Talk:Telegraphese

telegraphese
Actually, the article is more than 'misleading' it's actually wrong. The definition of 'telegraphese' from the OED is:

" telegraphese colloq. or humorous.

(ˌtɛlɪgrɑːˈfiːz, -æ-)

[f. telegraph n. + -ese.]

1.1 The concise and elliptical style in which telegrams are worded. Also attrib. or as adj.

1885 Pall Mall G. 26 Sept. 2/2 We shall gradually give up English in favour of Telegraphese, and Electric Telegraphese is as short and spare as Daily Telegraphese is longwinded and redundant. 1905 Athenæum 7 Oct. 469/2 We rather relish the leisurely semicolons and sentences of the eighteenth century after‥the ‘telegraphese’ of many a modern stylist. 1951 R. Hoggart Auden i. 18 Auden's ‘telegraphese’ style‥is distinguished by its omission of articles, relatives, connectives, personal, demonstrative and other pronouns, and auxiliary verbs. 1978 Radio Times 18–24 Mar. 15/1 The actor's opinion hardened into the following telegraphese note: ‘Willy beyond question toughest director I've ever worked for.’

2.2 An elaborate or inflated style, such as was attributed to leading articles in the (London) Daily Telegraph newspaper.

1885 [see 1]. 1889 Universal Rev. Oct. 215 The man who writes for the Telegraph must write Telegraphese. 1892 Leisure Hour May 455/2 The elaborate, rounded, allusive style which has gone down to fame as Telegraphese. 1895 Westm. Gaz. 9 Dec. 3/1 Sala was not only the patentee of Telegraphese. He was also the first, and in some ways the best.

"

Meaning 1 is what is intended here, I believe. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 196.210.192.42 (talk) 14:04, 1 January 2011 (UTC)

This article is misleading. Telegraphese is a linguistics term that generally describes a "telegraphic" style of verbal and written expression, full of ellipses (dropped function words).

Coded telegraphic messages, which might, when translated into English, read like quite normal expressions, do NOT constitute "telegraphese" as commonly understood.

Being the author of the cited URL on telegraphic message practice, I am concerned to find this error and to be unwittingly associated with it. I have written about telegraphese as described by linguists, versus the way messages might be and were compressed by use of telegraphic codes. A related term, "cablese", described the style of press messages sent uncoded by highly condensed in a Hemingway-style of writing, over submarine cables.

I hope a linguist will correct this erroneous article, or "stub," as I see it called here. I am certainly not qualified.


 * Thanks for the correction, and apologies for the delay in responding. I agree with what you say here, and have done my best to correct the article. Carcharoth 01:09, 14 April 2007 (UTC)

It still is largely about the use of codes, rather than the elliptical style alluded to in the intro. What we need is some discussion, probably from a linguistics standpoint, on how words can be eliminated from a message while still preserving its meaning, and perhaps give some examples. The use of codes, as briefly discussed in the main part of this article, could be mentioned, but probably needs its own article. Wschart (talk) 13:15, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

Merge Proposal
Merging Telegram style with Telegraphese.


 * Support

excellent idea - this will allow the current errors to be removed. 196.210.192.42 (talk) 10:28, 7 January 2011 (UTC)

good idea. I'm the author of the essay on usage of telegraphic codes, that was dragged wrongly into this entry. Asfaltics (talk) 22:11, 6 February 2011 (UTC)
 * Seems like a good idea. I have added it to "Category:Literary genres", which I hope will be the proper place for the new article. (Lobsterthermidor (talk) 15:39, 10 April 2011 (UTC))


 * Neutral


 * Oppose