1. Introduction<br />This paper aimed to highlight the use of humor & sarcasm and emoticon by the computer mediated communication users. Humor & sarcasm and emoticons served as element of entertainment in the discussed topic. The chosen corpus for this paper is from www.warez-bb.org. This is where people all over the world share, discuss and view each and every aspect or problem/info that they have. To be more specific, the corpus was from http://www.warez-bb.org/viewtopic.php?t=847187 ; where problem regarding English being posted and solved.<br />Literature Review<br />For this study, linguistic elements that been looked at are sarcasm, humor and emoticons. All of these elements are analyzed in the context of computer-mediated communication (CMC). CMC can simply be divided into synchronous and asynchronous discourse. <br />The first study is by Alecia Wolf M.B.A., A.B.D. “Emotional Expression Online: Gender Differences inEmoticon Use” (2000). This study examines the emotional expression via the use of emotion icon (emoticon) to determine whether the male encoding of the online registers silences or mutes the emotional expression of women in CMC. According to the author, there is the unofficial dictionary of emoticons produced in order to categorize the emoticons according to its functions in context. However, the purpose of this study is to reinforce stereotype of the emotional female and the inexpressive male CITATION Ale00 1033 (Wolf, 2000) seems to give another result as the use of emoticons in CMC not really determined by the gender.<br />Besides of the use of emoticons, the elements of sarcasm and humor also can be found in CMC. The purpose of sarcasm in discourse may be the way of showing dissatisfaction or just for joke; depends on the context of the conversation or discourse. The verbal use of irony language can be influenced by the lexical factors. The study by Roger J. Kreuz and Gina M. Caucci, “Lexical Influences on the Perception of Sarcasm” (2007) explain on this matter. The presence of adjectives or adverbs, interjections and use of punctuations can be the signs of sarcastic expression CITATION Rog07 1033 (Kreuz & Caucci, 2007). It is also found that sarcastic statements are often hyperbolic. By looking at those signs and elements, sarcastic statements or expressions can be found in the area of CMC.<br />Another aspect that can be found in CMC is humor. Humor or jokes are ideational structures that are categorized by appropriate incongruity CITATION Ell05 1033 (Oring, 2005). “Jokes and the Discourse on Disaster” (2005) by Elliot Oring is used to further discover the used of jokes in discourse and the effect of the messages sent in the jokes. According to the author, joking is popularly viewed as sexual and aggressive in its intention. At some point, jokes can also be interpreted as sarcasm. Throughout the article, the author uses the jokes made based on the explosion of space shuttle Challenger 28 January 1986. For some reasons, the jokes made on the incidents are accepted and widely spread and made at that time. For that matter, the real message of the jokes whether to serve as criticism, sarcasm, or even humor towards NASA are interpreted by the readers themselves based on their awareness of the incidents. <br />Finally, in this study, the aspect of linguistics; sarcasm, humor and emoticons are looked through in the corpus of CMC, specifically online CMC. <br />Humor & Sarcasm<br />It has been long assumed that sarcasm and humor, is principally a pragmatics phenomenon and many studies from field of linguistic had proved it. Most people use sarcastic humor in discourse to indicate something whether in verbal or writing. Speakers will only employ sarcasm when they think the hearers will interpret it correctly. The more familiar two people are with one other, the more likely it is that they will employ sarcasm (Kreuz, 1996). When interlocutors in a story share common ground, experimental participants read sarcastic statements more quickly, and are more certain of the sarcastic intent, than when the interlocutors share little common ground (Kreuz and Link, 2002). <br />Based on online free dictionary, sarcasm means witty language used to convey insults or ridicule someone. In sarcasm, ridicule or mockery is used harshly, often crudely and contemptuously, for destructive purposes. It may be used in an indirect manner, and have the form of irony, as in “What a fine musician you turned out to be!” or it may be used in the form of a direct statement, “You couldn't play one piece correctly if you had two assistants.” People used sarcasm with the related topics that are being discussed. <br />Based on corpus that had been chosen, a few elements of sarcasm seem to occur in the discussion. Basically this corpus entitles The English Thread and was posted by the author and people keep responding to the topic. The first finding is of sarcasm, “Appreciated. English Team are officially in quot;
businessquot;
(free,lol).” This is the first example of sarcasm that had been pointed out from the corpus. As can be seen, the word business had been put in inverted comma and been followed by “lol” (laugh out loud) which widely use among teenagers nowadays whether in online chatting or in verbal conversation. The word shows that the author trying to be sarcastic with the English team. <br />The other examples from the corpus are “Understood, boss!”. The word boss is indicating of the author being sarcastic to the other person. He is addressing the other person by using “boss” to show that the person knows everything. This word is also widely use among people not only among youngsters but also adults use this word to sarcastic others.<br />“Remember Google is our friend”, is also another example for sarcastic. Since Google is everything, anything can be done trough Google, only press the word search and all the information is there and then the author being sarcastic by saying that Google is our friend. <br />Another example from the corpus is “Let's not turn this into a batrachomyomachy”. Batrachomyomachy means the battle between the frogs and mice, a Greek parody on the Iliad, of uncertain authorship. As this forum get responses from various people, the author saying something that not to fight with each other like these two animals.<br />Emoticon<br />Emoticon or in its unofficial name called “smiley” had been in used in the computer-mediated communication (CMC). The use of emoticon is somehow essential for virtual communicator to express their current feeling and mood. Emoticon also represents facial expression, eye-contact and body language. This will allow the receiver to somehow recognize the current “mood” of sender. Here is some basic emoticons which universally understood by CMC users.<br /> = smile <br />= sad <br />: O Shocked<br />o : -) Angelic<br />>: - ( Angry<br />: ( ) Cannot stop talking<br />In the forum chosen, replies by the members of the group are packed with emoticons. In general, emoticon used in the forum is to reinforce their gratitude for the posted topic. Here’s some example; <br />“ ok people here's a job for you Find me information about causative verbs I need it for my stiupid report Thanks you ” - Mr. Spider monkey<br />The gratitude by Mr. Spider monkey here is reinforced by the emoticon at the end of his post. However, there is other kind of emoticon which used to show the highest gratitude;<br />“I'm an English speaker but I've never heard the word bear used in this way before. Could you give me a dictionary extract as an example just so that I can improve my knowledge. “ - Saturnsid<br />Saturnsid used bowed down emotions to reinforced his thanks and make request. The significance of bow-down emoticons here is to show that he really appreciate the help from other replies. Emoticons were not only intended as sign of appreciation, but many other. It served huge and wide range of use and complexity. For example smile emoticon is not only to show our mood of happy, instead, it can be used a reinforcer for humor and sarcasm.<br />Bibliography<br /> BIBLIOGRAPHY 1033 Kreuz, R. J., & Caucci, G. M. (2007, April 26). portal.acm. Retrieved February 9, 2011, from http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1611529<br />Oring, E. (2005, December 9). Google Scholar. Retrieved February 9, 2011, from http://www.google.com.my/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CB8QFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fskeptiq.stml.net%2Fjokes%2F00218715_ap020404_02a00030.pdf&ei=DzNZTaTGHImucPT6laEM&usg=AFQjCNEblrhsR4Gt9ObyOrgiII7LrNoR5g<br />Wolf, A. (2000, November 5). liebertonline. Retrieved February 9, 2011, from http://www.liebertonline.com/doi/abs/10.1089/10949310050191809<br />