Naomi S. Baron
Stylistic practices in email reflect an amalgam of social presuppositions
about usage conventions and individual strategies for handling a new language
medium. To understand how contemporary email patterns have been forged and
where they might be heading, this study examines the ways in which newly enfranchised
language users in the past have balanced externally-generated prescriptions
for linguistic style with user-generated coping strategies in constructing
spoken and written messages. Popular letter-writing, the early telegraph,
and early telephone behavior offer useful precedents for thinking about both
email messages themselves and the potential effects of language technology
on broader language change.