76200.414@CompuServe.COM (Jeffrey Kittay, Lingua Franca) (05/03/91)
I am interested in how language use between people on EMAIL differs from the way they talk to each other or write to each other in other venues. What is the sociolinguistics of EMail? Topics such as: how certain taboos fall; increased informality, not to say bluntness; managing tone, jokes, irony (I know a little something about emoticons). What about the fact that a writer dashes off messages quickly, sends them out, and then realizes that something was said that should not have been: there is no way to take it back. In other words, how does the technology (plus the communicative needs people have today that are currently unmet) affect relationships on EMAIL? I publish a magazine for professors called LINGUA FRANCA. Only a year old and it has 15,000 subscribers and was just named one of the ten best magazines of the year. My inquiry is with a view to either 1) getting information that will help a writer do a story; 2) getting some tips on what may already have been written or published on this stuff, or 3) finding a writer who can report on all this stuff with a certain authority. Signed: Jeffrey Kittaym publisher, Lingua Franca My Address: 76200.414@compuserve.com