AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ

Institute of the Lithuanian Language

THE USE OF ENGLISH WORDS IN HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS’ BLOGS

KEYWORDS: blogs, students’ blogs, blog language, English.

INTRODUCTION

Recently, there has been increasing discussion and writing about the impact of digital technologies on language and its changes. Publications are emerging in Lithuanian linguistics on how internet communication affects language, and the language of various digital technologies (text messages, social networks, blog language, etc.) is being studied separately. To date, little attention has been paid to studies of students’ language, both in informal and public use.

This article presents an overview of high school students’ blogs and examines one aspect of blog language—how English words are used in them. The research material consists of thirty blogs (268 blog posts) written between 2012 and 2014 by young people aged 15–18. The aim of the article is to describe high school students’ blogs, examine the characteristics of the English words used in them, and identify the reasons for this usage.

The article consists of two parts. The first briefly reviews blogs written in Lithuanian by high school students; the second examines the English words used in them, discusses the reasons for their use, and provides specific examples.

1. UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ BLOGS

Upper secondary school students are young people, also known as adolescents¹. Marc Prensky calls people of this generation “digital natives” (Prensky 2001). They were born and grew up in the age of computers and the internet. According to a study conducted in America, adolescents share their opinions online more than any other social group, commenting, discussing, and so on.

¹ Adolescence is a transitional period from childhood to adulthood. The boundaries of this age period vary. Regina Žukauskienė (2001) described in detail the conditional nature of age boundaries. The author divides adolescence into early adolescence—from 12 to 14 years of age, with age 15 as a transitional period—and late adolescence, from 16 to 18 years of age. The authors of the texts examined in this article belong to the adolescent age group and can therefore also be called adolescents.

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(Lenhart et al. 2010). Never before have young people had so many opportunities to express their opinions and experiences publicly and to be heard by such a large audience.

Writing blogs helps maintain social relationships. It is a place where one can present not only one’s outlook on life, drawing on familiar events or stories and connecting the past, present, and future, but also a great opportunity to receive feedback. This is especially important for developing a young person’s self-awareness and self-esteem (Gurak et al. 2008; Miura et al. 2007).

Blogs became particularly popular because writing them makes it easy and inexpensive to introduce oneself to a fairly large online audience. Blog texts and their content are less constrained than those of printed publications or other electronic publications (Herring et al. 2004a; Crystal 2006). The popularity of blogs was also driven by their features: 1) ease of use; users do not need to know programming languages to create their own diaries; 2) the ability to accumulate information and knowledge; 3) the opportunity to share one’s experience with others and receive feedback in comments; to reply to a comment or provide feedback in posts; 4) links to other blogs (Herring et al. 2004a; Huffaker 2004b).

There is little research on blog language in Lithuanian linguistics. One of the few authors to have examined blog language is Rita Miliūnaitė (2008a; 2008b); communication in library-themed blogs was studied by Zinaida Manžuch (2010); Dovilė Karčiauskaitė (2010) has written about using blog-language research in language lessons; and Vilija Celiešienė (2012) examined computer-related neologisms in bloggers’ language. Abroad, Susan C. Herring regularly publishes work in this field with colleagues (2002, 2004a, 2004b, 2006a, 2006b, 2014, 2015)², as does David A. Huffaker (2004a; 2004b; 2005). A comprehensive study of adolescents and all social media was conducted in America, with its detailed results discussed in the article (Lenhart et al. 2010).

So far, no studies in Lithuania have focused on the language of upper secondary school students’ blogs.

Research material

The article examines thirty blogs (26 by girls and 4 by boys), written in Lithuanian between January 2012 and May 2014. In total, the article examines 268 blog posts (234 by girls and 34 by boys); for the study, the ten most recently written posts from each blog were selected. Not all blog authors had that many posts; in such cases, all posts written between 2012 and 2014 were included.

Blog texts were not chosen as the object of study by chance. These are publicly available texts which, unlike other genres of electronic discourse, may better reflect actual written usage. The language of blogs is more organized: “graphic and linguistic expression more closely resemble written journalistic style than an imitation of spoken language; ideas are presented coherently and consistently; the text is more structured and may have been edited by the author; there is greater adherence to language norms customary for a larger number of addressees; and there is more linguistic self-monitoring” (Miliūnaitė 2008b).

When selecting texts, their content was taken into account to some extent: blogs presenting copied online information, advertising products, or organizing and describing some online material were not analyzed. The search terms paauglių tinklaraščiai (teenagers’ blogs) and mokinių tinklaraščiai (students’ blogs) were entered into the Google search engine to find blogs by upper-secondary school students.

²Only publications related to the subject of this article are presented here.

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A corpus was compiled from all the blog posts. The overall average number of words in the blog texts is 304³. The average number of words in girls’ posts is 286, and in boys’ posts, 428. Of course, the number of words in boys’ blog posts cannot be considered statistically significant, since only 34 posts were examined; nevertheless, these data also show that the texts written by boys are not short and that their topics are developed in detail.

After the blog corpus was compiled, an abundance of English words and expressions was observed. All these words were marked in the corpus, then grouped and described in this article.

Profile of the blog authors

When collecting the material, the personal information given on the blogs was examined, namely: first name, surname, age, date of birth, place of residence, and other contact information (email address, a link to a social networking profile, personal website, etc.). This additional information is important for analyzing blog texts. These characteristics make it possible to select the study group and assess the authors’ anonymity. It is likely that the authors’ public visibility may influence the language of their texts. One may suppose that bloggers who have publicly introduced themselves should choose their linguistic means more carefully, and that their texts should be more grammatically correct. Pseudonyms are not considered real names; that is, if a blogger gave a pseudonym, for example, Mylimukė Monro, they were classified as anonymous authors. The main characteristics of the blog authors studied are presented in Table 1.

TABLE 1. Characteristics of the blog authors

Characteristics

Girls (26)

Boys (4)

Total (30)

First name

7 (27 percent)

1 (25 percent)

8 (27 percent)

First name, surname

8 (31 percent)

3 (75 percent)

11 (37 percent)

Age

8 (31 percent)

0

8 (27 percent)

Date of birth

2 (8 percent)

0

2 (7 percent)

Place of residence

6 (23 percent)

2 (50 percent)

8 (27 percent)

Email address

7 (27%)

3 (75%0

10 (33%)

Links to other pages

11 (42%)

1 (25%)

12 (40%)

The texts of the blogs examined individually were written by one person, i.e., they were not collaborative blogs. 37% of the authors indicated their first and last names, while 27% gave only their first name. When neither a first nor a last name was provided, gender could be determined from the text (e.g.: I was delighted to see my friend...). 27% of the text authors indicated their age, and the same proportion also provided their resi-

3

According to a study conducted by R. Miliūnaitė, the average length of blog posts is usually 100 words, and less frequently 200 words (Miliūnaitė 2008a: 36). According to a 2004 study in America of randomly selected blogs (203 blogs were examined), the average number of words in a blog post is 262 (Herring et al. 2004a).

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…place of residence (city). Thirty-three percent of the authors published their email address, and somewhat more—40 percent—also provided links to their other social networks⁴.

As can be seen, more than half of the young blog authors (64 percent) are non-anonymous. An even greater proportion of them (73 percent) provided their contact details, that is, an email address, a link to social networks, or a personal website. This shows that the authors do not conceal their authorship and are open with readers. When they finish writing, they invite readers to comment, write by email, or discuss things on social networks. A few examples:

P.S. Write some good movies here in the comments or on fb! Thanks:*⁵

I’d like to add to and make that pile even bigger, so I’m looking for pen pals; all those who want to become one, email me (we’ll exchange addresses):

That’s all for today for now; my writing energy has completely run out. By the way, anyone in Klaipėda, Palanga, or Neringa who’d like a photo shoot during the holidays for 15 litas (a little more if you’re not from Klaipėda), write to me. Contact details are at the top of the blog.

Given that authors decide for themselves whether to remain anonymous, the provision of personal information simply confirms that young bloggers are not afraid to take responsibility for the texts they publish.

The language of blogs

Each text is created by an individual and reflects that person’s linguistic abilities, thinking, and so on. The language of publicly available blog texts is not edited. Internet language seems to occupy an intermediate position between spoken and written language, bringing into the public sphere things we are not accustomed to hearing said publicly or seeing written (Ryklienė 2003: 2). Blogs offer a unique opportunity to see unprocessed written language (Crystal 2006: 245); they show actual written usage (Miliūnaitė 2008a: 36).

All the examined blog texts by upper-grade students are written using Lithuanian letters (there are no texts written solely in “shvepluoju” [without diacritics]). This shows that young blog authors regulate their spelling when writing, do not distance themselves from standard language, and feel a sense of responsibility when writing texts in the public sphere. At times, they express their views on the norms of standard language in their texts:

I can’t sit quietly in my seat and, like the rest of the students in the classroom, ignore the fact that the teacher just said there are three hundred and sixty-eight days in a year, pronounced the word ‘analogas’ with a right-hand stress mark on the second ‘a’, and, when talking about the date, said ‘two thousand’. As terrible as that may sound, these are just a few examples from the last few days. No, I don’t attend a pre-war village school where the teachers are the three most educated people in the area, who have read three books and a few local newspapers in their lives. These are the persistent errors of teachers who teach at the central gymnasium and have higher education. And after such absurd mistakes, how can one bring oneself to look at them as

⁴ According to a 2004 study of randomly selected blogs conducted in America, 36 percent of authors gave their first name, and 31 percent gave their first and last names. More than half (54 percent) of the blog authors provided other information: age, place of residence, and links to other social networks (Herring et al. 2004a). According to another study, focusing exclusively on teenagers, 70 percent of authors gave their first name, 20 percent their first and last names, 67 percent their age, 39 percent their date of birth, 59 percent their place of residence, 61 percent their contact information, and 30 percent links to personal websites (Huffaker et al. 2005).

⁵ The visual presentation and language of the texts quoted here and below have not been edited.

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to authoritative people who deepen your knowledge and help you develop? When working at a school, is it enough to know your subject well and ignore the fact that all your other knowledge is at the level of primary school pupils?

Although blog posts are written using Lithuanian letters (only isolated words are occasionally written in “shveplai” [without diacritics]), the language is not always correct, and numerous spelling and punctuation errors are evident. This article does not analyze language correctness in greater detail, as that is a topic for other research.

Tinklaraščių stilius dažniausiai yra artimas publicistiniam stiliui (Miliūnaitė 2008a: 37). Remiantis Vytauto Didžiojo universiteto Kompiuterinės lingvistikos centro automatinio teksto funkcijų nustatymo programos duomenimis⁶, nagrinėjamų aukštesniųjų klasių mokinių tinklaraščių kalba yra artima grožinės literatūros tekstui.

The article goes on to analyze just one aspect of blog language—the use of English words in Lithuanian texts.

2. ENGLISH WORDS AND THEIR USE IN THE BLOGS OF UPPER-SECONDARY SCHOOL PUPILS

When reading the blogs of upper-secondary school pupils, words from other languages were observed⁷. Blog authors tend to use many English words (see also Ryklienė 2001: 47–52). Young people view the use of English words favorably and like to insert them into their speech (Girčienė 2004), and electronic communication brings this feature of young people’s language particularly to the fore (Vaicekauskienė 2007: 68). The influence of English on other languages has been studied by many scholars. According to sociolinguistic research, English primarily serves a social function in young people’s language (Čekuo-lyte 2010).

Presentation of English words in Lithuanian blogs

Only English words from other languages were found in the blogs under examination. Sociolinguistic studies further confirm that fashionable English words are one form of socialization (see Talutytė 2003; Vaicekauskienė 1998, 2006, 2010).

All the English words discussed in the article can be classified according to how they adapt to the Lithuanian language system. The following groups are distinguished: 1) words retaining their original spelling; 2) morphologically adapted words⁸.

⁶ A table of prototypicality functions was compiled in an automatic text-function identification tool, using all the blog texts analyzed in the article. According to the results of the text prototypicality analysis, the blog texts are close to works of fiction. For more information about this tool, see http://donelaitis.vdu.lt/main.php?id=4&nr=8.

⁷ The number of boys’ blogs found was too small to study girls’ and boys’ language separately, so the article examines their language together from this point onward.

⁸ Writing about ways of incorporating neologisms into a text, Jurgita Girčienė distinguishes two main ways of introducing lexemes with no established usage tradition into a text: neologisms are highlighted graphically (with quotation marks or italics) and/or accompanied by meta(linguistic) comments (Girčienė 2005: 79).

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There are mostly words written in authentic spelling in the blogs. Some are set apart in the text in italics or placed in quotation marks (1.1), while others are presented without any special marking (1.2)⁹.

(1.1) At first I thought it would be awkward, because I thought there would be lots of people from Paul’s circle, with whom I definitely didn’t get along, but when we got there and saw that it was a mini class reunion...

First of all, I’m glad I wrote the speech myself; second, it’s good that I have the habit—often uncommon among my peers—of reading books; and third, damn it, I managed!

Getting ready for school in fifteen minutes with an immobilized leg, here I am.

A few started flying. Food fight.

Oh, well. If I were good at math, chemistry, or physics, I’d have a great future.

(1.2) Soup, in this case, is my life, that’s just in case, in case anyone hasn’t understood.

Everyone is making plans for what they’ll do over the coming year, repeating everyone’s favorite phrase, “new year – new me”.

Recently I read these words on my ‘facebook’ account.

Soup, in this case, is my life, that’s just in case, in case anyone hasn’t understood.

There were various suggestions—some proposed setting up a kebab shop, others a city clock (which would have wifi, the option to top up your account, and get blood tests... just kidding).

Still, there are a few things that I want to share with u.

Those who know me fairly well can see that this is how I’m slipping downhill, as one person put it: “you’re becoming a person without values who lives a simple, superficial life.” And that is true.

So, since you want to read ramblings about love so much, no problem.

But I’ll also say hello to those who stumbled upon this place by accident. Hello!

The class teacher came and handed out the booklets, in which the averages had already been calculated. 8.8. Not bad.

There are somewhat fewer morphologically adapted words in the blogs. This group consists of orthographically unadapted words that have been given morphological forms. Most are adapted by adding a Lithuanian ending after an apostrophe (2.1); less often, a Lithuanian ending is added directly to an orthographically unadapted word (2.2). Only a few cases were found in which not only an ending but also a prefix is added to an orthographically unadapted word (2.3).

(2.1) I had an eyelin’erio disaster, but I fixed it. I also darkened my eyes a little with eyeliner and brushed mascara over my eyelashes.

And the soundtrack’as—I’m blown away by how good it is; even now, as I write this blogg’a, Ellie Goulding’s song from it is playing;33

I’ll end with this wise thought for today—the fourteenth post’a.

Podcast’ai are currently one of my most important sources of information. In case anyone doesn’t know, podcast’ai, or tinklalaidės in Lithuanian, are like radio programmes, only streamed online.

⁹ Here and in the examples that follow, words in other languages are bolded by the article’s author, A. T.

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Meanwhile, Monika, Tautvydas, Kotryna and I were answering questions from the Millennium Children app, listening to a good remix’o of Miley Cyrus’s song “Adore You,” and chilling.

(2.2) So you don’t get bored reading—who still doesn’t know this amazing coverio???

The day is so nolaiferiška.

I like doing nothing, having free time; I like long chatai in the evening and at night, and sleeping in late in the morning.

When I was in third grade (I think), there was a trend on Facebook of writing postus like “someone was lying around drunk by Maxima...,” “bites their nails like crazy...,” and then tagging your Facebook friends one after another in posts like these.

Facebook isn’t full of postų like “first snow,” “hello, winter,” “it’s finally snowing,” “IT’S SNOWING!” and so on..:D

P.P.S. Okay, just now someone unfollowed..:D

(2.3) Every tagged person has to write 11 facts about themselves.

When someone spoils what happens in a good movie or TV series...

Anyone who wants to can follow @anan asas_:*

The examples found show that most blog authors, when writing English words, Lithuanianize them, adapting them to the morphological system of the Lithuanian language.

There are various ways to think about why blog authors insert English words into texts written in Lithuanian. Numerous studies are being conducted on the influence of English on society.

Loreta Vaicekauskienė distinguishes the following reasons for borrowing foreign words: 1) designative (to name new realities or concepts); 2) semantic (to highlight differences in meaning, bring out nuances, when the content of a new concept and its native-language counterpart overlap only partially); 3) stylistic reasons (to enliven language, evoke certain associations or stylistic effects, and mark a text stylistically); 4) sociopsychological (to demonstrate familiarity with another culture and identification with it, and to express an identity that rebels against prevailing social norms) (Vaicekauskienė 2007: 43).

These reasons for borrowing foreign words can also explain the occasional use of English words in blog posts. However, it is difficult to group all these examples and assign them to one of these categories. It is clear that, by writing English words, young people seek to attract attention, demonstrate their command of a prestigious language, and fit in with their peers. Most blog posts show that the authors do not use these words casually. English words are most often set in italics or placed in quotation marks, and much less frequently appear in the same typeface as Lithuanian words. A sense of responsibility toward readers is evident: it is the foreign language that draws attention to a particular word or phrase. Some English words found in blogs have already become fashionable. They can be heard not only in young people’s speech, but also among adults, even in the media. So-called fashionable words and language fashion have been discussed before (Akelaitis 2002; Miliūnaitė 2005). Here are just a few examples from blogs:

I only just noticed that:D Actually, it’s whatever.

The rules don’t say how many facts you have to write if you’ve been tagged more than twice, but since fewer people double the number, I’ll do copy-paste.

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If it weren’t for that rubber sheet (I couldn’t think of what to call it), everything would’ve been just perfect, but... soRRy:*

Anyway, I need to get up and start another productive day.

We failed, changed the script, but it was fun.

MY SATURDAY WAS THE BEST DAY EVER<3

When you’re trying not to slip in winter, but the ice just trolls you...

The content of blog posts often reveals young people’s interests, attitudes, lifestyles, and so on. Young people spend a lot of time at the computer: they browse the internet, play games, socialize, shop, and so forth. Some English words that appear in these texts are related to their everyday interests, for example:

What were you doing after midnight? Chatinau.:D

We ate at a pizzeria and walked around the shops, but lately shopping somehow doesn’t interest me; I’m not in the mood for it..

Playing alone is pretty good too, but if I can also persuade Donatas to panolaifint...

After a good night’s sleep, again nolifinu. What else could I do?:D

Well, there, I’ve just done virtual makeup’ą..

The girls and I had coffee and chillinom.

Other English-language words are entire phrases that, without being translated directly, are adopted from films, games, computer programs, advertisements, songs, and so on, for example:

This time I didn’t have to call on the firefighters, who are always ready to help; the house didn’t burn down, so I can confidently say that challenge was completed successfully ✓.

And now I’m browsing tumblr’ą, which is full of motivation to exercise, and mentally preparing myself for a four-hour workout.

Everyone is making plans for what they’ll do over the coming year, repeating everyone’s favorite phrase, “new year – new me”.

I miss hot days, swimming all day long, sleepless nights, all kinds of silly things with my cousin...

Those who know me fairly well can see that in this way I’m sliding downhill, as one person put it: “you’re becoming a person without values, who lives a simple, superficial life” And that is true.

Yesss! We are the champions!:D

Good evening ladies and gentlemen! How are you?

Quite a few English words used in blogs are computing terms. Apparently, most authors use English-language programs, so the words found in those programs are simply adopted in their original form. These are not merely matters of language. In Lithuania, there is still a shortage of localized programs, so many people choose English-language ones, which are more familiar. Lithuanian programs are less familiar to the public, and some of the Lithuanian terms used in them are difficult to understand. Users choose the version of a program that is simpler and more acceptable to them. English computing terms are often used not because of fashion or an attempt to fit in with one’s peers—

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words. A frequent author realizes that they are using a non-Lithuanian word, and apparently even knows its Lithuanian equivalent. The use of such words is most often driven by the automatic transfer of a word, that is, using words that are right there on the computer screen. It is simpler and quicker for users this way. Blog language is especially rich in English words associated with blogging software, for example:

I was really scared; I knew I had acted badly by agreeing with my friends, but Sandra could also have avoided the conflict simply by ignoring that post.

No backlinks tags.

With this wise thought, I conclude today’s—the fourteenth post.

You had two days to take part in the poll and choose the topic for this post.

I can’t even put together a simple, basic sentence anymore, so I’m doing a tag.

Thanks to the people who tagged me. I’m tagging the rest, and of course I suggest you read the tags by the other bloggers I follow.

It isn’t there now either, but I can’t help reporting what 9/10 people have been talking about in the streets, at bus stops, in Facebook posts, in the clinic lobby, and in half a dozen other places they visit as part of their daily routine.

By using English words, bloggers try to fit in with their surroundings and appear more contemporary and fashionable. Some of these fashionable words have already become verbal tics, or whole quotations from films, television, games, and so on. Another substantial portion of English words have entered blog texts directly from computers: these are words that name concepts associated with various computer programs.

English words in the titles of blog topics

When reading blogs by upper-grade students, one more feature of English word usage stands out: English titles for posts. Of the 268 posts analyzed, 74 are titled entirely in English; that is, the titles are English, and all are written with authentic spelling. Here are just a few examples:

Just the same.

Something. Anything. Nothing.

Everything will be okay in the end

Friendship

Feeling good.

Who am I..?

How does it feel?

What goes around, comes backaround.

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I can& I will.

Finally.

I’d rather kill myself than turn in to their slave.

It’s okay not to be okay.

Spring&challenge

Celebrating 17

Explanation&Newin

Weather forecast&why i love autumn

I hate distance

After the English title, the text that follows is written in Lithuanian. Here are just a few excerpts from texts by different authors:

Forever young

Hello everyone! Today, once again, I won’t try to philosophize about a topic of my choosing, but I’ll talk about young people. More precisely, about prevailing fashions. And more precisely still—about the hair color sported by the bravest.

Rainy day

The sky is overcast, rain is pouring down, Kaunas is sinking— all I want to do is laze around at home under a warm blanket with a big mug of tea, watching a good movie. Of course, without forgetting ice cream and other treats. It looks like today is going to be just such a lazy day, even though the plans were completely different... but what we had planned requires good weather, and my friend and I were scared off by the weather, so it looks like we have a day at home ahead of us.

5 ways to boost your mood

The holidays have begun, and I desperately needed them! I was exhausted, like a wrung-out wet rag. I had neither the mood nor the energy to do anything. Now these holidays feel like a dream come true (you’re probably happy too, right?), but there are only nine days, including today, and we can’t waste even one day being angry, sad, or simply in a bad mood (when you feel like yelling at everyone you meet), so I came up with 5 ways to lift your mood.

Considering the authors’ choice in this way, one might think it is not done by chance. English titles may attract a larger readership from around the world, but, on the other hand, readers who speak other languages would not be able to read the texts themselves, since they are written in Lithuanian. It may be that English titles are intended to attract the attention of peers, demonstrate knowledge of another language, and so on. Bloggers also discuss their reasons for using English¹⁰. Here are a few opinions:

And I think it’s silly 😀 but if I were to think about why this happens, I’d say it’s because of cultural change, and the increasingly frequent turning toward Western culture. Also, because of the influence of English itself, Lithuanian often suffers, since English is more concise. In short, you can express a thought or a feeling in one or two words, which, if you wanted

¹⁰ Several bloggers were asked by email why they use English words in their texts. Two responses were received; their wording has not been edited, and one answer was written in a “phonetic” style.

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To express the same thing in Lithuanian would also take a very, very long sentence. So, to sum up this thought... English has the effectiveness of that first impression.

I used to write and do that myself, because back then it was cool among peers to speak by inserting an English word here and there, or I would write that way because I did not want to distort a word (I could not find an equivalent in Lithuanian).

These opinions confirm the reasons described in the article. One more reason for using English is identified—linguistic economy. In some cases, a phrase can be said more briefly in English than in Lithuanian. Several instances of English use could be attributed to linguistic economy, but even those are debatable, since they can be translated into Lithuanian using a similar number of words. Another reason, not discussed previously and identified by the bloggers themselves, is not knowing the Lithuanian equivalent. Only a few words can also be assigned to this group. One might think that not everyone yet knows what segway is called in Lithuanian (Lith. riedis), selfie (Lith. asmenukė), and so on.

All the reasons for using English discussed and illustrated with examples in this section are conditional. In each specific case, only the author can answer why they choose words from another language, why they present them that way in the text, and so on. Bloggers freely choose the writing style that seems most appropriate to them in a given case. Therefore, the approach to linguistic phenomena in blogs should be descriptive rather than evaluative (Miliūnaitė 2008a: 39).

CONCLUSIONS

1. Blogging gives young people various opportunities to introduce themselves and present their views and opinions to a large online community. Blogs are a place where they can share their stories, thoughts, and experiences. Blogging encourages verbal and digital literacy, develops text composition and writing skills, and expands vocabulary.

2. The study of blog texts showed that the average overall length of blog texts is 304 words. The data indicate that the texts written by upper-grade students are substantial and that their topics are developed in detail.

3. More than half of the young authors of the blogs studied (64 percent) are non-anonymous, and an even larger proportion of them (73 percent) provide their email address or a link to a social network or personal website. By not concealing their authorship, young bloggers assume even greater responsibility for the texts they create and publish publicly. By providing their contact details and inviting readers to write comments and share their opinions, they show that feedback and the opinions of others matter to them.

4. All the blog texts by upper-grade students examined are written using Lithuanian letters (there are no texts written entirely in the so-called “shveplavimas” style). This shows that the authors regulate their spelling, do not distance themselves from the standard language, and feel responsible for texts published publicly.

5. Only English words were found among the other languages in the blogs examined. Blog authors tend to use many English words. All the English words analyzed in the article are classified according to their adaptation to the Lithuanian language system as 1) words retaining their original spelling and 2) morphologically adapted words. Words retaining their original spelling are the most numerous in the blogs. Most of them are distinguished in the text by italics or are written

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some in quotation marks, while others are presented without any marking. There are fewer morphologically adapted words in the blogs. Most are adapted by adding a Lithuanian ending after an apostrophe; less often, a Lithuanian ending is added to an orthographically unadapted word.

6. The reasons why blog authors insert English words may vary. First of all, it is fashionable to use English words. There are many such fashionable words; they are popular not only among young people but also in adult speech, and sometimes even in the media. They are often associated with the authors’ interests and the activities they engage in most frequently. Not only individual English words have been observed, but also entire phrases and well-known expressions from films, television, games, etc. Most of the English words found in the blogs are terms referring to computer-related concepts. English words are simply adopted from computer programs and various browsers. This group accounts for many of the English words found in the blogs.

7. Reading the blog texts revealed young people’s tendency to write the titles of their posts only in English. One can only speculate about the reasons for this decision by the authors. It is clear that this is done deliberately, and probably most often to attract as many readers as possible and to appear more contemporary and fashionable.

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THE USE OF ENGLISH WORDS IN HIGH SCHOOLERS’ BLOGS

Summary

The current article analyses thirty blog texts (of 26 girls and 4 boys) written from January 2012 to May 2014. In the first part of the article, high schoolers’ blogs are briefly reviewed; in the second part, English words used in these blogs are studied, causes of their use are analysed, and concrete examples are given.

During the research it was found out that the overall average number of words in blog texts totalled¹¹ 304 words. More than half of the young bloggers were not anonymous¹¹ and an even greater part of them shared their email addresses or links to social networks or personal internet web pages. All the blog texts analysed were written in Lithuanian letters (there were no texts written without diacritics). This shows that the authors adjust their writing, do not withdraw themselves from the standard language, and feel responsible for the publicly available text.

In texts written in Lithuanian, bloggers tend to use many English words. The causes why authors insert English words can be varied. First, it is fashionable to use English words. Quite often, the use of such words is determined by authors’ interests and common activities. Not only individual English words but also phrases and famous sayings from movies, TV, games, etc. were observed. Most of English words found in blogs are those naming concepts of computer technologies. The blogs read revealed that the youth tends to write entire topic titles in English. Even though one can only speculate on the causes of such a choice, it is evident that this is done consciously and probably mostly in order to attract as many readers as possible and to look more modern and fashionable.

KEYWORDS: blogs, pupils’ blogs, blog language, English language.

AURELIJA TAMULIONIENĖ

Lietuvių kalbos institutas

Petro Vileišio g. 5, LT-10308 Vilnius

[email protected]

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