THE ANALYSIS OF PARALINGUISTIC FEATURES IN TWITTER TEXT
IN TWITTER TEXT THESIS
Submitted as a Partial Fulfillment for Requirements For The Sarjana Sastra Degree in English Department Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts
Sebelas Maret University
By:
Sabila Rosdiana
C0308006
FACULTY OF LETTERS AND FINE ARTS SEBELAS MARET UNIVERSITY SURAKARTA
PRONOUNCEMENT
The researcher honestly declares that the thesis The Analysis of Paralinguistic Features in Twitter Textsis not a plagiarism. The thesis is originally written by the
written in quotation and stated in the bibliography. If the pronouncement is proven to be incorrect, I will be ready to accept any academic consequence and penalty, including the cancellation of the thesis and academic degree obtained from completing the thesis and study.
Surakarta, November 2012
Sabila Rosdiana
(Waltz Disney)
(Surah Al-Insyirah 5)
(Onew, SHINee)
(Infinite)
, praise and gratitude are to the Most Merciful
and the Most Beneficent, Allah SWT, for blessing the writer in accomplishing this thesis entitledTheAnalysis of Paralinguistic Features in Twitter Texts. I would like to express her deepest gratitude and appreciation to the people who have ever helped her in finishing this thesis.
1. Drs. Riyadi Santosa, M.Ed.,Ph.D. as the Dean of Faculty of Letters and Fine Arts for giving the approval for this thesis.
2. Drs. Agus Hari Wibowo, M.Hum.,Ph.Das the Head of English Department for supporting the finishing of this thesis.
3. Dr. Sri Marmanto, M.Humas mythesis consultant for guiding me in accomplishing this thesis. Thank you for the patience and suggestion to assist me in finishing this thesis.
4. Dra. SK Habsari, M.Hum.,Ph.D as my academic supervisor for the assistance during my study. Thank you for the guidance and support during my study in Sebelas Maret University.
5. although it was just a short time we met, thank for your kindness and support.
6. All the lecturers in English Department, who had taught me, thank you for giving guidance during my study.
brothers, my sister in-law an coming-soon
thank you for thesupport, and pray that is always spoken every time.
me happy when I was getting bored in finishing my thesis.
9. My Shining Stars, Skull Princess, KANSAS, Kiki unnie and Momo. Thank you for being my eternal friends.
10. My Twitter , Unay unnie, Ekka,Oliph,KBS fellas and everyone whom I could not write here.
Thank you for the support.
11. All English Department 2008students.
12. Everyone whom I meet in my life.
13. The last but not least, My Infinite, SHINee and B1A4 boys who always accompanied me in finishing my thesis.
I realize that this report is not perfect, in order to make it better, I accept
some advice and criticism. Finally, I wish this research paper would be useful for all readers.
Surakarta,November 2012
The researcher The researcher
v vi vii
TABLE OF CO ix LIST OF
xii xiii ABSTRACT
xiv
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION
E. Researc
F. Research Benefits
G. 9
A. Communication
B. . 12
C. Speech Community
D. Internet Language
E. Paralinguistics
F. 18
G. Twitter
1. Brief History of Twitter
2. How Twitter
3. Features of Twitter
4. Article related with Twitter
H. 29
I. Other Relat
30 CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
A. Type of
B. Data and Source of Data
C. Sample and Sam
D. Research Procedure
E. Technique of Col
F. Technique of
G. Technique of An
A. Introduction to Data Analysis
38
B. Data Analysi
39
C. Discus
92 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
A. 101
B. Suggest 107 BIBLIOGRAPHY APPENDICES
Table 4.1. Classification of Paralanguage Features
...
39
Figure 2.1
12
Figure 2.2 Smiley
22
Figure 2.3 Verified Account on Twitter
24
Figure 4.1
98
INTRODUCTION
A. Background
Human beings are social beings who need others to help them in living. They live in society which most activities are usually done relating to each other. Therefore, they need communication to interact with others. Communication happens between two or more persons whom relate to each other. It is used by human beings to get their needs. It is also needed to maintain good relationship with others. In short, communication holds an important role for human beings.
To communicate, human beings need a tool called language. Language is the main instrument in communication. It is used to convey meaning from one person to another. According to Sapir, Language is a purely human and non- instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols (1921:8). Symbols are sounds or things which have meaning given to person by the users and originally, the meaning is arbitrarily assigned. In other words, language is built from symbols and constructs a meaning (O'Neil, 2006). Language is as a systematic, the conventional use of sounds, signs, or written symbol in a human society for communication and self-expression (Crystal in Tonkin, 2004). In short, human uses language to express emotion or ideas in order to communicate with many kinds of variation symbols that have been conventionally assigned whether by any certain of group or large group.
Nowadays, with the development of technology, people could Nowadays, with the development of technology, people could
1). The sophisticated
technologies, the developments of new products and new experiences must need new proper words to refer them more clearly and efficiently. Internet itself makes some changes into the nature of language. It is called Internet Language or NetSpeak. Davis and Brewer, quoted from Crystal (2001), explained that it is writing that very often reads as if it were being spoken and as if the sender were writing talking. Internet language or NetSpeak is invariably more dynamic, unpredictable, spontaneous, and public (Thurlow, 2001). Therefore, it appeals its users since every written message is read as it is spoken by the sender. The different types and styles of language are being written as it is spoken, for instance language of geeks and its jargons which has a strong influence to the characteristic of NetSpeak (Crystal, 2001: 25).
It is clear that the NetSpeak has different mode which combines the spoken and written mode. One of the differences between the spoken and written mode itself is the usage of paralanguage. In spoken mode, people could transfer message featured with intonation, tone, pitch, etc which helps the sender to modify meaning or convey emotion. (Crystal, 1975). Meanwhile, NetSpeak is It is clear that the NetSpeak has different mode which combines the spoken and written mode. One of the differences between the spoken and written mode itself is the usage of paralanguage. In spoken mode, people could transfer message featured with intonation, tone, pitch, etc which helps the sender to modify meaning or convey emotion. (Crystal, 1975). Meanwhile, NetSpeak is
Commonly, paralanguage is always related to non-verbal elements such as tone, pitch, facial expression, gesture and many more but it is quite different in NetSpeak. Everything is written and so does the expression. For the example, the use of exaggerate of exclamation mark (!!!!) which means that the sender wants something to be necessarily noticed. There are some others paralanguage features which would clearly present later. As the nature of paralanguage, it is not literally seen as language, but one of the language properties which seem to have important role in the communication of meaning (Crystal, 1975: 163).
Internet access makes people invent new tool in communication which is well-known as Social Networking. The emergence of Social Networking Sites (SNS) leads people to interact more often to share interest, activities, ideas or real- life connections within their individual network. In 2005, Facebook was introduced by Mark Zuckerberg. This sophisticated technology where people could share their daily-life activities and photos becomes one of the most popular sites in the world. According to Hachman (2012), there are over 900 million people registered on Facebook in May 2012 and it proves that people have a high
It also made a hit in lately worldwide raking of Social Networking services which already have had 200 million active users in 2012 (Twitter Blog, 2012). It is quite different from its competitor, Facebook. The most striking difference is the limitation of words that people could share. Facebook has no limitation words to say, people could write whatever they want to say. Meanwhile, Twitter only
tweets
Twitter distinguish and also considered as online micro-blogging. The other one is communication concept. Widely known, the Facebook user should ask the other
Otherwise, Twitter
follower and following tweets, they will get many followers. While following
is like if the users have the same interest or want update news, they will follow some accounts which contain their interest without asking permission. Twitter somehow is more public than Facebook if the users do not lock their tweets.
Tweets contain of many things such as news, spam, promotion, pass- along value, pointless-babbles and conversation. According to pearanalytics (2009), pointless-babbles and conversation have the biggest percentage while the rest share in the similar percentage. Pointless-
I am
watching TV now tweet, is like sharing their daily life activities or does not contain any serious thing on the tweets. While the conversational is like chatting
sharing ideas which somehow they also have the same interests.
be found easily. Twitter is also a place where people make new term in abbreviating or committing a new symbol of emotion or known as emoticon. Even though, the users only update their status, they mostly like to put some unique symbols to express their condition or feeling at that time. It could be seen at the example below:
DAY
2 complete This filming is killin me a bit more than usual for some reason -_-
This was tweeted by Ryan Higa (American Youtube artist) when he had a tour in March 15, 2012. Seeing the tweet, it might be unfamiliar to people who do not have a Twitter account. Firstly look, it is included as informal language.
capital letters, the multiple periods emoticon -_- . He used some symbols in order to make the tweet
To
people who has been being active on Twitter, this tweet is easily understood. On
-_- . Each of these symbols has different meaning. Capital letters of the word
is used to emphasize the word meanwhile the repetition of periods
is used to give a
pause and the emoticon -_- means that he was confused with the condition that
he felt This filming is killin me a bit more than usual for some on the second day when it was completed. He expressed what he felt on that day using symbols. It can be seen that the paralanguage features is used to make the tweet he felt This filming is killin me a bit more than usual for some on the second day when it was completed. He expressed what he felt on that day using symbols. It can be seen that the paralanguage features is used to make the tweet
Besides, there are many people registered on Twitter including men, women, young, adult who have many different interests and jobs including celebrities as well. Twitter allows celebrities to have the blue-checked mark as a sign that it has verified that the account is the real account from the celebrities. The American Celebrities Twitter accounts would be used as the object of this
followers so it could be a good representative since their style could be imitated
Therefore, based on this phenomenon, this research is focused to analyze the paralanguage features on tweets, containing babbles and conversational between the Twitter users. The object of this analysis is the tweets written by American Celebrities. It attempts to find out the variety of paralanguage features used on Twitter and describe the meaning of each paralanguage feature in the tweet.
PARALANGUAGE FEATURES IN TWITTER TEXTS
The research is conducted to answer the following problems:
1. What are the types of paralinguistic features that are commonly used on Twitter?
2. What is the meaning of each paralinguistic features which is employed in tweets on Twitter?
C. Research Objective
The research is conducted to:
1. Find out the types of paralinguistic features that are mostly used on Twitter.
2. Describe the meaning of each paralinguistic features which is employed in tweets on Twitter
D. Research Limitation
The research is to find out the types of paralanguage features that are mostly used on Twitter and to describe each meaning. The types of paralinguistic
features are using the classification from the most common strategies used by the user on Internet from Thurlow (2001) and Carey (1980). It consists of vocal spelling, lexical surrogates and many others which will be explained more detail in Chapter II. The object is also limited only the American Celebrities whom have
Twitter.
E. Research Methodology
This research belongs to a descriptive research. It refers to the method of solving problems by collecting, classifying and interpreting the data of the research.
In this research, the paralinguistic features commonly used on Twitter are
described. Firstly, choose the Celebrities whom fulfill the requirement which are verified by Twitter. Thus, the data are collected from the tweets that are written by the Celebrities, the data must tweets which contain the paralanguage feature. Then, classify them into the determined categorizations to find out the type of
paralinguistic features used on Twitter. Finally, analyze the paralinguistic features to describe what its meaning.
F. Research Benefits
The research is expected to be beneficial for:
1. students of the English Department: to let them know that the new social networking services, considered as micro-blogging, named Twitter makes such a phenomenon in English language. It also gives information that Twitter is a place where people use the paralanguage features in written
Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) especially on Twitter. The forms of paralinguistic features are served in order to be beneficial for
further research especially on the paralanguage expression.
3. other researchers: to inspire a good alternative to conduct researches in language study and to give the information with the evidence about the contribution of Twitter in our language especially English and its Internet Slang used by the American Celebrities on Twitter.
G. Thesis Organization
CHAPTER I : INTRODUCTION. It covers Research Background, Problem
Statement, Research Objective, Research Benefits, Research Limitation and Thesis Organization.
CHAPTER II : LITERARY REVIEW. It discusses Communication,
Internet Language, Paralinguistics, Paralanguage in CMC, Twitter, Celebrities, and Other Related Study.
CHAPTER III : RESEARCH METHODOLOGY, covering Type of
Research, Data and Data Source, Sample and Sampling Technique, Research Procedure, Technique of Collecting Data, Data Coding and Technique of Data Analysis.
and Discussion.
CHAPTER V : CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter will concern with the literature review which describes some points the theories as the bases to the analyses. In order to make this analysis is well understood, the researcher needs some theories related to support the ideas and to solve the problems found in the analysis.
a. Communication
Middle English (Old
French) comunicacion, from Latin communicatio(n-), from the verb communicare 'to share'. So, communication is a way to share thoughts and express emotions which contains a message, so that there will be understanding among those who involve in it.
Communication is a process of exchanging information, ideas, thoughts, feelings and emotions through speech, signal, writing, or behavior (Notes Desk,
Williamson (2008) also tries to explain communication with a diagram which shows a process of participants in getting and giving feedback:
Figure 2.1. Diagram of Communication
In another point, Cooley (in Effendy, 1981: 40) explains communication as the mechanism causing relationship between human and thing that develop symbols of thought, along with the device to send the message in space and to record it in time. This includes gesture, mimic, sound, written text, telegraph, telephone and any latest invention to master space and time.
As stated above, it can be concluded that communications is a process of transmitting information, ideas, feelings, and attitudes from one person to another which have the same interpretation toward the massage transmitted so that the one who gets the message could give response to the sender.
b. Language
As stated in Chapter I, language is the main instrument of communication. Harttman also states that language is the most fundamental means of communication (1972: 123). Therefore, every communication needs language to transfer a message or idea. Practically, language is divided into three forms. Firstly, it is spoken language. It is language that is transferred orally or with spoken words. It can be face-to-face communication or speech, or communication
ENCODE INTERPRET DECODE
ENCODE INTERPRET
DECODE
language. It is language which is not spoken and written. It is language that is transferred with body gesture like hands or facial expression.
Many experts also define language into some definitions. According to Yawkey (quoted in Mukhtar Abadi, 2010: 1), language is arbitrary system of articulated sound made of by a group of human as means of carrying on their society. The other definition from Sapir, he says that language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of voluntarily produced symbols (1921:8). It can be concluded that language is a symbol that is produced by human to communicate.
c. Speech Community
According to Morgan (2004) explains that speech community is a concept which takes a fact that language represents, embodies, construct and constitutes meaningful participation in a society and culture.
Bloomfield (as quoted in Morgan, 2004), states that speech community is
a group of people who used the same set of speech signal. The members of the group share the same set norms about the use of language which is distinctive with any other groups or community.
In short, it might be concluded that speech community is a group of people who shares the same way of speaking. They use sign, symbol and style which are different with the other groups. The one who do not belong to the In short, it might be concluded that speech community is a group of people who shares the same way of speaking. They use sign, symbol and style which are different with the other groups. The one who do not belong to the
d. Internet Language
Internet language is language which broadly used by the users of Internet. Linguists are called it as NetSpeak or Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC). What makes different between language and internet language is only the medium of transferring the language itself. The Internet is an electronic, global and interactive medium and each of these properties has consequence for the kind of language found there (Crystal, 2001: 24). Furthermore, Herring (2001) states that CMC is communication produced by people interact with one another by transferring messages via network computer.
Instead of the medium, the other difference is the way of transmitting the language. Commonly, people have already known about the form of how language is transmitted, such as spoken and written language. According to Vincent & Kathryn (2005), spoken is a dynamic transfer of information since it could employ signal like gesture, intonation, volume, pitch, pause, movement and any visual cues such as appearance while written is a fairly static from of transfer as it could only employ written symbols or signs to transfer the message. Based on the way a person exploits words, oral and written are a Donnell, as quoted in Chafe & Tannen (1987: 386), finds that the written contained more gerunds, participles, attributive adjectives, passives and modal Instead of the medium, the other difference is the way of transmitting the language. Commonly, people have already known about the form of how language is transmitted, such as spoken and written language. According to Vincent & Kathryn (2005), spoken is a dynamic transfer of information since it could employ signal like gesture, intonation, volume, pitch, pause, movement and any visual cues such as appearance while written is a fairly static from of transfer as it could only employ written symbols or signs to transfer the message. Based on the way a person exploits words, oral and written are a Donnell, as quoted in Chafe & Tannen (1987: 386), finds that the written contained more gerunds, participles, attributive adjectives, passives and modal
NetSpeak is a mixture
between spoken and written language. Crystal (2001:28) also adds that NetSpeak, as a form of communication, belongs to both spoken and written mode. Most of CMC (include NetSpeak) are text-based which is messages are typed on a computer keyboard and read as text on computer screen, typically the sender and the receiver are in the different location (Herring, 2001). Although it is written,
tal 2001:29). According to Crystal (2001: 6), there are four situations on Internet boards which could be distinguished which their language is seen significantly distinctive. There are Email, Chatgroups (Synchronous and Asynchronous), Virtual worlds, and WWW (World Wide Web).
Email originally comes from the phrase . It is the use
of computer system to transfer message between users (Crystal, 2001: 10). It is quite similar with SMS (short message service) which they transfer their message
users account on some sites for instance Yahoo!, Google, Live Messenger, etc.
Chatgroup is divided into two situations which are distinguished by the time of the users log on. The one is asynchronous group chat. This kind of chatting is keeping all the activities done by a group as they post, comment or Chatgroup is divided into two situations which are distinguished by the time of the users log on. The one is asynchronous group chat. This kind of chatting is keeping all the activities done by a group as they post, comment or
The other one is synchronous group chat. It needs the user to register and log on for entering the site. According to Crystal, this situation is when the user enters a chat room and joins a conversation in real time (2001: 11). The most popular site for this situation is IRC (Internet Relay Chat). It is a site which provides many kinds of rooms where people could chat with everyone in it. Different with the asynchronous group chat, this situation is needed people to enter the room at the same time if they want to meet and start conversation. In spite of time, some of the sites does not record and save the conversations. So, it is difficult for people to join conversation if they do not log on at the same time.
The next one is Virtual worlds. Crystal (2001) explains that virtual worlds are all imaginary where people could enter and use text-based, they have fantasy social interaction. The social interaction might be in campus, in school, market and many more. It also has correlation with online games. This kind of games use Internet to play and the users could interact with other players on it.
The last one is WWW other persons, somehow they would directly relate it with the Internet. Crystal (2001: 13) also says that the full collection of all computers linked to the Internet which contains documents or graphics that are freely accessible by any persons or users. This is like a main domain where people could get in touch together The last one is WWW other persons, somehow they would directly relate it with the Internet. Crystal (2001: 13) also says that the full collection of all computers linked to the Internet which contains documents or graphics that are freely accessible by any persons or users. This is like a main domain where people could get in touch together
It could be seen that the Internet Language, now, might lead to some changes in our language. The users play some new words, ignore the punctuation and use emoticons (would be explained later). Some linguists are still observing with the unique features on NetSpeak which could attract many users. They also want to know whether what the impacts of NetSpeak to our language or how the language is employed by us on NetSpeak.
e. Paralinguistics
Paralinguistics is a study about paralanguage. Thus, according to Crystal (1975: 162), paralanguage is not a language but it is rather a bridge between non- linguistic forms of communicative behavior and the central areas of verbal linguistic study such as grammar, vocabulary and pronunciation. Paralanguage is also a non-lexical component of communication by speech, for example intonation, pitch and speed of speaking, hesitation noises, gesture, and facial expression (http://oxforddictionaries.com/). It could be seen that paralanguage
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paralanguage). Thus, Crystal (1975: 163) also adds that these kinds of elements seem to have important role to play in the communication of meaning.
Therefore, it could be concluded that paralanguage is an element such as pitch, intonation or facial expression which is employed by the sender to express their emotion in communicating the messages. analysis can be directed towards forms of print which mimic, contain elements of oral communication. These include comic strips, novels, graffiti and computer
f. Paralanguage in CMC
The presence of Internet Language does make some distinctive features. As it has been stated before, CMC or NetSpeak has distinctive way of
write they way people talk CMC
or NetSpeak is actually text-based which means that it is lack of prosody and paralanguage. Hence, the users of NetSpeak or CMC are different. They start employing some features which could be indicated as paralanguage. This feature is one of the reasons why somehow the NetSpeak
written speech Paralanguage is commonly related with oral communication such as intonation, pitch, gesture or facial expression. Thus, they are non-verbal element written speech Paralanguage is commonly related with oral communication such as intonation, pitch, gesture or facial expression. Thus, they are non-verbal element
1. Vocal spelling
These features include non-standard spelling which can bring attention to sound qualities such as //weeeeell//, //breeeeak//, etc.
2. Lexical surrogates
People use words to describe their tone of voice in the message, for example // all the problem involved in transmitting files//.
3. Spatial arrays
Spatial arrays are actual graphics: arrangements of letters to , users often leave the space between words, combine words together, or skip line within paragraph. This kind of features is clearly seen in the example below:
//$$$$$$$$$$$$$ When the next bill comes in from EIES//
4. Manipulation of grammatical markers
Grammatical markers such as capitalizations, periods, commas, etc are manipulated by users to add stress, modify tone and a signal change of voice. It could be seen in the example:
//Welcome Abroad!!!!!//, // paper//
The absence of certain features could exploit the tone of the message. For example, a user may have spelling error and not pay attention to paragraphing or capitalization. It indicates that the user is in hurry in typing the message.
As it has been mentioned before, NetSpeak leads to language change. The changes here mostly happen on the language varieties. Crystal (2001: 67) explains that the arrival of NetSpeak, as the emerging of varieties. The Internet users start to search the new vocabulary to describe their experiences, to capture the character of the electronic world and to overcome the communicative limitation of its technology.
Different with the classification from Carey, Thurlow (2001) states that communication nowadays as the emergence of Internet is highly interactive that demands for speed, spontaneity and often brevity. Therefore, he has categorized some the most common strategies more detail that are usually used by the user to keep it up on Internet. He classified it into eight groups:
1. Abbreviations
It includes the letter homophones, acronyms and the mixture of both. Letter homophones are Internet Slang that is the most used by the users. A simple three-or-four-letter abbreviation could be used
Crystal (2001:86) states that individual word could be reduced or shortened two or three letters e.g
Meanwhile, acronyms are quite similar with the abbreviations, but it might contain not only word or phrase, but also sentence (Crystal, 2001:86) e.g.
2. Punctuations
There are some unique forms used by the Internet users for
3. Capitalizations
It is the use of capital letters in the sentence, phrase or word.
4. Symbols
5. Onomatopoeic
It is word that imitates of the sound that it describes.
on the NetSpeak which is more or less quite same with interjection, such as wow, yeaah, etc.
6. Emoticon
some punctuations and form human facial expression, for instance [:)], [:(], etc.
It is an acronym which is commonly used to ask the identity in the conversation. This is mostly happened on mIRC (massive Internet Relay Chat)
A/S/L
8. Colored graphic
This kind of Internet Slang depends on the program which is featured by the medium. For example for coloring text, what are ya doin? and smiley like the figure below
Figure 2.2.
g. Twitter
1. Brief History of Twitter
Twitter was created in March 21, 2006 and launched in July in the same
Flickr.
twttr
since so many people was randomly following the twitter team makers. Thus, they since so many people was randomly following the twitter team makers. Thus, they
Finally, twitter.com has reached its success as it won an award in the Blog category. Although not many people registered on twitter, at least people already recognized that there was a new term on social networking site that only allows you to write in only 140 characters which let you make a change to the world (Sagolla, 2009). Dom Sagola is the co-creator of Twitter who was in the same team with Jack Dorsey when they launched and developed Twitter.com.
Twitter is being established in many ways to make it more perfect. In June 2008, twitter launched a verification program. Stone (2009), co-founder Twitter, says:
The experiment will begin with public officials, public agencies, famous artists, athletes, and other well known individuals at risk of impersonation. We hope to verify more accounts in the future but due to the resources The experiment will begin with public officials, public agencies, famous artists, athletes, and other well known individuals at risk of impersonation. We hope to verify more accounts in the future but due to the resources
Figure 2.3. The Verified Account
2. How Twitter works
Twitter is a unique social networking site which people need time to know and get familiar with it. Twitter actually is quite similar with Yahoo! Messenger or mIRC but twitter is somehow more public. Twitter is built not only for chatting or having conversation but also for sharing news or daily life updating like we usually see on Facebook.
Firstly, getting start on twitter, we should register and wait for the confirmation on our Email. As the confirmation come, we could sign in with the Firstly, getting start on twitter, we should register and wait for the confirmation on our Email. As the confirmation come, we could sign in with the
the interaction model and visual metaphor for the services were constantly in flux.
regularly. So, everyone, even they are strangers, still could communicate if only they have the same interests. being followed or follow someone is not always that we are being friends like we know on Facebook, it is more like we need to know everything from someone, for instance celebrities daily activities or news, so that
Steven Johnson (2009) describes twitter in very clear and quite simple that:
principle of followers. When you choose to follow another page. so that, if you follow 10 peo
tweets scrolling down the page containing breakfast-cereal updates, interesting new links, music recommendations, even about the news of educations.
3. The Features of Twitter
There are many devices that are served by twitter. These devices somehow are really unfamiliar for those whom use it at the first time. These are some explanations about the features of Twitter:
1. Tweet = everything which is posted by the user. It could be containing pointless-babbles like sharing their activities or news.
2. Mentions or Replies = 2. Mentions or Replies =
the mentions instead of only typing her/his username. He/ she replies with quoting the mentions that he/she gets. For example: Retweet = i just did little monster :-) RT @thefaithmonster I wonder
it @ladygaga will ever notice my tweets :-(
TheRealRobyD: @xzibit Whats The Name Of The
Tuning into a hashtag on Twitter is a handy way to dig into any interest, topic or timely conversation (Twitter blog, 2011). It is word
Trending Topic
hashtag on Twitter:
arose the hashtag #here2help in support of those who were affected. By clicking on the hashtag in a Tweet or doing a direct search, you can see all the Tweets flowing in from those who are there as well as
blog, 2011).
In short we could say that hashtag is usually to promote something due to some reasons in order to make the world concern about it. We could take another example in Indonesia. The Indonesian Idol, a singer talent show like American Idol, also functions hashtag to promote the show to the world and it is always happening on the top trending topic in the world when the show is airing.
4. Article related with Twitter
Many experts, journalists and media have many responses due to the emergence of Twitter. Some say the impact is positive and others are negative. These are some article and journals related about Twitter:
1. The New Media Consortium (2007).
It concerns about how communication is (still) changing. It says that nowadays internet has made a big progress and impact towards communication. When email has been found, then people start keeping in touch everywhere and in anytime like diminishing the time and place. It does not take a long time to people to communicate. Even now, the emergence of Social Networking Sites like Facebook and Twitter increases the possibility of people in It concerns about how communication is (still) changing. It says that nowadays internet has made a big progress and impact towards communication. When email has been found, then people start keeping in touch everywhere and in anytime like diminishing the time and place. It does not take a long time to people to communicate. Even now, the emergence of Social Networking Sites like Facebook and Twitter increases the possibility of people in
ype of communication which is similar to Instant Messaging but it is publically posted.
2. Nicole Edry, TMCnet Contributor (2011)
Edry said that
dumbing
Language. He adds by saying that language is evolving and changing, and it is fundamentally unable to be static. He wrote in his article that:
As Twitter supporters have pointed out, a clear timeline and up-to-date commentary show real-time reactions to breaking news. Twitter also facilitates studies of sociolinguistics, as it is easy to follow word trends for different regions and demographics.
Social sciences theoretically are in favor of vehicles
provide unprecedented glimpses into the evolution of language,
thought that human language evolved in universally linguistic structures in our brains. Instead, language
seems to have evolved along varied, complicated paths, guided less by neurological settings than cultural circ
So it is culture that shapes the parameters of our language, and culture is ever- changing. Sites like Twitter and Facebook are the heralds announcing new players on our world stage.
features and even people see twitter as the matter of debating issues.
h. Celebrities
In entertainment industry, artists are usually stated as celebrities. The xford Dictionary, is originally from late Middle English (in
the sense 'solemn ceremony'): from Old French celebrite or Latin celebritas,
it could be said that celebrity is
someone whom honored by people. Celebrities are close to fame and being famous, so that they could give a big impact to society. King (2011) also wrote an article about celebrity and impacts on society. She explains that:
I use celebrities as examples because they act as good reflections for us. When Larry King has a heart attack and tells his audience how it prompted him to stop smoking, he
Montel Williams for MS. When Teri Hatcher reveals that her uncle sexually abused her, it makes it easier for us to admit that it happened to us as well. When Britney Spears is brought to the hospital and evaluated for bipolar disorder, we feel differently about our own depression. When another politician is caught having sex with someone not his spouse and tries to squirm out of it, we see our own reluctance to reveal our own secrets. So the impact of celebrities can be positive as well as negative.
It is clearly stated that celebrity does give a big impact to society both positive and negative. The celebrity will be their role-model in their life. They live It is clearly stated that celebrity does give a big impact to society both positive and negative. The celebrity will be their role-model in their life. They live
i. Other Related Studies
Paralanguage is non-verbal element in communication. People unintentionally employ it when they have conversation or speech for instance intonation, pitch or facial expression. Meanwhile, the arrival of Internet has made some changes to how the way people communicate and the language used. It is usually called as Internet Language. It is quite new in the field which people could not easily acknowledge with. Therefore, there are only a few people have started observing it. It also could be hard enough to observe since nowadays there is no fixed theory and rules used on Internet. Internet somehow a place where people could create any kinds of new words, new terms of using punctuations, or even new way in expressing their feeling freely. Hence, there are two journals which also discussed about the non-verbal communication (paralanguage).
The one is Annamaria Kilyeni (2009), University of Timisoara. Her
elements which are usually employed in the printed advertisement. She found that some of nonverbal elements were used in the Advertisement for example the pictures, the alphabetic letters, etc. She emphasized that paralanguage also plays an important role in communicating the advertisement.
The other journal is entitled Mediated Gesture: Paralinguistic The other journal is entitled Mediated Gesture: Paralinguistic
Research Methodology
a. Type of Research
This study belongs to a descriptive qualitative research. It is a qualitative which employs descriptive method. Qualitative research is a research relying primarily on the collection of qualitative data (Johnson and Christensen, 2000: 17). Qualitative research is a research which is conducted with observation and interview, and the data are usually in the form of words. So, it is different from quantitative research which always employs numbers in the research.
Meanwhile, the purposes of descriptive research are describing the facts, their characteristics and also the relationship among the phenomena being observed systematically, factually and accurately (Nazir, 1988: 63). Employing descriptive qualitative research, the researchers generally focus on the phenomenon, collect the data and draw a conclusion.
b. Data and Source of Data
Subroto (1992) points out that data are the materials which are selected in
a research, for instance, in the form of words or phrases. The data source refers to the subject from which the data are taken from magazines, newspaper, or some others media.
The data in this research are the tweets that written text containing paralinguistic features used by the American celebrities. The data were taken on The data in this research are the tweets that written text containing paralinguistic features used by the American celebrities. The data were taken on
taken as the sample. Hence, the celebrities are somehow the portrait of common people whom could imitate their style.
c. Sample and Sampling Technique
According to Moleong (1989), sample refers to a group of individual which are taken from population. The purpose is to describe specific things in data. It is taken selectively as much as needed meanwhile it is already represented all the data. The act of selecting the sample is sampling technique (Mason and Bramble, 1997: 113). Sampling technique concerns with the way of researcher to select the data and to limit the number of data from data source. In qualitative research, the data source should represent the information rather than the population (Sutopo, 1989: 37).
Twitter is a new communication which publically opens for anyone whom wants to keep in touch with others. As stated in Chapter I, twitter contains not only conversation, but also pointless babbles, news, self promotion, spam and pass along value. Meanwhile, the intention of this research is finding out the
paralinguistic features used by the users of Twitter especially American
celebrities, therefore the tweets which are taken are only the conversation and pointless babbles since it usually contains the paralinguistic features. Besides, conversation and pointless babbles are placed in the top two of the Twitter celebrities, therefore the tweets which are taken are only the conversation and pointless babbles since it usually contains the paralinguistic features. Besides, conversation and pointless babbles are placed in the top two of the Twitter
d. Research Procedure
Research procedure is a series of activity which are done by the researcher to do a research. The research procedure is arranged as follow:
1. Collecting the data
2. Identifying the data. The data are the tweets from the American Celebrities which contains the paralinguistic features.
3. Defining and classifying the tweets the types of the paralinguistic features.
4. Analyzing the data. The data are analyzed based on the problem statement in the research.
5. Drawing conclusion and giving suggestion based on the result of the analysis.
e. Technique of Collecting Data
In qualitative research, a technique to collect the data must be concerned to obtain the adequate data. As mentioned before, the data of this research include the tweets that are written on Twitter by the American Celebrities which contains the paralinguistic features. Those data were obtained through carefully reading all tweets day by day, collecting the data as the sample, and writing down all the In qualitative research, a technique to collect the data must be concerned to obtain the adequate data. As mentioned before, the data of this research include the tweets that are written on Twitter by the American Celebrities which contains the paralinguistic features. Those data were obtained through carefully reading all tweets day by day, collecting the data as the sample, and writing down all the
The data were collected from all the American Celebrities. Thus, the collected data were selected and took only the conversation and babbles as it is
needed. The data which did not show the paralinguistic features are not used. Below are the steps:
1. Choosing seven the American celebrities whom are verified by Twitter.
2. Reading all their tweets from the American Celebrities.
3. Collecting all their tweets that contain paralinguistic features.
4. Choosing the tweets to have it as the sample since there are a lot of tweets containing same paralinguistic features.
5. Getting about five tweets every celebrities. It was thirty five tweets taken totally.
f. Data Coding
To make the analyzing of data easier, data coding is employed based on categorization. The data coding is as follow:
1. The types of paralinguistic features are classified as follow:
Abb: Abbreviations This group is divided again into two groups: - LH
: Letter homophone
- Acr
: Acronym
This group is divided again into three groups. The alphabetic letters are represented: - I
: Multiple Exclamation Marks
- II
: Multiple Periods
SYM: Symbols This group is divided again into three groups: - A
: Asterisk (*)
: At Sign (@)
: Hash Tag (#)
CAPS: Capitalizations ONO: Onomatopoeic EMO: Emoticons
2. Arabic numbers (01, 02, 03,...) are used to indicate the series of data.
3. The initial of American celebrities which are used in the classification are given as below:
a) AL : Adam Lambert
b) ALV : Adam Levine
c) LL : Lindsay Lohan
d) KC : Kelly Clarkson
e) KK : Kim Kardashian
f) KP : Katy Perry
For example Datum PUNC/I/5/KC should be read as: the datum is no. 5 of the category of Punctuation. The more specific classification is Multiple Exclamation Marks. It is taken from Kelly Clarkson tweet (KC).
g. Technique of Data Analysis
The data had been collected are analyzed by conducting following steps: 1.) Classifying the paralinguistic features with the theory from Thurlow (2001), the data are divided based into six groups. There are abbreviations, punctuation, symbols, capitalizations, onomatopoeic, and emoticon.
2.) Analyzing all the data in the form of tweets (written text) containing
babbles and conversation.
3.) Describing all the paralinguistic features used on Twitter based from
each classification. 4.) Interpreting the tweet as well as explaining the function of the
paralinguistic features one by one.
5.) Drawing conclusion and giving suggestion.