In sum, it is shown that LFG, to a large extent, is a plausible linguistic model.

INTERNET CHATTING AS AN EMERGENT REGISTER: 
A STUDY OF ICQ TALK IN HONG KONG 

by

CHENG Kin Ying, Jeanne

        Internet communication has become a feature of everyday life in the 21^st Century and ICQ (I Seek You) is one of the most popular Internet tools which makes possible synchronous Internet communication. It is thus not surprising that ICQ conversation, along with other forms of computer-mediated communication, has become a hot topic of research in recent years. In ICQ chats, each user has a unique number and a database called 'history' to store all incoming and outgoing events. Thus, actual wordings and chat sequences can be recorded verbatim and extracted from the 'history' folder. In this way, a database of ICQ conversations, conducted largely in Cantonese and English, has been collected in Hong Kong. It is observed that a specialized kind of writing has been developed among Hong Kong ICQ chatters. It is found that ICQ conversations have some properties of ordinary conversations: they are spontaneous and colloquial. They also contain distinct linguistic features, which have come about as a result of the need to represent colloquial speech.

       In this research, several forms of written representations of Cantonese in ICQ chat sessions are discussed. It is noticed that ICQ chatters sometimes choose to romanize or translate Chinese characters. The representations are usually not standardized or codified; instead they are ad hoc and to some extent an improvisation. Yet, the romanized forms and translations are widely understood amongst frequent ICQ chatters. It is found that the informal representations used in these ICQ conversations, though uncodified, are not without regularities. It is also found that Cantonese-speaking chatters frequently employ Chinese sentence-final particles in their English sentences so as to better express what they wish to say. As a result, the traditional patterns of written forms of Chinese and English have undergone some modification in Hong Kong.

        It is observed that a considerable number of abbreviations, special symbols and expressions are used in Internet chatting to represent facial expressions, emotions, and feelings. These special features contribute to Internet chatting as an emerging register which has both the characteristics of written and spoken language. At the same time, ICQ language embodies its own peculiarities which make it different from other registers.

        This study shows that Internet chatting is in the process of evolving into a new medium. It is developing into a register with identifiable elements and relatively stable characteristics.

CHINESE AND ENGLISH COMPUTER-MEDIATED COMMUNICATION
IN THE CONTEXT OF NEW LITERACY STUDIES

by

LEE Ka Man

        This thesis investigates aspects of text-based Computer-mediated Communication (CMC) in Hong Kong within the framework of New Literacy Studies (NLS), a theory of literacy which studies how language and literacy are used in social context. The analysis is based on a 70,000-word corpus of email and ICQ messages (composed in Chinese/Cantonese and English). Two concepts of NLS – literacy events, occasions where literacy has a role, and literacy practices, ways of using language and literacy in different contexts, are examined in detail.

        The study first explores the constitution of a CMC literacy event and proposes that participants, settings, forms of interaction, codes, subjects of discussion, artefacts, and underlying contexts are the basic components. These elements are observed in a case study of a CMC event in a domestic setting. The research further reveals that in CMC events, the relationship between speech and writing is indeterminate since features vary across messages. It is, however, noted that code-mixing plays a prominent role in CMC texts in Hong Kong.

        The research has also identified seven literacy practices in text-based CMC. It first presents these practices under the topics of shortenings, emoticons, openings and closures, typographical, grammatical, orthographic, and ‘coding’ practices. It then examines various cultural and linguistic specific CMC textual practices, which include:

1. Cantonese-based shortenings (88 ‘bye-bye’);

2.  Asian-specific emoticons (>v<, :米);

3.  Transfer of native intuition to CMC texts (subject omission);

4.  Common grammatical errors which are made by second language learners of English (e.g. problematic verb forms, inappropriate choice of word classes);

5. Creative Cantonese representations (e.g. coined romanisation and transliteration)

        Textual findings are supported by questionnaire and interview surveys which investigate participants’ thoughts and values on their textual practices. Respondents’ opinions indicate that practices are not the same in all situations, which reveals the importance of ‘context’ in CMC.

        Three categories of CMC context are proposed - contexts of social interaction (‘chat’ and ‘non-chat’), communicative situational contexts, and language-specific contexts, which are associated with subsets of CMC practices according to the nature of the contexts. This characterisation of CMC context demonstrates its compatibility with the theory of NLS.

        The research suggests that language and literacy researchers and practitioners should recognise the set of new literacy practices in CMC. Subsequent studies in the Chinese context are necessary for a more complete understanding of the impact of CMC language on students' reading and writing habits.