| Tartalmi leírás: |
T
his paper investigates the linguistic characteristics of English in the Instant
Messaging (IM) discourse as one of the most common computer-mediated
communication modes in Egypt, where English is considerably used. It also
aims to explore the reasons for the preference of English to Arabic in certain
contexts, types of English errors, contexts of English and Arabic use, age of
users, addressees, and purposes/functions of code-switching in English–Arabic
discourse. Two sources of data were used: a corpus of 30 IM conversations
by 60 interlocutors and responses to a survey by a group of 49 participants
(including some of the conversation providers). Findings of both qualitative
and quantitative methods of analysis indicate that English in Egypt is used as an
interactive medium of communication among Egyptian professionals, students,
and younger generations in general, regardless of their English proficiency
levels, in both formal and informal contexts for various purposes. Moreover,
IM English used by Egyptians is generally mixed with Arabic, and this code
switching between English and varieties of the Arabic language occurs in many
contexts to fulfill different functions.
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