Interaktionsorientiertes Schreiben und interaktive Lesespiele in der Chat-Kommunikation

Abstract

Written chat interaction on the internet is guided by the metaphorical concept of informal spoken conversation (= to chat) situated in a place (= a chat room). In our paper, we use examples to show how chatters build on this metaphor for a playful simulation of actions and for the joint, interactive creation of imagined scenes. Our examples are taken from the Dortmunder Chat-Korpus, an annotated collection of German chat logfiles from different types of chat environments. After a brief introduction to the technical conditions of chats and the characteristics of interaction-centered writing, we explain the basic categories of our analysis. Using this basis, we analyze sequences from chat logfiles in which the chatters introduce imagined objects and simulate actions and, step by step, interactively create a »virtual world« by negotiating a scenario, fictitious characters and facts about this imagined scene. The analyses show that an understanding of interaction in chats falls short if it describes the written conversations solely as a form of language use that deviates from the standard norms of written language. Instead, chat technology opens up new means to play with written language and with the peculiarities of interaction-centered writing. In ludic sequences like the ones analyzed in this paper, chatters on the one hand pick up and refine traditions of playfully mimicking orality through writing while on the other hand they make use of features which are particular of written (not spoken) language. In spite of their commonalities with improvisation theater and with fictionalizing in spoken conversation, such ludic chat interactions cannot be transposed into speech (e. g., through reading them with different roles) without significant transformations.