A Discourse Analysis on Internet Relay Chat (IRC): A Hallidayan Perspective

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Introduction

Computer Mediated Communication (CMC) is the “communication that takes place between human beings via the instrumentality of computers” (Herring, 1:1996). It is an essential tool in Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) as it serves as a medium for language learners around the globe to communicate with each other and further improving their language skills.

There are two types of CMC interactivity; synchronous and asynchronous. Synchronous interaction is when there is immediate feedback from the receiver of the message such as using internet relay chat or video conferencing. Asynchronous interaction on the other hand, is the type of communication where delayed feedback occurs such as in e-mail and online forum. For the purpose of this study, we have chosen one mode from the synchronous type of interactivity which is the Internet Relay Chat (IRC).

            Rintel, Mulholland and Pittam (2001) defined Internet Relay Chat (IRC) as the “Internet’s first widely popular quasi-synchronous CMC” which is participated by numerous internet user at a time. It was a popular mode of communication during the 90’s and the 2000’s. Those were the decades when internet was a new thing that IRC became a trend among the youth of those days. IRC may not be the most prominent mode of CMC in the 2010’s but its ability to portray real-life chat among its users will give an elaborate insight on online communication.

Therefore, we think it might be an interesting study to try and explain on the choice that people made in order to make meaning (Semiotic Process). This is due to the fact that IRC is a synchronous interaction in CMC which means it can capture Semiotic Process in its almost-natural setting.

Objective of Study

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) was particularly chosen for the mode of analysis because it mimics the real-world interaction. Because of this, previously, IRC was used in various researches in order to determine its participation in the effectiveness of language learning, analyze the usage of codeswitching among the users and making sense of the grammatical structure within the IRC domain. However, there are barely any researches done to explain the interactions that happen in the mode. Therefore, by using Halliday’s framework of Systemic Functional Grammar, this paper aims to describe the discourse that happens within the mode of IRC. 

Description of Framework for Analysis

            The IRC corpus will be analyzed based on Halliday’s ideology which is called the semiotic process. Semiotic process is the choice that people made in order to make meaning. This process is described in the framework of systemic functional grammar. Halliday describes functional grammar as a way of analyzing grammar to discover how it is organized in order to allow speaker and writer to make and exchange meaning. Moreover, functional grammar differs from the traditional grammar since it only focuses on what makes a sentence grammatical or ungrammatical. Halliday’s functional grammar, on the other hand, focuses on the appropriateness of language in a context.

            Then, the corpus is analyzed according to three types of meaning in functional grammar. According to Halliday, there are three kinds of meaning within grammatical structure. There are interpersonal, experiential, as well as textual metafunction. Interpersonal metafunction (tenor) is the way people act between each other through language. It is also referring to the way people express their judgments and attitudes about something. There are four types of mood under interpersonal metafunction which are declarative, exclamative, imperative, interrogative mood and moodless.  

Experiential meaning refers to the information (field) within the sentence. It studies how language represent our experiences, who are the people and things involved in an action and also the relevant circumstances surrounding them. Under experiential meaning, there are six processes that is applied for the analysis. The processes are material, mental, behavioral, verbal, existential and relational process. Lastly, textual metafunction which refers to the relation of the sentence to entire context of the discourse. There are two types textual metafunction that has been described by Halliday which are the spoken and written.  

Research Questions

1. What is the most dominant process found in Internet Relay Chat?

2. What is the most prominent mood found in the Internet Relay Chat?

3. Is the corpus more written or spoken?

4. How can we describe discourse in Internet Relay Chat based on Hallidayan metafunctions?

Description of Data for Analysis

The corpus used for the analysis is a one day conversation on 10^th May 2015 starting from 12:12 until 01:44 a.m. It is taken from the Ubuntu Chat Corpus (UCC) and available to be downloaded from daviduthus.org/UCC. UCC is an archive of Ubuntu’s chat logs starting from 2004 until 2012 and the conversation is mainly about Internet Relay Chat’s technical support. Moreover, IRC is known for its capability to support multi-participants chat that offers a real time feedback. Since the chat room is open and available for anyone to join, it is impossible to find a corpus that only focuses on one topic. Also, the conversation is quite random at certain points as new participant joins the chat room. In addition, the chosen corpus for our analysis discusses about personal life and questions on how to solve technical problems. Besides, the corpus has been transferred to Microsoft Word so that it will be easier to analyze the text. It has been shorten to 1287 words as the original one is too long but, the message still remains the same. The chat does not involve any bot response and only consists of human conversations between five to six people. 

Significance of Study

This study will aid our understanding on the discourse which occurs within the mode of IRC. The findings will guide us as to whether IRC can really aid in the 21^st Century Pedagogy which emphasize students’ thinking skills, problem solving skills and capability in technology application. The study will also guide us as to whether IRC can cater and aids students in the cognitive aspect within the framework of Bloom’s Taxonomy.

Findings

Research question 1 : What is the most dominant process found in Internet Relay Chat?

The first research question asked the most dominant process found in the IRC; six processes in experiential metafunction by Michael Halliday were used to classify the sentences in the corpus. There are material, mental, behavioral, verbal, existential and relational. The sentences were highlighted with different colors to distinguish all the six processes. The result shows that material process has the highest total of verb produced in the conversation. It is due to the conversation topics that makes the participants produced sentences about doing or an action that can be seen. As the topic discussed in the conversation related to how they should use certain technology or software, it requires them to deliver messages as they instruct one another on how the technology works. This study did not further discuss the reasons behind small number of other process because we are only interested in finding the most prominent process in IRC corpus.

Research question 2 : What is the most prominent mood found in the Internet Relay Chat?

The second research question regarding the prominent mode based on Halliday metafunction perspective, the corpus were analyzed according to five mode of sentences which are declarative, interrogative, exclamative, imperative and moodless. All the sentences are highlighted with different colors to distinguish all the five modes. The results are taken from the total clause of each mode. The highest clause implied that the declarative mood is the most dominant mood produced in the conversation via IRC. The result shows that the participants made a lot of statement about the topic they discussed. It can be seen that there are a lot of active voice in the conversation indicating that participants describe some ideas or sharing an opinion with proper statement. Thus, declarative mood were produced.

Research question 3 : Is the corpus more written or spoken?

The corpus were analyzed based each features of spoken and written which are turn- taking organization and monologue organization. Turn taking is the sequence of talk between two individual in a conversation while monologue is a text that can stand on its own in the context of the conversation. The corpus was highlighted with different colors to identify the spoken and written language conversation via IRC. The study was limited to only one difference between each spoken and written language because we limited the study in identifying the dominant textual metafunction in the IRC. Result shows that spoken language were produced more in the IRC than written language. The participants’ were online and communicate via live chats. With the total of 9 conversation produced in the IRC, we can conclude that the corpus are more in spoken because there are interactions between the participants that makes them follow the turn by turn sequencing of talk.

Research Question 4 : How can we describe discourse in Internet Relay Chat based on Hallidayan metafunctions?

The result suggests that participants produced numerous material process sentences in the conversation because the corpus discussed on how to solve computer software problem. Thus, the participants explained step by step that resulting in many material process sentences produced in the conversation. The results also show that participants tend to produce declarative sentences when they are interacting between one another. This might be related to the questions asked regarding the topic. When there is one question ask by the participant, the answer may be further explain in details that results in several declarative sentences to explain answer in details about the question. The corpus can be categorized as more spoken than written because it is clearly a live chat that require participants to interact with each other. In addition, the dominant feature occurred in the corpus is turn taking rather than monologue. Based on the findings of the study within the framework of Systemic Functional Grammar, this paper managed to describe the discourse that happens in the conversation via IRC. 

Discussion

This paper attempted to describe the discourse that happens within the mode of Internet Relay Chat (IRC): A Hallidayan Perspective. The corpus was analyzed using Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar and were highlighted with different colours to distinguish different process, mood and mode. The results prove that conversations via IRC are useful to improve students’ skill in using computer application. As the participants share information about the software, they become more skillful in running the software and broaden their knowledge in technology.

They also have the opportunity to develop their thinking in problem solving as they construct sentences to show steps to solve the computer software problem without going to the place where the problem occurred. The other participants also can apply the step to solve the problem by themselves without having to go to any computer solution shop. This result in this study support the findings in literature review where the participants in this live chat also incorporate in discussing the chat input. The participants also addressed directly to other participants using their nicknames showing that particular message is meant for whose nickname was mentioned. This support the findings in the literature review on how are nicknames used to address users in a chat discourse. Finally, this study only limit to describing discourse occurred in IRC. Researchers can further the study on how type of processes in Experiential Metafunction affect participants’ interactions via IRC.