Abstract
The starting point of this paper is the assumption that communication in chat
channels is a special kind of computer-mediated discourse in a written (typed)
form but with several qualities of oral communication. The paper includes a
description of a corpus, which was created by a longitudinal measurement of
five German and three Swedish chat channels during two weeks (5th – 19th
February 2001). The analysis focuses on those sequences of the discourse which
are marked by asterisks like in German chats: *zwinker *, *mitdenfüßennachderfernbedienungfisch*
and in Swedish chats: *skrattar * [lach-1-3.Pers.Sg.+Pl.], *börja stappla
iväg mot lindsie*[anfang-INFINITIV geh-INFINITIV zu lindsie]. These sequences,
which I call *phrases, are linguistically as well as functionally interesting;
in both languages namely, they have a special morpho-syntactical structure and
are used to represent nonverbal communication like body language, facial expressions
and situations or/and activities which accompany the chat discourse in real
life.
The paper discusses the different verbal structures of the *phrases as well
as their nonverbal functions. Among other things, I show that the German *Phrases
mostly represent phonations, gestures and facial expressions; they mostly imitate
the oral discourse. In these *phrases, the Swedish chat users very often describe
the circumstances of the situation where the chat discourse takes place like
activities, real place and surroundings of the real life situation.