Chapter I. Theoretical foundations and approaches to the study of politeness 7

Computer-mediated communication (CMC), as suggested by L. Sproull and S. Kiesler lacks the social context cues which FTF (Face-to-Face) offers, such as the physical environment and nonverbal behaviours⁸⁶. R. Ma thus suggests that CMC “has changed the traditional view of communication environments”⁸⁷. Although its online nature makes nonverbal cues inaccessible in email communication, it has other ways of conveying this kind of communication. For example, some researchers⁸⁸ find that writers can vary their choices of topics and punctuation marks and use words as relational cues to amplify meaning. Other researchers⁸⁹ point out the important role of “electronic paralanguage”, as emotive icons are known. Similar claims have been made by J. Walther that CMC users, in real-life settings, will eventually develop conventions and understandings which enable them to establish socio-emotional communication⁹⁰, for example through emotive icons.