Cross-Generational differences in the language of text messeges

Pojavom mobilnih telefona i sve pristupačnijih cijena komunikacijskih usluga, pojavila se i mogućnost da svaki dan u tjednu, 24 sata dnevno, budemo povezani s gotovo cijelim svijetom, što je ostavilo traga na svakom aspektu ljudskog života. Ovim radom nećemo analizirati sveukupni efekt takvog tehnološkog napretka nego ćemo se koncentrirati na posljedice koje taj vid tehnološkog napretka ostavlja na naše osnovno sredstvo komunikacije, a to je jezik. Istraživanje koje smo proveli u sklopu pisanja ovog rada proučava jezik SMS poruka 20 sudionika koji čine dvije generacije - mlade i odrasle. Poslali su nam svojih posljednjih 20 SMS poruka u kojima smo analizirali jezik na leksičkoj i pravopisnoj razini te na razini korištenja glagolskih vremena kako bismo stekli jasnu sliku tekuće promjene jezika pod utjecajem pisanja SMS poruka.Emerging alongside the advent of the mobile phone and low prices in the communications industry is the possibility of becoming constantly connected with basically the entire world. This thesis will not discuss the entirety of the impact of modern communication technologies that made it possible to stay ever-connected, but only one aspect of it - we will study the impact it has on our language. The main subject of this thesis is language itself and how it was and still is affected by the ever-popular habit of texting. The research we conducted as part of this thesis studies the language of text messages sent in by 20 participants, half of whom belong to the younger generation and the other half consisting of adults. We asked them to submit the last 20 text messages they sent and then we analysed the language of those texts on the lexical and orthographic levels and their use of verb tenses in order to obtain a clear picture of the undergoing language change influenced by text messaging