Linguistic structures for email and echat

Persons who use a symbol system to communicate have not been able to take advantage of Internet-based services to the same extent as persons who write using ordinary alphabetic text. However, such persons could be among those who would have most use of Internet services due to physical or intellectual handicaps and the resulting social and practical isolation. This contribution considers some known differences in communication for symbol system users compared to their counterparts whose written communication consists of ordinary text, discusses some differences between ordinary text and email or echat texts and argues the need for special linguistic structures to support Internet use for symbol system users.