<p>Conversation and Community is an examination of the speech community in an Internet 'virtual community'. Based on ethnographic research on a community of users of a MUD, or 'multi-user dimension', the book describes a close-knit community united in features of their language use, shared history, and relationships to other online communities. The author invokes the notion of register, or the variety of speech adapted to the communication situation, in her discussion of how users overcome the limitations of the typed, text medium and exploit its affordances for comfortable communication. Routines, conventional vocabulary and abbreviations, syntactic and semantic phenomena, and special turn-taking and repair strategies distinguish the MUD community's register. Because the MUD is programmable, commands may be added which reflect, alter, or reinforce the linguistic practices and culture of the community; competent speakers must also know the commands that produce the correct linguistic forms.</p>

Conversation and Community: Chat in a Virtual World (Volume 94)

Computers & Technology

Cherny, Lynn

Networking & Cloud Computing

Center for the Study of Language and Information

Center for the Study of Language and Inf

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Cherny, Lynn. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Cherny, Lynn

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Cherny, Lynn. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Conversation and Community: Chat in a Virtual World (Volume 94)

Conversation and Community: Chat in a Virtual World (Volume 94)