This week our assignment was to choose one asynchronous online discussion forum that relates to our blog theme. Since our theme is lifestyle we had the opportunity to choose what ever we wanted to. We chose www.lipstickalley.com, which is a website that has blogs, gossips and a discussion forum for african american women. The website describes itself to be "News, Sports, Celebrity Gossip from an African American perspective". We couldn't find any statistics on how many users there are, but you have to be registered to join the conversation, but you can read the topics without registering. It is a moderated forum and for a good reason, since the user's often argue with each other and use hard language.
The thread we chose is found here and it's about Katy Perry's performance in last sunday's Superbowl.
The assignment was to analyze the linguistic characteristics of the forum on three levels:
Lexical:
The language in the forum is typical "internet language". Some words are abbreviated, e.g. you = u, want to = wanna, you all = y'all, alright = a'ight etc. Mostly the language is typical written English, but some users emphasised words. Words were misspelled from time to time and grammar rules are generally not followed by the users of the forum. Unofficial terms were also used often, such as "sucked" or "HAHA" = laughing. The use of emoticons is usual and pictures and even gif's are used from time to time
Syntactic:
Lack of strict grammar rules, no punctuation, no capital letters at the beginning of sentences. Here are some examples:
”she is hilarious, especially that joke about not knowing a game was going on and thinking all the people were out here just to see her ”
”LMAO somebody at my house said the same thing. They thought the Super Bowl was catering to pre teens”
”of course in a REAL CONCERT...but u can't tell me that wasn't entertaining. Missy part raised it to a higher level ”
”Missy totally stole the show! I liked when she came out on the lion but it lasted too long and she was struggling vocally at some points and im not even gonna comment on her dancing attempts...but aside from missy my second favorite part was the shark forgetting the dance and flailing around during teenage dream”
Use of short sentences is very usual, for example:
Use of short sentences is very usual, for example:
”I don't trust you OP. Those gifs are pretty damning.
I think you are hungry. Lol ;)”
”the show was nice, her vocals not so much”
”LOL omg thank you. I needed to laugh”
Typically arguments lack explicit reasoning (e.g. Eronen 2014), so the users pretty much write down anything that comes to mind irrationally. Here are some examples:
”She was up there looking like a startled and stiff ass deer from the few clips I saw”
”Everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion.... BUT that's a lie! ”
”Katy Perry's performance sucked...”
”I didn't like any of their performances. ”
Textual:
The use of slang words is very common and the fact that users can use nicknames gives them the freedom to write almost anonymously. Users criticise each other's writings and opinions openly and some post's have been deleted for the use of hard language. Humour, irony and wordplay is used all the time, as you can see from the previous examples. The language is in no way formal, although some users are able to express their thoughts using good written language.
V.H.
Textual:
The use of slang words is very common and the fact that users can use nicknames gives them the freedom to write almost anonymously. Users criticise each other's writings and opinions openly and some post's have been deleted for the use of hard language. Humour, irony and wordplay is used all the time, as you can see from the previous examples. The language is in no way formal, although some users are able to express their thoughts using good written language.
V.H.
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