My thesis reports on the linguistic analysis of a corpus of SMS text messages. With over 11,000 messages, my corpus, CorTxt, is the largest corpus of text messages in English. My work extends existing research by going beyond the spellings and abbreviations that are popularly seen to characterise text messaging in order to explore a diverse range of features. I have explored the occurrence of everyday speech-like creativity. I have applied a model of spoken grammar to the corpus. And I have explored the distribution of the most frequent words in CorTxt and the phrases in which they most commonly occur. What emerges from these studies is that although texting in some ways sits on the interface between spoken and written language, in other ways it differs markedly from other language varieties, and a more accurate way of describing text messaging is that its users actively and selectively draw on the resources of spoken and written discourses in constructing ‘Txt’.

I describe the choices available to texters using the concept of performativity, taken from gender theory.  My argument here is not to compare the construction of ‘Txt’ to the construction of gender identity per se, but to highlight the usefulness of the term perform to describe how texters actively respond to varied circumstances, expectations and discourses in construing texted identities. It is the effects of this performance that creates a text-specific language and which itself affirms and reaffirms the nature of ‘Txt’.

Methodologically, my study explores the extent to which any corpus study can be said to be driven by the data, thus contributing to the corpus-based/corpus-driven debate, and exemplifies the need to be flexible in finding the most appropriate way ‘in’ to a data set, especially with an emerging and unconventional language variety like text messaging.

I completed my thesis in early 2009 and graduated in July 2009.  My publications so far are as follows:

• Tagg, C. (forthcoming) ‘wot did he say or could u not c him 4 dust? Written and Spoken Creativity in Text Messaging’ in Ho et al (eds) Transforming Literacies and Language: Innovative Technologies, Integrated Experiences. Continuum.

• Tagg, C. (2007) ‘Corpus-based analysis of SMS text messaging’ In Teo, P and C. Ho eds. (2007) Discourse in the Modern World: Perspectives and Challenges. Singapore: McGraw Hill. pp. 267-284.

• Tagg, C. (2007) ‘All a bit mind boggling really: some observations regarding the frequencies of a and the in text messaging’ Corpus Linguistics Conference Proceedings, 27-30 July, University of Birmingham.