164 LANGUAGE AND THE INTERNET
Actions or comments on the part of participants are in this sys-
tem introduced by a single asterisk:^59 when someone types/me
followed by an action, the software substitutes the person’s nick,
and expresses the action as a commentary-like narrative, usually
using the 3rd person singular present tense. For example, if I (nick:
/me is totally confusedit will appear on the communal screen as
∗DC is totally confusedThere are several other sources of visual distinctiveness, most
of which can be found in other Internet situations. Smileys
(p. 36) – or, at least, one or two basic types – are fairly common.
Rebus-like abbreviations and colloquial elisions give sentences an
unfamiliar look (e.g.are>r,you>u,and>n), as does the tran-
scription of emotional noises (e.g.hehehe,owowowowow), filled
pauses (e.g.um,er,erm), and comic-book style interjections (e.g.
ugh,euugh,yikes,yipes). Christopher Werry found similar features
in his French sample:qqn[‘quelqu’un’],c[‘c’est’],t[‘tu’].^60 Also
distinctive are the character sequences found in nicks, which com-
bine symbols in unusual ways (e.g.DC77DC,aLoHA!,TwoHands).
Internal sentence punctuation and final periods are usually miss-
ing,butquestion-marksandexclamation-markstendtobepresent.
The apostrophe is commonly absent from contracted forms, in a
manner reminiscent of George Bernard Shaw. Emotive punctua-
tion is often seen in an exaggerated form (p. 89), such ashey!!!!!!!
An entire message may consist of just a question-mark, expres-
sive of puzzlement, surprise, or other emotions. Perverse spellings
(e.g.out of>outta, see you>cee ya, seems>seemz, Frenchouais
[‘oui’=‘yes’]: p. 88) and typographical errors are frequent. Cap-
italization is regularly ignored, even forI, but is scrupulously rec-
ognized in nicks. Typical sentences are:
(^59) This use of the asterisk should not be confused with its linguistic function as a marker of
60 ungrammaticality: p. 100.
Werry (1996: 55).