La conversación guasapWhatsApp conversation

Abstract

This research on WhatsApp communication is based on Briz and Val.Es. Co.’s (2000) analytical approach to colloquial conversation. A sequentially based structural configuration of WhatsApp conversations is proposed: sequences of opening, closing and continuity. The target is to describe discursive strategies in this daily communication channel with two purposes. On the one hand, to check the function of no linguistic elements as semantic anchors which unite and refer the inferred information in speech acts. On the other hand, to observe the use of these elements in the management of social relationships and the way they guide interaction. Thus, the functionality of emoticons is multiple: they can replace lexical units but they can also convey the interpretation of the enunciator’s emotion and summarize his / her intention. In addition of this, emoticons can also be elements of (im) politeness – depending on the degree of familiarity between the interlocutors. On the other hand, the use of emoticons is associated with diatopic, diastratic and diaphasic variation. This study analyzes one hundred conversations belonging to eleven groups. Each group is integrated by a variable number of people – between three to twelve persons per group- aged between twelve and sixty.