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LOL or lol, an acronym for laugh(ing) out loud,〔〔〔 or lots of laughs,〔Ann Hewings, Martin Hewings, ''Grammar and Context, An advanced Resource Book'', Routledge Applied Linguistics, 2005, ISBN 0-415-31080-6〕〔Jimmi Harrigan, Robert Rosenthal, ''Methods in Nonverbal Behavior Research'', Oxford Unversity Press, 2005, ISBN 978-0-19-852962-0〕〔John P. Sloan, ''Instant English 2'', Gribaudo, 2011 ISBN 978-88-580-0448-7〕 is a popular element of Internet slang. It was first used almost exclusively on Usenet, but has since become widespread in other forms of computer-mediated communication and even face-to-face communication. It is one of many initialisms for expressing bodily reactions, in particular laughter, as text, including initialisms for more emphatic expressions of laughter such as LMAO〔 ("laugh(ing) my ass off") and ROFL〔〔〔 (or its older form ''ROTFL'';〔〔 "roll(ing) on the floor laughing"). Other unrelated expansions include the now mostly obsolete "lots of luck" or "lots of love" used in letter-writing.〔 The list of acronyms "grows by the month"〔 and they are collected along with emoticons and smileys into folk dictionaries that are circulated informally amongst users of Usenet, IRC, and other forms of (textual) computer-mediated communication.〔 These initialisms are controversial, and several authors〔〔〔〔 recommend against their use, either in general or in specific contexts such as business communications. LOL was first documented in the ''Oxford English Dictionary'' in March 2011. ==Analysis== Laccetti (professor of humanities at Stevens Institute of Technology) and Molski, in their essay entitled ''The Lost Art of Writing'', are critical of the terms, predicting reduced chances of employment for students who use such slang, stating that, "Unfortunately for these students, their bosses will not be 'lol' when they read a report that lacks proper punctuation and grammar, has numerous misspellings, various made-up words, and silly acronyms."〔〔 Fondiller and Nerone in their style manual assert that "professional or business communication should never be careless or poorly constructed" whether one is writing an electronic mail message or an article for publication, and warn against the use of smileys and these abbreviations, stating that they are "no more than e-mail slang and have no place in business communication".〔 Yunker and Barry in a study of online courses and how they can be improved through podcasting have found that these slang terms, and emoticons as well, are "often misunderstood" by students and are "difficult to decipher" unless their meanings are explained in advance. They single out the example of "ROFL" as not obviously being the abbreviation of "rolling on ''the'' floor laughing" (emphasis added).〔 Haig singles out LOL as one of the three most popular initialisms in Internet slang, alongside BFN ("bye for now") and IMHO ("in my honest/humble opinion"). He describes the various initialisms of Internet slang as convenient, but warns that "as ever more obscure acronyms emerge they can also be rather confusing".〔 Bidgoli likewise states that these initialisms "save keystrokes for the sender but () might make comprehension of the message more difficult for the receiver" and that "()lang may hold different meanings and lead to misunderstandings especially in international settings"; he advises that they be used "only when you are sure that the other person knows the meaning".〔 Shortis observes that ROFL is a means of "annotating text with stage directions".〔 Hershock, in discussing these terms in the context of performative utterances, points out the difference between ''telling'' someone that one is laughing out loud and actually laughing out loud: "The latter response is a straightforward action. The former is a self-reflexive representation of an action: I not only do something but also show you that I am doing it. Or indeed, I may not actually laugh out loud but may use the locution 'LOL' to communicate my appreciation of your attempt at humor."〔 David Crystal notes that use of LOL is not necessarily genuine, just as the use of smiley faces or grins is not necessarily genuine, posing the rhetorical question "How many people are actually 'laughing out loud' when they send LOL?".〔 Franzini concurs, stating that there is as yet no research that has determined the percentage of people who are actually laughing out loud when they write LOL.〔 Victoria Clarke, in her analysis of telnet talkers, states that capitalization is important when people write LOL, and that "a user who types ''LOL'' may well be laughing louder than one who types ''lol''", and opines that "these standard expressions of laughter are losing force through overuse".〔 Egan describes LOL, ROFL, and other initialisms as helpful as long as they are not overused. He recommends against their use in business correspondence because the recipient may not be aware of their meanings, and because in general neither they nor emoticons are (in his view) appropriate in such correspondence.〔 June Hines Moore shares that view.〔 So, too, does Lindsell-Roberts, who gives the same advice of not using them in business correspondence, "or you won't be LOL".〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「LOL」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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