Behind the Titles of the Computer Web Forums Threads.

A Discursive Approach
Cristina Varga
Babe-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

1. Introduction
The web forum is one of the first forms of discourse used in Internet communication
presenting a surprising continuity despite the new emergent forms of e-communication.
Used uninterruptedly in Internet communication during the last three decades, the web
forum is a complex discursive genre whose distinctive features are little studied within
the theoretical framework of the discourse analysis.
The current paper sets off with the following hypotheses of research: within the web
forum genre there are different types of web forums, each developing a different type of
discourse adapted to the objectives of the communication, the theme, and the
participants involved in the communication. Web forums were used to transmit
knowledge since the first implementations of the interactive systems of communication
on the Internet. The knowledge the Internet users choose to transmit one each other is
diverse and presents different levels of specialisation. We also assume that the
communication of knowledge on the professional web forums presents special features
that distinguish its discourse from that of other types of web forums. Knowledge
communication on the professional web forums is realised through similar discursive
patterns and presents the same elements such as: forum title, thread title, thread, and
message.
Therefore, following its discursive structure, we will consider that the web forum
communication begins with the title of the thread where the emitter eventually encodes
succinctly the essential of his/her communicational intentions. Within the web forum
discourse the title of a thread has turned out to be a complex discursive element, its
discursive function and structure, the discursive strategies the emitter uses in order to
call the attention of the receivers determines a specific discursive configuration. This
specificity of the title of the thread construction can be observed on the professional

web forums in different languages and presents similarities and differences across
languages.
The main objective of the current paper is to observe the discursive function the title of
a thread develops within a professional web forum discourse, to illustrate the way the
titles of the threads are structured discursively, and highlight the similarities and
differences of its structure across languages.

2. Discursive functions of the title of a web forum thread

The organisation of the communication in the professional web forums consists of a
discursive pattern involving the following elements: a) the web forum main title; b) the
web forum domains; c) the thread titles; and d) the thread content. At its turn, the
thread titles consist of the title sequence and complementary elements (such as id
number, page number, number of posts, number of views, and date of the last post).
There are different discursive functions the title of a thread fulfils in the situation of
communication related to knowledge transmission in the Internet. Some of the most
important are: a) to introduce the topic of communication; b) to indicate the
communicative intention of the emitter, and c) to call the attention of the other members
of the professional web forum in order to obtain an answer and eventually complete the
communicative process of knowledge transmission through Internet.
These communicative functions determine the structural features of the titles which may
be: clear (in the titles the emitter can use specialised terminology of the domain, have a
logical structure, and avoid ambiguities), concision (the emitter use of the ellipse is
acceptable, he/she should be maximally efficient in representing information in the
title), and focus (when creating a title of a web forum thread, the emitter should select
the essential aspects of the problem he/she wants to discuss). Some of the examples
below illustrate that these structural features exist across languages:
Es:
PROBLEMA AL CAMBIAR SISTEMA OPERATIVO
IMPOSIBLE ELIMINAR algunas carpetas en WIN XP

Fr:
ma barre espace fait des points (resolu)
Impossible d'couter magic radio sur vista

Ro:
2

Cum sterg licenta de la un program? Am nevoie de ajutor

Soft de blocare a accesului la anumite programe, in anumite intervale de timp

Cat:
De cop ha deixat de funcionar el firefox. un XML esta malmes
Formatejar ordinador

The simple observation of the examples above allows us to appreciate that the structural
features of the construction of a title can adopt different strategies across languages and
emitters, depending on their language of communication, will structure the titles of the
threads differently. In order to analyse how the titles of the threads are structured in
knowledge transmission in Internet, we will use a multilingual comparable texts of
professional web forums corpus we denominated Computer Web Forums Corpus.

3. Corpus presentation
The Computer Web Forums Corpus consists in five sub-corpora, each in a different
language (English, Spanish, French, Romanian, and Catalan), and each sub-corpus
containing

texts

from

single

specialised

(http://www.softwaretipsandtricks.com),
(http://www.pcparadis.fr),

Romanian

Spanish

web

forum:

(www.foroz.org),

(http://www.softpedia.ro),

and

English
French
Catalan

(http://www.softcatala.cat).
The sub-corpora have comparable dimensions estimated at 200 A4 pages. The corpus is
formed by complete texts (web forum threads), consequently, when necessary, we
allowed more than 200 pages in a corpus to include the end of an interaction. Because
of the technical differences in the implementation of the web forums, which lend
variability and imprecision to the evaluation of the dimensions of the texts belonging to
different web forums, we have established as reference measure the standard page
used by professional publishers to evaluate manuscripts with different formats. This
value is established at 250 words per page.
The forums have been selected following very strict criteria, such as: durability,
popularity, dimensions, authority, type, and topic. By durability we mean the period of
continuous activity on the web forum. In the case of the web forums selected for the
Computer Web Forums Corpus the minimal duration has been of four years of
continuous activity, and eight years for the maximal duration. The criterion of
popularity of the forum consists in the number of the members authenticated and active
on the forum. The quota was set for 200 participants. The activity criterion stipulates
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that the forums must be currently active and must have daily posts. The type of web
forums selected is knowledge communication/technical support web forums, focusing
on a specific topic. The topic represents the essential basis for comparison between the
sub-corpora. We have established as general topic the computer and the Internet,
specified as software and operating systems, and within the operating system category
we focused on the theme Windows. In some cases, for example with the Catalan corpus,
a supplementary criterion was taken into consideration: the authority of the web forum.
The web forum selected for the analysis of knowledge communication is the Softcatala,
which represents an authority in the Catalan discussions about software.
Our final observation regarding the selection of the texts that constitute the corpus is
that on the forums in the two languages less used on the Internet, Romanian and Catalan
respectively, the diversity of topics discussed is not as rich as in English or Spanish, for
example. We have had difficulties in finding 200 A4 discussions on Windows. The
solution we applied in this case was to introduce texts that had for their topic software
and Windows, which means a thematic extension of the topic to other programs working
under Windows as well.

4. Quantitative Analysis
The quantitative analysis of the corpus will allow us to observe if the titles of the
threads present on the features of the titles we mentioned above (see 2), concision. For
this reason we selected three parameters which will indicate how concision is treated in
knowledge communication in professional web forums across languages.
Language
English

Number of the
threads titles
13

Average number of words in

the threads titles
6

Minimum and maximum length of

threads titles (words)
2-12

Spanish

20

5.8

3-9

French

18

4.27

2-7

Romanian

24

5.04

2-13

Catalan

44

3.9

1-12

Parameters of the titles of the threads in the Computer Web Forums Corpus

The first parameter, the number of the threads titles indicates the length and the
effectiveness of the communication of knowledge. Therefore we can observe that
people involved in knowledge communication in the English (13 threads) and French
(18 threads) web forums debated largely their topics of interest, the Spanish (20 threads)
4

and the Romanian (24 threads) web forums have discussed more topics, while the
Catalan (44 threads) web forum proved to be very efficient in knowledge
communication, discussing shortly numerous topics. Under the aspect of efficiency in
knowledge communication, this parameter indicates that the Catalan (44 threads) forum
is the most efficient in problem solving and knowledge transmission with an impressive
amount of threads solved in the same amount of written text as the other web forums.
The second parameter we took into consideration in the analysis of the concision of the
threads titles is the average number of words in the threads titles which suggests that
people communicating in English (6), Spanish (5.08), and Romanian (5.04) tend to use
more words when creating the title of the threads than French (4.27), and Catalan (3.9)
speakers whose titles are concise.
The last parameter allowing us to analyse the concision of the threads titles in
knowledge communication is the minimum and maximum length of threads titles. Under
this aspect, we observe that the titles of the threads can be very concise (Catalan 1
word) or very prolix (Romanian 13 words). In some of the languages such as Spanish
(3-9) and French (2-7) we can observe that the minimum and maximum lengths of the
titles are closed values which indicate that the titles are concise.
As a conclusion to the quantitative analysis of the data, we can state that the most
concise construction in the titles of the threads can be observed in Catalan while the
most prolix structures can be observed in English.
We also consider that the other two features of the titles we mentioned above (see 2),
clarity and focus can be observed at a certain level through quantitative analysis of the
corpus, because concise titles require also clarity and focus. Nevertheless these features
can be better studied and observed through qualitative analysis which will now proceed
to analyse.

5. Qualitative Analysis
The qualitative analysis of the discursive structure of the titles in the web forum threads
will emphasise features we couldnt analyse with quantitative analysis such as clarity
and focus. As mentioned above (see 2), the titles should be clear, meaning that they
should avoid ambiguity, present a logical structure, and use terminology. The titles
should also be focused and mention essential elements of the topic the emitter wants to
5

debate in the web forum. Both features involve precision and accuracy and determine
an objective approach on the topic. Therefore we will analyse the structure of the titles
in

the

web

forums

threads

taking

into

consideration

their

degree

of

objectivity/subjectivity across languages. In order to observe their degree of

objectivity/subjectivity we will analyse the presence of their discursive marks in the
web forum titles.
Thus we will consider as objectivity marks any discursive element related with
concision, clarity, and focus such as: terminology and denominations, quotations,
descriptions, expressions of intention, and so on. Furthermore, the subjectivity marks
we will take into account in the current analysis consist of discursive sequences where
the emitter is personally involved such as: modalisation, subjective orthography, asking
for help, interrogations, exclamations, and so on.
The situation of the discursive marks in the titles of the threads in Computer Web
Forums Corpus is the following:
EN

Types of marks
Objective marks:

Subjective marks:

ES

Types of marks
Objective marks:

Discursive marks
Denomination and
terminology
Quotation

Titles of the threads

Multimedia Audio Controller

Objective description

Expression of intention

Direct interrogations

Expression of probability

Subjective orthography

Modalisation: asking for

help

Discursive marks
Denomination and
terminology
Quotation
Objective description

Titles of the threads

XP Embedded en dual core

Subjective statements

Expression of intention

disk boot failure. insert system disk and

press enter
No Monitor Display
Windows Update Page doesn't Load, it's
blank
Creating relative shortcut on flash drive
Block internet access for screen name
chkdsk problems
Windows XP SP3 Problem...
windows xp audio problem
How do I get rid of desktop icon
background color in XP?
xp possible registry problem and change
of settings
Blank desktop / NO desktop after logon!!!
mms streams do not work HELP PLEASE

Error de redundancia ciclica

aparece y desaparece escritorio
Lentitud en mi PC
Instalar Vista en mi portatil

Subjective marks:

Subjective statements

Direct interrogations
Modalisation: asking for
help
Modalisation:
expressions of incapacity

Modalisation:
expressions of despair
Argot
Onomatopoeia

FR

Types of marks
Objective marks:

Discursive marks
Denomination and
terminology
Objective description
Expression of intention

Subjective marks:

Subjective statements

Dilemma
Modalisation:
expressions of incapacity
Modalisation: asking for
help

RO

INSTALAR
DOS
SISTEMAS
OPERATIVOS
Sistema operativo en dico duro externo
PROBLEMA LA CAMBIAR SISTEMA
OPERATIVO
Problema al formatear
como formatear portatil hacer
reinstalacion de windows vista o formateo
Ayuda al instalar XP
AYUDA CON ERROR "autochk program
not found skipping
No puedo instalar xp tras problema con
lnux.[SOLUCIONADO]
IMPOSIBLE
ELIMINAR
algunas
carpetas en WIN XP
No puedo abrir los puertos IP
Socorro No me inicia el Pc
SOS:No puedo iniciar la sesion en Vista
El puto sp3 me esta amargando la vida?
windows vistaaaa GRRR pantalla azul

Titles of the threads

icnes du bureau............
Cl Vista
ma barre espace fait des points (resolu)
barre des taches qui disparat [Rsolu]
upgrader ordinateur Packard Bell
mettre tout sur disque dur externe
installation de windows qui plante!!!
Probleme de carte graphique????
problme pour rcuperer une photo
Probleme avec Ccleaner ...
Probleme avec ie6
problme pc portable windows
Probleme installation XP
XP ou Vista?
Vista bien ou pas
Echc l'installation d'un logiciel
Impossible d'couter magic radio sur vista
conseil pour formater

Types of marks

Discursive marks

Titles of the threads

Objective marks:

Denomination and

terminology

Quotation

wireless, connecting
office 2007 -excel
Automatic Extract
Avertisment directx
Microsoft Word
recover password
wireless amilo 2727, wirelessu'
recuperare date
Mozilla youtube eroare
Defragmentare, Error 10061

Objective description

Subjective marks:

Subjective statements

Direct interrogations

Dilemma

CAT

Program, Program de sters fisierele care

se recupereaza
Soft de blocare a accesului la anumite
programe, in anumite intervale de timp
Program ascuns Foldere
Problema Outlook
Problema instalare Adobe Photoshop CS3
Probleme in Word
Cum pot sa ascund un program care
ruleaza
Add or Remove Programs, Cum elimin un
program?
Help-ul in Office XP, De ce nu merge?
Programe de curatat registri., ce sa
folosesc??
Eroare 2, Stie cineva ce este cu ea?
Dilema OpenOffice Calc (sau MSOffice
Excel)
Am nevoie de ajutor, restrictionare wow
Cum sterg licenta de la un program? Am
nevoie de ajutor

Asking for help

Types of marks

Discursive marks

Titles of the threads

Objective marks:

Denomination and

terminology

Expression of intention

windows 2000
Corrector catal
WEB
Fitxers MP3 (fiiere MP3)
Salts de seccions al Word Access...
Messenger Plus Live! 4.70 en catal
windows vista
Descarregues amb firefox.
antivirus gratut
Diccionari Catal al Firefox 3.0
Caracteristiques Ordinador
Firefox o Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer 7 en catal
Lotus Organizer
firfox3...petit entrebanc
format .dvr-ms
google earth
corrector catal per el word
Japones al firefox
openoffice
antivirus
Firewalls (Tallafocs)
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYS
TEM
microsoft outlook i windows vista
Corrector catal per a XP
thunderbird 2.0.0.9 diccionari ortogrfic
Installar Firefox 3 sobre Firefox 2.x.x.x
Formatejar ordinador
Programa per copies de seguretat
Formatar el disc dur
BAIXADES
EN
EL
MOZILLA

Subjective

Subjective statements

Direct interrogations

marks:

Exclamations

FIREFOX 98
Collocar programari al rebost
Pasar de format fat a ntfs
Problema amb diccionari per a Mozilla
Thunderbird
Problemes amb smtp
problemas com windows vista
De cop ha deixat de funcionar el firefox.
un XML esta malmes
Programa equivalent al Nero?
Sistema operatiu? Navegador?
No hi ha peda d'idioma catal per a
Windows Vista x64 ??
com actualitzo una bios?
El Winamp ha mort. Llarga vida a
l'AIMP!
Registre d'avast! Antivirus ja disponible
en Catal!!!

Following the result of our analysis we can state that knowledge communication
through professional web forums presents objectivity and subjectivity marks in all the
languages of the corpus. The ratio between subjectivity and objectivity marks is
different in each language which indicates a more objective or subjective
communication across languages.
Language
English
Spanish
French
Romanian
Catalan

No of subjective titles
No of objective titles
Total
7
6
13
13
7
20
11
7
18
11
13
24
10
34
44
Subjective and objective titles in Computer Web Forums Corpus

Following these data, the subjective marks are preponderant in English (7), Spanish
(13), and French (11) thread titles. Comparing the results of the analysis between
subjective and objective titles we can state that the difference is not significant
excepting the Catalan language where the difference is clearly marked (10 to 34). In
conclusion we can state that the most subjective constructions are specific to Spanish
speakers (13) and the most objective constructions characterise the Catalan speakers
(34).
Concerning the general discursive strategies used to create the titles of the threads we
analysed in this section, we can observe common strategies present in all languages
such as denomination and terminology for the objective marks and the subjective
description for the subjective marks. Specific discursive strategies can also be identified
9

for each language. Thus, the Spanish titles features are onomatopoeia, argo,
modalisation: expressions of despair, and modalisation: expressions of incapacity; the
French titles features are dilemma and modalisation: expressions of incapacity; the
Romanian titles characteristic is dilemma; and the Catalan corpus is characterised by
exclamations.

6. Conclusions
The conclusions of the current paper are that the knowledge communication in Internet
is a complex process embracing different discursive genres such as web forum
discussions. Knowledge communication within professional web forums presents
specific features, one of the most important being the titles of the threads. These titles
fulfil specific functions in knowledge communication and their main objective is to call
the attention of the receiver and persuade him/her to share and communicate the
knowledge the emitter needs and encodes in the titles of the threads.
We also state that through the quantitative and qualitative analysis we proved that
knowledge communication on the professional web forums is constructed using similar
discursive features across languages. Nevertheless we also highlighted specific features
for each of the languages presented in the Computer Web Forums Corpus.
In conclusion, we appreciate that the most efficient manner to encode knowledge and
express communicational intentions in the titles of the threads in terms of concision,
clarity, and focus was identified in the Catalan professional web forums. This
information is complemented by the fact that in Catalan forums the users prefer the
objective discursive sequences to introduce the threads. This confirms that an efficient
communication of knowledge is brief, clear, and objective.
Furthermore, the most verbose, imprecise and subjective structure of the titles of the
web forum threads was identified in Spanish.
A special interest was shown to the Romanian web forums, and our conclusion is that
the encoding of titles is more objective than subjective in Romanian. It is also
interesting to observe that the longest titles were identified in Romanian web forums (13
words) which make communication a verbose. The explanation we found is that
communication is quite effective in Romanian too, but at difference than in Catalan, the
Romanian users of the professional web forums use the long titles as a strategy to call
10

the attention of the other members of the group and, occasionally, write the entire
message in the title of the thread.

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