Digitalk: An analysis of linguistic features and their functions in Filipino computer-mediated communication

• Main Authors: Gustilo, Leah E., Dino, Chenee M.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2017
• Subjects: Telematics; Filipino language; Linguistic analysis (Linguistics); Conversation analysis; Language and Literacy Education
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/2945
• Institution: De La Salle University

This study explored language creativity represented in the linguistic features found in the utterances of Filipino Digitalkers across six internet media: Facebook, Instagram, Online Gaming, Twitter, Edmodo and Blogs. A corpus of about 500 thousand words was built from the online interaction of sixty three Filipinos. Manual reading of the texts was done in order to identify both the linguistic features and their functions in the Filipino Digitalkers’ texts based on identified frameworks from previous studies. However, the present study also identified features and functions that have not been investigated in previous studies. Our analyses identified a total of thirty different linguistic features. The most prevalent features were Acronymy, Retention of important parts of utterances, Intra-sentential Code Switching (CS), Emoticons, and Inter-sentential CS. These features were used by Digitalkers in order to build relationships with their interlocutors, efficiently transmit information, emphasize their message, compensate for the non-verbal cues which are lacking in computer-mediated communication (CMC), and the like. © 2017 American Scientific Publishers All rights reserved.