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- Title
A sociolinguistic survey of the use of sms-text messages among NUL academic staff.
- Authors
Ekanjume, Beatrice
- Abstract
The advent of mobile phone communication in Africa in general and Lesotho in particular, has brought with it a kind of English that can be considered as a sociolect. Research has shown that SMS-text messages have peculiar orthographic conventions and style. SMS-text messages have thus become a kind of communication which is sensitive to social context and situation, and which can only be understood if the participants share the same socio-cultural values and psychological behaviors. This paper shows that SMS-text messaging has become very popular among NUL (National University of Lesotho) Academic Staff and that in addition to being fast and cheap, it is individualistic and bonding. The paper determines the extent to which communication is achieved through this mode and whether SMS-text messaging can be considered as a new genre of writing. The analysis also reveal that SMS-text messaging is used by NUL Academic Staff to disseminate job related information, well-wishing, assurances, appreciation, season's greetings and general information.
- Subjects
LESOTHO; AFRICA; TEXT messages; SOCIOLINGUISTICS; CELL phones; UNIVERSITY faculty; SOCIOLECT; SOCIAL history
- Publication
NAWA Journal of Language & Communication, 2009, Vol 3, Issue 2, p14
- ISSN
1993-3835
- Publication type
Article