Chat Room Talk

[Jane Noll (PSY)]

I am in the middle of writing my proposal for a dissertation in
the area of psycholinguistics.  Part of my proposal involves a content
analysis of spontaneous speech.  I was curious whether anyone has studied
Internet Chat Room "talk" to determine how similar it is to spontaneous
speech.  I've done a literature search, but would appreciate any
references that come to mind or search terms that might be helpful
in finding such studies.

Also, what are the ethics of analyzing such conversations on the internet?

Thanks for your help!
Jane Noll

Jane A. Noll, M.Ed.
Department of Psychology
University of South Florida
Tampa, FL  33620-7200

Internet:  noll at luna.cas.usf.edu