As the medium of communication changes, the language practiced through that medium also changes. This is an effect that can be observed throughout history as new forms of communication such as pen and paper, mass book production, the telephone, and now the computer and smartphone were popularized. Each of these platforms had a substantial effect on language because they taught their users certain idiosyncrasies that permeated oral and written communication. For example, while a “meme” used to refer exclusively to an idea that would spread throughout the culture much like a gene spreads through a generation of people, it now appears to be only a reference to a type of online joke that exists about social media. platforms. This is the result of computer-mediated communication or CMC dominating the linguistic landscape and altering the language used outside of electronics. By examining examples of how CMC can influence an individual's grammar, lexical skills, and spelling, it is possible to better understand how CMC can negatively and positively influence the literacy skills of younger generations. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay To understand how CMC forces users to change their language, you need to understand the restrictions that may exist on online platforms. For example, using MSN Messenger, sending a text message, or responding to a message on Twitter have distinct characteristics, even though they all take place in an online environment. These characteristics vary based on message size limit, communication synchronicity, visibility, level of interactivity, technology, and communication channel (Verheijen 129). When communicating on Twitter, users are limited to just 140-character messages sent asynchronously that can be distributed via mobile phone or computer. This is very different from using MSN Messenger to communicate, as it has no message size limits, involves sending synchronous messages in real time, is completely private in terms of visibility, and can only be used on your computer (Verheijen 129) . Each of these characteristics alters the way users communicate due to the restrictions placed on the communication medium. Twitter forces users to shorten both individual words and the overall content of their messages while MSN hides messages in private conversations. As a result, users begin to pick up on different language patterns associated with the platform they are using. One of the linguistic concepts commonly associated with CMC are textisms, which are modifications to words and phrases through abbreviations, individual letters, and symbols. In Verheijen's 2015 study, the author revealed how different types of digital platforms tend to have different levels of textism. He found that for every 10,000 words, MSN users included 1,775 texts while SMS and Twitter users included only 736 and 452 texts (Verheijen 133). This data is interesting because one would expect that a platform like Twitter that forces users to provide shorter messages would inherently encourage them to practice more text samples. In reality, the fact that Twitter is an asynchronous platform that allows the exchange of messages sequentially over time gives users the ability to filter a greater number of messages. Verheijen states that “instant messaging, by contrast, is synchronous, making it direct, immediate and rushed: users must respond quickly to keep up with the pace of the conversationto keep his word” (134). Essentially, instant messaging teaches users that being able to send a quick message is more important than sending a message free of grammatical or spelling errors. Once users become accustomed to a CMC platform like MSN Messenger or Twitter, the spelling they learn through the CMC language can potentially permeate into other areas of communication. Looking at a syntactic feature of CMC, it is often the case that the CMC language encourages users to omit certain function words (Frehner 65). Instead of saying “I will be leaving for the US on August 5th”, someone might get away with the phrase “I will be leaving 4 US on August 5th”. While the meaning of each sentence may be the same, the structure and appearance are certainly different. These types of shortened sentences can be problematic for ESL students who already face challenges that normal English lexical and grammatical rules prevent. When using CMC platforms, these users will be much more likely to misunderstand a message if it is changed to an almost entirely new language. Problems can arise if CMC users, consciously or unconsciously, begin to make these types of linguistic alterations on and off the platforms. CMC. For example, Frehner mentions how a corpus of electronic communications found that subject deletion occurred at a rate of 12.63 times per 1,000 words (Frehner 64). This can be observed in messages such as "I haven't received any mail from you, so I don't know where it went" or "I was feeling kind of crap yesterday with exam review, so I just wanted to chat with you" (Frehner 64) . These sentences are grammatically flawed, and people who continue to make such omissions will be more likely to make these errors when communicating through other means. Although languages such as Japanese and Italian can be considered null subject languages in which noun phrases can be considered redundant, English does not have this same feature (Rizzi 501). Another problem related to omission is copula elimination, where variations of be are intentionally left out. Frehner mentions how these occurred 2.83 times per 1,000 words in the corpus he references, with about a third of deletions existing in combination with existential or article ellipses (Frehner 66). Examples of this might include phrases such as "Are you going to the dance later?" or “Free food tonight in the cafeteria.” In these sentences, the speaker omits copulas including are and there is. Again, while those who are fluent and familiar with English can understand the implications of omitting copulas, less experienced students will have difficulty correctly grasping the meaning. This is something that has been observed in the copula deletion that occurs in African American Vernacular English (AAVE). Lippi-Green talks about how those unfamiliar with AAVE might have negative reactions to phrases like “They drive the wrong way” in which auxiliaries are omitted (255). The same is likely to be true for individuals users who are unfamiliar with CMC and how some users choose to practice copula deletion to insert messages into a tweet or SMS message. Despite the problems that can arise from heavy use of CMC, authors such as David Craig have argued that resistance against CMC platforms is not threatening youth literacy as much as some believe it to be. Craig believes that instant messaging “promotes regular contact with words, the use of a written medium for.
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