The aim of this master's dissertation is to study the theoretical characteristics of online writing based on 200 randomly selected self-introduction texts of young users that were published on Tinder, a dating app. It also attempts to define the (constitutive) characteristics of a modern dating text and the current linguistic choices of young generation and to apply some of these findings to educational process. The theoretical part defines the text, the theory of speech act and the process of linguistic choices. It critically reflects the existing typology of social varieties with regard to their intertwinement and it focuses especially on slang or the spoken language of the young generation. It is followed by an overview of ways of online communication and the characteristics of spoken language that appear in written online texts. The discussion of the linguistic and stylistic characteristics of online texts includes a concise overview of all linguistic levels. A brief evolution of dating texts is also presented, beginning with the first personal advertisements in a Slovene newspaper. In order to understand the circumstances in which the modern dating texts are made, the final chapter of the theoretical part focuses merely on Tinder profiles and on possibilities its users have at disposal. With the use of quantitative and discursive analysis, the empirical part applies the theoretical assumptions to a sample of texts written by 18-25 year olds. The dissertation tries to establish how the general characteristics of online writing (deletion of word boundaries, how to write sibilants, emoji etc.) are presented in texts on Tinder, how often do the authors of such texts use capitalized letters and punctuation marks, what kind of vocabulary do they use and what function does it have, how do they connect words into sentences and sentences into texts and how do they attract the attention of others and convince them to start the conversation. The dissertation concludes with a practical application of linguistic findings to an everyday life of teachers and professors and with an attempt to define a modern online dating text as a text type.
|