Short Message Service (SMS) Texting Symbols: A Functional Analysis of 10,000 Cellular Phone Text Messages

The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of symbolic expressions (e.g., “BTW,” “LOL,” “UR”) in an SMS text messaging corpus consisting of over 10,000 text messages. More specifically, the purpose was to determine, not only how frequently these symbolic expressions are used, but how they are utilized in terms of the language functions that they signal. The results of this investigation suggest that text messaging symbols are most frequently used to identify people and their relationships to other things (including other people). They also suggest that text messaging symbols are frequently used to express amusement. In addition, the results suggest that the text messaging community has developed its own language culture in which closing expressions, long-form dialog, and correct spelling and grammar are viewed as inefficient and impractical. Finally, the results suggest that text messaging symbols are often used to signal descriptions of things that are important to the message sender.