Attitudes and emotions through written text: The case of textual deformation in Internet chat rooms

Spanish Internet chat rooms are visited by a lot of young people who use language in a very creative way (e.g. repetition of letters and punctuation marks). In this paper, several hypotheses concerning the uses of textual deformation assess their communicative usefulness. The goal of these hypotheses is to check whether these deformations favour a more accurate identification and evaluation of the senders’ underlying attitudes (propositional or affective) and emotions. The answers to a questionnaire indicate that despite the supplementary level of information that textual deformation provides, readers tend not to agree on the exact quality of the sender’s underlying attitudes and emotions, nor do they tend to establish degrees of intensity related to the quantity of text typed. However, and despite this evidence, textual deformation seems to play a part in the eventual quality of chat users’ interpretations of the messages sent to chat rooms.Los chats españoles de Internet son visitados por muchos jóvenes que usan el lenguaje de una forma muy creativa (ej. repetición de letras y signos de puntuación). En este artículo se evalúan varias hipótesis sobre el uso de la deformación textual respecto a su eficacia comunicativa. Se trata de comprobar si estas deformaciones favorecen una identificación y evaluación más adecuada de las actitudes (proposicionales o afectivas) y emociones de sus autores. Las respuestas a un cuestionario revelan que a pesar de la información adicional que la deformación textual aporta, los lectores no suelen coincidir en la cualidad exacta de estas actitudes y emociones, ni establecen grados de intensidad relacionados con la cantidad de texto tecleada. Sin embargo, y a pesar de estos resultados, la deformación textual parece jugar un papel en la interpretación que finalmente se elige de estos mensajes enviados a los chats.The research for this paper has been supported by IULMA (Instituto Interuniversitario de Lenguas Modernas Aplicadas)

Identity-related issues in meme communication

Internet memes are an example of the trend of replicability and spread of discourses through the Net within today’s participatory culture. On paper, memes are instances of humorous discourse that abound on the internet, are replicated or altered, and then transmitted to other users. However, in this paper the focus is not on its humorous side, but on how every single stage of meme communication entails a greater or lesser impact on the user’s self-concept, self-awareness and overall identity. The paper addresses five stages of meme communication and possible ways in which these stages influence the user’s identity

Towards a pragmatics of weblogs

The weblog has emerged as one of the most dynamic means of Internet communication, in which users upload whatever piece of information they consider might arouse other users’ attention. Many articles and books have already addressed this new communicative phenomenon, but so far the weblog has not been addressed in purely cognitive-pragmatic terms. This article provides a first relevance-theoretic pragmatic analysis of the discourse of weblogs and their communicative qualities and limitations.El weblog ha surgido como una de las formas más dinámicas de comunicación, en la cual los usuarios de Internet “cuelgan” cualquier información que consideran que puede atraer la atención de otros usuarios. Ya se han escrito muchos artículos y libros sobre este fenómeno comunicativo, pero hasta ahora el weblog no ha sido analizado en términos puramente pragmático-cognitivos. Este artículo proporciona un primer análisis pragmático desde la teoría de la relevancia del discurso de los weblogs y sus cualidades comunicativas y limitaciones.The research for this article has been supported by IULMA (Instituto Interuniversitario de Lenguas Modernas Aplicadas)

El papel del contexto en la comunicación por Internet

Setenes Jornades de Foment de la Investigació de la FCHS (Any 2001-2002

Discovering new arene-catalyzed lithiations

La litiació catalitzada per hidrocarburs aromàtics és una metodologia útil i versàtil que promou els processos de litiació en condicions de reacció molt suaus. Aquest informe presenta els resultats recents en l'aplicació d'aquesta tecnologia, principalment en els camps següents: a) carbolitiació intramolecular vs. obertura d'anells en litiometilcicloalcans, b) la generació de sintons de diliti com a precursors dels èters bicíclics i espiroèters, les principals unitats de productes naturals biològicament actius, c) desprotecció general dels diversos compostos protegits que contenen oxigen, sofre i nitrogen en condicions no hidrolítiques, i d) la preparació de nanopartícules de níquel i la seva aplicació en reaccions de formació d'enllaços carboni-carboni i carboni-nitrogen.Arene-catalyzed lithiation is a useful and versatile methodology that promotes lithiation processes under very mild reaction conditions. This report presents recent results in the application of this technology, mainly in the following fields: (a) intramolecular carbolithiation vs. ring-opening in lithiomethylcycloalkanes; (b) the generation of dilithium synthons as precursors of bicyclic and spiro ethers, major units in biological active natural products; (c) general deprotection of different oxygen-, sulfur-, and nitrogen-containing protected compounds under non-hydrolytic conditions; and (d) the preparation of nickel nanoparticles and their application in carbon-carbon and carbon-nitrogen bond formation reactions

Destined for Destitution : Intergenerational Poverty Persistence in Indonesia

We estimate intergenerational poverty persistence in Indonesia using a panel dataset. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first such study looking at the issue in the Indonesian context. Different from the majority of studies on this issue, we include controls for several household and individual characteristics, including for living arrangements. Moreover, to circumvent data issues that plague earnings data in developing countries, we use chronic poverty status as a long-term parental welfare measure. We find there is a substantial intergenerational mobility away from poverty among children from poor households. However, the risk of continuing to live in poverty as adults is 35 percentage points higher for children from chronically poor households than for children from households which are not chronically poor.chronic poverty, intergenerational mobility, children, welfare, Indonesia

Propositional attitude, affective attitude and irony comprehension

According to relevance theory, irony comprehension invariably entails the identification of some opinion or thought (echo) and the identification of the speaker’s dissociative attitude. In this paper, it is argued that it is also essential for hearers to identify not only that propositional attitude, but also the affective attitude that the speaker holds towards the source of this echo so that an optimally relevant interpretive outcome is achieved. This notion comprises feelings and emotions of a non-propositional quality which affect the propositional effects obtained in ironical communication. The paper further argues for the need to incorporate non-propositional effects into the traditional propositional object of pragmatic research.This research was supported by EMO-FUNDETT research project, a coordinate project funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (FFI2013-47792-C2-1-P)