txt abrvs in speech?

[Garson O'Toole]

 Laurence Horn wrote
> A student in our freshman seminar in Varieties of English (Raffaella
> Zanuttini and I are co-instructors) is interested in tracking down
> any previous research on the incorporation of texting abbreviations
> (or, less commonly, acronyms) in speech.

The 1998 research article below contains a good example of acronyms
incorporated into speech courtesy of Bill Gates.

Citation: 1998 Autumn, Among the New Words by Wayne Glowka, Brenda K.
Lester, Constance Edge, American Speech, Vol. 73, No. 3, pp. 297-312,
Duke University Press. (Second part: American Speech, Vol. 73, No. 4
(Winter, 1998), pp. 421-441)

For the most part, we live in a highly literate, highly technological
world run by highly literate, highly technological people who talk
like this:

[Microsoft Chairman Bill] Gates: The power of integration is important
to all customers because it simplifies things and lets them get a rich
set of services. It's easiest to appreciate when you get down to a
small business and you say OK, this guy doesn't want to think about
whose SQL is faster and whose ATTP is better and who has SMTP mail.
Why not just give him a box that does all of stuff [sic] without ever
exposing those acronyms? [Newsweek 23 Jun 1997: 62/2]

… Acknowledging that abbreviations, acronyms, and initialisms pervade
our speech, we decided to devote one whole installment to the examples
in our files.

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/455827
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/455585

I think some of the terms in the 1998 article have fallen into disuse.
The overlap with texting abbreviations is small, e.g., IMHO and FUBAR.

Garson

> Classic constructed
> examples appear in the Cingular/AT&T commercials viewable at
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nIUcRJX9-o&feature=related
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ySR3hpieiQc&feature=related
>
> The student has already collected material in response to a
> questionnaire he posted via Facebook but doesn't want to ignore
> previous empirical investigations when he writes up his results.
> Thanks for any pointers anyone can provide.
>
> LH
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org