Jajaja, jejeje, jijiji: pragmatic functions associated with transcriptions of laughter in computer-mediated communication in Spanish

Abstract

This paper describes a study of the pragmatic functions associated with onomatopoeic transcriptions of laughter used in computer-mediated communication (CMC) in Spanish, carried out through a questionnaire applied on Costa Rican university students. On five-points Likert scales, the participants evaluated the degree to which six types of transcribed laughter —jaja, jajaja, jeje, jejeje, jiji y jijiji— can carry out ten proposed pragmatic functions. This produced a series of statistically significant results that associate both the vowel quantity and the number of syllables with different functions. The findings will serve as a base for future analyses of these elements in real corpora of CMC.

Keywords

• pragmática
• comunicación mediada por computadora
• risa
• interjecciones
• vocales