Oralization of digital texts: non-normative uses in written online conversations
SUMMARY

The authors suggest that chat language is closer to spoken language than to prototypical written language, based on the phonetic, lexical, and morphosyntactic deviations from the standard (Spanish) that were found in their corpus of online conversations (chats). All participants came from Salamanca, Spain, and were native speakers of the local variety of Spanish, considered to be the closest one to the standard. Their ages ranged from 20 to 29 and all of them had at least some higher education.
In this research, the traditional distinction of oral and written discourse is challenged, as what is being compared most often is informal oral language vs. formal written language, resulting in a vast contrast between the two. What should be compared, the authors say, is informal discourse vs. informal writing and formal discourse vs. formal writing. In their experiment the authors assume that written discourse is prototypically planned and oral discourse is non-planned. With the arrival of new technologies, a lot of communication happens via phones and computers, and the authors call this communication “talking through the medium of writing”.
The orthography in chats is analyzed as “phonetic deviations”; the results show that elision (typical of non-normative spoken Spanish) and epenthesis are the most common forms of deviation in the corpus. Epenthesis (addition of sounds), differently from Darics’ approach, is treated only as imitation of the oral language.
Many lexical deviations from the standard were found in the corpus. They include borrowings (mostly from English), neologisms, slang, and profanity.
Morphosyntactic deviations in the corpus include non-standard distinction of direct vs. indirect object pronouns, non-standard use of relative pronouns, use of the definite article before a proper noun, etc.
While linguistic norms are based on written language, chats include a variety of non-standard forms and therefore can be considered closer to spoken discourse. The authors arrive at the conclusion that the language of chats is a subcategory (subtipo) of spoken language (lenguaje oral).

Oralization of digital texts: non-normative uses in written online conversations
SUMMARY

The authors suggest that chat language is closer to spoken language than to prototypical written language, based on the phonetic, lexical, and morphosyntactic deviations from the standard (Spanish) that were found in their corpus of online conversations (chats). All participants came from Salamanca, Spain, and were native speakers of the local variety of Spanish, considered to be the closest one to the standard. Their ages ranged from 20 to 29 and all of them had at least some higher education.
In this research, the traditional distinction of oral and written discourse is challenged, as what is being compared most often is informal oral language vs. formal written language, resulting in a vast contrast between the two. What should be compared, the authors say, is informal discourse vs. informal writing and formal discourse vs. formal writing. In their experiment the authors assume that written discourse is prototypically planned and oral discourse is non-planned. With the arrival of new technologies, a lot of communication happens via phones and computers, and the authors call this communication “talking through the medium of writing”.
The orthography in chats is analyzed as “phonetic deviations”; the results show that elision (typical of non-normative spoken Spanish) and epenthesis are the most common forms of deviation in the corpus. Epenthesis (addition of sounds), differently from Darics’ approach, is treated only as imitation of the oral language.
Many lexical deviations from the standard were found in the corpus. They include borrowings (mostly from English), neologisms, slang, and profanity.
Morphosyntactic deviations in the corpus include non-standard distinction of direct vs. indirect object pronouns, non-standard use of relative pronouns, use of the definite article before a proper noun, etc.
While linguistic norms are based on written language, chats include a variety of non-standard forms and therefore can be considered closer to spoken discourse. The authors arrive at the conclusion that the language of chats is a subcategory (subtipo) of spoken language (lenguaje oral).