lude also a little investigation on this question regarding the selected messages. However, this investigation includes a small number of messages and is not complete, therefore the results can be used only as hypothesis for deeper researches.This paper consists of the analysis part and 3 appendices: A: list of symbols with explanations (in Russian, copy of an article published in the Russian newspaper “Subbota”, B: list of acronyms used in chat rooms, and C: selected messages for analysis.This material has been prepared in co-operation with computer specialists krisjaniz and Romans.2.DESCRIPTION OF PECULIARITIES IN LANGUAGE USAGE IN INFORMAL E-MAIL MESSAGESPeculiarities of e-mail come from very different sources and have developed due to very different reasons and purposes. One of the dominant sources is hackish slang. Hackers, as a rule, love wordplay and are very conscious in their use of language . Since hackers are computer people, their slang is closely connected with programming languages, though it is not the only factor. According to “Jargon File”, there are “low-context” and “high-context” communication types, the first being characterised by precision, clarity, and completeness of self-contained utterances, typical of cultures that value logic, objectivity, individualism, and competition; the latter being elliptical, emotive, nuance-filled, multi-modal, and heavily coded, associated with cultures that value subjectivity, consensus, co-operation, and tradition. Hackerdom is themed around extremely low-context interaction and exhibits primarily “low-context” values, but cultivates a “high-context” slang style, which is so coded, nuance-full and emotional that could be placed next to poetry. Presence of emotions and nuances makes e-mail language close to the traditional letter writing style, while codes are characteristic of computer-mediated communication o...
