By
Obododimma Oha
By logicality, I simply mean the relatedness or link in a text. I want to discuss how and why comments should be linked to updates on Facebook. I have a visible presence on Facebook and do interact with friends there regularly, learning a lot in the process.
I asked for permission to use particular updates and comments. But since there are widespread discomforts, I have dropped the idea of an empirical analysis, settling for just a theoretical discussion for now. The features could easily be picked.
But what many people seem to running away from is the mention of the illogicality of their comments and updates or the tricks that they have played. This article amounts to a negative comment that they want to avoid.
Let us first consider the various ways through which this logicality is created.
(1) Repetition of some expressions or words used in the update.
(2) Dwelling on the same issue or content.
(3) Related weblinks
One does not need to over-stress it. The logicality helps readers. We need to know what the comments are responding to. This reminds one about the IRF model of conversation provided by Sinclair and Coulthard. Spelt out, IRF means Initiation, Response, and Follow-up.
In this regard, the conversation could be between updaters and readers, or between reader and reader.
We are helping readers to make appropriate connections between updates and comments. But there is a presupposition here: that the writer of the comment has read the update it points to before and has understood it.
If the writer of the comment has not first read the update, we should expect a weak connection or a pronounced lack of connection. What writers of comments do to escape the demand of logicality include:
(1) Greeting the updater
(2) Diverting the discussion to something else
(3) Writing generally about the update or updater.
Let us now examine the specific means of creating logicality in the discourse.
In the repetition of some expressions or words used in the update, we have a linguistic linkage. The idea is that meaning is held together by reminding the reader about linkages and that one of such important linkages is in the words or expression used.
It is like the commenter is pointing at language, at medium. Some updates or comments may be poetic, calling special attention to language.
It very important to point out that the language of updates and comments on Facebook is changing. It is no longer language as we know it. Visuals and audio are now incorporated. So, logicality may even be treated as a thing of sound and vision.
What is particularly expected is that the comment should dwell on the same issue as the update. But sometimes this is not the case. Commenters may sometimes not be able to make the necessary logical connections to show that they are reasoning well. Things that may work against them include:
(1) Excitement with the update
(2) Previous knowledge of the updater
(3) Poor skill of the handling of logic in discourse
(4) Distractions from other updates
Naturally, readers of postings on Facebook should take logicality as a serious demand. Facebook is not just a place to show a smiling face or nice clothes. It is much more. And logic in the discourse guides judgement.
Some updates may deliberately be slippery and make logicality difficult for commenters. If commenters are not careful, they won't notice an avoidance of reference and the trap laid. If commenters choose to become specific, that is their own headache.
Weblinks connect discourses and discourses. So, the weblinks that are used in updates and comments create greater global logicality. They extend cohesion of the update or comment.
Weblinking points to the necessity of making the web text properly linked up, internally and externally. Weblinking is web logicality.
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