Linguistic structure and language variation on digital communication: framework, characteristics, and the Brazilian Portuguese

• Autor(a) principal: Pinheiro, Andrei Ferreira de Carvalhaes
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Domínios de Lingu@gem
• Texto Completo: https://seer.ufu.br/index.php/dominiosdelinguagem/article/view/67933
• topic: Comunicação digital; Estrutura linguística; Variação linguística; Prática discursiva; Digital communication; Linguistic structure; Language variation; Discursive pratice

This paper verifies how scientific literature has described digital communication based on its typical linguistic structures. It deepens the thoughts on online interactions, while distinguishing them from both conventional speech and writing. It also identifies some scientific advancements on the topic developed in Brazil based on the Portuguese language, as well as some aspects which require further attention. Hence, it carries out a critical literature review, and comments on different investigations concerning virtual communication. Therefore, it argues that linguistic structure ought to be considered as essential components for characterizing communicative instances, from graphemics to syntax, while acknowledging the centrality of language variation for the description of discursive practices. Lastly, it points out that research in Brazil on this topic is based on different degrees of understanding towards the nature of digital texts; yet works which aim at describing online communication as either closer to conventional speech or writing seem to prevail, in opposition to much research’s recommendation on the characterization of virtual interactions.