Dr Caroline Tagg spent three-and-a-half years researching the subject of SMS text messaging and the language used in texts at Birmingham University.
She discovered that people text in the same way as if they were talking, using unnecessary words such as ‘oh’, ‘erm’ and often use grammatical abbreviations like ‘dunno’.
“I saw these in a lot of messages,” she said. “People deliberately use words like this when they don’t need to.”
The 33-year-old recruited a team of friends and family to help undertake the doctorate.
They sent her all the text’s they sent and received, which she stored in a database and analysed. In total, Caroline read 11,000 text messages, containing 190,000 words, sent by 235 people.
She said: “It was a long haul but that is normal. I believe it is the first PhD in the UK to look at the language of text messaging.
“There is a panic in the media about the effect of text messaging and people are genuinely worried about it.
“It is perceived to have a negative impact on language but a lot of people don’t really look at the text.” She analysed spelling, grammar and abbreviations used in social and business texts.
Caroline said the average text contains 17.5 words. And she discovered from her 80,000 word thesis that there is more to texting that just abbreviations - something most people associate with texting.
“Actually, not many people use abbreviations,” she said. “People use playful manipulation and metaphors. It is a playful language. Not only are they quite creative, it is also quite expressive.
“It was interesting to be able to research a number of linguistic methods and frameworks and apply them to the text message, because the text messages were quite fun.”
Tutor Professor Sue Hunston - who admits she can’t text - said: “Every stage of the English language has been studied. Now Caroline has studied its use in texts.”
One example of an almost ‘pointless and waffly’ text she analysed read: “Hi. I know you are at work but I just wanted you to know I found my pen lid.”
Caroline is currently undergoing teacher training at Birmingham University and will be starting an academic post with the Open University in September.
