Forms and functions of SMS messages: A study of variations in a corpus written by adolescents

The purpose of this research was to gain insights into SMS communication among French-speaking adolescents. We analyzed the effects of the writers’ characteristics (age, gender, and SMS-messaging experience) on message length (number of characters and number of words), dialogue structure (with or without an opening and a closing), and message function (informative vs. relational). The SMS messages were produced in a real-world situation. We found differences across writers’ characteristics for all the dependant variables. The commonly reported distinctions between girls and boys were mitigated. Moreover, for dialogical structure, the messages differed from those found in traditional oral and written interactions since 73% of them did not have the conventional opening–message–closing format (the opening and/or the closing was missing). The results are discussed in terms of the specific characteristics that define the SMS register, and potentially relevant approaches to be taken in future research are addressed.

► We studied a corpus of 864 SMS messages produced by French-speaking adolescents.
► We analyzed the effects of the writers’ characteristics on message length, dialogue structure, and message.
► We found differences across writers’ characteristics for all the dependant variables.
► The commonly reported distinctions between girls and boys were mitigated.
► For dialogical structure, the messages differed from those found in traditional oral and written interactions.