湘北紀要　第25号　2004

電子コミュニケーションの新展開

── 日本語における電子ことば学事始め: 試論 ──

田　　中　　弥　　生

Electronic Communication as a New Peak
── Emergence of Electronic Language in Japanese :
Preliminary Remarks ──

Yayoi TANAKA

　　The number of Internet users has continued to increase with the widespread use of personal computers and the progress in communication technology such as broadband.　According to a survey conducted at the end of 2002, one in every two persons or more uses the Internet, primarily to send (or receive) e-mails.　Electronic communication has been generally classified into four categories―Web pages, Newsgroups, E-mails and Chats.　Its language has been discussed with respect to whether the message is characterized as (i) written language, (ii) spoken language, or (iii) a mixture of both.　This paper, however, argues on the basis of an observation of features of electronic communication in Japanese, e-mails in particular, that we must establish a new type called “electronic language” on a par with the two identified above (i.e., “written language” and “spoken language”).　It is suggested that similar findings may be forthcoming from the three other categories (Web pages, Newsgroups, and Chats).