LINGUIST List 6.310

Tue 28 Feb 1995

Sum: Talking on the net, Web Sites on FTP

Editor for this issue: <>

Directory

1. , sum:talking on the net
2. Kristina Harris, Sum: (again) Web Sites on FTP...

A week ago I asked Linguist subscribers for current or invented
terms for `conversing by e-mail'. I'd like to summarize the
replies I've received.

E-mail/email was the hands-down favorite (Karin Vespoor, Kristina
Harris, Michael Palmer, David Branner (who offers `e-gram' as a
related noun), Marilyn Barnard, Blake Scherer, Sean Burke, Inge-
Marie Eigsti). But some responders were a bit wistful about the
plainness, even "ugliness" as one put it, of `email' and wished
there might be something cleverer.

Other terms offered were `talk', `net', `surf' (Kristina Harris),
as well as the 19th-century-quaint `post' and `wire' (Steven
Schaufele).

Rob Pensalfini says that the Australians use `goob', from
`goober', a computer geek. A computer is a `goobertron' (my
personal favorite). Bob Wachal and Laura Moll offer `e'--Ms.
Moll adds that this term is current among hip 23-year-olds.
(Take heed.)

Two responses, from two linguists who actually research computer
discourse, were uncannily similar. Ljuba Veselinova says that
`talk' is acquiring an extended meaning, along with `see' and
`meet' to apply to electronic interchanges. She also asks "Why
should your husband expect us to invent language? We think about
it and describe it, isn't that enough?" Deborah Du Bartell
echoes "Why should we come up with new terms?" She agrees that
`talk' will continue to be extended to this new use. She has
just written a paper on e-mail language and would like to hear
others' comments (dubartelledinboro.edu).

Some responders (Espen Aarspeth, Alaine in Quebec) wondered why
`write' might be objectionable, since the activity is most
certainly writing, producing a text.

Six responders took up the challenge of inventing terms. All
were based on e- as a derivational morpheme. Larry Gorbet offers
`e-chat' to reflect the informal quality of electronic discourse.
R. M. Chandler-Burns, from the School of Medicine in Nuevo Leon,
Monterrey, applies e- to the classical roots to get `elexing',
which may be shortened on a medical chart to ELX. He has also
put thought into the related pathologies, `dyselexing'
(presumably sending mail to hyperspace or hitting the delete
button at the wrong moment), and `aelexing' (which I would revise
to `anelexing', and which I suppose is what people with no
accounts do.) Mark Mandel, who is in the computer industry, uses
`e-' as a very productive derivational affix at the word level,
prefixed to words with the semantic sense of communication.
Thus, `e-correspond, e-penpal, e-letter...e-tcetera'. Alice
Anderton suggests `e-locution' , a clipped form of
`electrolocution', which I think should be a polite word for
`flaming'. Larry Hutchinson, similarly, offers `e-mitting' with
initial stress.
The most exotic derivation was Suzanne Elgin's phonological one,
which inserts -e- into the vocalic slot of one-syllable words
having to do with communication: `talk' would become (telk),
`write', (wret). I'm not sure about the pronunciation; Suzanne
only suggests that she'd pronounce the (l) in <telk>. Myself, I
think the preservation of /iy/ is critical and would pronounce
them /tiyk/ and /riyt/.

I ran these past the Curmudgeon-in-Residence, who was mildly
disappointed, though he thought `e-talk' was the best. He had
secretly hoped for something brand new, along the lines of `goob'
but not so funky.

Thanks to all. It's been fun. I'm going to use some of this
stuff.

 Marcia Haag

Dear LINGUISTs:

My list of Language/Linguistics-related Worldwide Web sites is also
available by anonymous FTP at ftp.unr.edu/pub/userdata/kristina/linguist.www.

Some have indicated that connecting to a homepage might be difficult, so
forgive me for posting info on this twice.

Kristina
_____________________________________________________________________________
 Kristina Harris |The Mathematics Center - 085| (702) 784-4433
 kristinamath.unr.edu | University of Nevada, Reno | FAX (702) 784-1080
 *My homepage is http://www.scs.unr.edu:80/homepage/kristina/kristina.html*