Tikrit University Journal for Humanities Vol. ( 14 )

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Internet Chat Discourse Dr. Nashwan Mustafa Al-Sa’ati Lecturer/ Dept. of English/ College of Arts / University of Mosul Abstract This paper presents a discoursal study of fifteen minutesynchronous public Internet chat used among strangers in Yahoo Messenger chatrooms. It also tries to draw a comparison with faceto-face everyday conversation. Some features are investigated, mainly opening and closing phases, turn-taking system, repair, nonverbal language, self- referencing, topic organization, etc. The study hypothesizes that chat discourse has unique features. Despite this uniqueness, it has much in common with faceto-face spoken conversation. The study has shown that chat discourse has specific features presenting it as a unique type of conversations. The main of these features is that there is a lack in showing immediate emotional states and paralinguistic cues. So, participants compensate such a gap through using emoticons, typing in a certain style and adopting explicit addressing. Second, there is in general disrupted turn adjacency. Third, participating in multiple topics simultaneously is noted. The study has also shown that chat discourse resembles spoken conversation. Such resemblance is reflected, for example, in the rapidity and informality of both media. Moreover, conversations of both types start and close by using specific signals. In maintaining the conversation, one person speaks at a time and participants use some follow-up cues to show their interest in what

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others say. In addition, self- and other- repairs are noted. Finally, certain topic types are realized, in which there is a clear ending or a topic shift.

1. Introduction Today, communication, by the effect of technology, has been changed. The conversation is no longer face-to-face act or a talk on the telephone. Nowadays, there is the Internet which allows persons to engage in dyadic or multi-party conversations. The electronic communication has opened a new vista for communication as necessary information exchange and for social and psychological development of self (Neuage, 2006: 297). In www.1 (2006: 3), it is argued that since there is no face-to-face meeting among on- line chatters, Internet communication fosters direct and self-disclosure. Participants can speak and behave in any way they desire since there is little chance for anyone to link them with their statements. So, chatters may speak more openly and bluntly than they would do in face-to-face discourse. Moreover, Haggerty (2006: 2) states that chat is more open because people say what they want directly not as in face-to-face conversation. That is why, people use the computer as a safety net. When the conversation is not going as one participant wants it, he/she can exit the chatroom and go to another room. Furthermore, the types of conversations mentioned earlier are conducted in on-line chatrooms, that involve various kinds of topics, either synchronously, i.e. in real time or asynchronously, i.e. in postponed time.

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2. Hypotheses The study hypothesizes that: a. Chat discourse has its own peculiarities. b. Chat discourse, despite its peculiarities, has much in common with spoken conversation.

3. Aims of the Study The study intends to present a conversational analytical study of chat. In this sense, it tackles the discoursal structure of the synchronous1 public chat used in the Internet, specifically on Yahoo messenger chatrooms (channels).2 Hence, the study aims at describing the different aspects of on-line chat discourse among strangers as well as drawing a comparison with face-to-face spoken conversation to find out whether the same patterns of face-to-face spoken conversation are found in on-line conversation or not, and whether or not there are common characteristics between the two domains.3

Some features of the chat discourse will be described. Precisely, opening and closing phases, turn- taking system, follow-up turns, self- referencing, topic organization and hyper-threaded topics, repair to conversational breakdown, pauses and non-verbal signals and emoticons. 1

Crystal (2001:130) believes that it is the synchronous interactions that cause radical linguistic innovations which affect several basic conventions of spoken and written communication. 2 Yahoo is the most prominent programme among the latest evolutions in computer- mediated communication. It is chosen since it is dominant, most popular and easily accessible. 3 Bavelas, etal (1997, cited in Nuckolls, 2005: 13) point out that because face-toface conversation is the first and most common form of communication, it can be used as a prototype to evaluate other forms of communication including computer- mediated communication.

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4. Data Collection4 The corpus of the study represents fifteen minutes in length of synchronous conversations. It is recorded from different randomly- chosen public chat categories together with their rooms to ensure the variety of users and the topics discussed. The number of interlocutors in each room varies considerably according to the topic discussed. While collecting the data, the researcher merely entered a chatroom and remained silent. He did not greet room users in entering. As a result, they did not try to communicate with him though his user name still appeared in the list. The experts are the exact conversations that take place within the chatroom. So, they include all the spelling and grammatical mistakes that occurred in the original conversation.

5. Chat (Room; Channel) Chat is an ongoing and simultaneous discussion on a particular topic in which anonymous computer users interested in the topic can participate to express their opinions, to influence the discussion, to correct a misunderstanding, to express agreement, or to remind people that one exists. If anyone is minded to reply specifically, it is a bonus. However, lack of reply is not taken personally. When a person asks a specific question for a group (e.g. Does anyone know where I can get?), the absence of a response probably means that nobody who reads the message knows. (see Crystal, 2001:139 and Crystal, 2003:426).

4

In analyzing the data, a capital has been substituted for each participant’s name. This is so for ease of use, increased anonymity and because it is not representative of the people using them.

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Moreover, chat is an international site of language use with spatially distant participants having various linguistic backgrounds (Crystal, 2001:130). It is dynamic and conversational in character. This is due to the short responses made by participants (Crystal,2003: 432). So, when chat conversation takes place, participants can see the text unfolding on their screens and they are also able to scroll back the text on the screen to re-read previous parts of the conversation and respond accordingly. Being a chatter, a person accesses through his/her Yahoo ID5 and a password then he/she writes a sentence or an utterance similar to the ‘intonation unit’ used by discourse analysts. After pressing the ‘Enter’ key on the keyboard or clicks on the ‘Send’ icon on the screen, the utterance will be displayed on the screens of all the other present participants. That utterance will be preceded by his/her nickname, a means that a person has chosen to represent his/her identity in Yahoo Messenger. The conversation occurs inside a room (channel), an Internet website, that persons have chosen to join for the first time. It allows various people to engage in synchronous real-time communication with one another. Each room has its own topic where participants are able to talk in group (public) or in private. The relative status and other social categories that are important and imposed on the way where persons interact with each other in face-to-face conversation lose their significance in these types of interaction. (www.1 ,2006:3). As for nationality markers, they appear as soon as interlocutors realize their conversational partners is of the same nationality and not a native English speaker. They may even switch to the common 5

Yahoo ID is one’s Yahoo e-mail address minus the domain.

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language among them or use it for certain expressions. However, the most understood and spoken language on Yahoo is English. Therefore, most room topics are in English. All participants inside a room are free to leave at any time and join another one or even remain completely outside any room. Moreover, a room, depending on its topic, can be very crowded or quite or calm.

6. Emoticons In spoken conversation, participants are able to get more information about each other through the physical, non-verbal and paralinguistic cues, i.e. gestures, body movements, facial expressions and the tone of voice. These cues are so important in disambiguation and in expressing the attitudes of the interlocutors. However, in chatting, it seems that many of these signals are missing. To compensate the absence of these cues, keyboard characters have been designed. They are called smileys or emoticons.6 They are emotional graphic-visual ways for expressing the way one feels when the words alone are not enough (Nuckolls, 2005: 66). Furthermore, Puterman (n.d., cited in Abdulla, 2005:51) believes that the use of emoticons is a way for keeping a conversation going and she refers to them as ‘icons used for expressing emotions’. As for Park (1996, cited in Abdulla, 2005: 51), he reveals that emoticons illustrate how people overcome the technical limitations of computer communication.

6

The word ‘emoticons’ is short for ‘emotion icons’.

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The emoticons are typed in sequence on a single line and placed at the end of a sentence. The two basic types of emoticons that express positive and negative attitudes are:7 : -) or :) :- ( or : ( Furthermore, these emoticons are not frequent. In one study, 13.4% of 3000 posts contained them. Many people did not use them at all. In addition, most users restricted themselves to the basic types, adding few variations: e.g. don’t be silly :) that’s a pain :))))) (Crystal, 2003: 431)

7. Data Analysis: 7.1 Starting a Conversation (The Opening Phase): Interactants mark their entrance by informal greeting. Before this happens, the server announces to everyone in the room that a new participant has joined the room. As in multi- party spoken conversation, it is not necessary to greet everybody on a channel. Thus, one ‘hello’ or an equivalent is enough. Participants, however, do not expect everybody to greet them back. The forms of informal greeting are: 1 - heeeeelllllloooo 2 -hey (everybody) (room, what’s up) (room + another contracted word) 3 -HI (all) (boyss) 4 -evening folks

The presence of the ‘nose’ element seems to be a function of typing speed or personal taste (Crystal, 2003: 431). 7

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5 -WITCHES ………..HHHHHHHHH -6 ‫الوووووووو‬ -7 ‫هاااااااااااي‬ A number of the conversational openings, however, can have a formulaic nature in the form of adjacency pairs. Let us look at the following excerpt where a new user joins a channel and is greeted by another one. They use their nicks that they have chosen for themselves. Then one of them asks the other about his asl (i.e. age/ sex/ location): 8- A: hi B: hi! A B: asl ? (China: 3) Sometimes, one of the participants tries to check with the others if they are able to talk at that time, i.e. finding out if the conversation can take place.8 9 - anyone bored nbwanna chat? 10 -Whos around? Furthermore, these questions may be specific. This is seen in the following extract where one of the participants asks others if there is anybody being of his nationality or if they have got pictures: 11 - is there any pakistani 12 -anyone got pics ? The starting phase of chat discourse can be even a kind of request:

8

This is referred to as ‘ situational questions’ by Nuckolls(2005: 46).

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-13 ‫هاي هوكن نكلن حد هن الجنس الناعن‬ (Hi, can I speak to anyone of the fair sex?) ( Professors’ Chat) The mode of the opening phase may be changed into a kind of order, which implicitly indicates an invitation to have a chat: 14 - Meet real girls tonight, free http:// (Back Chat) Furthermore, the starting phase may refer to a fact as an implicit invitation: 15- I only talk with C2C people LOL (Asian Connections) Sometimes, this phase may contain an explicit invitation that involves an initial greeting, question, or vocative. This is shown in the following excerpts: 16 - Bonjour Babes! I am X! Find out my fetishes on My Free Pics 17 - What’c happening Studs! X For you! View My Sexy Page 18 - All lovers! X Fell lonely! Pay a visit to My Webcam Interactants may resort to vocative to mark the starting of their conversation. The analysis of the data has presented the word ‘gay’ as a vocative form. Moreover, some participants have preferred to stick to nonverbal greeting. They use one of the typographic forms, namely ‘LOL’ (laugh out loud) Surprisingly, the data has shown two cases where, in the first, one of the participants greets another just after chatting with her and the latter, in turn, does not manipulate any greeting form at the very beginning of his entrance: 19- A: B! salam (hi) (Islam Chat)

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As for the second, it presents an interlocutor who manipulates a form of threat as a way for expressing his greeting to others: 20 - I will stick around for another minute but no more unless someone cool PMs me (Violence in Schools) 7.2 Turn- taking System The turn is everything A says before B speaks and vice 9 versa. In conversation analysis, the primary concern is the way in which speakers organize their talk turn by turn. The turns appear together as adjacency pairs or as the initiation- response – follow up of an exchange. In chat discourse, however, there is somehow a lack of organization of turn- taking. That is, adjacency pairs are separated by unrelated turns.10 As a result, conversations overlap with each other and may therefore be misinterpreted. This is due to some reasons: 1. Participants type various conversations at once. 2. The conversations are short and rapidly distributed. 3. The absence of paralinguistic and prosodic cues which are key parameters in spoken conversation for granting the floors to others. 4. Turns can not be seen by other participants when typed until they are sent. 9

It should be noticed that each line in on-line chat resembles one turn and every turn is preceded by the nickname of the person saying it with any convention the person has chosen to refer to that name. To indicate that a person has joined or left the room, the name of that person is presented and followed by the expression ‘joined the room’ or ‘left the room’. 10 In www.1, 2006: 15, these unrelated turns has been referred to as the ‘split turns’.

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5. The typing is slower than speech which leads to the emergence of these unrelated turns. 6. Participants may receive no response to their message. This leads some of them to send the message repeatedly. 7. Participants enter and leave the rooms frequently which creates disturbances in the conversation. (For more details, see Crystal, 2001: 152, Simpson, 2006: 8 and Haggerty, 2006: 5). These cases will, then, produce ‘disrupted turn adjacency’ (Simpson, 2006: 8) which is described as a responding message separated in linear order from a previous message by another message(s) when they are sent at the same time. Hence, the sender may make a second turn before receiving a response to the first. (Herring,1999: cited in Simpson, 2006: 8). This can, in our study, be seen in the following excerpts: 21- A: are u m C left the room D joined the room E joined the room F Yummy Gentlemen! Jody love you! Check out My Webpage B: yes (Professors’ Chat) ********************************** 22- A: ‫هنٍن‬ (Where are you from?) B: ‫انتا وليد‬ (Are you waleed ?) B: ‫هن هصر‬ (From Egypt) (Professors’ Chat)

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Sometimes, there is a completion of a given turn in a following one though separated by unrelated turns: 23- A: yea I know But you are an B joined the room C left the room A: Ass hole (Violence in Schools) There may appear cases where this completion of a turn is unseparated: 24- A: ‫هاااااي‬ (Hi) A: ‫هوكن نتعرف‬ (Can we be introduced to each other?) (Professors’ Chat) However, it is not unfamiliar, in our study, to find samples of adjacency pairs. The following extract presents two interlocutors where one of them asks the other about his age and the other replies in response: 25- A: ‫انتا عند كام سنة‬ (How old are you?) B: 24 A: ‫وانتا‬ (And you?) (Professors’ Chat) As mentioned earlier, slow typing causes a delay in the emergence of the turn on the screen. This may lead a participants to exit especially if the delay lasts for a long time; but what happens, in our study, is that another participant communicates after that leaving. (Does this mean that this participant did not see the message: ‘X left the room’ , especially this message is preceded by

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unrelated turns which give him time to see the message before typing the answer?!!). This case is clearly presented in the following extract where one of the participants asks others to have a chat with him but he receives no answer. After leaving the room, an interlocutor shows his desire to talk to him: 26- A: wannabe chat A: left the room B: YES I WANT TO CHAT A (Violence in Schools) Similarly, the following extract presents two participants where the second, ‘B’, asks about A’s name just after A has printed his names: 27- A: ‫هوكن نتعرف‬ (Can we be introduced to each other?) A: ‫انا اسالم‬ (I’m Islam) B: ‫اسمك ايه‬ (What’s your name?) (Professors’ Chat) Sometimes, a third person may intrude with two conversing interlocutors but they give him/her no response: 28- A: ‫هوكن نتعرف على بنت هحتراهة للصداقة بجد‬ (Can I be introduced to a respectful girl for real friendship?) C: WELL THIS IS CRAFT ROOM B: ‫هوكن‬ (It’s o.k..!) (General Crafts)

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Turns may involve the names of persons addressed.11 This means has a vital role in situations having a kind of misunderstanding. Kortti (1999: 10) argues that addressing by names is a way for compensating the lack of gaze in face-to-face conversation. It is compared to Sack’s concept of ‘speaker select’. He adds, using this means avoids overlapping, i.e. the comments to one person can not be confused with those given to another (ibid :14). The names may be before or after the message: 29- A: Ameen! salam (hi) (Islam Chat) 30 - A: hi! dette (China: 3) Often, there may appear a kind of intersection of directionality. That is, one of the participants directs his/her talk to more than one interlocutor. This is clearly presented in the following excerpt where B is talking with A about C, but at the same time shifts to C: 31- A: C is not annoyed too ! he is only missing sleepy B: A, C loves all the ladies B: right C (Islam Chat) 7.3 Self- referencing A person may wish not to write his/her name as the first item of an utterance or turn in order not to be displayed twice with

11

It should be mentioned that sometimes, instead of using their names, participants use nicknames. They may even use letters as well as numbers, hyphens, other keyboard symbols, words or phrases or even nonsense words. (For more details, see Crystal, 2001: 161).

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his/her name before the utterance. Thus, when the utterance is displayed, it reads: ‘X: --- + an utterance’. Let us look at the following extract where one of the participants wishes to tell others that she wants someone to cheer her up: 32 - jamie ~ : < -- needs someone totcheeriher uppbhoss~ (The University Years) 7.4 Follow- up (Reactive) Turns Interlocutors try to show their interest in and share others’ ideas. They try to acknowledge, to introduce an opinion, to encourage speakers to continue their topic, etc. To do that, they adopt certain follow-ups, particularly emphatic focus, clarification and specification requests, neutral signals and reformulation, i.e. giving a personal viewpoint. Let us look at the following extract where A shows his great interest with the person addressed through using an emphatic focused signal which leads B, in turn, to ask him about his age: 33 - A: ‫هنٍن‬ (Where are you from?) B: ‫هن هصر‬ (From Egypt) A: ‫اه‬ (Wow!) A: ‫اجدع ناس‬ (Good people) B: ‫انتا عند كام سنة‬ (How old are you?) (Professors’ Chat)

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Moreover, in the following extracts, B encourages A to continue his talk by manipulating clarification and specification requests, respectively: 34 - A: Can i be respectful also if i increase my volume B: what do you want to prove A (Islam Chat) ********************* 35 - A: do u know what is the hardest thing to do on net B: what is that A? (Islam Chat) The follow-up turns may contain neutral signals in showing participants’ feelings and agreement. This is shown in the following extract where B’s turn indicates a neutral agreement with A’s: 36 - A: i just said i don’t know the code B: its ok! (Islam Chat) The following excerpt shows a strong argumentation by B, using a kind of reformulation strategy, which reflects his interest in all what A talks: 37 - A: c is not annoyed too! He is only missing sleepy B: nou htink so A B: A, C loves all the ladies (Islam Chat) Besides, one of the participants has used the discourse marker ‘well’ at the very beginning of her turn. This marker has the function of introducing her opinion and to acknowledge what the other interlocutor is saying: 38- A: Well, he is respectful also.. B ust as u r

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(Islam Chat)

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7.5 Topic The person, in spoken conversation in general, can start a conversation with a topic and keep on that topic until a new topic is introduced. Then, old topics are closed. So, multiple (hyperthreaded) topics rarely occur. However, Nuckolls (2005: 19) points out that the studies of chat discourse have shown that there is a lack of structure in topic organization. Moreover, it is possible for a participant to be involved in more than one topic and to talk with different persons at one time. That is, X can make a contribution to one topic and then shifts to speak within another. So, almost the dyadic interaction ceases to exist, i. e. three members talk, at least. The order, therefore, in which turns appear on the screen depends on who hits the ‘SEND’ button first, not on who begins typing first. Moreover, anyone can scroll back the screen to see any utterance made by every chatter and participate in several topics. The analysis has shown the following extract where ‘A’ is talking with ‘B’ but at the same time shifts to talk with C: 39 - A: i love all the ladies next doors! even a non Muslim lady start taking Hijab when she comes out from her home B: Well that depends where you lie A B: live C: so what A A: can i be respectful also if i increase my volume A: C! salam C: what do you want to prove A B: you mean the sound volume A A: C! the morse code is only understandable who knows the decoding table, for the others it is just whistling

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B: lol i have no clue about morse- code A: B but that’s not my fault! u are away from me (Islam Chat) The analysis has also shown that changes in topic patterns occur when the topic changes. This results in the emergence of particular topic types, namely informative and elicitative within which embedded different types of turns produced by more than two participants. The topic may be closed by a clear ending or by shifting to another without presenting that clear ending. It should be noticed that since there are multiple topics, it is somehow difficult to specify a clear terminating topic signal. However the analysis has shown that the termination can be achieved by bounding the topic to produce a clear ending. This indicates that nothing is to be added to the current topic. This is shown in the following extract where B uses ‘its ok’ as a topic terminator: 40 - A: i just said i don’t know the code B: its ok!

(Islam Chat)

Sometimes, participants try to end a topic without presenting a boundary ending. They resort to another strategy, namely topic shift. This is presented in the following excerpt where participants are talking about one of their friends and then one of them shifts to talk about his relationship with her neighbour: 41 - A: C is not annoyed too! he is only missing sleepy B: nou htink so A B: A, C loves all the ladies

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B: right C A: B! he cant do that more then me B: Well, he is respectful also.. A ust as u r A: i love all the ladies next doors! even a non muslim lady start taking Hijab when she comes out from her home (Then the topic continues) (Islam Chat) 7.6 Repair A feature of spoken conversation found in chat discourse is the repair. There are two kinds of repair: self- and other-repairs. In the following extract A makes a self- initiated repair to correct his use of the verb ‘lie’ and replace it by ‘live’: 42 - A: Well that depends where you lie B A: live (Islam Chat) On the other hand, a case of other- repair is presented in the following excerpt where B and C have not understood what A has meant by using the word ‘volume’: 43 - A: can i be respectful also if i increase my volume C: what do you want to prove A B: you mean the sound volume A (Islam Chat) 7.7 Pauses In spoken conversation, if someone is silent, one can see that he/she is still paying attention. Chat discourse, however, encourages participation. So, a pause may indicate a deliberate withholding, a temporary inattention, or a physical absence (Crystal, 2001: 159). This is clearly seen in the following extract where A’s withdrawal is noticed through B’s insistence turn:

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44 - A: hi B: hi! A C left the room D joined the room B: A! ? E joined the room F left the room G joined the room I joined the room A: yes

(China: 3)

7.8 Non-Verbal Signals and Emoticons Participants are able to overcome the limitations of on-line chat, as a conversation medium, through using emoticons and the creative use of typography. Let us look at the following extracts: 45 - A: ‫انت هٍن‬ (Who are you?) A: : - ) : - ) (General Crafts) The signal ‘ . - ) ‘ at the end of a turn may refer to happiness, smile or may even represent a teasing feeling. Laughter is indicated through the abbreviation ‘lol’ which means ‘laugh out loud’ showing attention and understanding: 46 - A: lol i have no clue about morse- code (Islam Chat) Sometimes, interlocutors use capitalization of words within the conversation to emphasize a certain idea or to show emotion: 47 - A: ‫هوكن نتعرف على بنت هحتراهة للصداقة بجد‬ (Can I be introduced to a respectful girl for real friendship?)

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C: WELL THIS IS CRAFT ROOM B: ‫هوكن‬ (It’s o.k..!) (General Crafts) Instead of capitalization, participants may resort to doubling the letters and marks for showing the emphasis: 48- A: ‫هااااااااي‬ (Hiiiiiii) (Professors’ Chat) ******************** 49 - A: only!!!!!!!!! one question! if u are there (Islam Chat) 7.9 Leaving a Conversation (The Closing Phase) Chatters may close the conversation by presenting a clear ending, namely ‘bye then’: 50 - A: Bye then B (Islam Chat) Furthermore, the closing phase of a conversation may be in the form of request to close the public and shift to the private conversation: 51 - A: ‫ممكن نتكلم على الخاص‬ (Can we speak privately?) B: ‫هوكن‬ (It’s ok!) (Professors’ Chat) However, an interlocutor may close a conversation because he/she gets no response at all from others: 52 - A: ‫هاااااااااي‬ (Hiiiiiiii) B left the room A: ‫انتو هوتوا وال اٌه‬ (Are you dead?)

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C joined the room A: ً‫طٍب بااااي بق‬ (Ok, bye then) D: Good looking Darlings Kassie is lonely! I am seeking lovers My Webpage A: ‫هللا ٌرحوكوا‬ (May God grants you his mercy) (Professors’ Chat) Surprisingly, a chatter may terminate a conversation suddenly without any notice. This termination is accompanied by the emergence of a short message, viz. ‘A left the room’. 8- Conclusions Some people have the opinion that chat discourse is not a conversation at all and, hence, it has no discoursal structure. They believe that it is not serious and it is a way of wasting time, and, therefore, it may not be worthy of a linguistic study. However, this study has revealed the importance of investigating this field. The study has shown that chat discourse has some specific features of its own, presenting it as a unique type of conversation. This can be summarized in the following: 1. New participants are introduced (as well as they leave) by server message. 2. Participants are not able to see each other. So, there is a lack in showing immediate emotional states, paralinguistic cues and emphasis. Participants, then, try to compensate such a gap through using emoticons, typing in a certain style and adopting explicit addressing. 3. There is, to a certain extent, more time for interlocutors to think before participation.

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4. Though turns are short, which may prevent overlapping among them, there are, in general, disrupted turn adjacency or a completion of a turn in a following line (whether or not they are separated by unrelated turns). 5. Chatters can participate in multiple topics simultaneously. 6. Interlocutors adopt self- referencing strategy. 7. Long pauses are not allowed. The study has also shown that chat discourse resembles spoken conversation in the following features: 1. Chat discourse is rapid and informal. 2. It occurs in real time with the participants present at the same time, using their real names or their nicks and the messages are answered with somehow short- time delay. 3. The conversations start with informal greeting, questions (specific or general), request, order, fact, invitation (involving initial greeting, vocatives or question), vocative, threat and non-verbal greeting. 4. It is not necessarily to greet everybody. 5. It is not expected for someone to be greeted back by everybody, i.e. one or two persons are enough. 6. One person speaks at a time. 7. Participants try to share others’ ideas. This reflects their interest in the topic. To achieve this, they use some followup (reactive) signals, viz. emphatic, clarification and specification requests, reformulation and neutral. These signals acknowledge others, encourage others to continue their talk and introduce an opinion.

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8. Changes in topic patterns occur when the topic changes. This leads to the emergence of certain topic types, viz. informative and elicitative within which embedded different types of turns that are produced by more than two participants. 9. Topics are closed by a clear ending or by a shift. 10. Both self-repair (of correcting verbs) and other-repair (for explaining the meaning of a certain word) have been noted. 11. Closing a conversation is achieved through presenting a clear ending or suddenly without any indication. Before this section ends, a final word must be said. Although it is widely used and has much in common with spoken conversation, we believe that chat discourse cannot surpass spoken conversation. This is so since it lacks many features, the body language, for example, is in the lead. 9- Suggestions for Further Studies In spite of the results found, there are some that the study has managed to neglect: 1. The study has only touched on certain points in the Internet context, namely common synchronous chat. There is much scope for investigation of other areas in Internet communication. To the best of my knowledge, little has been done concerning private chat. 2. More studies are needed for comparing and contrasting common chat with other types of Internet interactions such as e-mail, private chat or even with other spoken interactions such as telephone conversation.

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3. An analytical method is needed to compare non- verbal language in face-to-face spoken conversation with on- line emoticons. References Abdulla, A. (2005). A Linguistic Study of Internet Chat. Unpublished M.A. Thesis: University of Mosul. Crystal, D. (2001). Language and the Internet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. _________(2003). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, 2nd. ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Haggerty, K. (2006). Conversation Analysis: A Study of On- line Chatrooms vs. Oral Communication, 1- 14 http:// www.people.wcsu.edu/mccarneyh/acad/ Haggerty Thesis.html/ Kortti, H. (1999). On Some Similarities Between Discourse in the Internet Relay Chat and the Conventions of Spoken English,1-17 . http:// www. yahoo.com/ Neuage, T. (2006). Constituting the ODAM (On- line Discourse Analysis Method), 1- 310 http:// www. yahoo.com/ Nuckolls, K. (2005). IM Communicating: A Conversational Analysis of Instant Message Conversations, 1- 97 http:// www. yahoo.com/ Simpson, J. (2006). Conversational Floors in Synchronous Textbased CMC Discourse, 1- 29 http:// www. yahoo.com/ (www.1) (2006). Conversation Analysis of Internet Chat Rooms, 1-19

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‫‪Internet Chat Discourse‬‬ ‫‪Dr. Nashwan Mustafa Al-Sa’ati/ lecturer‬‬

‫‪http://www.polisci.wisc.edu/~rdparrish/chat%20Roo‬‬ ‫‪ms%20for%20Site.htm/‬‬ ‫الملخص‬ ‫يق د ه اددلب ب درددة بلحددث ارع مددعا ب ةعاددث ببة يددث و د لددديث ب اة باددعا ب ب يددث‬ ‫دين ب غلدعء في ب يعاب ايح جل بب تي با اع خاحث ولدل ييقدثو بتردعبل ب بلحدث بن تقدعلن‬ ‫دددين اددلم ب ارع مددعا بامييتاددع فددي ب اقددعديا ب لدديبيث ب يبايددث دددين ب ددع و بي د تدده بلحددث‬ ‫دةددا ب خئددعل ب خطعديددث امددل د د بيعا ب اعيددعا ب ارع مددعاو ببخددل ب د بلو بب تئددري و‬ ‫بل ب يةل ب ييايو ببةلعلة ب ب لباو بد يث ب ابضبعو ب خو‬ ‫تيتددلا ب بلحددث و د برتد دببء ارع مددعا لددديث ب اة با ددعا ب ب يددث و د اايد د با‬ ‫ار د ة خعئددث داددعو ب يددن و د ب ددلمه اددن اددلم ب ااي د با ب خعئددثو فددعن اددلم ب ارع مددعا‬ ‫اتلعداث ب ر يديل اع امييتاع في ب اقعديا ب ليبيث ب يبايثو‬ ‫دي ا ب لبحث بن ب ارع معا و لديث ب اة باعا ب ب يث ترتبي و د خئدعل‬ ‫ار د ة بب تددي تدددين بن اددلم ب ارع مددعا اددي ددبع خددع در د لبتددع يخت د وددن دددعيي ب دببع‬ ‫ب ارع مددعا بةخددلاو ببادده اددلم ب خئددعل اددي ب ددع ة يايددن بظاددعل رددعةا وعطييددث ب يددث‬ ‫بوياعا تبض دلبا ب ييه ادن يددل ب اتي ادينو فيةدبا ب اترد مبن ودن ل دد دعحدتخ به‬ ‫"بةيابتددعييب " بب طدعوددث دعح د بك اةددين بيددل د بحددتخ به ب د بء ب ئ دلي و دعةضددعفث ب د‬ ‫ل دددو ف ددعن ا ددعد دئ ددبلة وعا ددث ب بب بل ادةمد دلة بايئ ددب ث د ددع ببل بخ ددلا د ددين ي ددل لخئ ددين‬ ‫اترد مينو باددن ب خئددعل ب اااددث بةخددلا ب ددع ي د ددبرظ بةلددتلبد فددي ود ة اببضدديع فددي‬ ‫بيا ببر و‬ ‫بدي ا ب لبحث بيضع بن ب ارع معا و لديث ب اة باعا ب ب يث تتلعدع اع‬ ‫ب ارع معا في ب اقعديا ب يبايث ب ليبيث بي ةي الب ب تلعدع في بن يي ب بوين حليع‬ ‫بميل لحاي ببن ب ارع معا تد ب بت تاي دعحتخ به بحعلل ار ةو ياع ب ع و بحتالبل‬ ‫ب ارع مث فعن ا عد لخ ببر يتي ه في بيا ببر بيحتخ ه ب اتر مبن دةا ب بحعلل‬ ‫ب تي تلجع بةخلين و بياعل ر يماه بب تي تبض ا ا باتاعااه دع اببضيع‬ ‫ب اطلبرثو ويبة و ل دو فق ته بحتخ به بحعلل ب تئري ب لبتي بب تئري ان يدل‬ ‫بةخلين بم عء ب ارع معا ياع ظال ب ببع ار ة ان ب اببضيع بب تي ت تاي باع د اعيعا‬ ‫ببضرث بب دتغييل ب ابضبع د بن بحتخ به الم ب اعيعا ب ببضرثو‬

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