Clever ciphers – around abbreviations and emoticons
The world is rushing forward in an amazing speed. We all want to be the first and to stay on top of things. That is why the technology develops so quickly and its main task is to serve people. At the same time we think that we have less and less time, so we want the information flow to be rapid – we care for the message, not the quality. The language is a living matter and it quickly reacts to the changes in the ways of communication. For older people the language of the contemporary media is very often difficult to understand, even cipheredciphered, but young people treat it as something natural and use it on everyday basis in their e‑mails, SMS, on Skype or in discussions. Is it a cipher or a modern e‑languagee‑language that some people can use without problems while others struggle to understand?
Read the following e‑mails and do the exercises.
1.
Dear Ms,
In response to your questions, I would like to inform that all the documents necessary for your employment have been received by us in due time and are now reviewed on their merits. We will inform you via e‑mail if your application was successful or not.
Jakub B.
Sincerely,
2.
Yo, Patryk!
Are you hitting my pad on New Year’s Eve? If so, everybody chips in 15 zloty. Take something to drink, big bag of crisps and something cracking – Piccolo sticks xD!
Peace out, see you on TS! ;))
Przemson
Did you know that the emoticon, described as: face with tears of joy has been chosen a word of the year 2015 by the Oxford Dictionaries? From all the words that have been appearing in the texts the most often in a given year, the jury have chosen only one – the one word which influence on the culture and the language was the most significant. For the first time it was the emoticon.
Read the fragment of the conversation during the game between the two players of League of Legends - Patryk and Przemek, then answer questions.
Przemek: No, siemka, jestem.
Patryk: Hej, ja jestem readyready.
Przemek: Zaproś go, RP’kiRP’ki wydał na logologo.
Patryk: Ale mam lagilagi! Już pograłem.
Przemek: Dawaj, ja nie mam czasu. ZWZW na chwilkę. (po chwili) Już gram. Mam ochotę zagrać JaxemJaxem. Kogo mam picknąćpicknąć na midamida? Co ty na to? Mam lagi, nie pogramy, mam 600 pingapinga.
Patryk: Ja gram YasuoYasuo.
Przemek: Ale mam fajne stackowaniestackowanie na QQ! Jest OK. Co robisz?!
Patryk: Gram, a co?
Przemek: Kim grasz? Mam scrollascrolla zrąbanego! NiceNice! Sprzedaj skinskin.
Patryk: Master YIMaster YI wraca.
Przemek: Ich Master, ostro leci! WbiłWbił, żeby flashnąćflashnąć.
Patryk: Uwaga, biegnie!
In pairs discuss the language of the on‑line games players (“gamers”) List its characteristic features.
Assign to the right group the expressions used in the gamers’ conversation.
skin, zrąbanego, RP, ZW, stackowanie, picknąć, siemka, ready
Slang | |
---|---|
Words from the English language | |
Words from the English language with the elements of Polish grammar (word-creating) | |
Abbreviations created from the first letters of the subsequent words. |
When we contact people on the Internet chatchat, forumforum or via SMS, we usually want to express things quickly and in the shortest possible form. For this purpose we use the abbreviationsabbreviations. Acronyms are abbreviations created from the first letters of the subsequent words.
Match the explanations to the acronyms.
be right back, school, okay okay, lots of laughs, thanks, oh my God, for you, what you up to, in my opinion, got to go, by the way
IMO | |
LOL | |
4U | |
THX | |
GTG | |
BRB | |
SQL | |
WUU2 | |
KK | |
OMG | |
BTW |
Chose the expressions that do not describe the Internet slang.
- using the English language
- cuts
- short sentences, nominal sentences
- short messages
- ciphered language
- emoticons
- long, complex sentences
- emotions expressed by the emotionally marked words
- slang, similar to spoken language
- rich style
- acronyms
Create a multiple-choice question for your colleague, to check his/her knowledge from the today's lesson.
Question: ...
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Keywords
E‑language, mail, SMS, abbreviations, the Internet slang, emoticons
Glossary
akronim
chat
e‑język
emotikony
forum
język potoczny
korespondencja
skrótowce
slang internetowy
sms
szyfr
zapożyczenia