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.In 2005, there were thought to be 1,575 million e-mailclients worldwide.2In this chapter, I have used data taken from my own e-messages, supplemented byexamples taken from messages sent to a younger generation, kindly supplied by my23-year-old son and 26-year-old daughter.The desirability of a corpus of e-mail data isstressed by Johansson (1991: 307 8), and also Yates (1996: 30).99100 language and the internetStructural elementsAn individual e-mail consists of a series of functional elements,for which terminology varies somewhat, all of which are similarin purpose to those found in traditional letters and memos. Compose screens typically display a bipartite structure, with apreformatted upper area (the header or heading) and a lower areafor the main text (the body or message).In some systems, if wechoose to attach a file to the e-mail, a third space becomesavailable, in which an icon representing the attachment is located.HeadersThe underlying format of the header contains four core elements(different systems vary in the extent to which they display allfour, and the order in which they display them):3the e-address (or addresses) to which the message is beingsent (following To:), typed in full manually or insertedautomatically by typing a prompt which calls up acharacter-string from an address-book (either the fulle-address or a more memorable short form, or nickname);this is an obligatory element;the e-address from which the message has been sent(following From:), inserted automatically; this is also anobligatory element;a brief description of the topic of the message (followingSubject:), inserted manually; this is an optional element, butthe software will query its absence (e.g. This message hasno subject.Are you sure you want to send it? ), and it isconsidered efficient practice to include it (see below);the date and time at which the message is sent (followingDate:), inserted automatically by the software.3For the  header wars (over what should be included in the header) in the early days ofthe Internet, see Naughton (1999: 149).The language of e-mail 101The fact that these are core elements is supported by theinformation electronically recorded once a message is sent.Theseare the chief elements represented in the Outbox and Sent folders,under the headings To, Subject, and Sent (often, along with anindication of the server account employed).When a message isreceived, they are the chief elements represented in one s Inbox(with From replacing To and Received replacing Sent).In addition, several optional elements are available within theheader area:a space for addresses which are to receive a copy of themessage (following Cc:, which stands etymologically forcarbon copy, but which is often glossed as courtesy copy),inserted manually or automatically; here too, short and fullforms of an address are available, the latter usually beingplaced within angle brackets; the message s prime recipientis informed that these copies have been sent;a space for addresses which also receive a copy of themessage (following Bcc:, for blind carbon copy), but withoutthe prime recipient s knowledge;a space in which a symbol (such as a paper-clip) appears ifan attachment has been added to the message; this alsoappears along with the summary in the Outbox and Sentfolders, and appears on the recipient s screen;a space in which a symbol (such as an exclamation mark)appears if a priority is to be given to the message when it isreceived (it does not have anything to do with the speed atwhich the message will be electronically transmitted); low,normal, and high priorities are usually recognized.There is very limited scope for usage variation, within headers,because so much of the information is dictated by the software.The conventions of e-address structure (the registered two-partdesignation on either side of the @ symbol) are fixed, and if notfollowed exactly, the message will either not be accepted by thesender s software or will be returned ( bounced back ) by the102 language and the internetserver to which the sender is connected (it may also disappear intocyberspace and never be seen again).4 The same considerationsaffect copies of messages  though e-mail manuals additionallyraise the pragmatic question of the decision-making behindcopied messages [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]