This study examines orthographic variation in synchronous computer-mediated French discourse. All nontraditional variations of selected frequently occuring items are quantified in order to provide an etic (i.e., from an external perspective) analysis. The primary variable of interest is age since this study focuses on providing a comparison of chat participants in their twenties versus those in their fifties. The widespread claim is that younger people communicate using more informal and/or nontraditional forms than older people; however, the results of the present study suggest that this is not always the case. The main finding of the present study is that the twentysomethings and the fiftysomethings produce the nontraditional orthography in a similar fashion in 52.2% of the terms, and in a non-similar fashion in 47.8% of the terms. Following the presentation and discussion of the results, directions for future research are provided.

Pasirodžius lingvistinio mandagumo teorijai, pasaulyje tokio pobūdžio tyrimai tapo labai populiarūs, tačiau lingvistinė pragmatika tebėra naujas reiškinys lietuvių kalbotyroje, visai mažai dėmesio skiriama pragmatiniams elektroninio diskurso tyrimams, ypač retai lingvistiniu aspektu tiriami interneto komentarai. Tačiau juos tirti verta dėl šio žanro populiarumo ir dėl to, kad jie parodo kasdien vartojamą kalbą bei veikia kalbinius mūsų visuomenės įpročius. Analizuoti interneto komentarus nuspręsta ir dėl jiems būdingo anonimiškumo, kadangi buvo siekiama patikrinti, ar asmens įvaizdžio apsaugos teorija veikia ir tada, kai adresantas slepiasi po pseudonimu. Šiame darbe pristatomas interneto svetainėje dėstytojai.lt esančiuose studentų komentaruose dėstytojams skirtų vertinimų tyrimas. Vertinimai analizuoti leksiniu-gramatiniu, lingvistinio mandagumo ir funkciniu aspektais. Buvo tiriama, kokie žodžiai ir jų junginiai dažniausiai vartojami vertinant dėstytoją, kaip teigiami-neigiami vertinimai sąveikauja tekste, kaip nuo jų sąveikos priklauso bendras komentaro turinio teigiamumas-neigiamumas. Taip pat buvo tiriama, kaip studentų komentaruose veikia lingvistinio mandagumo teorija: kokias strategijas naudoja studentai, pateikdami neigiamus vertinimus (kurie iš esmės yra asmens įvaizdžiui grėsmingi šnekos aktai), kokiais būdais jie yra švelninami. Išanalizuotas ir funkcinis neigiamų vertinimų aspektas – nustatyti šnekos aktai, kuriais realizuojami neigiami vertinimai, ištirta jų... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / When linguistic politeness theory has emerged, it became very popular all over the world, but it’s still a new phenomenon in Lithuanian linguistics. Little attention from pragmatic point of view is paid to the electronic discourse, especially to the interactive internet commentaries. However, they are worth analyzing because of the popularity of their genre and because they reflect the everyday language, also they are affecting the speech habits of our society. It was also decided to analyze interactive commentaries because of their anonymity factor, as it was expected to verify if the politeness theory works when the addressers are hiding behind their pseudonyms. Therefore, this study aims to represent the analysis of the assessments of lecturers in the interactive student commentaries on the website dėstytojai.lt. The analysis includes research of what words and phrases are commonly used for the assessment of lecturers, and research of how do positive and negative assessments interact in texts – how the negativity-positivity of the overall content of the commentary depends on their interaction. It has also been analyzed how the linguistic theory of politeness manifests itself in these commentaries: what strategies are used for the negative assessments (that are considered as face threatening speech acts), what criticism mitigating devices are used in them. It has been analyzed what the speech acts are used to actualize negative assessments in researched commentaries and how... [to full text]

The purpose of this study was to examine and describe the events of the first iteration of the Media Technology and Diversity course with an in-depth analysis of its electronic discourse. In conceptualizing the viable alternatives for delivering college-level distance education via on-line technologies, Harasim (1990) cautions that the mere introduction of computer mediated communication "does not in itself improve learning; design (or method) is crucial" (p. xx). The role of instructional design as the cornerstone of all effective instruction is relevant as new technologies are used in teaching and learning. The MTD distance education course content was delivered via the World Wide Web, where the course homepage was the on-line classroom and e-mail and Webchat communication supported participants' interaction. The participants of the study were the instructors and teaching assistants, as well as the undergraduate and graduate students who took the course. The electronic archive data, student assignments, and follow-up interviews with participants provided multiple data points for analysis. The Webchat archive data was analyzed using the NUD.DIST qualitative research software to sort and produce descriptive statistics. The analysis of e-mail and Webchat discourse revealed that participant interaction differed between media types and between asynchronous and scheduled the Webchat discussions. The differences were temporal, topical, and structural. Student initiated thought-provoking Webchat dialogue yet on-line content delivery, course structure, and reliability of computer systems reduced student participation in on-line discourse and course activities. Significantly, lessons learned from the design of the MTD experience indicate that on-line course development requires advance technical skill and accessible instructional technologies. Instructional designers should develop course materials with the end-users' lowest common denominator technologies to increase participation and learning opportunities. The lessons learned from the electronic discourse analysis indicate that the WWW is a very complex instructional environment that requires carefully designed pedagogical activities and interaction. Research results indicate that where as asynchronous Webchat discussions encourage students to initiate conversation topics, the overall participation in on-line discourse is low. On the other hand, scheduled Webchat discussions promote lengthy and more thought-provoking discussions, but students generally respond to instructor-posted questions or topics. / Ph. D.