Number of Posts: 2
Posts 1 - 2
Interview: «Vor dem Schreiben sollte man überlegen»
(Interview: «One should think before writing»)
Newspaper | Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ)
Date | 1.9.2014
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | email, language threat, politeness
Summary | Language researcher Christa Dürscheid explains how new communication channels influence communication style and register. While omission of formal salutation lines has become frequent, it is usually only after a few messages in a dialog thread. Most people still use a proper salutation for first-contact messages. The general relaxation of formality in written communication does not mean that our language is decaying but that we adapt the social situation to the medium.
Image Description | N/A
Schriftliche Forschheiten: Vom Niedergang der Höflichkeit
(Written briskness: On the demise of politeness)
Newspaper | Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ)
Date | 1.9.2014
Language | German
Country | Switzerland
Topic Tags | email, language threat, politeness, school, texting, WhatsApp, word/writing
Summary | Communication researchers agree that politeness in professional writing has decreased with the rise of digital communication. Rules of formal writing are omitted: what was“Honored Professor So-and-so” is now a simple “Hello”. Both students and also professors are reported to have a relaxed level of formality in email exchanges. This is usually seen as an influence of texting, where traditional messages of respect are omitted, but it can also be argued that the new brief communication style is a form of respecting the addressee’s time by writing efficiently.
Image Description | Photograph of a female texting; the shot does not show the person's face but emphasizes the phone.
Image Tags | female(s), hand(s), smartphone, text
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