Date:    Mon, 16 Feb 1998 16:01:46 EST
<br>From:    Boyd  FEN00BHD[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]UNCCVM.UNCC.EDU 
<br>Subject: Re: internet language
<br>
<br>To add to Jeutonne's comments: you might want to look at notions of contact
<br>and change in the virtual world as they undergird some of the issues about
<br>telling newbies from habitues. Lexical items are very easy to pick up and
<br>sprinkle about, even when not always used with precision. J & I find that
<br>people writing to each other in the virtual universe adapt a number of their
<br>face-to-face strategies to the medium, but within the preferences they have
<br>as individuals. They interact in a variety of interesting ways, from the lexi-
<br>con up through the macroproposition. This is part of the reason that J & I
<br>think e-discourse, at least in asynchronous conferencing (and other asynch.
<br>interactions), is register-ial. You might want to check writings on this topic
<br>by Kathleen Ferrara or Harriet Wilkins. Hope this helps -- Boyd Davis
<br>