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Abstract：The concept of genre has changed considerably over the last several decades. Computer-mediated communication (CMC) refers to any form of communication enabled through the use of computers. It includes not only person-to-person and person-to-group communication, but also person-to-remote-computer contacts, as when individuals read or download documents on the World Wide Web. The following essay is looking at on-line discourse through the frame of genre suggests a focus on:he regularities of form and content of the communication；the nature of the discourse community；the underlying expectations and conventions.

From the view of situated genre theory, CMC has many defining characteristics distinguishing it from any other off-line genre.

Keywords: genre;computer-mediated communication

中图分类号： G643.2文献标识码: A文章编号：1672-1578（2009)5-0003-03

1 Definition of genre

The concept of genre has changed considerably over the last several decades. Swales has built on this conception of genre by developing the notion of discourse communities. Based on the perspective of discourse communication, Swales characterized genre as ‘a recognizable communicative event characterized by a set of communicative purposes identified and mutually understood by the members of the professional or academic community in which it regularly occurs. Most often it is highly structured and conventionalized with constraints on allowable contributions in terms of their intent, positioning, form and functional value. These constraints, however, are often exploited by the expert members of the discourse community to achieve private intentions within the framework of socially recognized purposes.(Bhatia, 1993, pp13). Albeit, this is a very brief sketch of the concept of genre, but it is enough to provide the background for an analysis of on-line discourse. In summary, looking at on-line discourse through the frame of genre suggests a focus on:

The regularities of form and content of the communication

the nature of the discourse community

the underlying expectations and conventions

Definition of computer-mediated discourse.

Broadly defined, computer-mediated communication (CMC) refers to any form of communication enabled through the use of computers. It includes not only person-to-person and person-to-group communication, but also person-to-remote-computer contacts, as when individuals read or download documents on the World Wide Web. In the CMC literature, however, the term generally refers to ‘the communication produced when human beings interact with one another by transmitting messages via networked computers.‘Most CMC currently in use is text-based, that is, messages are typed on a computer keyboard and read as text on a computer screen, typically by a person or person at a different location from the message sender… the activity that takes place through them is constituted primarily—in many cases, exclusively-by visually presented language. They also provide a unique environment, free from competing influences from other channels of communication and from physical context, in which to study verbal interaction and the relationship between social practice(Herring 2001, in Schiffrin, Tannen, and Hamilton,eds, pp630).

With its exponential growth in recent years, CMC now commonly supplants use of the postal service, fax machine as well as direct, spoken conversation. Nonetheless, CMC media differ from conventional communication modalities in important ways which bear heavily on their role in the formation of new discourse genre. In this assignment, I am going to analyse the computer-mediated communication from the perspective of genre analysis to show how far it constitutes a new discourse genre——electronic genre.

2 The regularities of form and substance of CMC

2.1Types of CMC

There are two main forms of online interpersonal communication, asynchronic and synchronic, whose distinction is determined by properties of computer messaging systems. Asynchronous CMC systems ‘do not require that users be logged on at the same time in order to send and receive message. Messages are stored at the addressees site until they can be read.(abad, pp614). E-mail is an example of synchronous CMC, which is mainly person-to-person communication. Group communication based on the basic email mode includes listserv discussion groups, usenet newsproups, and electronic bulletin boards(BBSs).

In synchronous CMC enables individuals simultaneously logged on to chat in real time by typing. Just as face-to-face speakers hear their interlocutors formulating their messages as they are spoken, online communicators can read each others contributions while they are being typed. The messages in synchronous CMC ‘are more ephemeral, scrolling up and off participants computer screens as new messages replace them. (abad,pp615). The chat function in ICQ, a program that enables individuals to track others on the entire internet, is a good example of synchronous CMC.

2.2Properties of medium of CMC

Computer networks are often considered a medium of communication distinct from writing and speaking, which, as Herring defines, have three obvious properties distinguishing it from other discourse genre. First, though the computer-mediated discourse (CMD) is mainly typed (written with keystrokes), which is quite similar to that of writing, allowing for the editing and formatting of text in asynchronous modes, it can not be treated as a written discourse, since the computer as a medium of CMD provides faster exchanges than written exchanges, even of the asynchronous CMC. Synchronous CMC is obviously faster than asynchronous one, yet we can not classify it as spoken exchange, since it is still significantly slower than speaking. Second, computer networks allow multiple participants to communicate simultaneously, which is difficult to be achieved by other media, due to cognitive limits on participants ability to attend to more than one exchange at a time. Third, not only can the text be transmitted via computer networks, audio information, such as the music, and visual information, such as pictures can be transmitted via networks at one CMD. For example, you can send an e-mail text with the attachment of the music clips and pictures. Fourth, the computer networks support CMC by providing an overview of the CMD to the addressee, supporting the form of CMD, and facilitating substance of CMD. For example, in the BBS, all topics of each forum in it will be listed on the home page of it. When you are going to send email via MSN, you know where to write down the title of your mail. MSN messenger provides you with the face-expression icon to show your feeling to the addressee when you chat online.

3 The nature of the discourse community of CMC

3.1The definition of discourse community

According to swales, the discourse community has a broadly agreed set of common public goals. Members of a discourse community communicate with one another using various participatory mechanisms to provide information and feedback. We can see there are some defining characteristics of discourse community:

Membership: central to the notion of community are issues of membership and exclusion. Some people are in, others are out. Discourse communities have changing memberships but it has a threshold level of members with a suitable degree of relevant content and discoursal expertise which maintains the community.

Mechanism: every discourse community has mechanisms of intercommunication which will vary according to the community. The mechanism is used primarily for providing information and feedback.

Substance: a discourse community utilizes and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its purpose, by acquiring some specific lexis.

Duration: the aforementioned characteristics take on importance only because the community as a collectivity is expected to have a long existence.

3.2The defining characteristics of on-line community

The computer as the medium of the CMC, provides the platform for the formation of the CMD communities, most which are formed based on forums of the BBS and the on-line chat protocol. CMD community has some mutual characteristics, which distinguish them from the off-line discourse communities as Swale defined.

First, the memberships are fluidic. Since most networks want to attract more visitors, it is easy for outsiders to join in the community. In most forums, net users can browse the posts freely without registration. Registered users can take part in the discussion of any topics and they can propose a topic they themselves interested in. If a visitor finds some interesting topics and wants to take part into the discussion, they can register immediately to join in the community. At the same time, insiders can leave out easily. Once bored with the topics, they can leave immediately and unnoticeably even without saying ‘bye, which will be quite odd in off-line community.

Second, the shared value of the community is relatively weak. Take one of the most popular Chinese BBS—Tianya Club as an example. Participants of the forums often fall into furious disputes or even vituperation as participants express conflicting opinions. The anonymity of the CMD community makes it easier for network users to speak his thoughts and ideas directly or even impolitely than in off-line community. One network user can register several nicknames. They can use different nicknames to give different opinions which may be conflicting to each other. They feel free to give opinions. If they find a name becomes notorious in one forum they can abandon it without hesitation.

Third, the CMD community formation is faster than off-line discourse community. While the spread of linguistic and lexical features in the discussion groups were influenced by participants who contributed a lot to the discussion, it is easier for outsiders master the norms of these lexical features on the internet, by browsing the old posts in this community. Most important thing is in electronic community, the language features are more easily influenced by all the participants, for all the discussions are text-based and saved in the site, which increase the possibility of the creative language features being read and adopted.

Fourth, the mechanism of communication depends heavily on electronic technology. Particpants communicate by net meeting, on-line messages and conversation, but usually they do not meet face-to face and most of the substance of communication is text based.

Fifth, the duration of the communities on line is unstable. They can be changed without a trace, and reproduced and distributed for virtually no cost. This fluidity shifts the 'burden of fixity' from the technical to the institutional realm.

4 Linguistic features of CMC

CMC shares a lot in common with off-line communication. While according to Herring, there are some linguistic structures that pertain to CMC.

First, computer-mediated language often contains nonstandard language, the majority of which are deliberately chosen by users to economize on type effort, mimic spoken language features, or express themselves creatively. Still take Tianya Club as an example, in one forum titled Entertainment and Gossip, veteran participants often mark their posters copied from other forums with ‘(GJM). ‘GJM has substitute the proper phrase: ‘转贴,which means ‘copied from other forum. While, ‘GJM is not chosen randomly, it is the abbreviation of the name of a Chinese writer, one of whose novels was found the plagiarism. In synchronous communication, participants pay less attention on the correctness of typos, use more abbreviations. Murray gave an example of this feature as following exchanges between Les and Brian:

Les: as it stands now, meeting on weds?

Les2: instead of Tues

Brian1: indiot Hess seemed to think you were there tues morning

Brian2: thot that mtg from 9 to 10 would solve

Brian3: if you not in ny Im going to have mtg changed to wedne.

(Herring 2001, in Schiffrin, Tannen, and Hamilton,eds, pp617).

Second, there are some unconventional orthography to represent auditory or facial information such as prosody, laughter, and other language sounds. As Danet in his book Communicating Online defined:

Asterisks for emphasisIm really *angry* at you.

Written out laughter hehehe hahaha

Descriptions of action *grins*

“Smiley” icons;-)(wink)

(Danet, 2001, pp17)

These features can only be created on the computer, so they are CMC specific.

Third, the language used in CMC is of less complexity and formality. Synchronous modes of CMD are time limited, and users have heavier production and processing burden than in authentic speaking communication. So in order to create the aura of speech like communication, communicators, consciously or unconsciously, use simple sentence structures in chatting. Kos study of the communication in educational settings shows that fewer complements, more stranded prepositions and shorter words are used than in a comparably sized corpus of formal writing. Though asynchronous CMD permits users to take their time in constructing and editing messages, it is not always true that the asynchronous CMD is as formal as written discourse. As Herring pointed out, there are often some informal, spoken language features, such as contractions, abbreviations, omission of punctuation and omission of grammatical function words, in e-mails, especially in private e-mails. Herring believes that it is because e-mail as a new communication mode, has not yet been colonized by rigid prescriptive norms.

5 Conclusion

As the preceding discussion shows, from the view of situated genre theory, CMC has many defining characteristics distinguishing it from any other off-line genre. Most properties of CMD follow the properties of computer technology. So the CMC can constitute a general genre——electronic genre.

Reference：

[1]Bhatia, V. K. Analysing Genre Language Use in Professional Settings[M]. New York Longman，1993.

[2]Swales, J. M. Genre Analysis English in Academic and Research Settings[M]. UK Cambridge University Press，1990.

[3]Herring, S. C. Computer-mediated Discourse. Chapter 31 in Schiffrin, D, Tannen, D and Hamilton, H E ed Handbook of Discourse Analysis[M].UK Blackwell Publishing，2001: 612-34.

作者简介：黄静雅，硕士，助教， 研究方向：应用语言学与第二外语教学。