The author analyses computer chat as a form of communication. While some forms of computer-mediated communication (CMC) deviate only marginally from traditional writing, computer chat is popularly considered to be written conversation and the most -oral- form of written CMC. This book systematically explores the varying degrees of conversationality (-orality-) in CMC, focusing in particular on a corpus of computer chat (synchronous and supersynchronous CMC) compiled by the author. The author employs Douglas Biber s multidimensional methodology and situates the chats relative to a range of...