Lol, mdr and ptdr

Given the extensive use of LOL (Laughing Out Loud), MDR (Mort De Rire) and PTDR (PéTé De Rire) in French texting and the inclusion of lol in the Oxford English Dictionary in 2011 and in Le Petit Robert in 2013, this paper aims to study the functioning of these three initialisms. Considered mainly as interjections, I hypothesize that lol, mdr, and ptdr could work syntactically (through their non-integration in the syntactic clause and position) and semantically (through their semantic opacity and procedural meaning) as discourse markers. In order to show this discourse marker use, this exploratory study was carried out using a prototypical methodology characterized by an inclusive and gradual approach. Based on syntactic and semantic analysis, a discourse marker ranking was performed, and this resulted in a contextual analysis (co-occurrences, moods and moves).

This inclusive and gradual approach allows for doubt and lack of knowledge of the context in the analysis process. More broadly, this work also throws light on texting as a spontaneous computer-mediated communication type with writing constraints imposed by the communication medium and the situation.