Linguistik Online (Jan 2012)

Dialogizität in der chinesischen und deutschen SMS-Kommunikation – eine kontrastive Studie

  • Susanne Günthner,
  • Saskia Kriese

Journal volume & issue
Vol. 57, no. 7
pp. 43 – 70

Abstract

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This article presents a dialogical approach to Chinese and German SMS communication. SMS- interactions have frequently been studied from a 'monological point of view', looking at single SMS-messages. In this article, we will develop a dialogically grounded perspective on the interactive dynamics and the social activities constructed in everyday SMS dialogues. Based on SMS data from Chinese and German students, we will argue that - even though production and reception of SMS messages are removed in time and space - SMS communication represents dialogically oriented social activities. Furthermore, as communicative practices, Chinese as well as German SMS-dialogues reveal features of routinization, grounded in technical prerequisites, in the particular writing systems and linguistic conventions as well as in culture specific forms of handling particular social activities.