We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Instant messaging in office hours: Use of ellipsis dots at work and Hong Kong culture.
- Authors
MAK, Bernie Chun Nam
- Abstract
This study examines how ellipsis dots can have a subtle contribution to instant messaging in a Hong Kong workplace, and how they can reconstruct the prevailing ideological values in Hong Kong culture. It draws on empirical data of 15000 English word instant messaging conversations, collected from six employees of a trading company in Hong Kong. After follow-up interviews with each participant, 60 excerpts are selected for discourse analysis of the use of ellipsis dots. Results demonstrate that, as a text-free turn or combined with other symbolic strategies, ellipsis dots (1) indicate speechlessness to respond to humor or intensify surprise at gossip, (2) visualize thinking in progress to moderate code-switching or mitigate instructive comments in mentoring, (3) help to hold the conversational floor for better alignment and cooperativeness in chitchat, and (4) imitate on-and-off speech for hedging and bad business news. Behind these phenomena is the replay of cultural preferences of staying harmonious and cooperative, maintaining the balance between individualism and social relationships, and keeping the equilibrium between fast pace and safe communication. It is concluded that ellipsis dots can be a metadiscursive strategy in workplace instant messaging, and that the use of ellipsis dots is both culturally-constructed and culturally-constructive.
- Subjects
HONG Kong (China); INSTANT messaging; ELLIPSIS (Grammar); PERSONAL Internet use in the workplace; DISCOURSE analysis; CORPORATE culture
- Publication
International Journal of Language Studies, 2014, Vol 8, Issue 2, p25
- ISSN
2157-4898
- Publication type
Article