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Sources of Variation in First Language Acquisition: Languages, contexts, and learners
Edited by Maya Hickmann †, Edy Veneziano and Harriet Jisa
[Trends in Language Acquisition Research 22] 2018
► pp. 265–284

Chapter 13
Texting by 12-year-olds

Features shared with spoken language

| Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition et l’Apprentissage, Université de Poitiers & CNRS
| Laboratoire Cognitions Humaine et Artificielle, Université Paris Nanterre
| Centre de Recherches sur la Cognition et l’Apprentissage, Université Poitiers & CNRS
| Laboratoire Cognition, Langues, Langages, Ergonomie, Université de Toulouse Jean Jaurès & CNRS

The objective of this chapter is to investigate the development and use of the texting register. Our hypothesis is that this language register shares features with spoken language. In contrast to traditional writing, texting language is not the result of explicit academic instruction. Rather, it is acquired through daily interactions, as is spoken language. We collected a one-year longitudinal corpus of text messages (4,524 texts) produced by 19 teens aged 11–13 years, with no previous experience using a mobile phone. The messages were analyzed using orthographic indices (categories of spelling errors) and dialogic indices (presence/absence of an opening or closing). The data are discussed in terms of the specifics of the texting register. Unlike other registers, the texting register is not stable over time and evolves at an extremely rapid rate.

Keywords: SMS, texting, register, writing, orthography, adolescents, dialogic opening/closing, French, netspeak
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
    • 1.1Evolution of text-message spelling with use: Previous studies
    • 1.2Dialogic structure of text messages: Previous studies
    • 1.3Aims
  • 2.Method
    • 2.1Participants
    • 2.2Equipment
    • 2.3Data collection
    • 2.4Coding
      • 2.4.1Coding of textisms
      • 2.4.2The dialogic structure of the messages
  • 3.Results
  • 4.Discussion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
  • Appendix
Published online: 22 February 2018
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/tilar.22.14ber
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