Language and the Internet

138 LANGUAGE AND THE INTERNET

in binding theory’, then those who see such a group and decide
to join in are likely to be members of a fairly closed constituency,
interested in that highly specific topic and not expecting to en-
counter unrelated topics along the way. Relatively few threads are
likely to be encountered (though one never knows). On the other
hand, if I set up a group called ‘Language in the modern world’ I
can expect to encounter a huge range of topics, which will generate
a large number of different title threads in the course of time. A
college group called ‘Ideas for projects’ or ‘Reactions to course 300’
is likely to generate even more differentiated reactions. The titles do
far more than identify a particular topic; just as often they express
the intention, attitude, or viewpoint of the writer. So, alongside
specific content titles, which might be anything from ‘Aardvarks’
to ‘Zarathustra revisited’, we find the following (taken from a vari-
ety of groups, but the first five from Davis and Brewer):^19

gut reaction

rambling

Calla’s reply

response to Candace

Calla’s response to Peter

my project, keep it going

am I still on this list?

that’s true

yeah good question

hasty apology

quik question

Iagree,Jeff

The analogy with newspaper style is compelling – especially those
which use such headlines as ‘We agree, Tony’, ‘A good question’,
‘Our response to the colonels’, and ‘Gotcha’. Headlines which are
idiosyncratic and ludic attract the reader, and make it more likely

(^19) DavisandBrewer(1997:AppendixD2).Theauthorsalsonotetheoccurrenceofparticular
fads (especially involving language play) in titles – for example, a two-word formulaic
game which some of their students played for a while:Spud speaks,Sandra responds,
Crawford adds... (pp. 66 ff.).