IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/sagope/v12y2022i1p21582440221082124.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Linguistic and Situational Features of WhatsApp Messages Among High School and University Canadian Students

Author

Listed:
  • Abdulkhaliq Alazzawie

Abstract

WhatsApp messages can be such a rich source for creative and spontaneous language geared toward more individual expression. WhatsApping provides us with a unique view into language and is an interesting prototype for thinking about language use, the various functions of this variety and how it is used to render different kinds of meanings. This study aims to explore the linguistic features of text messaging’s communicative intent, content and context. Selected samples of messages were drawn from a high school student population in Canada who provided a corpus of 100 different texts already sent and/or received for personal, educational and professional purposes. The collected data were analyzed using Biber and Conrad’s qualitative approach to register, genre, and style analysis. The result is that people use clipped sentences in a free flow of casual speech and slang. While certain abbreviations have come into such common use, to the point of becoming standard, a wide array of individualistic variance in terms of style and language usage has emerged. It is concluded that avid texters, while appearing to greatly deviate from more traditional, standard written English, are a rich source for studying creative and spontaneous language adaptation of register, genre and text according to context and text users.

Suggested Citation

  • Abdulkhaliq Alazzawie, 2022. "The Linguistic and Situational Features of WhatsApp Messages Among High School and University Canadian Students," SAGE Open, , vol. 12(1), pages 21582440221, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:12:y:2022:i:1:p:21582440221082124
    DOI: 10.1177/21582440221082124
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/21582440221082124
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/21582440221082124?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:sagope:v:12:y:2022:i:1:p:21582440221082124. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.