Marta Dąbrowska

Since electronic communication became widespread, one of the typical features identified in e-language and commented on, also as an aspect of linguistic analyses, has been acronyms and abbreviated language of various kinds. It has been particularly visible in English, as this language, unlike many others, shows great flexibility with regard to such modifications, mainly due to homophony between numerous words and individual sounds as well as lack of inflectional endings, which otherwise would limit the abbreviation options. However, the current overview of a selection of social networking sites does not appear to demonstrate any striking presence of this marker of computer-mediated communication (CMC). The present analysis therefore attempts to investigate the contemporary status of online language abbreviations in English, with the aim of discovering the actual visibility and frequency of use of such items as well as identifying their most popular forms found online. In particular, the research focuses on three social networking sites, i.e. Facebook (private accounts and fanpages), YouTube, and Twitter, trying to establish which factors contribute to the preference for abbreviations: the limitation of the post length, the degree of informality and closeness to the post addressees or the anonymity of the post author. Additionally, the investigation also takes into account the nationality of the users, and notably the status of English as their first or second language, as well as their gender, on the assumption that these variables play a significant role in the selection of this aspect of online discourse.

In the modern era the use of English has become very widespread, the language being used more and more by non-native speakers in a variety of contexts. The objective of the paper is to explore the use of the English language as a second and as a foreign language by bilingual Polish-English and Hindi-English speakers in the medium of Computer Mediated Communication, represented in the following study by the social network context, in order to demonstrate differences in the use of the language by the two groups, stemming from the status of English in the two respective circles, the Outer and the Expanding. The particular aspects of analysis include the frequency of the use of English, the length of the English posts and, notably, the phenomenon of code-switching, its typology and the functions which the respective languages typically perform in the switched elements.

The ever more popular and global use of English in the world is an undeniable fact. One of the obvious manifestations of this process is the selection of English as an official language, typically in former post-colonial states. Its global status, however, also motivates some African and Asian countries which have never been a part of the British Commonwealth to choose this tongue as an official state language (sometimes – the only official language) too. Does this decision assume that the citizens of those states know English fluently? How is English integrated in their everyday life? The case study of Namibian newspaper articles and personal advertisements from classified pages as well as billboard texts is an attempt to offer some insights into the use of the variety of English typical of this country both in the official and private milieu in writing. The objective of the study, presented in two parts (Part 1: theoretical background and Part 2: analysis of data) is to outline the unique context of the use of English in Namibia and describe the most characteristic features of Namibian English grammar when compared to Standard British English and on the basis of the results illustrate the existence of a social dialect continuum with regard to the use of the English language to be detected in the analysed written texts.

The ever more popular and global use of English in the world is an undeniable fact. One of the obvious manifestations of this process is the selection of English as an official language, typically in former post-colonial states. Its global status, however, also motivates some African and Asian countries which have never been a part of the British Commonwealth to choose this tongue as an official state language (sometimes – the only official language) too. Does this decision assume that the citizens of those states know English fluently? How is English integrated in their everyday life? The case study of Namibian newspaper articles and personal advertisements from classified pages as well as billboard texts is an attempt to offer some insights into the use of the variety of English typical of this country both in the official and private milieu in writing. The objective of the study, presented in two parts (Part 1: theoretical background and Part 2: analysis of data) is to outline the unique context of the use of English in Namibia and describe the most characteristic features of Namibian English grammar when compared to Standard British English and on the basis of the results illustrate the existence of a social dialect continuum with regard to the use of the English language to be detected in the analysed written texts.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate some of the formal characteristics of the genre of the short text message, with a special focus on the concept of language economy, which typically underlies the use of this mode of communication. The subject of analysis are text messages in two languages, English and Polish, which are compared in terms of the methods of text shortening used by the two language systems. The elements studied include word clippings, vowel deletion, word-letter substitution, word-number substitu­tion, spelling simplification, and pronoun deletion. The aim is to establish the preferred options in the two languages and identify reasons for such choices.

In the post-war era, Poland has been viewed as a homogeneous country both culturally and linguistically. It has not, however, remained immune to the developments of globalization, which has also been reflected in the linguistic developments of the present century. In recent years, the Polish public space has been inundated with numerous foreign language names, signs, slogans, elements in advertisements and on billboards, with the English language largely in the foreground, and not infrequently competing against Polish in such spheres as services and the advertising even of Polish brands. The present discussion focuses on the results of a survey distributed among Polish respondents which, with the help of indirect and direct methods, asked them to evaluate products/services advertised in visual forms by means of English and other languages, and react to the visibility of these languages both on the Polish street and in the Polish lifestyle magazines. The objective of the study was to identify the attitudes with which English and other languages are viewed by Polish respondents when used in the Polish public space, and to also assess their position in comparison with Polish. The survey results demonstrate that despite a significant number of positive judgements which the respondents offered on the topic, negative views outnumbered the positive to a considerable degree.

The purpose of the paper is to analyse linguistic practices of specifically one group of English Facebook users – the speakers of Indian English. As one of the most thoroughly studied members of the so-called New Englishes group, Indian English is believed to demonstrate a number of characteristic features resulting especially from the prolonged English-Hindi language and culture contact. Following a brief outline of the history and current position of English in India the paper examines in detail characteristic features of Indian English found in the Facebook material collected from fan pages and private messages: changes in spelling and pronunciation of English words, use of abbreviations, characteristic features of nativised Indian English grammar, language errors, as well as some typical sociolinguistic features of that variety of English, notably forms of address, culture-specific elements, and code-switching.