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Nikki Judge
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Research Paper
Fragments and Free Chat - The Death of the Sentence
The sentence is one of the most basic concepts in English grammar. It is one of the staple
building blocks of language, both written and spoken. However, in one arena of communication,
the sentence is very little used and, often times when used it is misused. In an internet chat room
writing is a unique subset of language usage, often a complex hybrid of: text vernacular (hru =
how are you), conversational speech (good, you = “I am good. How are you?”), exclamations,
sentence fragments, and the occasional properly written English sentence. Rarely are properly
constructed sentences seen in the studied internet chat room.
Is the sentence dying in the chat room? Before declaring it dead, the sentence needs to be
understood. Just what is a sentence? This is more of a conundrum than many believe. Mary H.
Clark notes that students of English in all levels struggle with exactly what a sentence is (133).
The students’ consternation is easily explained when a sentence can be as simple as a few words
or as complex as a full page of text. Defined as:
A word or group of words based on one or more subject-predicate, or clause,
patterns, The written sentence begins with a capital letter and ends with terminal
punctuation – a period, a question mark, or an exclamation point (Kolln, 269).
The sentence is an essential part of the structure of English language. It is a building block of
and how we communicate, especially in the written form.
Over the period of six weeks (October 6, 2015 through November 7, 2015) a survey of
proper sentence use was conducted of an open internet chat room
(www.community.oranum.com/en/psychic/352). The survey tracked how often in a one-hour

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period visitors to the chat room used a complete sentence beyond simple greetings. To qualify
the sentence had to conform to Kolln’s definition, consist of at least five or more words, and not
be a question or imperative. In order to keep the sample manageable, the survey was conducted
over a one-hour period daily. The compilation tally sheet is attached as Appendix A.
To create a comparison sentence fragments were counted for a period of three days,
indicating that the sentence fragments occur on an average ratio of 35.6:1 to complete sentences.
The Purdue Owl describes a sentence fragment in detail:
Fragments are incomplete sentences. Usually, fragments are pieces of sentences
that have become disconnected from the main clause. One of the easiest ways to
correct them is to remove the period between the fragment and the main clause.
Other kinds of punctuation may be needed for the newly combined sentence
(Purdue OWL: Sentence Fragments).
When individuals joined into an actual conversation the utilization of complete sentences
went up dramatically. On all six occasions that the number of sentences in an hour exceeded
fifteen, the posters were engaging in a conversation on a specific subject. In two of those
conversations, the posters even included full punctuation, normally not a chat room standard.
There were an average of nine and one-third complete sentence postings per hour over the course
of the survey. The highest number, twenty-two sentences, was during a conversation late night
on 23 October with member imyoyo regarding her boyfriend’s military training.
The numbers alone could argue that the sentence is losing its position as a stanchion of
the English language. In the chat room communication format, complex, and with a lingo nearly
all its own, there was a wide variance in the individuals and their language capacity. These
factors range from the level of language maturity (an individual’s command and familiarity with
the English language), to education, socio-economic background, country of origin and widely
divergent cultural influences. As visitors are accepted in the chat room without any pre-

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screening, there is no way to control these factors. It is noted that these factors are sometimes
difficult to discern just from the internet writing of the individual. For example, Client X. In
FREE CHAT she is a heavy “text speak” user. She uses very little punctuation, words are
shortened, very rarely does she include vowels. A typical posting from Client X in the chat room
is: gm hru wu (meaning “Good morning. How are you? What’s up?”) Yet, when she sends in
an e-mail request, her explanation is in proper English. Rather than the colloquial greeting given
in the chat room, she will say: “I hope you are having a good day today.”
In the informal chat room situation people tend to be more relaxed in their
communications. Very rarely are punctuation marks used, capitalization is rare and normally for
affect rather than grammar, spelling is optional, and visitors tend to be more relaxed in their
word usage as well. In the open chat room, visitors will commit an entire litany of grammar
crimes. These crimes create a homogenized language of its own combining both texting short
hand indicators such as LOL, ROFLMAO, x 100, etc., and bulleted target statements. Most of
the posts in the chat room are sentence fragments, many of them simply one or two words (i.e.
“fine, you?”).
While there may seem to be a natural connection between the vernacular an individual
uses for their free chat “voice” and their education level; that does not appear to play out. An
individual who is just learning English from, say, a Mandarin Chinese background does not
necessarily communicate in any more or less formal way than a server from Brooklyn. Nor does
the chemist with a doctorate degree from Duke necessarily speak with a formal “voice” in the
chat room. What the research shows to be more a determiner of full sentences is the depth of the
communication at the time of the party as opposed to the education level. Additionally, the

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important of the subject to the individual posting seems to be a factor in the use of complete
sentences.
Somewhat difficult to conceptualize and define, the simple subject/predicate; complete
thought sentence is not much utilized in chat room vernacular. However, when it is, it is often to
emphasize the feeling of the poster, or may be indicative of the importance of the subject to the
individual posting. For now, it seems that the sentence will continue to hold a place of
importance and uphold its place in the importance of grammar in internet chat, especially as a
way to add additional emphasis to the individual’s posting.

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Works Cited
Clark, Mary. The Structure of English for Readers, Writers, and Teachers. Glenn Allen: College
Publishing. 2003.
Kolln, Martha J., and Loretta S. Gray. Rhetorical Grammar: Grammatical Choices, Rhetorical
Effects. 7th ed. United States: Pearson, 12 Sep. 2012.
Purdue OWL: Sentence fragments. 21 Feb. 2013. 7 Nov. 2015.

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APPENDIXA
RESEARCH COMPILATION SHEET
Numberof Full SentencesUsedin1hour inFree Chat (has to conform to Kolln’s definition and
consist of at least five or more words)
October
6 1 – We saw an eagle onour drive today.
FRAGS 282+
7 0
FRAGS 149+
8 17 (discussionwithGevaliare:herPhDprogram)
FRAGS 228
9 4
10 1 – Stephanhas beensilentsince lastFriday.
11 3
12 9
13 7
14 6
15 2 – It must be an amazingthingto have yourgifts.
16 9
17 12
18 10
19 13
20 1 – Davidbroke up withme last night andI do not know whatto do.
21 15
22 12
23 22 (Discussionwithimyoyore:militarytraining)
24 6
25 8
26 14
27 21 (DiscussionwithTheArcher09re:why“God” letsbadthingshappen)
28 16 (Discussionwithmebuckore:jobhunting)
29 9
30 8
31 4
November
1 17 (Discussionwithamylee12 re: jobhunting)
2 15
3 3
4 0
5 21 (DiscussionwithDesirae12re:DisneyAcademy)
6 14
7 8
Total numberof sentences: 308
Total numberof hours surveyed:33