All About Discourse Particles in Gen Z Text Messages... lol

Abstract

Whether it’s with our closest BFFs or long-distance lovers, texting has become an integral part of how we communicate with each other in the 21st century. As it becomes an increasingly powerful substitute for chatting in real life, it also begins to naturally develop advanced mechanisms for communicating nuances that have not previously existed in standard writing systems. Discourse particles like lol, lmao, and emojis don’t just fill space — they are a modern way to convey the subtleties of body language, facial expression, and tone. In this paper, we evaluate a corpus of about 200,000 real text messages from one speaker and investigate the typology, pragmatics, and modifiers of these particles. By connecting these phenomena to existing linguistic theories of discourse particles, variation, and digital communication, we explore how texting language has evolved to fit the fast-paced, screen-based communication we engage in every day, becoming a de- tailed, blossoming structured system of its own that is a fruitful field for extensive exploration.