In addition to this informal lexis, there are numerous commonly used abbreviations
that are universally understood among Internet chatters. These include:
Abbreviation
Meaning
Frequency
LOL
GTG
BTW
LMAO
OMG (also OMFG)
ROFL
WTF
TTYL
Laughing Out Loud
Got To Go
By The Way
Laughing My A** Off
Oh My (F***ing) God
Rolling On Floor Laughing
What The F***
Talk To You Later
82
1
4
8
6
11
5
1
AFAIK
As Far As I Know
1
There are often several abbreviations to convey a particular action, and a number of
combinations that a chatter could string together (e.g., ROFLMAO), in order to
convey varying degrees of emotion or intent. The term ‘lol’ is most commonly used,
perhaps even to the point that it has weakened in meaning, denoting the least amount
of laughter, while ROFLMAO would indicate a lot more laughter.
7
This meaning of ‘owned’ has been corrupted to ‘pwn’ or ‘pwned’. The Urban Dictionary cites the
cause of this corruption as a game player who accidentally pressed P instead of O on the keyboard
(where the two keys are adjacent). The message was delivered: PWNED, and the word took hold
across the Internet, and has been used ever since. ‘Pwn’, ‘pwned’ and the further corruption ‘pwnt’ (a
shortening of ‘pwned’) appear in the dialogues a total of 5 times collectively.
While the most commonly used abbreviation is ‘lol’ which appears 82 times in total,
the variant ‘lolz’ (with z used possibly to indicate a plural), appeared five times.
The abbreviation ‘omg’ is tabulated as appearing 6 times, however this includes the
variant ‘zomg’. Both of these abbreviations are identical in meaning, and the ‘z’ is
utterly meaningless. The reason for this extra letter is unknown. Both ‘omg’ and
‘zomg’ appeared 3 times apiece.
Capitalisation
Written text allows a very limited conveyance of emotional meaning or other deictic
expression. Other than abbreviated terms, another way stress intonation of individual
words or phrases was shown is the use of capitalisation. To capitalise a word or a
sentence is used primarily for emphasis, or to show of anger or surprise. Such
behaviour is so common that it has even come to be known among users as
‘Shouting’, and if used inappropriately on a large scale, can be considered impolite.
This shows that Internet language has its own set of conventions and forms of
politeness, known as ‘netiquette’ (defined as the “term describing proper "manners"
on the Internet.”8).
However, there are numerous examples of stress-intonation of a word or sentence in
this manner within my data. The intention is to write them as they were intended to be
said and so, were the conversation to be uttered aloud, the capitalised words would be
said with much more emphasis than the rest of the sentence, or said with a raised
voice.
Speaker
Words
Addy
EBAY!!!!!!!!!!
Addy
VOLVOS!
Addy
FROOOSSSTTT SHOCCKKK!
CJ
GET A FUCKING LIFE YOU LITTLE FREAK
CJ
A horse trips in a race and they KILL IT!?!?!
CJ
They make a WAY better noise than ‘neigh’
8
H00lig4n
H00lig4n
H00lig4n
H00lig4n
DEMO ZEIT AUS NIGAR!
ZOMG PWNT
OOGY BOOGY BABY ZOMG HI!
SEND IT OVER BIATCH.
H00lig4n
CJ
CJ
CJ
CJ
CJ
CJ
CJ
LOLZ PWNED NIGGA
EDENBRIDGE
Sharon WHAT, retard?
Jesus she is SHORT!
which is like: JESUS CHRIST
That must be SHIT-SCARY
I’d be like: WHOA FUCK THAT
I NEED THAT SONG
www.UrbanDictionary.com
Capitalised words or phrases occur 18 times across the entire data sample, mostly
used by CJ and H00lig4n. They are sometimes accompanied by multiple exclamation
to add further emphasis. An example of this is Addy’s message: “EBAY!!!!!!!!!!”.
Also, a rather unorthodox greeting by H00lig4n saying “OOGY BOOGY BABY
ZOMG HI!” was clearly intended to be said with a degree of enthusiasm. Below is a
list of the words and phrases which are capitalised, along with any non-capitalised
words in the sentence for context. Capitalised abbreviations were not included in this
list, though they do appear.
Brevity and Unnecessary Elongation of Messages
In Tim Shortis’ book, The Language of ICT (9), there is an entire chapter devoted to
‘Chat Language and Identity’, where he discusses the features of IM chat, referring to
a study by Werry which found that “the limitations of screen size, typing speed, and
response times lead to features of brevity and abbreviation to reduce the demands of
the keyboard, paralinguistic clues to ‘create the effects of spoken delivery’ and
actions and gestures to simulate the kind of social gestures which might take place in
the physical contexts of real life conversations… …A tendency towards brevity and
minimal number of keyboard strokes…”
From my own data, I agree with some of the above statement, and disagree with other
parts. While indeed my data seems to confirm that abbreviations and means to shorten
the messages are used, it must also be said that not all participants conform to these
conventions consistently within the data. As previously mentioned, use of features
like punctuation or capitalisation are purely by personal choice.
However, simulated paralinguistic gestures do indeed take place occasionally, shown
by asterisks, such as: “*high five*”. Appearing ten times, five of them by CJ, these
asterisked ‘actions’ attempt to emulate actions that might take place if the
conversation were happening in real life. However, my data does not concur with
Werry’s findings suggesting that all features lean towards reducing the demands of
the keyboard. Instead, it shows a mixture of both elongating and abbreviating
features.
9
Page 96, The Language of ICT - Shortis, T
Analysis – Spoken Mode
Real Time and Turn Taking
IM conversations are, for the most part, real-time and instant. As soon as ‘enter’ is
pressed at one end, the message appears on the other user’s screen. The synchronous
nature is therefore similar to speech, with a genuine turn-taking procedure, with one
person making a comment or statement, and the recipient then taking a turn to
respond to that.
It seems from my data that it is quite a common practice to split a longer message into
several smaller ones so that the recipient is not waiting as long for a reply. While the
recipient is reading the first part of the message, the ‘speaker’ can type the second
part, effectively splitting their turn into multiple messages.
Below are two examples of where long monologues by one participant were broken
up into smaller messages:
CJ:
I mean, there’s the band
who are all reasonable heights
then there’s her, who’s a full head shorter
It’s like…did they give her a fucking shrinkray?
I mean, Tarja’s reasonable height-ish…
Hybrid:
no you still meet bastilla
and make the choice then
and then things get very different
canderous stays with ya
so does HK and the droid
the others are your choie
choice*
depending what you do with them
Corrections
As well as being used either side of a denoted ‘action’, asterisks also appear in the
data if the speaker corrects a typographical error. Due to the speed at which messages
are typed, mistakes are inevitable. If a spelling error is made and not corrected before
the message is sent, the speaker will sometimes repost a corrected version of the word
with an asterisk either before or after, to show the spelling change. In the sample,
there are four instances of asterisks denoting corrections, and one instance where a ‘y’
was missed off the end of the word ‘obviously’, but was posted in the next message as
a correction.
Smileys/Emoticons
Since emotion cannot be conveyed by gestures, facial expressions or intonation,
Internet chatters had to develop a new way of expressing what they meant or felt
using various symbols available on the keyboard. Most emoticon ‘codes’ are best
viewed if the page is turned 90 degrees to the right; the colons represent eyes, a
hyphen represents a nose (but is now rarely used, since a colour graphic appears to
show the emoticon to the recipient), and other symbols represent the facial
expressions. Below are a set of examples of the actual displayed graphic, their
respective smiley code and a basic description.
Smiley Symbol
Code
Image
Displayed
Description
Frequency of use
by participants
:)
A basic smiley face
9
;)
:P
:’(
A wink
Tongue-out (playful)
Crying
1
67
1
:(
Sad
2
:D
:S
Very happy grin
Confused
3
6
:lol:
Animated laughing
29
:heh:
Shifty eyes
1
8-)
2
-_- or -.-
Animated rolling
eyes
Blank expression
^_^ or ^-^ or ^.^
:-@
Gleeful
Angry
2
(Does not appear,
but is available)
5
Using these as part of messages allows it to be possible to get one’s true meaning
across where the text is open to interpretation. In a face-to-face conversation, if a
person were to say something like ‘I hate you’, this could be interpreted as serious
unless something were done to soften the tone of the message, such as laughter, in
order that the other participant understand that the message was intended in jest. Since
IM chats cannot include true laughter usually the :P seems to be used as a softener, in
order that the recipient understand that the message is not intended to be taken
seriously. Emoticons allow conveyance of emotion that is impossible in basic text.
Sentence Construction
Complete construction of sentences seems to be used differently from person to
person. Apollo’s sentence-construction features are most prominent, as he often omits
pronouns and articles (e.g., ‘a’ and ‘the’) for brevity where appropriate. For example
“if violate order…” What is also interesting is that CJ also occasionally does it when
talking to Apollo, as if using a person-specific register, in the way one might in a real
conversation.
Speaker
Apollo
Words (brackets indicate the word which, in normal
construction, would be present)
uhh (I) tried some Chinese exe and paid for it…(it) corrupted
Apollo
Apollo
Apollo
CJ
Apollo
CJ
Apollo
Apollo
Apollo
Apollo
CJ
Apollo
Apollo
Apollo
my ra2 files so (I) had to reinstall
well no but I would recommend (it)
RTB is funny…I had (a) custom palette missing and (the)
game crashed before (the) menu screen
after looking at it for (an) hour
my patience wouldn’t permit me (to)…
not far from (the) simpsons
It’s like…did they give her (a) fucking shrinkray?
yea (it is) ordinary music in most sense
lol i found one surprisingly okiish track from (the) music track
so (I) went (to) check it out…shame it was way too much
manly voices ruining mos tof it
always (the) same problem for newcomers to (the) mod
always (the) same song
heh (I’m) just reading the websherriff thing on tbp again
Heh its still (the) same ones.no new ones afaik
btw CJ if (you) want to try another finnish band you can try
todieforlove
if (they) violate order then they have to be specified with the
codes
Since CJ’s structures occasionally modify when he speaks to Apollo, this gives rise to
a possible speech-like feature of an individual-specific register. For example, the way
one talks to their mother would be different to the way they would talk to a friend. CJ
appears to speak to other individuals in a different style than when speaking to
Apollo.
Back Channelling
Participant
Addy
Back Channel Features (Frequency)
Lol (7)
Squiggle
Lmfao (1)
H00lig4n
Apollo
Blaat85
Xeno
Rofl (3) Okay (1) lol (2)
Lol (3) rofl (1) ok (1)
Cool (1)
Lol (3)
Hybrid
Rofl (1) yeah (2) lol (3)
CJ
Ok (1) lolz (1) lmfao (2) bah (1) hehe (1) oh (1) beh (1) heh
(1) yea (1) fair enough (1) heh ya (1) eh (1) lol (2)
Back Channelling in spoken language is the act of dignifying the speaker with a
response to show that the listener is paying attention. It could be a simple nod, or a
‘yes’ or some other confirmatory statement. Addy did this in a conversation with CJ,
using ‘lol’ and ‘lmao’ as back channels. Other back channels include ‘heh’ and ‘yeah’
(or yea), and these are used by CJ and Hybrid mostly. 10
False Starts and Fillers
One feature that I found does not reduce the demand of the keyboard, but actually
increases it, is the phenomenon of false starts and fillers. Use of words such like:
“umm…” as fillers do occur, even though they are unnecessary due to the non-faceto-face nature of IM conversations.
Similarly, pauses are shown by multiple dots between sections of text on the same
line, apparently indicative of where the ‘speaker’ has paused for thought as he has
written. It appears a lot in Apollo and CJ’s speech, however also appear occasionally
in others. A few of the conversations use ‘Hmm’, ‘Heh’ and ‘Um’ pauses as fillers.
Unlike the abbreviations and use of phonemic replacements, such as ‘u’ instead of
‘you’, which shorten messages, these speech-related items serve to lengthen them.
Phatic Messages and Small Talk
Features of phatic talk and gestures of friendliness are present in most of the
conversations, most of which begin with greetings and ‘how are you?’s, just like
telephone calls often do. They also often include short points of conversation about
the participants’ day, and other aspects of general ‘chit-chat’.
Phatic Feature Type
Frequency
Greeting (one party says ‘Hi’ or other equivalent)
2
Greeting Adjacency Pair (both parties say ‘Hi’, or other equivalent
5
Enquiry as to health/day (‘How are you?’ ‘How’s it going?’ etc) at
some point in conversation
8
Out of 10 conversations, five begin with greetings from both parties, two more begin
with one greeting, and eight include some other degree of phatic small-talk. This
shows that in my data, phatic talk has a prevalence.
10
Please note that there are more instances of each of these words, but since they were followed
immediately by another post by the same speaker, I did not count them as back channels.
Evaluation
It is possible to see that there are aspects of both spoken and written language features
in IM conversation. While the conversations themselves are transient, it is possible to
save and record them much easier than a real spoken conversation due to their textbased nature.
While being text-based, users have found their own individual ways of cutting down
or personalising the style of their conversations using graphological features such as
capitalisation, emoticons and ‘actions’ written inside asterisks, in order to convey
emotions in ways that normal text would be unable to.
There is a evidence of phatic discourse, including the usual adjacency pairs, turntaking and other regular conversational features, including slang and taboo lexis,
fillers and false starts, and also back-channelling.
Individualism seems to show in the data, perhaps even an IM-idiolect, by which each
person uses IM language differently. Some omit more punctuation or use more
smileys and capitalisation, while others use more conventional structures.
There is some evidence of a person-specific register, whereby a person speaks to one
person differently than they would to another. It would certainly be something
noteworthy to look at in another investigation, as to do this would require a lot more
data detailing interactions between other individuals, rather than just CJ with a sample
of his contacts, perhaps taking Apollo and some of his, Hybrid and some of his and so
on. It does, however, seem as if CJ adapts his language based upon who he is talking
to.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the hypothesis can be accepted in that IM conversations are indeed a
hybrid mode of communication. Despite the text-based nature, the way in which IM
communication is conducted bears a lot more similarities with speech than with
writing. Written text cannot fully convey emotion and deictic expressions in the way
speech can (though it would appear from my analysis that this does not stop IM
chatters from trying). The IM-idiolects, coupled with the very informal structure seem
to support this. The overall conclusion is that it leans more towards the conventions of
speech than writing, but due to its form and nature, it is forced to adhere to some
written conventions.
IM conversations, like speech, tend to be an event which cannot be undone. While it
is possible to reword a message before it is sent to the recipient, once it has been sent,
it cannot be unsent. That said, IM conversations can be logged very easily, and
therefore it is possible to look back over a log, or a part of a conversation which may
have been badly worded enough to need a re-reading before being fully understood.
Bibliography
Nuckolls, K: IM Communicating: A Conversational Analysis of Instant Message
Conversations (2005)
Crystal, D: Encyclopedia of Language (1987)
Shortis, T: Language of ICT (2001)
www.urbandictionary.com The Urban Dictionary (Unknown)
Appendices
Appendix 1.i
Data Collected:
Conversation 1
Participants: CJ
Addy
Addy: fuck yeh
CJL Ah heh :D
CJ: I was actually wondering earlier when you mgiht get on.
Addy: lol
Addy: time to install wow :P
CJ: lol omg
CJ: You don’t waste time, do you?:lol:
CJ: Still, any other games you want that I’ve dled, just ask heh
CJ: Save ya buying em
Addy: lol
CJ: Even with your discount, free is cheaper:P
Addy: yeh but u don’t need another game once u av wow
CJ: lol…
CJ: I do. There are millions of games ive not completed haha
CJ: I’d be wanting to do those
Addy: I got a 10 day free trial of wow
Addy: u want?
CJ: Lol I got 5 uni offers back
CJ: nah…
CJ: I keep tellin ya, MMO games arent my thing
Addy: there not my thing :P
CJ: ?
CJ: You’re the one playing em…-_Addy: lol
Addy: i only play 1
Addy: how many mmorpgs u played?
Addy: woot disc 2 of 5 now in
CJ: Lol 5 discs?
CJ: This is UT2004 size territory lolz
Addy: 4.? Gig
CJ: And I prefer RPGs which actually have a beginning and an end.
CJ: Like KOTOR or Fable
CJ: Both of which kick major ass.
Addy: wow owns all
Addy: woot not even half way through installation yet
CJ: lol…
CJ: is it possible for you to order in really old games especially?
CJ: As in…get one in and reserve it for a customer?
Addy: neh we don’t order
CJ: ok
Addy: what game u want?
CJ: Well, it doesn’t matter if you don’t order em in:P
Addy: waht game?
CJ: It was a PS1 game called Wild Arms 2. I have it copied, but since my PS1 is
arseholed…
Addy: lol
Addy: EBAY!!!!!!!!!!
CJ: oh, and FF9
CJ: LOL fuck ebay. I tried that shitty site
Addy: lol
CK: I had to get NFS: Road challenge off amazon
CJ: I got it, and I pwn it better now thn ever I used to :lol:
Addy: lol
CJ: I bagged all 10 speeding motorists in Hot Pursuit in under 5 minutes using the
Porsche 911
Addy: lmao
Addy: ]thats cheating
CJ: No its not
CJ: because the speeders cars upgrade as yours does
Addy: yeh cos cops have 911’s
Addy: fucking volvos2win
CJ: Using BMW M5 means you’re facing Jaguar XKRs and Aston DB7s
CJ: 911 means they have Ferrari 355s and such
Addy: volvos2win!
CJ: Using Lambo Diablo gives them even faster stuff
Addy: volvos2win!
CJ: lolz
CJ: Volvos don’t even feature on NFS:RC
Addy: lol
CJ: Only good fast cars:P
Addy: VOLVOS!
CJ: What’s with you and Volvos?
Addy: they own all
Addy: even tanks
CJ: lol
CJ: They’re about as heavy as a fucking whale
CJ: Nothing that heavy can go fast…
CJ: You have your shitty volvo cop car. I’ll have mi McLaren F1, kthx.
CJ: own3d.
Addy: lol ud use all ure fuel in about 4 seconds
CJ: It’s funny as hell, you in your McLaren and the cops in their diablos
CJ: No that’s the Bugatti Veyron at top speed:P
Addy: lol
CJ: Hey i saw the most awesome thing ever the other day
CJ: Ghost Rider!
CJ: Not the shitty film with Nicholas Cage…the REAL ghost rider
CJ: he’s a real life fucking maniac.
Addy: lol
CJ: I swear! 200mph down city streets with cars on them and cops after him
CJ: And then he gets on this Suzuki thing that’s been souped up to fuck… 499bhp.
It shows you it from camera of another bike doing 180, and he goes past it like it’s
stood fucking still
CJ: I was like: WHOA…this guy should be president of somewhere…-_Addy: lol
CJ: He absolutely owns the cops, then he gets into this Subaru and drives it like he’s
in Need for Speed! It’s fucking awesome. Best 45mins of DVD I think i’ve watched
in ages..
Addy: lmao
CJ: gtg cyas
Appendix 1.ii
Conversation 2
Participants: CJ
Addy
CJ: You wi tiscali then i guess?
Addy: ya
Addy: FROOOSSSTTT SHOCCKKK!
CJ: WTF?
Addy: lol
Addy: its a wow video
Addy: im still downloading wow updates :’( and im bored
CJ: lmfao
CJ: <HYPERLINK REMOVED>
CJ: this might occupy you for a few seconds.
Addy: Downlaods are taking far too long its this stupid blizzard downlaoder slowing
my connection down
CJ: :lol: Blizzard downloader?
CJ: Sounds like spyware bollocks
Addy: yeh
Addy: lol
Addy: neh its for the patches
Addy: well for the big patches
Appendix 1.iii
Conversation 3
Participants: CJ
Squiggle
Squiggle: heya#
CJ: hi
Squiggle: how are ya
CJ im alright today thanks
CJ: much better thn yesterday heh
CJ: happy newyr btw
Squiggle: Aww what was up yesterday? Lol sorry if im being nosey tell me haha
Happy new year to you tooooo. Hope it a goodun for ya
CJ: I was just ill heh
Squiggle: awwww
CJ: what the hell is with squiggle? Where did that come from?:P
Squiggle: It’s my Online Alias :P
Squiggle: i just like saying it. …
Squiggle: but you obviously know me by my real name, because that is actually what
i get called in real life, and is how you know me… obviousl
Squiggle: y
CJ: fair enough
CJ: So we both have daft ones:P
Squiggle: Hurrah *high five*
Squiggle: Normally i wouldn’t join a forum under Squiggle but i made an exception
CJ: fair enough
CJ: and I am suddenly LOLing bigtime
CJ: this retard kid just knocked on the door doing a carol sing
Squiggle: lmfao
Squiggle: what was he singing ?
CJ: he sang 2 lines
CJ: “we wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year”
CJ: and I said “Yeah, same to you as well. Bye.
CJ: Shut the door
Squiggle: lmfao
CJ: then he knocked again 2 mins later
CJ: it’s like
CJ: GET A FUCKING LIFE YOU LITTLE FREAK
Squiggle: Throw an egg at him
Squiggle: Its okay i have a stalker (ninja) n hes like in love with me or something.
CJ: I’ll throw a punch at him if the little retard comes again
Squiggle: and i really hate his guts and wish he would die:)
Squiggle: Punching is good.
CJ: Why don’t you just get rid of the asshole?
CJ: It shouldn’t be that hard.
Squiggle: My Bro has already threatened stalker boy :D haha yay for older over
protective brothers that are actually really strong and very muscluallly. I knew he had
a reason
CJ: lol
CJ: I don’t have one of those.
Squiggle: Oh ive told him to fuck off and die, fuck off and never speak to me again,
and yeah.
Squiggle: Oh have one of mine i have 3
CJ: I could do with one to beat up nearby chavs.
CJ: of which there are far to many.
Squiggle: I know. I live in like a chav central
Squiggle: our school is divided into 3 groups.
Squiggle: Rockers/Skaters
Townies
Chavs (this being the majority)
CJ: heh
CJ: Grade Theft Auto :lol:
Squiggle: lmao
CJ: t3h gang warz
CJ: :lol:
Squiggle: haha ill let you keep thinking of things while i brb :)
CJ: ‘keep thinking of things’? That implies that I was thinking.
CJ: You give me too much credit :P
Squiggle: lmao fair enough hehe im baaaaack
CJ: wb
Squiggle: ty mdear
CJ: I dunno what it is about girls and horses…
CJ: *reads a bit too far into his own sentence* :HEH:
CJ: ahem
CJ: sorry, that was a bit too dry…
Squiggle: lol whats that spose to mean :P i lurve horses. Although i am one of those
girls that actually does see a horse every week as apose to one of those girls who say
they love horses but yet couldnt ride let alone look after one for fuck
CJ: Still…what is it about horses?
CJ: I’d much rather have a car.
CJ: Sure, horses were all great in LOTR< when orcs got their shit ruined by guys on
horseback with big swords and spears…but you just can’t do cavalry charges
anymore.
Squiggle: I dunno i just feel more at home when im at a stables
CJ: To each their own, mind…but they don’t go as fast as cars:P and like i said.
Horses just ain’t what they used to be in ye olde days.
Squiggle: See cars dont do it for me.
Squiggle: I would much rather go galloping across a field.
Squiggle: that’s fun.
CJ: I have two words for you: Bowler Wildcat
CJ: This thing utterly annihilates anything across a field.:P it’s great
Squiggle: Nah horses are much more fun
CJ: you’ve never seen the bowler wildcat then.
CJ: You don’t get Christopher Reeved by a Wildcat.
CJ: You just get whiplash from thrashing it about so much.
CJ: If you crash a wildcat, you don’t have to shoot it in the head like you do a horse…
CJ: I mean wtf is up with that? A horse trips in a race and they KILL IT!?!?
CJ: Hell, what’s wrong with retiring it, if it can’t race?
Squiggle: i dont know i dont like racing so
Squiggle: But i could say what is it with men and cars?
CJ: Cars go fast:P
CJ: They make a WAY better noise than ‘neigh’
CJ: And they come in way funkier colours.
CJ: I mean, since when did horses come in Sky Blue Metallic, or British Racing
Green?
CJ: There’s only one horse for me. And that’s the prancing horse of the Ferrari
Badge:P
Squiggle: lmao ok you stick to cars, ill stick to horses
CJ: lol
CJ: it just intrigues me…i don’t understand what’s so great about them that’s all.
Squiggle: lol…anyways im off
CJ: ok cyas
Squiggle: ttyl!!
Appendix 1.iv
Conversation 4
Participants: CJ
H00lig4n
H00lig4n: zomg
H00lig4n: still dont have the demo argh! >_<
CJ: lol
H00lig4n: worst. demo. launch. ever!
H00lig4n: even age of empires 3 (highly anticipated demo) went WAY better
H00lig4n: sheez, you’d’ve expected a bit more from LucasArts and all =/
(20 minutes later)
H00lig4n: oh wait…
H00lig4n: DEMO ZEIT AUS NIGAR!
H00lig4n: XD
H00lig4n: <HYPERLINK REMOVED>
CJ: bah.
H00lig4n: EaW
CJ: Don’t care :P
H00lig4n: -.H00lig4n: fu
H00lig4n: :P
CJ: Bet it’s shit, really.
H00lig4n: lol
H00lig4n: im gonna try it out
H00lig4n: and say
H00lig4n: ZOMG PWNT
CJ: g4u
H00lig4n: lol:P
H00lig4n: how are you doing?
CJ: heh…
Appendix 1.v
Conversation 5
Participants: CJ
Apollo
CJ: yo
Apollo: yo
CJ: heh just reading the websherriff thing on tbp again
CJ: That is funny shit :lol:
Apollo: heh i dont know it
CJ: on thepiratebay
CJ: look at the web sherriff legal threats
Apollo: ah that stuff
Apollo: heh its still same ones.no new ones afaik
CJ: yeah…most companies have given up the act:lol:
Apollo: yeah vs piratebay
Apollo: no wonder tho as they post them up
CJ: only MS continues the struggle…
Apollo: heh waste of time and money:P
Apollo: btw CJ if want to try another finnish band you can try todieforlove :P
CJ: im guessing no tongue smiley on end of that link:P
Apollo: err ya
Apollo: stupid msn
CJ: hehe
Apollo: lol CJ, nice helping in that art thread :P
CJ: ?
CJ: ? Was I right?:S I dunno heh
Apollo: sequences are used in infantry not units :P
CJ: oh
CJ: beh…
Apollo: still i can not understand how the vehicle shp coding can be so hard to
understand…as infnatry sequence is the bitch usually
Apollo: those tags are only used if they are needed to
CJ: heh
Apollo: you dont need them if your shp follows the normal style like westwoods..
Apollo: like has 8 facings first then walking(moving etc frames) firing…death and so
on in such order
CJ: yea
Apollo: if violate order then they have to be specified with the codes
CJ: fair enough
Apollo: still using the codes is better to safeguard it from acting wrong
Apollo: most common is TS: wolverine getting stuck in running circle..
CJ: heh
CJ: never saw it myself heh
Apollo: well just keeps spinning around
Apollo: and wont do anything you command it to
CJ: Ah i brb
(10 minutes later)
CJ: Be ashamed.
CJ: Cradle of Filth? Uh..how you listen to that?
Apollo: lol i found one surprisingly okiish track from music track so went check it
out… shame it has way too much manly voices ruining mos tof it
Apollo: *music video
Apollo: the parts with woman singing were good
CJ: it’s not the manvoices…it’s the screaming Shelob that does my head in
Apollo: lol yer most songs sadly
CJ: ya
Apollo: tried the finnish band ?
CJ: lol nah…i didnt even click link heh
Apollo: mmmm.. it never ceases to amuse
Apollo: always same problem for newcomers to mod
Apollo: :lol:
CJ: ?
CJ: oh right…to RS?
Apollo: yer
Apollo: always same song
Appendix 1.vi
Conversation 6
Participants: CJ
Apollo
H00lig4n
H00lig4n: OOGY BOOGY BABY ZOMG HI!
CJ: eh…
H00lig4n hi :p
Apollo: wtf?
CJ: LOL nice avatar, pollo :lol:
CJ: Good old Daffy Duck…never fails to get a laugh.
H00lig4n: lol its old i used to have it as forum avatar lol!
H00lig4n: anyway CJ, name some English bands that don’t suck..? :P
CJ: LOL Queen.
CJ: That’s all you need to know.
CJ: Queen.
H00lig4n: rofl..
CJ: Pink Floyd
H00lig4n: Well at least we Dutch got Within Temptation and Epica..
CJ: LOLZ we brits don’t tend to do metal I agree
Apollo: heh never knew those were british…
CJ: Pink Floyd are…
H00lig4n: and the Fins got Nightwish, Lodger, The Rasmus
H00lig4n: :P
H00lig4n: Btw, Norrish metal sucks MAJOR butt.
CJ: The Rasmus are Finnish?
H00lig4n: Aye.
Apollo: yer
CJ: I thought they were Dutch…
H00lig4n: lol..
CJ: Silly me.
CJ: Never mind. They’re ok, but they don’t blow your bollocks off.
H00lig4n: Hmm true.
Apollo: yea ordinary music in most sense
H00lig4n: But lol their fair enough.
H00lig4n: Fairly good..
Apollo: stratovarius is kinda similar stuff..
H00lig4n: is it?
H00lig4n: SEND IT OVER BIATCH.
H00lig4n: :P
Apollo: heh my upload is in use…
H00lig4n: okay..
H00lig4n: maybe other time then.
Apollo: slightly later…not long now…
CJ: I’ve heard of them…not heard them tho
H00lig4n: me neither.
Apollo: heh i got myself the discography 1988-2005 today..2 gigs…
H00lig4n: god
H00lig4n: thats quite a lot
Apollo: ya many albums
H00lig4n: lol I got like 9GB of music I still have to listen to..
H00lig4n: LOL
Apollo: lol
CJ: Jesus.
CJ: Fucking hell, mine’s pushing 5 gig :|
H00lig4n: lol
H00lig4n: my actual music amount that has came past my test of listenable Is 7gig.
H00lig4n: but i still got, like said, 9 gigs to test.
CJ: lol
CJ: I only keep what I can listen to.
CJ: if i think it sucks it gets instantly deleted.
H00lig4n: Hm found this on a website:
Evanescence has also been compared to bands such as In Winter, Lacuna Coil,
Nightwish and Within Temptation, all of which incorporate female vocalists and dark
lyrical themes, but these bands are considered to be symphonic metal/gothic metal
rather than rock.
CJ: As happened to anything by kidneythieves or such
H00lig4n: hmm I see a refference to bands we know and a band I don’t...
CJ: In Winter…
H00lig4n: In Winter?
CJ: hmm
H00lig4n: Know ‘em?
CJ: I not heard of them, but I’m willing to give them a stab.
H00lig4n: Yeh me too.
CJ: They missed one band tho
CJ: EDENBRIDGE
CJ: how can they miss THAT shot of awesome?
Apollo: heh i never knew that band :P
CJ: Not until I intro’d you both:P
Apollo: yeah exactly
CJ: Shame she’s German
CJ: And not fit.
Apollo: lol
H00lig4n: she’s Jerry?
H00lig4n: Dang.
CJ: What is it tho, about metal bands and having shitty-looking bandmembers?
CJ: usually the fem vocalist looks nice and fit
H00lig4n: rofl..
CJ: but the backers are all grungers
CJ: Tarja isn’t particularly fit…photos sometimes let her down
CJ: Amy Lee is tho, as is the WT woman
CJ: I’ll have to learn her name.
H00lig4n: Sharon.
H00lig4n: LOLZ PWNED NIGGA
H00lig4n: :P
CJ: Sharon WHAT, retard?
CJ: Jesus she is SHORT!:|
CJ: WTF, did she have her fucking feet cut off?
H00lig4n: looooool
CJ: I mean, there’s the band
CJ: who are all reasonable heights
CJ: then there’s her, who’s a full head shorter
CJ: It’s like…did they give her fucking shrinkray?
CJ: I mean, Tarja’s reasonable height-ish…
H00lig4n: Simone from Epica is quite fit too.. :P
CJ: Dunno her heh
Apollo: lol
H00lig4n: Simone Simons..
H00lig4n: what name rofl
Apollo: funny name…
CJ: LMFAO
Apollo: not far from simpsons :lol:
CJ: Simone Simpson
CJ: Lisa’s older, grungy sister:P
H00lig4n: ROFL
Apollo: rofl
H00lig4n: grungy? more fallen angelish like =/
CJ: Well gothic
CJ: shaddap:P
CJ: I knew what I meant!
H00lig4n: :P
CJ: So should you, fuckhead!:P
H00lig4n: you did, but we didn’t..
H00lig4n: shaddap, fuckhead. :P
CJ: Beat you to it :P
H00lig4n: >.<
H00lig4n: I will make you pay for that biatch.
CJ: Here’s my payment. *Farts*
H00lig4n: hmm
CJ: :lol:
H00lig4n: In Winter is Darkwave music..
CJ: Weh?
H00lig4n: Dark Wave.
CJ: WTF is that?
H00lig4n: Collide/Switchblade Symphony..
H00lig4n: That style..
CJ: Nope. Dunno em
H00lig4n: I once sent you track of em f00!
CJ: Hey hool! Listen to Cradle of Filth…
CJ: LOL
Appendix 1.vii
Conversation 7
Participants: CJ
Blaat85
Blaat85: No hangover eh :P?
CJ: Nope:)
CJ: I was utterly off my head tho:lol:
CJ: I was even dancing
CJ: which is like: JESUS CHRIST
Blaat85: lol yeah, you told me you never danced
CJ: Indeed. Only reason i did was because everyone I knew there was dancing, and
they’re all really good friends of mine
CJ: Whoa…might need to vomit again:S
CJ: Hm, false alarm for now…
Blaat85: Glad so
Blaat85: So you had a good time?
CJ: Oh yea:D was great
CJ: Had so much fun…and so much to drink…:$
CJ: I had first 5 pints of cider (5.5% I think), then found out my mate lee (who can’t
hold his drink) was on his 7th (or so he said). I was like: “I can’t have that.” So I had
a double vodka and another pint :lol:
Blaat85: lol
Blaat85: :) glad you had a good time
CJ: Yeah, it wasn’t all about booze, but I had a great time
CJ: made a few new friends too
Blaat85: :) cool
CJ: Still…there was pride at stake. I couldn’t let Lee beat me :lol:
Blaat85: It’s amazing you don’t have a huge hangover then :P
CJ: Lol, well I threw up twice once i got home.
CJ: Hangovers don’t happen to me really
Blaat85: Ah I see
CK: And having thrown up, I got rid of most of the toxins
Blaat85: I only throw up when I’m ill :P
Blaat85: Yeah true
Blaat85: Yesterday a new Revora hostee kind of thought the Revora server was in my
room lol :P
CJ: LMAO
Blaat85: I’m off to lunch now, be back in 30 minutes
CJ: cya
Appendix 1.viii
Conversation 8
Participants: CJ
Xeno
CJ: Hi
Xeno: Hi there CJ :)
Xeno: How you doing?
CJ: not bad mate, u?
Xeno: Meh i could be better
Xeno: You feel any better btw?
CJ: I do…what’s up with ya mate?
Xeno: I dunno i feel really low. I have done over the past few days, I’ve been thinking
alot of the past two years and all the mistakes and bad judgements i've made
CJ: Ahh, yes, the good old melancholic reflection. *Shakes head* I’ve done it myself.
Xeno: lol
CJ: I dunno if it’ll work for you, but I treat most of the past like it never happened.
CJ: And just sort of ‘forget’ about it.
Xeno: Yeah, but its really hard. Especially the more recent stuff
CJ: Hmm…I won’t pry…but still, I appreciate the recent stuff’s harder, but the past’s
the past, right? Not good to dwell on it
Xeno: yeah i guess you are right :)
Xeno: its just been like recently people have been losing interest in me. Its frustrating
not know what i can do, it makes me feel like i am doing something wrong
CJ: Tried talking to them?
CJ: If you feel like you’re doing something wrong to someone, or someone else is to
you, there’s only two people who can do something about it.
CJ: And neither of them are psychic:P
Xeno: Yeah, i have tried talking to the people in the past but i've been lied to and said
“its not you” then the next minute im told that im boring them. But given no real
reason…
CJ: :(
Xeno: If you can’t guess im talking about Deb and the way she dumped me. I keep
trying to move on but something keeps drawing me back to what she put in that email
CJ: I didn’t know, sorry…
CJ: I barely even knew you were an item:£
Xeno: lol
Xeno: oh sory lol
Xeno: sorry*
Xeno: Yeah we started going out on the 5th of Nov. End she ended it on her birthday
parthy 8th Dec
Xeno: Party*
CJ: omg
CJ: it’s prolly not helpful…but its better not to date your friends…if it goes wrong,
you’ve lost out double:S
CJ: Just do your best, and see how it goes. It’s hard to go back, but sometimes can be
done.
CJ: im off in bath, cyas in a bit
Xeno: Well we wern’t really friends, just aquatences
Xeno: ok cya later
Xeno: im off to play CS: S for a bit
Xeno: cya later
Appendix 1.ix
Conversation 9
Participants: CJ
Xeno
CJ: Quote Anonymous: “With out air what is there?”
CJ: A lifeless rock. Duh! 8-)
CJ: What a moron.
Xeno: :lol:
Xeno: I can tell you are in a good mood ;)
Xeno: I just finished reading your Felt Tip Pens thread.
Xeno: :lol: and its soooo true
CJ: I am in a good mood.
CJ: I just don’t suffer fools gladly.
Xeno: Oh… good :P
Xeno: How was your day anyway?
CJ: I hate idiots and morons. Trouble is I find them wherever I am :P
CJ: And it was ok thanks:)
CJ: Yours?
Xeno: Well mine was dull as usual. I had the fun of going for a checkup at the
hospital yesterday. Otherwise just mind numbing as usual :P
CJ: Lol I hate hospitals
CJ: Even if I’m not the patient.
CJ: There’s just this smell about them, and any other medical place…
CJ: That and you’re sat waiting until the next fucking epoch
Xeno: :lol:
Xeno: yeah i see you’ve been through that before then :P
CJ: Oh yes…
CJ: Even A&E is slow as a dead snail that’s been sellotaped to the floor…
CJ: I could die of tuberculosis faster!
Xeno: :lol:
CJ: TB or A&E…hmm *scratches head* tough call.
CJ: Plus you go out more ill than when you went in…
CJ: *goes to doctor with stomach ache*
<two hours later, after finally being seen>
*Leaves premises and goes straight to hospital with pneumonia*
Xeno: :lol:
Xeno: or gets admitted for a burst apendix
CJ: lmao
CJ: I want one of those -_Xeno: ??? huh? why? :lol:
CJ: Just need an excuse to get under anaesthetic.
CJ: Lol, I’d take it in tablet form if I could. I need to have a lie-in once in my life!:P
Xeno: I’ve been under anaesthetic before, and its very weird
CJ: I been under sedation
CJ: but anaesthetic I was too young to remember
Xeno: That’s the point, you won’t be able to remember anything :P
CJ: same under sedation, even though i was conscious
Xeno: you remember just before the give it to you, but then you are suddenly waking
up :lol:
CJ: Worst is those who wake up mid-op
CJ: :|
CJ: That must be SHIT-SCARY
Xeno: :S
Xeno: i think that rarely happens since if you start to look like you are comming
round they give you more :P
CJ: Hm ya… but I| heard of someone who was having a kidney transplant and came
round in the middle
CJ: I’d be like: WHOA FUCK THAT
Xeno: :lol:
Xeno: but i'd rather be under general than local
Xeno: i hate local
CJ: yeah me too.
CJ: Especially cos it doesnt work on me
CJ: might as well not’ve given me anything if give me local…
Xeno: yeah same here
Xeno: I’ve had a bad experience at the Dentist concerning anaesthetic and im never
having something similar to that again
CJ: Yeah…
CJ: I did too
CJ: I had to be sedated the second time, when i needed 4 teeth out for braces…
Xeno: yeah? Thanfully i refused to have braces but i still needed 4 teeth out :( stupid
fag smoking alchi of a dentist
CJ: lol…:S
Xeno: yeah i know…
CJ: I hate Asian doctors and dentists
CJ: not only can they not speak fucking English
CJ: but they’re butchers who really don’t care.
CJ: If I ended up in hospital needing an op, I’d demand an English surgeon.
CJ: Not racist, but I just don’t trust em with my insides, thx.
Xeno: lol
CJ: At least with an English guy, if he fucks up and I have to sue him, he can’t say
“me no speek ingleesh…”
Xeno: yeah they make a curry out of the excess parts :lol:
CJ: ROFL!
CJ: Wouldn’t put it past them…
Xeno: :lol:
CJ: I flamez0red you
CJ: on BR
Xeno: :lol: i know
CJ: Hey, who made the song ‘This Fire’?
CJ: I NEED THAT SONG
CJ: It was Kaiser Chiefs, right?
CJ: Oh wait…Franz Ferdinand :P
CJ: Bit of a difference there :P
Xeno: give me chance to bloody answer you :P
CJ: lol
CJ: I already found it on Limewire:P You were too slow
Xeno: :O
Xeno: I am shocked
Xeno: anyway i've pissed on your fire :P
Xeno: new pic :P
CJ: No, I just pissed on yours, more correctly :P
CJ: Refresh, bitch! :P
Xeno: refresh ^-^
Appendix 1.x
Conversation 10
Participants: CJ
Hybrid
Hybrid: banks are so gay
Hybrid: why do they send you your debit card
Hybrid: seperate from your pin
CJ: Thieves with pens in their pockets.
CJ: For security, dumbass.
Hybrid: i have to wait an extra loads of days to get a bloody pin
Hybrid: whbo gives a fuck
Hybrid: it had no money in it anyway
Hybrid: with 0 overdraw limit
Hybrid: not going to be a problem
Hybrid: rofl
Hybrid: i want to transfer money into it after
Hybrid: bloody gotta wait for the pin
Hybrid: AND my account details for online banking
Hybrid: lol
Hybrid: i love a good moan about crap
CJ: lol
(an hour later)
CJ: Evening, bitch!
Hybrid: night bitch
Hybrid: whats up
CJ: Know any good DVD copy software?
CJ: Apollo DVD really sucks
Hybrid: nero?
Hybrid: prehaps
Hybrid: lol
CJ: Hmm…never thought of trying that.
CJ: Usually gets sand in its ass
Hybrid: o_0
CJ: saying ‘oh n0es there is copy protection’
Hybrid: what are you sticking sand up its anus for?
Hybrid: o_0
Hybrid: can’t even answer a simple question…
CJ: No, I just chose not to dignify it with a response.
Hybrid: no wonder you don’t understand anonyous
Hybrid: :P
CJ: Dickface.
Hybrid: rofl
Hybrid: creativer
Hybrid: i dunno
Hybrid: but at night you seem to be ever more bitchy
Hybrid: is it something to do with hormones and the thought of getting into bed with
some sort of fluffy male animal?
CJ: No, it’s more to do with you being a dickface.
Hybrid: rofl
CJ: lol:P
Hybrid: either that or your on hormone pills
CJ: Yeah. I stole my mum’s HRT 8-)
CJ: Oh, wait, it was your mum’s HRT.
Hybrid: o_0
Hybrid: o_0
Hybrid: jesus, the plot thickens
Hybrid: what the hell were you doing in my mothers personal possessions?
CJ: She gave them to me as a gift of love.
CJ: Actually, I thought it was your dad. It had an adam’s apple.
CJ: Then again, your dad confused me too. His man-tits give him the feminine touch.
Hybrid: what you mean you managed to climb over the bear belly and the oaffiness of
his life?
CJ: :lol:
Hybrid: general question you know
Hybrid: goes with most fathers
Hybrid: who sit in front of the tele whenever they are home
Hybrid: swearing at their family
Hybrid: even thought hes in the army as a sergant
Hybrid: it doesn’t remove the fact hes an oaf
Hybrid: lol i’m only kidding
Hybrid: i mean i gotta love the guy really
Hybrid: after all he does own the house
Appendix 1.xi
Conversation 11
Participants: CJ
Hybrid
CJ: Hi
Hybrid: lol just posting one of my huge posts
Hybrid: be done shortly
CJ: Ah ok
Hybrid: bk
Hybrid: ComradeJ seems to not get what hes focusing on
Hybrid: he seems to be against the current system
Hybrid: but then he says individuality has done nothing for us
Hybrid: rofl
Hybrid: which is how the current system works
Hybrid: so where are you on KOTOR?
Hybrid: actually on the unknown regions?
CJ: Yes i am
CJ: I just met with the ppl Revan gave an oath to
CJ: it’s annoying with everyone calling me Revan…:S
CJ: It’s like argh…stopit!
Hybrid: lol
Hybrid: save it at the bastilla part
Hybrid: just before
Hybrid: thats where you choose light or dark
Hybrid: so you can go back once you done the light side
Hybrid: and see the dark ending
CJ: lol
CJ: I like being light
CJ: as much as darkness would pwn
CJ: and i was glad for the FMV movie so I could see her with the dark eyes…
Hybrid: lol yeah
CJ: If you play dark all the way through
CJ: what happens to your party?
CJ: Do they all abandon you?
Hybrid: well
Hybrid: no
Hybrid: not until the unknown planet
CJ: Heh…so you end up stuck with Canderous and HK from then on?
Hybrid: no you still meet bastilla
Hybrid: and make the choice then
Hybrid: and then things get very different
Hybrid: canderous stays with ya
Hybrid: so does HK and the droid
Hybrid: the others are your choie
Hybrid: choice*
Hybrid: depending on what you do with them
CJ: So you choose each one’s fate in turn?
CJ: or does what you do with Bastila affect everyone?
Hybrid: well
Hybrid: you get to choose the wookies fate
Hybrid: the 2 jedis fate
Hybrid: missions fate
Hybrid: and carth
Hybrid: but its only if you choose to go with basilla
Hybrid: you’ll see the choice
CJ: Is that the ‘dark way’?
Hybrid: yeah
CJ: so…you must abandon Bastila to get the light ending.
Hybrid: yeah
Hybrid: but you meet her later
Hybrid: to fight
Hybrid: again
Hybrid: then you get a choice about her
CJ: You’d better be able to turn her back to the light.
CJ: I was just starting to like her when she got swagged by Malak
Hybrid: yeah
(10 minutes later)
Hybrid: apparently its now illegal to annoy someone and retain your identity online
Hybrid: o_0 rofl
CJ: LMFAO
CJ: Oi, I want your address fuckhead:P
Hybrid: don’t you annoy me retard
Hybrid: otherwise you’ll get a day in jail
CJ: lol omg
CJ: yeah like that law’s getting enforced…
Hybrid: lol
Hybrid: <HYPERLINK REMOVED>
CJ: I think it mostly applies to spam email from companies
Hybrid: lol
Hybrid: who cares
CJ: but still…this will be retarded. Nobody would bother enforcing it
Hybrid: i’ve already called the cops
Hybrid: :P
CJ: lmao
CJ: Apollo says the funniest shit sometimes :lol:
Hybrid: such as? Lol
CJ: he was discussing advantages of fat girls over thin…and vice versa
Hybrid: lol
Hybrid: oook then
CJ: God, he’d be an awesome drinking buddy lol
Hybrid: lol
Appendix 1.xii
Conversation 12
Participants: CJ
Apollo
H00lig4n
Apollo: Hey CJ…you see new building for RS?
CJ: never saw it.
Apollo: hehe it just r0x
H00lig4n: true
H00lig4n: hows mates doing?
Apollo: lol well good after reinstalled ra2&YR again
CJ: im doing ok. Gonna go shortly, tho.
H00lig4n: kk
Apollo: ok
H00lig4n: what happened to yer RA2nYR pollo?
Apollo: uhh tried some Chinese exe and paid for it..corrupted my ra2 files so had to
reinstall
H00lig4n: heh odd =/
CJ: ouch
Apollo: still compiled latest WIP rs
CJ: :)
CJ: Do i get a copy?
CJ: For manual purposes?
CJ: *pesters*
Apollo: if you insist:P
H00lig4n: I hate my YR… grrrr.. -.Apollo: maybe i should put it to my ftp or something
Apollo: revora ftp would just invite speeder :P
CJ: hehe
Apollo: <HYPERLINK REMOVED>
CJ: :lol:
CJ: Very similar to my pwo settings :P
CJ: does this require rockpatch?
CJ: or have you not implemented that/is preloaded with game?
Apollo: well no but i would recommend
CJ: k
Apollo: as uses some features
CJ: What’s his website again?
CJ: *me forgets such*
H00lig4n: rock the battlefield something?
Apollo: <HYPERLINK REMOVED>
CJ: thx
CJ: lol 20% already…
Apollo: RTB is funny…i had custom palette missing and game crashed before menu
screen
Apollo: :lol:
CJ: lolz
CJ: seems really unstable then i guess…
Apollo: i did fix that
Apollo: after looking at it for hour :P
CJ: jesus
CJ: my patience wouldn’t permit me…
Apollo: heh :P
H00lig4n: same.
Apollo: Added that new building i said…
CJ: heh heh…
Apollo: electron tower
Apollo: using emp logic ^_^
CJ: w00t!
CJ: nex get pwned eh?
Apollo: definitely. and i made it do light damage too…wont harm cent but still
CJ: *goes to play* cya bitches!:P
Apollo: lol cyas