LINGUISTIC FEATURES OF TEXT MESSAGING
BY TEACHERS AT CINTA BUDAYA NATIONAL PLUS
SCHOOL MEDAN
A THESIS
By
LYLIES
Registration Number: 8106111019
Submitted to the English Applied Linguistics Study Program in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Magister Humaniora
ENGLISH APPLIED LINGUISTICS STUDY PROGRAM
POSTGRADUATE SCHOOL
STATE UNIVERSITY OF MEDAN
MEDAN
ABSTRACT
Lylies, The Linguistic Features of Text Messaging by Teachers at Cinta Budaya National Plus School Medan. Thesis: English Applied Linguistic Study Program, School of Post Graduate Unimed, 2015 Advisors: (1) Dr. Eddy Setia, M.Ed TESP (2) Prof. Dr. Lince Sihombing, M.Pd
ABSTRAK
Lylies, The Linguistic Features of Text Messaging by Teachers at Cinta Budaya National Plus School Medan. Thesis: Program Studi Linguistik Terapan Bahasa Inggris, Sekolah Paska Sarjana Unimed, 2015 Pembimbing: (1) Dr. Eddy Setia, M.Ed TESP (2) Prof. Dr. Lince Sihombing, M.Pd
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The writer would like to express her gratitude to Almighty God who granted countless blessings, guidance, opportunity and possibility pour upon the writer, so that the writer could accomplish this thesis.
This thesis is written as a partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Magister Humaniora (M.Hum) from the English Applied Linguistics Department of the PostGraduate School State University of Medan.
On this special occasion, she would like to express her sincere appreciation for her two advisors, Dr. Eddy Setia, M.Ed TESP and Prof. Dr. Lince Sihombing, M.Pd for their priceless advises, guidance, comments and valuable time spared for the writer. May God’s blessing shall be poured upon them forever. Deepest thanks to her board of examiners, Prof. Dr. Sumarsih, M.Pd, Prof. Dr. Berlin Sibarani, M.Pd, Dr. Sri Minda Murni, M.S. for the best critics on this thesis for the improvement of her writing and research. She also would like to express her special gratitude to the Head of the English Applied Linguistics Study Program, Prof. Dr. Busmin Gurning, M.Pd for the encouragement and priceless mental support.
Her deepest gratitude to all of her lecturers for the knowledge during her studying in pursuing her magister title and all UNIMED Postgraduate school staff for the easy access to all administration matters and the chance given to the writer in accomplishing her study.
Her special and unspeakable thanks to her beloved family. For her beloved father Lisman Hadinata and her beloved mother Lim Sioe Lai, her sisters and brother, Many, S.E ; Hartiny, S.E ; Helen, S.E, Meria, S.E and Wijaya Salim Putra, D. BIC and her beloved husband Willi, S.S. They deserve her very special gratitude for their love, patience, and encouragement that have been a fundamental moral support that has brought the writer to the accomplishment of her study and finishing of her thesis.
Her special thanks to all of the teachers who voluntarily become the subjects of the research. Without them this thesis would not be carried out.
Berliana Naipospos, Diana, Agustini, Hestika Ginting whose love and support and anger have accompanied her into finding the the courage to carry out her thesis till the end. May God always be with you all.
Medan, July 2015 The writer,
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CONTENTS PAGE
ABSTRACT...i
ABSTRAK...ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS...iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS...v
LIST OF TABLES...viii
LIST OF FIGURES...ix
LIST OF APPENDICES...x
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.1 The Background of the Study ...1
1.2 The Problems of the Study ...7
1.3 The Objectives of the Study ...7
1.4 The Scope of the Study ...8
1.5 The Significance of the Study ...8
CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE 2.1 Language and Linguistics ...10
2.2 Language and Communication ...13
2.2.1Communicative Competence in Text Messaging ...14
2.2.1.1 Literacy ...14
2.3 Interrelationship between Language and Literacy ...16
2.4 TeLCU Model ...16
2.5 Text Messaging...20
2.5.1 Composing a Text Messaging ...21
2.5.2 Linguistic Features of Text Messaging ...23
2.6 Previous Related Research ...40
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Research Design ...45
3.2 Data and Source of Data ...45
3.3 The Techniques of Data Collection ...46
3.3.1 Interview ...46
3.3.2 Tape Recording ...47
3.4 The Technique of Data Analysis ...47
3.4.1 Data Reduction ...48
3.4.2 Data Display...49
3.4.3 Conclusion Drawing/ Verification...49
3.5 The Trustworthiness of the Data ...49
4.1.1 The Occurence of Linguistics Features of
Text Messaging ...52 4.2 Findings...67
4.2.1 The Linguistics Features of Text Messaging Used by Teachers of Cinta Budaya
National Plus School Medan...67 4.2.2 The Reasons of Using the Linguistic Features of
Text Messaging...68
4.3 Discussion...70
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1 Conclusions ...72 5.2 Suggestions ...73
viii
LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 4.1 Shortenings in Bahasa Indonesia...55
ix
LIST OF FIGURES
Page
Figure 1. Technology-conditioned approach to
Language Change and Use(TeLCU)...18 Figure 2. Text message on the screen of the mobile
x
LIST OF APPENDICES
Appendix Page
Subject Researched...79
Text Messages...80
1 CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
1.1The Background of the Study
Language is always changing. Language changes across space and social
group. Language changes for a variety of reasons. Large-scale shifts often occur
in response to social, economic and political pressures. History records many
examples of language change fueled by invasions, colonization and migration.
Even without these kinds of influences, a language can change dramatically if
enough users alter the way they speak it.
Frequently, the needs of speakers drive language change. New
technologies, industries, products and experiences simply require new words. By
using new and emerging terms, people drive language change. However, the
unique way that individual speaks also fuels language change. That is because no
two individuals use a language in exactly the same way. The vocabularies and
phrases people used depend on where they live, their age, education level, social
status and other factors. Through the interactions, people pick up new words and
sayings and integrate them into the speech. Teens and young adults for example,
often use different words and phrases from their parents. Some of them spread
through the population and slowly change the language.
There are many causes of language change, including (1) economy:
speakers tend to make their utterances as efficient and effective as possible to
reach communicative goals. Purposeful speaking therefore involves a trade-off of
2
tends to result in phonetic reduction of speech forms (see vowel reduction, cluster
reduction, lenition, and elision). After some time, a change may become widely
accepted (it becomes a regular sound change) and may end up treated as a
standard. For instance: going to [ˈɡoʊ.ɪŋ.tʊ] → gonna [ˈɡɔnə] or [ˈɡʌnə], with
examples of both vowel reduction [ʊ] → [ə] and elision [nt] → [n], [oʊ.ɪ] → [ʌ];
(2) analogy: reducing word forms by likening different forms of the word to the
root; (3) language contact: borrowing of words and constructions from foreign
languages; (4) cultural environment: groups of speakers will reflect new places,
situations and objects in their language, whether they encounter different people
there or not; and (5) the medium of communication: which refers to the means of
delivering and receiving data or information.
Historically, the medium can be divided into the following stages (1)
ideographic writing, (2) alphabetic writing, (3) printing, (4) electronic recording
and broadcasting, and (5) computer-mediated communication.
With the flourishing of information technology in the last 50 years,
computer-mediated communication has become an important and significant part
in human‟s daily life. Computer-mediated communication refers to a domain of
information exchange via the computer. It is the communication produced when
human beings interact with one another by transmitting messages via networked
computers. Computer-mediated communication will be the asynchronous and
synchronous creation and transmission of messages using digital techniques.
Typical examples of asynchronous CMC tools include electronic mail (e-mail)
3
such as text messaging via mobile telephone and also other real time web-chat
systems.
The mobile telephone has been the latest way to communicate quickly
since the invention of text-messaging (Ong‟onda, 2011: 2). Text messaging refers
to the brief typed messages sent using the Short Message Service, abbreviated
SMS, of mobile/cell phones.
Short message service, abbreviated SMS, as defined within the GSM
digital mobile phone standard, is a service that enables its users to send short text
messages to one mobile phone from another, or to a mobile phone via the
Internet‟ (Hard af Segerstad, 2002:68). A typical mobile text message consists of
the following parts: (1) header, which usually includes the time and date of
sending the message, the identity of the message sender either by a mobile phone
number or by a name if that number has an entry in the recipient‟s contact list and
(2) body of message, which is the main content of the message. The body of the
message may be a new message or a forwarded message or a combination of both.
Openings and closures can be added, though it is not common. Text messages
may include words, numbers and also other symbols. There is no limit to the
length of the composed messages. In the past, each message could only contain
160 characters for Latin alphabets and only 70 characters for non-Latin alphabets
such as Chinese. But nowadays, even messages exceeding the number of
characters can be sent between users as messages, which are too long, will be split
into smaller chunks automatically during the sending process.
Theoretically, Li (2007: 21) states that when technologies are introduced,
4
ideas emerging along with the new media and tools, new forms of language and
literacy are often necessary. Thus, the ways in which people use their language
may face changes due to the new media of communication. The technologies are
dealt with Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs). In line to ICTs,
Bodomo and Lee (Li, 2007:22) depict five characteristics of ICTs, including (1)
flexibility, (2) connectivity, (3) affordability, (4) interactivity and (5) popularity.
The mentioned characteristics are important in the sense that they help
distinguish ICTs in this information age from old passive modes such as television
and radio which fail to show a high degree of flexibility, connectivity and
interactivity. Also, Technology-conditioned approach to Language Change and
Use (TeLCU) suggests that „the more of the above features a new technology
carries, the more likely new forms of language and literacy will be introduced and
the more widespread these new forms will be.‟ (Bodomo and Lee, 2002: 45).
There is an assumption that SMS language tends to create a novice
language, which has become an integral part of the multilingual world. It pursues
simple sentences structure for communication (Rafi, 2011:1). Texting reflects
language change and innovation in communication language. The reflection
shows in the occurance of certain linguistic features during the activity of texting.
The occurance of the certain linguistic features intrigued the writer into having
deep analysis on the texting activity.
Research on language uses due to technology interest many researchers.
Similar research has ever been conducted previously with different scope of study,
where the research focused on the language use in technology in this case
5
interested, researchers into Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) are
beginning to notice that computer networking constitutes a new revolution in
communication media, on a par with speech, writing and print. (Cumming,
1995:4). In recent years, the topic of Computer-mediated communication (CMC)
has been one of most popular research areas not only in the field of linguistics, but
also in other disciplines such as social sciences, computer science and education.
Thurlow (2003:2) observes that text messaging impacts on literacy and
standard language use. People tend to be more creative and innovative in texting
the message. The popular belief is that texting has evolved as a
twenty-first-century phenomenon, as a highly distinctive graphic style, full of abbreviations
and deviant uses of language, used by people that do not care about standards.
The dominant features in SMS language are the use of abbreviations, slang,
syntactic reductions, asterisk emoting, emoticons, deletions of parts of speech,
especially subject pronoun, preposition, articles, copula, auxiliary or modal verbs
and contractions. Linguists and educators can therefore use the debate on text
speak as a legitimate language and the breadth of its grammar, syntax and
semantics to spark academic discussion and understanding of all variations of
language (Ong‟onda, 2011:2).
The theory proposed by Bodomo and Lee (2002) which involves the
framework of Technology-conditioned approach to Language Change and Use
(TeLCU) leads the writer‟s interest to conduct this scientific research.
It is commonly known that communication via SMS has been the
favourable option, considering the effectiveness as well as efficiencies.
6
which provide this technology offer the comfortable and portable device. Texting,
as commonly known, has great contribution to the varieties of language feature
used. Due to the effectiveness and efficiencies, users tend to shorten the words
and even add symbols representing the users‟ thoughts and emotion. The activity
of texting is conducted not only by those with limited knowledge of standar
language but also by those of high knowledge on good standard language which
in this case, the researcher focuses her intention on the teacher as users with
adequate knowledge of standard language. Teachers are selected as the object of
observasition due to the sense that they are well-educated and undoubtedly
possess adequate knowledge on the use of language properly.
Having teachers as the subject of research regarding the use of SMS has
been conducted during the research of “texting style of EFL/ ESL teachers in
Saudi Universities: cultural perspectives”. This research had the sample of one
thousand of male teachers of English ranging in age from 30 to 50 years from
different nationalities but mostly from Saudi Arabia. In this research, the
researcher found that code mixing which is very common in oral communication
was surprisingly used quite often in text messages. One interesting finding was
that one of the Saudi professor in linguistics used informal texting when using
SMS, example: “Thanx for producing a strong abstract. It’ll be translated
2nite.”
This finding has become one of the reasons for the writer in choosing
teachers of language who considerably capable of using formal and proper
7
This research conducts on the analysis of some linguistic features of
teachers‟ text message related to the grammatical and lexical choices of the writer.
It describes some of the lexical and grammatical resources –structural features-
that realized in the texting activity which in this case text message. It is necessary
to have literacy into discussion since the text message can only conducted by
those who are literate. This study is going to investigate the language used and
investigate the use of the linguistic features by teachers at Cinta Budaya National
Plus School in text messaging in terms of the linguistic features presented from
the perspective of Medan people.
1.2The Problems of the Study
The problems of this study are presented in the following questions:
(1) What linguistic features of text messaging are used by teachers at Cinta
Budaya National Plus School?
(2) Why do teachers use such linguistic features of text messaging during
their communication within text messaging ?
1.3 The Objectives of the Study
This research is aimed at highlighting the causal relationship between the
introduction of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and
new forms of language and literacy with reference to the model
“Technology-conditioned approach to Language Change and Use”. Thus, the objectives of this
8
(1) to investigate the linguistic features of text messaging used by teachers at
Cinta Budaya National Plus School.
(2) to elaborate the reasons why such linguistic features of text messaging
used during their communication within text messaging.
1.4 The Scope of the Study
The scope of this study is the use of linguistic features of text messaging
which focuses more on the Technology-conditioned approach to Language
Change and Use (TeLCU), Short Message Service (SMS) and text messaging.
The Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) is related to new forms
of language and literacy with reference to the model of “Technology-conditioned
approach to Language Change and Use” (TeLCU) proposed by Bodomo and Lee.
The theory of linguistic features proposed by Crystal which consist of (1)
pictograms and logograms, (2) initialism, (3) omitted letters, (4) nonstandard
spellings and (5) shortenings will be collaborated with the theory proposed by Li
to investigate the linguistic features of mobile texting used by teachers at Cinta
Budaya National Plus School.
1.5 The Significance of the Study
Findings of this study are strongly expected to have the theoretically and
practically indispensable significances. Theoretically, the research findings will be
valuable contributions for readers in identifying the linguistic features in the
mobile phone text messaging context and elaborating the reasons of why such
9
Practically, on the other hand, the research findings will be beneficial for students
who are interested in conducting detailed and deep study on text messaging and
the role of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) as
72 CHAPTER V
CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
5.1 Conclusions
Having conducted the research, some findings are found. There are some
linguistic features of text messaging used by the subjects of the research. There
are some dominants linguistic features of text messaging occur. The text messages
flow naturally which are similar to the natural conversation.The choice of words,
emoticons, punctuation and symbols have great contribution on giving the
impression that the text messages are real conversation. The unique dictions
somehow enable the researcher to get the feeling of the sender or receiver.
Cultural also pays great contribution to the style and mood of the text messages.
Below are the conclusions of the research findings.
(1) There are some linguistic features of text messaging occur in this research
which are abbreviation/shortening, slang words or non-standard spellings,
emoting which includes asterisk emoting, emoticons and punctuation. Syntactic
reduction also occurs with the omission of auxiliaries, subject pronoun and
articles. The researcher groups punctuation such as exclamation mark, question
mark and ellipsis into emoting since those features functions to express feelings of
the sender.
(2) The analysis shows, that the dominant linguistic feature of text messaging
occurs in the text message is shortening. Compare to other features, shortening
used in every text. These shortenings dominantly occur in Bahasa Indonesia texts.
Only few occur in English text messages. The use of shortenings has nothing to
73
(3) The subjects of research also admit that the use of linguistic features of text
messaging is due to the efficiency and their comfortableness. In order for the
written conversation to run naturally, to have the message and the feeling of the
sender represented well, linguistic features of text messaging are indeed become
great assistant.
(4) There were two phenomena found during the data analysis process. The style
in language used and the code-mixing occur in the text messages analyzed. This is
due to the fact that most of the subjects are bilingual. It is also due to the
background of the subjects which lead them to have certain style and expression
during the communication.
5.2 Suggestions
In accordance to the conclusions and findings, there are some beneficial
suggestions to be notified.
(1) Linguistic features of text messaging are beneficial since it represents the
sender’s view point, thought and feeling just like the real face to face
conversation.
(2) Text messaging leads to the efficiency and enable the sender and receiver to
express the feelings virtually. However, having effectiveness as the reason
also leads to the improper use of standar language. Either in Indonesia,
English or Hokkien itself.
(3) It is strongly encouraged that the texting should also be conducted in the
proper way when it comes to the use of language. This way, the rules of the
74
(4) Teachers are strongly recommended to convey the message to the students to
75
REFERENCES
Ahmad, J. (2014). Texting Styles of EFL/ ESL Teachers in Saudi Universities:
Cultural Perspectives.International Journal of English Linguistics; Vol. 4
(6)
Bodomo, A. (2002a). „Defining Literacy‟. Lecture notes for LING2011 Language
and Literacy. Hong Kong: The University of Hong Kong.
Bodomo, A. (2002b). SMS Corpus. Hong Kong: The University of Hong Kong.
Bodomo, A. B. and Carmen K. M. Lee. (2002). Changing forms of language and literacy: technobabble and mobile phone communication. Literacy and
Numeracy Studies: An International Journal in the Education and
Training of Adults. 12(1): 23-44.
Bodomo, A. (2004). Survey Report for the Project ‘Communicating in the Age of Information Technology: New Forms of Language and their Educational
Implications’. Hong Kong: University of Hong Kong. Available Online at:
104
http://www.hku.hk/linguist/research/bodomo/QEF/index.files/QEFsurveyr eport_dec04.pdf
Bodomo, A. (2005-2006). Communicating in the Age of Information Technology:
New Forms of Language and their Educational Implications. Available
Online at: http://www.hku.hk/linguist/research/bodomo/QEF/index.htm
Communication and Information Report 1999. Available online at:
http://www.unesco.org/education/educprog/lwf/dl/edict.pdf
Brown, D. (2007) Principles of Language Learning and Teaching, Fifth Edition. NewYork: Pearson Education.
Bush, C. (2005). Language beyond the text: txt msgs 4 a new gn8rn. The Journal of New Media & Culture, 3(2).
http://www.ibiblio.org/nmediac/summer2005/text.html.
76
Clark, H. H. and S. E. Brennan. (1991). Grounding in Communication.
Perspectives on Socially Shared Cognition. New York: State University of
New York Press.
Cohen, et.al. (2007). Research Methods in Education. London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.
Crystal, David. (2001). Language and the Internet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Crystal, D. (2006). Language and the internet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CBO9780511487002,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511487002.
Crystal, David. (2008). Txtng the gr8 db8. New York: Oxford University Press.
Cumming, J. D. (1995). The Internet and the English language. English Today.
New York: State University of New York Press.
Doring, N. (2002). Abbreviations and Acronyms in SMS Communication. Available at: http://www.nicola-doering.de/. Retrieved May 23, 2011.
Erikson, Erik. H. (1973). Growth and Crisis in, Theories of Psychopathology and
Personality Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders Co.
Gilster, P. (1997). Digital literacy. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Grady, W.O. and Dobrovolsky, M. (1996) Contemporary Linguistic Analysis,
Third Edition. Toronto: Jeff Miller
Grinter, R, E., & Eldridge, M. (2001). “Y do tngrs luv 2 txt msg?”. In W. M. Prinz., Y. R. Jarke, K. Schimidt, & V. Wulf (Eds.). Proceedings of Seventh
European Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, (pp.
219-238). ECSW 01 Germany. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers.
Hard af Segerstad, Y. (2002). Use and Adaptation of Written Language to the
Conditions of Computer-Mediated Communication. Sweden: Goteborg
University. Available online at:
http://www.ling.gu.se/~ylvah/dokument/ylva_diss.pdf
Jannedy, S., Poletto, R., & Weldon, T.L. (Eds.). (1994). Materials for an
introduction to language and linguistics. Columbus, OH: Ohio State
University Press.
77
Kitz, J. M. (ed.) (1981). Why Don’t you Listen to What I’m Not Saying. New York: Anchor Press.
Labov, W. (2000). Principles of Linguistics Change. Oxford: Blackwell.
Lee, K. M. C. (2002). Chinese and English computer-mediated communication in
the context of New Literacy Studies. Hong Kong: The University of Hong
Kong.
Li, Sui Sum Bosco. (2007). SMS Gener@tion: A Study on the Language of Text
Messaging in Hong Kong. Hongkong: The University of Hongkong.
Lincoln, Y. S. and Guba, E.G. (1985). Naturalistic Inquiry. California: Sage Publication, Inc.
Ling, R. (2000). We will be reached: The use of mobile telephony among Norwegian youth. Information Technology and People, 13(2), 102-120. doi:10.1108/09593840010339844,
http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09593840010339844.
Llamas, Carmen. (2007). The Routledge Companion to Sociolinguistics. London: Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.
Miles, M. B. and Huberman, A. M. (1994). Qualitative Data Analysis: A
Sourcebook of New Methods. 2nd edition. California: Sage Publications,
Inc.
Ong‟onda, A. Nancy. (2011). Syntactic Aspects in Text Messaging. World Journal of English Language. Vol. 1, No. 1; April 2011
Rafi, M. Shaban. (2011). SMS Text Analysis: Language, Gender and Current
Practices. Available at: http://www.tesol
france.org/Documents/Colloque07/SMS%20Text%20Analysis%20Langu text-messaging.Discourse Analysis Online. Available online at: http://www.shu.ac.uk/daol/articles/v1/n1/a3/thurlow2002003-paper.html.
Thurlow, C., L. Lengel and A. Tomic. (2004). Computer Mediated
Communication: Social Interaction and the Internet. London: SAGE.
Walther, J. B. and K. P. D‟Addario. (2001). The Impacts of Emoticons on Message Interpretation in computer-mediated communication. Social
78
Wardhaugh, Ronald. (2006). An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. 5th ed. New
York: Blackwell Publishing.
