Dialogue in and between Different Cultures - International ...

“BillyBoy: Hey freche Liesl! =)
Freche Liesl: Billy Boy! =D you are here too!”
Chat Behaviour Intercultural 145
BillyBoy and Freche Liesl greet each other and accompany this greeting with
smileys. This is a way of greeting often used by chatters who already know each
other. To ignore BillyBoy would be very impolite of Freche Liesl.
5.3.2 Iteration of letters
The iteration of letters is mainly used to emulate prosody. In some cases just the
iterations of letters can be a very successful tool. One can nearly ‘hear’ the way
the chatter wants to pronounce the words.
(27) BoMmL²°°²: elkööööööööööööööööö huhuuuuu
“BoMmL²°°²: elkööööööööööööööööö hiihiiiiiii”
(28) Moschischi: neeeeeeiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin, war nur ein Spaß!
“Moschischi: noooooooooooooooo, just a joke!”
(29) solntse88: bmsnk: привееееееееееееет!
“solntse88: bmnsk: helloooooooooooooo!”
(30) koly4ui: фууууууууууууууууу
“koly4ui: ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh”
Simultaneously such repetitions of letters generate an interesting typeface which
in turn draws attention to the chatter, which is what every chatter wants.
5.3.3 Application of little pictures
A typical feature of Russian communication on the Internet is the application of
little pictures that are taken from the web on special sites. These pictures are
pasted in showing a large variety of meaning. The following example is part of an
example used in our subchapter ‘sexual allusions’.
(31) ViLanG: aliinaaaa: а у меня маленький член
ViLanG: aliinaaaa: но толстый толстый [..]
ViLanG:
“ViLanG: aliinaaaa: I have a short penis
ViLanG: aliinaaaa: but it’s really really thick [..]”
This picture can be interpreted as a gesture imitating coolness, but has an
additional meaning though, considering the context. Half-provocative, half joking,
the user is making fun of his comment about his thick penis.
Not only gestures but also smileys with different expressions or artificial
things like flowers are posted during a chat as the following examples
demonstrate. A mouth or a flower is often used to show appreciation. Typically,
chatters have known each other for a little while, before they use these kind of
smileys. Other smileys, with facial gestures, are self-explanatory like the smiley
that shows its tongue to the other chatter. l_Olimpus_l tells AJIk0r0JIu4ka that he