Indiana University Linguistics Club
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Travel Grant Winner Abstracts

Spring 2007

Asta Zelenkauskaite “Abbreviation, Audience, and Gender in iTV SMS Chat”
at the 57th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association:
Creating Communication: Content, Control, Critique. San Francisco, CA, May 24-28, 2007

Abstract:

A distinctive feature of Short Message Service (SMS) mobile phone messages in various languages is the use of non-standard, abbreviated typography. Previous research on computer-mediated communication (CMC), including SMS, has also identified differences according to user gender. This paper reports a study of non-standard typography, in particular shortenings, in relation to gender of users in SMS messages sent to a public Italian interactive television (iTV) channel. A quantitative comparison of SMS in three languages—Italian, English and German—was also carried out to show that shortenings are an integral part of non-standard SMS typography, regardless of language and the public/private audience dimension. The results shed light on SMS usage across languages as well as the increasingly popular phenomenon of iTV SMS chat.

Edelmira L. Nickels “Using Films to Assess Cross-sectional Development of Speech Act Identification”
at Pragmatics and Language Learning 2007. Manoa, HI, March 26-28, 2007.

Abstract:

Films are a valuable resource in L2 pragmatics research (Rose, 2001), which seeks to expand developmental inquiries to account for comprehension and awareness (Bardovi-Harlig, 2001; Bardovi-Harlig & Dörnyei, 1998; Bergman & Kasper, 1993; Cook & Liddicoat, 2002; García, 2004; Niezgoda & Rover, 2001; Takahashi, 2005; Verschueren, 2000). This study explores the use of films in the investigation of the development of ILP awareness by assessing learners’ identification of speech acts. In a cross-sectional study we asked: (a) Do learners at different proficiency levels demonstrate different degrees of pragmatic awareness in identifying various speech acts? And, (b) Do level of directness and contextual cues account for any variability in the correct identification of speech acts?

Informed by García (2004), Koike (1989, 1996) and Rose (2001), the study presented learners (in first, second and third years of Spanish) with nine dialogues from a film. Learners were asked to identify direct and indirect speech acts (offers, thanks, corrections, requests), which were presented within, and contextualized through, movie scenes.

The results indicate that, inasmuch as year of study may be suggestive of proficiency, the level of proficiency influences learners’ identification of speech acts. That is, accurate identification increased with year of study. Furthermore, the results support Kasper’s (1984) conclusions that failure to comprehend certain speech acts was due to learners’ inability to make use of illocutionary mechanisms. On the one hand, the level of directness did not account for variability in the correct identification of all speech acts. On the other, learners reported attending to different contextual cues to varying degrees: First year learners based their identification of speech acts on visual cues (correlating negatively with correct responses), second year learners relied on both visual and lexical cues, giving visual cues more attention, and third year learners relied mostly on lexical cues.

More abstracts coming soon...

Fall 2006

Summer 2006

Spring 2006

Fall 2005