Date: Thu, 15 Jan 1998 11:58:48 +0100 From: Mike FOX-ecki Subject: email/irc MA thesis survey If you feel like helping a fellow linguist-to-be in writing his MA thesis about the Internet "dialect" then you might help him doing this survey. NOTE: You should be acquainted with IRC, unless you only do the three questions about email. If you would rather help me with the survey about MUDing then let me know and I shall mail it to you. Any other questions? I'd be glad to answer them. ===================================================================== == My name is Michal Lisecki, and I am a fifth year student at University of Silesia, Poland. My nick on the IRC is usually either "lisu" or "cmc". I am currently working on my thesis under the subject: An Interdisciplinary Study of Computer-mediated Communication. The Language of the Internet on the basis of selected services /email, IRC, MOOs/MUDs./ The following survey is to help me analyze my data on email, IRC in Polish and English. All replies will be kept strictly anonymous. For the following questions, please give as much detail in your answers as you feel comfortable revealing. Please forward this to any of your friends. I did not think it will be that hard to get the respondents. ===================================================================== ==== ++++ IRC ++++ Question 1. Are you a native speaker of English? Question 2. When using IRC, do you feel that you are "talking" to other people, or "writing" to them? If neither, with what would you compare IRC? Question 3. Is it possible to have IRC friends, or just acquaintances? -----------> GREETINGS / LEAVE-TAKINGS <------------- Question 4. When you enter a channel for the first time, how would you greet the people who are already there? Question 5. When you enter a channel for the second (or more) time, how would you greet the people who are already there? Quesion 6. When leaving a channel how do you usually say goodbye? (give as many examples as you can think of) Question 7. You are already in a channel when a new person joins it. How would you greet them (or would you greet them at all) if: a. you already know this person? b. you do not already know this person? Question 8. You are already in a channel when someone who is in the same channel as yourself has to leave. What would you say (if anything) if: a. You know this person, and he will be coming back soon? b. You know this person, but he will not be back until tomorrow at the earliest? d. You DON'T know this person, but he will be coming back soon? e. You DON'T know this person, and he will not be back until tomorrow at the earliest? ------------> PARTICLES / PHONETIC SPELLING <------------ Question 9. Particles are a part of speech -- they are often spoken, but hardly ever written. How often do you use particles in your IRC communication? a. Never b. Sometimes, but seldom c. Often d. Very often e. Always (Particles are words like "ummm", "well", "you see", "the thing is ..." etc.) Question 10. English isn't always pronounced as it is written. Sometimes people say "hoi" instead of "hi", "dawg" instead of "dog", "ya" instead of "you", "watcha upta" instead of "what are you up to? etc. How often do you write English as it is pronounced on Internet Relay Chat? a. Never b. Sometimes, but seldom c. Often d. Very often e. Always ------------> EMOTIONS AND ACTIONS <------------- Question 11. Do you believe it is possible to express emotions on Internet Relay Chat? If yes, how does one do so? eg. use of capitalisation, emoticons, letter-repetition (ie. Hellooooo, reeeeeeeee), use of multiple punctuation marks (ie. hi :))))) !!!!!!!!), the "/me" command, a combination or all of the above, or something else? Question 12. Do you believe it is possible to express actions on Internet Relay Chat? If yes, how does one do so? -------------> NICKS <------------- Question 13. a. Is choice of Nick important to you? b. How did you come to choose your nick? c. How do you usually indicate whether your message is intended for one person or the entire channel? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Please answer the following questions if you feel comfortable in doing so. Question 14. Age? Question 15. Sex / Gender? Question 16. Nick? Question 17. How do you have access to IRC? (ie. through School, University, Work, privately or other) Question 18. Would you be interested in being kept up-to-date with the progress of my thesis? Question 19. In my thesis, may I quote you by "nick", should I anonymize you or should I not quote you at all? Question 20. Is there anything else you would like to say about IRC English or IRC Polish? ----------------------------------------------------------------------- ++++ email ++++ Question 21. When writing an email message do you think of it as of a standard letter writing or is it different? If so then please comment on that difference if you can. Question 22. Do you use any kind of sig (signature) in your email correspondence? If yes, then how long is it and what kind of info does it contain? (you may as well include it here) Question 23. Do you use any special expressions like those mentioned in Q.11 in email? ===================================================================== ==== END Thank you very much for your time. Michal Lisecki (lisu or cmc on #katowice or #gliwice or #philosophy) University of Silesia, Poland. ======================================================___ ___ _ _ Mike FOX-ecki //__ // // \\// irc [lisu] // // // /\\ UIN [4324037] http://priv2.onet.pl/ka/mlisecki // //__// // \\