Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T22:47:19.452Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Spelling and simulated shibboleths in Nigerian computer-mediated communication

An overview of recent developments in Nigerian electronic messaging

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 August 2011

Extract

Since its coinage by Hiltz and Turoff (1978) the term computer-mediated communication (CMC) has been adapted and broadly conceptualised as interactive communication by and among human beings via networked computers and mobile devices. Several definitions of CMC have been offered in the literature but Herring's (2007) definition of CMC as ‘predominantly text-based human–human interaction mediated by networked computers or mobile telephony’ is adopted in this article because it stresses the textual aspect of the communicative interaction and accommodates all forms of textual language use mediated by the Internet, the World Wide Web and mobile technologies. This approach to CMC focuses on the production, transmission and exchange of naturally-occurring text-based human language and highlights the fact that human beings (as opposed to automated or artificial systems) are both the agents or initiators and recipients of the communication under investigation. Although communication is not unique to humans, the ability to use human language for meaningful social interactions is the exclusive preserve of the human species. Thus the perspective human beings bring to virtual interactions is accounted for in CMC. Internet interlocutors (also known as online interactants, netizens or textizens in the case of regular SMS texts composers/senders) employ textual data to convey and exchange their thoughts, opinions, observations, feelings as well as messages from other people or sources (Ifukor, 2011). These interactive possibilities make CMC a technology, medium, and engine of social relations (Jones, 1995:11) and language use is at the core.

Type
Original Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Awonusi, V. 2004a. ‘“Little” Englishes and the law of energetics: A sociolinguistic study of SMS text messages as register and discourse in Nigerian English.’ In Awonusi, V. & Babalola, E. (eds), Domestication of English in Nigeria: A Festschrift in Honour of Abiodun Adetugbo. Lagos: University of Lagos Press, pp. 4562.Google Scholar
Awonusi, V. 2004b. ‘Some characteristics of Nigerian English phonology.’ In Dadzie, A. B. K. & Awonusi, S. (eds), Nigerian English: Influences and Characteristics. Lagos: Concept Publications, pp. 203–25.Google Scholar
Bamgbose, A. 1971. ‘The English language in Nigeria.’ In Spencer, J. (ed.), The English Language in West Africa. London: Longman Group, pp. 3548.Google Scholar
Chiluwa, I. 2008. ‘Assessing the Nigerianness of SMS text-messages in English.’ English Today, 24(1), 51–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Crystal, D. 2001. Language and the Internet. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Danet, B. 1995. ‘Playful expressivity and artfulness in computer-mediated communication.’ Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 1(2), online at <http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol1/issue2/genintro.html> (Accessed July 30, 2009).+(Accessed+July+30,+2009).>Google Scholar
Danet, B. 2001. Cyberpl@y: Communicating Online. Oxford: Berg Publishers.Google Scholar
Deuber, D. & Hinrichs, L. 2007. ‘Dynamics of orthographic standardization in Jamaican Creole and Nigerian Pidgin.’ World Englishes, 26(1), 2247.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Edgerton, W. F. 1941. ‘Ideograms in English writing.’ Language, 17, 148–50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gut, U. 2004. ‘Nigerian English: Phonology.’ In Schneider, E., Burridge, K., Kortmann, B., Mesthrie, R. & Upton, C. (eds), A Handbook of Varieties of English. Vol. 1: Phonology. Berlin, New York: Mouton de Gruyter, pp. 3554.Google Scholar
Halliday, M. A. K. 1978. Language as a Social Semiotic: The Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning. London: Edward Arnold.Google Scholar
Herring, S. 2007. ‘A faceted classification scheme for computer-mediated discourse.’ Language@Internet, Volume 4, online at <http://www.languageatinternet.de/articles/2007/761/index_html> (Accessed July 30, 2009).+(Accessed+July+30,+2009).>Google Scholar
Herring, S., Scheidt, L., Bonus, S., & Wright, E. 2005. ‘Weblogs as a bridging genre.’ Information, Technology & People, 18(2), 142–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hiltz, S. R. & Turoff, M. 1978. The Network Nation: Human Communication via Computer. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Ifukor, P. 2010. ‘“Elections” or “Selections”? Blogging and Twittering the Nigerian 2007 General Elections.’ Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society 30(6), 398414.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ifukor, P. 2011. ‘Linguistic marketing in “… a marketplace of ideas”: language choice and intertextuality in a Nigerian virtual community.’ Pragmatics and Society 2(1), 110–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jibril, M. 1986. ‘Sociolinguistic variation in Nigerian English.’ English World-Wide 7, 147–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jones, S. G. 1995. ‘Understanding community in the information age.’ In Jones, S. G. (ed.), Cybersociety: Computer–Mediated Communication and Community. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Inc, pp. 1035.Google Scholar
Lieberman, J. N. 1977. Playfulness: Its Relation to Imagination and Creativity. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
McDowell, J. H. 1992. ‘Speech play.’ In Bauman, R. (ed.), Folklore, Cultural Performances, and Popular Entertainments. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 139–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitton, R. 1996. English Spelling and the Computer. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Odukoya, Tayo. 2007. ‘Acceptance Speech of the President Elect.’ Online at <http://www.tayoodukoya.com/2007/05/acceptance-speech-of-president-elect.html> (Accessed July 30, 2009).+(Accessed+July+30,+2009).>Google Scholar
Perfetti, C., Rieben, L. & Fayol, M. (eds). 1997. Learning to Spell across Languages. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sebba, M. 2003. ‘Spelling rebellion.’ In Androutsopoulos, J. and Georgakopoulou, A. (eds), Discourse Constructions of Youth Identities. Amsterdam: Benjamins, pp. 151–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sebba, M. 2007. Spelling and Society: The Culture and Politics of Orthography around the World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shaw, P. 2008. ‘Spelling, accent and identity in computer-mediated communication.’ English Today, 24(2), 42–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simo Bobda, A. 2007. ‘Some segmental rules of Nigerian English phonology.’ English World-Wide, 28(3), 279310.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taiwo, R. 2008. ‘Linguistic forms and functions of SMS text messages in Nigeria.’ In Kelsey, S. & St Amant, K. (eds), Handbook of Research on Computer Mediated Communication. Hershey & New York: Information Science Reference, pp. 969–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar