Dialogue in and between Different Cultures - International ...

Chat Behaviour Intercultural
Some aspects of chat behaviour across cultures
Angelika Fröhlich & Sonja Lux
University of Mainz, Germany
The paper investigates the question whether there is a typical cultural chat behaviour
depending on the nationality. After considering the properties and various restrictions of
computer-mediated communication, we take a closer look at the correlation of the
Internet culture and nationality of the chatters. Using a sample taken from various
German and Russian chat rooms, our main focus is the comparison of Russian and
German chatters. Along with typical elements of the chat communication, greeting and
parting phrases and nonverbal signs, we examine the choice of topics and juxtapose our
findings in order to comprehend the cultural influence on or of the Internet. This results
in our perception that the Internet already has an own culture to which chatters
contribute.
1. Introduction
The changes in the technologies concerning the communication sector during the
last two decades have had a demonstrable influence on language (cf. Hentschel
1998, Fix 2001:58). Not only did they change our communication channels from
face-to-face dialogues to more distant ways of communication, we also changed
the way we communicate, due to the limitations that often occur along with new
methods of interacting. Never before, we are sure, it crossed our minds that a
short notice we want to pass on to someone else should be limited to 160 letters,
as it is the habit now for millions of people when writing an SMS.
Much notice was already given by researchers all over the world to the field
of chat communication (Runkehl et al. 1998, Fix 2001, Beisswenger 2002,
Misoch 2006, Dorta 2007 among others). No doubt, most dialogues that take
place in chat rooms remind us of oral communication: the topics, the length of the
sentences, often with colloquial grammar, the rapid turns and so on. On the other
hand, one cannot deny the fact, that being as ‘dialoguish’ as any neighbours’ talk,
chat is realised in written form. People do not really ‘talk’, but type and read their
own and other contributions (cf. Hess-Lüttich & Wilde 2003).
A very early study by Reid (1991) gave a definition for the IRC, which can as
well be applied to most existing forms of chat nowadays.