The Linguistic and Situational features of WhatsApp Messages

WhatsApp messages can be such a rich source for creative and spontaneous language geared towards more individual expression. This study aims to explore the linguistic features of text messaging communicative intent, content and context. 100 different texts from a high school student population in Canada were collected and analyzed using Biber and Conrad’s (2009) qualitative approach to register, genre, and style analysis. The result is that many people use a lot of clipped sentences in a free flow of casual speech. It is concluded that while it is true that a lot of common abbreviations are used and have become standard, there is a lot of individualistic variance in terms of style and language usage.