The Internet is in many cases our primary source for communication. As more communicative options online are introduced and become a part of our life, the language of the Internet, so called Netspeak, becomes a part of our language. The aim of this paper was to find out whether there is a difference in the use of Netspeak between teenagers and adults. The investigation was based on two message boards, one where the majority is teenagers and one where the majority is adults. Four different features of Netspeak were studied: exaggerated use of punctuation; exaggerated use of capital letters; abbreviations; and emoticons. All features are substitutes for paralanguage. The results show that teenagers are more likely to use features such as exaggerated use of punctuation and capitals, and abbreviations. Adults are, however, more likely to use emoticons than teenagers.

[pt] Novos ambientes e novas ferramentas para a escrita, particularmente em sistemas computacionais de comunicação síncrona, como chats, fazem surgir novas formas de abreviação. Neste trabalho, procuramos mostrar que, apesar de as abreviaturas sempre terem sido utilizadas em manuscritos, seja para poupar tempo ou esforços, novas mídias trazem novas questões para o fenômeno de abreviação de palavras. O trabalho analisa dois tipos de dados: o primeiro consiste de um conjunto de textos reescritos por estudantes, para quem foi entregue um texto manuscrito, escrito originalmente com abreviações, que nós apresentamos em sua forma estendida. Os estudantes tinham a tarefa de reescrever o texto, abreviando o máximo de palavras possível. Eles foram divididos em dois grupos: o primeiro não tinha experiência em escrever na Internet e o segundo era formado por usuários freqüentes de chats, blogs e e-mails. Os resultados mostraram que o segundo grupo abreviava mais freqüentemente do que o primeiro, e as formas que eles utilizaram indicaram algumas pistas fonéticas e visuais que podemos utilizar para formular regras que possam decodificar essa nova maneira de abreviar. O segundo tipo de dados foi produzido de forma espontânea: foram recolhidos corpora na Internet, em um blog e um chat, a fim de confirmar os dados encontrados no primeiro corpus, em que a abreviação foi induzida. A língua estudada é o português do Brasil, e as regras, portanto, se aplicam a essa língua, mesmo que possamos prever que algumas delas podem ser estendidas a outras línguas, ao menos para as línguas ocidentais. Para colher a opinião de profissionais da educação sobre o netspeak, foi feito um questionário sobre o assunto. Através de suas respostas, discutimos como a questão das abreviaturas afeta o ensino e o aprendizado da linguagem escrita, que é o nosso principal interesse na pesquisa. / [en] New environments and new writing tools, in particular computational synchronic communication systems, like chats, elicit new abbreviation forms. In this dissertation we claim that, although abbreviations are always been used when manual task is tiring or when we write under time pressure, new media brings new issues to the phenomenon of words abbreviation. The paper presents an experiment with students for whom we gave a manuscript text, originally written with abbreviations, that we present in the plain form. Students are asked to rewrite the text, abbreviating it when they feel that it can be done. They are divided in two groups, one with no experience of writing at the Internet and the other composed of frequent users of chats, blogs and e-mail systems. The results show that this latter group abbreviates more frequently than the other one, and that the forms they use to abbreviate indicate some phonetically and visually based clues which can be used to formulate rules for decoding these new kinds of abbreviations. We also collect data from Internet corpora, specifically from a blog and a chat site, in order to confirm our results. The target language is the Brazilian Portuguese, and the rules are language oriented, although we are assuming that these rules can be adapted to at least occidental languages. Teachers are interviewed about the so called netspeak and they also filled a form where they expressed their points of view about this writing style. The analysis of their answers indicates some interesting discussions about the pedagogy of writing, our main interest in this research.

This paper assesses the relationship between Social Networking Sites (SNS) and the effect of its excessive use on a user’s spelling capabilities and academic performance by using a single-factor, multi-level between subjects design (One-way ANOVA). The One way Anova was applied to SNS use (independent variable) and spelling and academic performance (dependent variables). Furthermore, the independent variable consists of three levels, a few times a month or never, a few times a week and every day. Out of a possible 107 respondents a total of 56 respondents, distributed across the various groups, completed the test. A spelling test together with the academic records was used as an instrument to measure their spelling capabilities. The findings suggest that students that make excessive use of SNS performed worse in the spelling test than students that do not make use of SNS or make use of SNS a few times a month. In addition, it is established that the SNS use has no effect on spelling. Conclusions from this study are that social networking sites have many various impacts on the youth, some being positive and others negative. Although the end result was that SNS do not “significantly” affect your spelling capabilities it is suggested that further research be carried out on this topic on a larger and more representative sample. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / tm2015 / Psychology / MA / Unrestricted

Det här är ett examensarbete i textdesign som bygger på ett uppdrag från Energy Evolution Center. Tillsammans med Mälardalens högskola har Energy Evolution Center tagit fram en metodhandbok för mätning och verifiering av energiprestanda som ännu inte är utgiven. Metodhandboken har en lärande funktion som syftar till att skapa förståelse hos läsaren om processer och metoder kring mätning och verifiering. Syftet med detta arbete är att göra metodhandboken mer användarvänlig genom att förenkla texten som i nuläget upplevs som tung och svår även av personer som arbetar med energifrågor. En av orsakerna till svårighetsgraden i texten är den frekventa användningen av akronymer och initialismer (initialförkortningar). Med stöd från teorier om kognition och minne, samt läsbarhet och stilistik använder jag mig av relevanta metoder för att ta reda på om tydligare associationer och textsammanhang kan hjälpa läsaren att förstå och minnas förkortningarna i handboken. Undersökningen sker i form av en utprovning där studiedeltagare får läsa omarbetade textstycken från handboken där bland annat tydligare associationer till förkortningarna adderats ihop med annan textredigering. I enkätsvaren från utprovningen går det att se att associationerna och textsammanhanget hade viss positiv påverkan på minne och förståelse. / This Bachelor in Textdesign is based on an assignment given by Energy Evolution Center. Energy Evolution Center has developed a guidebook, that is yet to be released, of methods for measurement and verification of energy efficiency actions with help from Mälardalens University. The purpose of the guidebook is to create a sense of understanding about the processes and methods behind the measurement and verification activity. The aim of this Bachelor is to increase the guidebooks usability by simplifying the text content which is considered hard even for individuals in the field. One of the reasons is the frequency of Acronyms and Initialisms. Supported by theories of cognition, memory, and readability I turn to relevant methods for determining if associations and context can help the abbreviations to be remembered and comprehended by the reader. The study method is prototype testing and survey. The participants were asked to read edited parts of the guidebook where the abbreviations been combined with associations before answering questions. The result indicates a positive effect in memory and comprehension.

ABBREVIATION IN CONTEMPORARY BULGARIAN LANGUAGE IN COMPARISON WITH THE CZECH LANGUAGE Dissertation work is aimed at confrontation study of abbreviation in Bulgarian in comparison with Czech and at the description of abbreviations as specific language symbols. Contemporary language tendencies and the changes in the field of abbreviation in relation to the language typology are taken into account. The work is dedicated to the grammatical, stylistic and semantic characteristics of the abbreviations, while a substantial part of the confrontation description addresses the graphical and initial abbreviations, which create a central part of the partial system of abbreviation formations. From the confrontational aspect, there is also described the ability of abbreviations to serve as word-formation base for derivatives. The dissertation work also includes the results of socio-linguistic research made by questionnaire method, where the respondents evaluated the abbreviations of an international character and the words containing abbreviated bases implemented into the text written in Cyrillic.

The theme of the diploma thesis is the analysis of the "mother language" on the Czech Internet forums (especially on emimino.cz, baby-cafe.cz, mimibazar.cz). In the theoretical part the author introduces the varieties of the national language. She defines the characteristics, structure and social differentiation of the analysed sociolect. Then she presents the fundamental aspects of human communication and also devotes to the particularities of communication on the Internet. In the practical part she carries out a language analysis of the collected material. She focuses primarily on the lexical means, mainly diminutives, compounds and abbreviations. The aim of the thesis is to present the specific type of expressing and at the same time to contribute to the research of the non-standard Czech language with this study.

[pt] As relações interpessoais são hoje, mais do que nunca, virtuais. E-mails, chats, listas de discussões, Twitter, entre outras ferramentas de comunicação estão em expansão, seja em ambientes profissionais, seja na vida pessoal. Por conta da chamada revolução virtual, muito se fala sobre a linguagem da Internet, porém pouco se faz para descrevê-la e aproveitá-la como fonte de estudos sobre o português atual. Acreditamos que o entendimento da estrutura do internetês seja útil para diversas áreas de pesquisa, como a Linguística de Corpus. Partindo desse pressuposto, esta tese procura descrever os processos de síntese do internetês, a fim de comprovarmos que há regras na formação de abreviaturas e outras palavras que são típicas dessa nova forma de expressão. Encontramos, por meio de uma pesquisa quantitativa, padrões de formação do internetês, o que prova que essa linguagem não se configura como um desvio anárquico da língua padrão. Esses padrões refletem a fonética e a estrutura silábica do português de forma bastante sistemática, demonstrando o conhecimento implícito dos falantes sobre a gramática da língua e sua preocupação em seguir os princípios de comunicabilidade. Encontramos também diferenças quantitativas e qualitativas no uso da abreviação de acordo com o gênero textual em que aparecem. Acreditamos que a maior compreensão sobre os processos do internetês seja importante para o ensino da escrita formal e que sua descrição pode trazer respostas às críticas a essa forma de se comunicar, que advêm tanto de professores quanto de alunos. Por isso, na parte final deste trabalho, sugerimos tarefas que aproveitem a maior atividade de leitura e escrita proporcionada pela grande expansão das comunicações on-line, para alcançar níveis mais sofisticados de letramento. Mais do que descrever as abreviaturas do internetês, sem propor como lidar com elas, tentaremos trazer um novo olhar a estudiosos de diversas áreas que lidam com a linguagem da Internet, a professores e alunos que têm uma visão equivocada sobre essa linguagem. / [en] Interpersonal relationships are more than ever virtual. E-mails, chats, discussion lists, Twitter, and other communication tools are expanding their use, both in professional environments and in personal life. On account of the virtual revolution, a lot has been said about the language of the Internet, but little effort is made to describe and use it as a source of studies on the current Portuguese language. We believe that the understanding of the structure of the netspeak is useful for several research areas, such as the Corpus Linguistics. Based on this assumption, this paper aims at describing the synthesis processes found on Internet texts in order to prove that there are rules on the formation of abbreviations and other words that are typical of this new form of expression. We found, through quantitative research, patterns of the netspeak, which proves that this language is not configured as an anarchic deviation of cultivated language. These patterns reflect the phonetic and syllabic structure of the Portuguese language rather systematically, showing the speakers implicit knowledge of the grammar and its eagerness to follow the principles of communicability. We also found qualitative and quantitative differences in the use of abbreviation according to the textual gender in which they appear. We believe that the understanding of the processes of the language used on the internet is important for the teaching of writing as well as its formal description can provide answers to criticisms against this form of communicating, which coming from both teachers and students. So, at the end of this thesis, we suggest some tasks that make better use of the increasing activity of reading and writing provided by the boom in online communications, in order to achieve more sophisticated levels of literacy. Rather than describing the abbreviations used on the Internet without suggesting how to deal with them, we try to provide a new perspective to scholars from various fields that deal with the Internet language, as well as to teachers and students who have a wrong view about this language.

This study investigates the use of emoticons and abbreviations in a mode of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC), blogs written by Swedish individuals in English. The aim of the study is to find out whether the emoticons and abbreviations used in these blogs are tailor-made by Swedish users or if they are the same as those found on the rest of the Internet. Another question asked by the study concerns if the use of emoticons and abbreviations differs depending on the gender and age group of the blogger. The method used is mainly concordance searches in a corpus, using the concordance program AntConc to find particular features of CMC. The data used for the study is a corpus of one hundred thousand words from blogs all over the Internet on a wide range of topics written by males and females of different age groups. The results of the investigation indicate that no local variations of abbreviations and emoticons exist within Swedish blogs written in English. While emoticons were used more frequently by males than their female counterparts, abbreviations were used mostly by female bloggers. It also appeared that bloggers aged thirty or younger use emoticons and abbreviations most frequently, suggesting that their use was influenced quite significantly by the age of the blogger. The conclusion drawn from this is that if any eventual local Swedish variations of emoticons and abbreviations, they exist in Swedish blogs and not English ones, as those discovered in this study do not deviate from what already exist in blogs written by native speakers of English.

Marchand (1969) claims that abbreviations and acronyms, which are also known as ‘initialisms’, are used to create “names of new scientific discoveries, trade-names, names of organizations, new foundations or offices, but occasionally, and chiefly in American English, personal and geographical names are also coined in this way” (Marchand, 1969: 452). However, initialisms that originate from netspeak, such as ‘LOL’, are different from the initialisms Marchand (1969) describes. These initialisms are not names of organizations or scientific discoveries; rather, they describe everyday things or phases. This kind of initialism is a new phenomenon that seemingly did not exist before the Internet, and the aim of this essay is thus to examine whether Internet has given us increased opportunities for this type of word formation. A corpus of informal English was created for this study and ten initialisms were extracted from that corpus. These initialisms were then examined in the Corpus of Contemporary American English. The data from the COCA showed that people do form and use this kind of initialism, albeit they do it very infrequently. Furthermore, the corpus data showed that these items are used in all different genres that exist in the COCA, except for academic writing. The data found in this study indicates that people seem create a new kind of initialism, and that people therefore have new opportunities to use this kind of word formation. However, the data is too sparse to draw any definite conclusions from it.

Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) is the primary causative agent of postweaning multisystemic wasting syndrome (PMWS), whereas the ubiquitous porcine circovirus type 1 (PCV1) is nonpathogenic for pigs. Since its initial detection in a Canadian commercial swine herd in 1991, PMWS has been detected in all swine producing regions of the world and is now a serious economic problem to the swine industry. The objectives of this dissertation were to biologically, genetically and experimentally characterize both PCV1 and PCV2, to identify the genetic determinant(s) for virulence and replication, and to develop an effective genetically-engineered vaccine against PCV2 infection and PMWS. The genetic heterogeneity of PCV2 and PCV1 isolates from different geographic origins were determined. We found that, although PCV1 and PCV2 genomes were very conserved, some minor genomic variation exists among PCV1 isolates and PCV2 isolates. The nonpathogenic PCV1 and pathogenic PCV2 share only about 76% nucleotide sequence identity but have similar genomic organization. The highest sequence variability among PCV isolates is found in the immunogenic ORF2 capsid gene. Based on the sequence data in this dissertation, a universal polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) assay was developed that is capable of detecting all known PCV isolates and differentiating between infections by nonpathogenic PCV1 and pathogenic PCV2. In order to study the structural and functional relationship of PCV genes and to develop a genetically-engineered vaccine, we constructed infectious DNA clones of both PCV1 and PCV2. By using the PCV2 infectious clone, we showed that pigs can be infected by direct intrahepatic injection of PCV2 infectious DNA clone. The pathological lesions and clinical disease associated with PCV2 infection were more definitively characterized by using the infectious DNA clone. We found that PCV2 is the primary but not the sole causative agent of PMWS, as the full spectrum of clinical PMWS was not reproduced by the infectious PCV2 DNA clone although pathological lesions characteristic of PMWS were reproduced. A chimeric vaccine was constructed by cloning the immunogenic capsid gene of the pathogenic PCV2 into the genomic backbone of the non-pathogenic PCV1 virus. We showed that the resulting chimeric PCV1-2 vaccine virus, retained the non-pathogenic nature of PCV1 but induced a protective immune response against a wild-type PCV2 challenge. In vaccinated pigs, the chimeric PCV1-2 vaccine reduced PCV2 viremia length and serum virus loads and reduced pathological lesions such as lymphoid depletion (LD) and histiocytic replacement (HR) in lymphoid tissues, inflammation and discoloration of the lymph nodes. The amounts of PCV2 antigen and PCV2 genomic copy loads in lymph node tissues were also significantly reduced. Our results indicated that the attenuated chimeric PCV1-2 virus induces protective immunity against PCV2 infection and thus could serve as an effective vaccine against PCV2 and PMWS. To improve the safety of the vaccine, we attempted to identify the genetic determinant(s) for PCV2 virulence. An isolate of PCV2 was serially passaged for 120 times in PK-15 cells. After 120 passages, a total of two amino acid mutations were identified in the capsid protein of the passage 120 virus (VP120), P110A and R191S. Compared to other known PCV1 and PCV2 sequences, the two amino acid mutations in PCV2 VP120 are unique. The VP120 virus was biologically characterized in vitro and experimentally characterized in specific-pathogen-free (SPF) pigs. The two amino acid mutations resulted in an enhanced replication ability of PCV2 VP120 in PK-15 cells and an attenuated phenotype in infected pigs. The P110A and R191S mutations in the capsid protein either alone or collectively are likely important for PCV2 virulence and replication. In summary, we genetically characterized PCV2 isolates from different geographic regions and developed a PCR-RFLP assay. We constructed and characterized infectious DNA clones of PCV1 and PCV2, and developed a genetically engineered vaccine against PCV2 infection. We also identified the genetic determinants for PCV2 virulence and replication. The vaccine developed in this study, when it becomes available, will help the swine industry control this important pathogen. / Ph. D.