Discourse Analysis Of Bulletin Board Communication

Bulletin board communication (BBC) is generally welcomed and enthusiastically participated by Chinese college students. This study is devoted to the discourse analysis of BBC, by employing a model of speech function analysis. The interpretations of the analysis show that BBC grows to be causal and interactive in nature, and different from spoken conversation in conversational structures and speech function choices, which can be explained from the perspectives of both the system infrastructure and participation patterns. In detail, three distinctive features can be identified in BBC: the violation and reconstruction of turn-taking rules and adjacency pairs, topic decay and topical entangling, and the complexity and imbalance of discourse structure. Despite these differences, it is still shown that participants in BBC can succeed in establishing their identities and interpersonal relationships with others. Therefore, this study suggests that BBC should not be undermined but encouraged among college students. This study also proposes suggestions for both board managers and users for better use of this medium for communicative purposes.