Elastic language in academic emails: Communication between a PhD applicant and potential supervisors

ABSTRACT This paper examines how and why elastic language (EL) is used in email communication between a PhD applicant and potential supervisors. It addresses the factors that are involved in EL use when the genre is the same but speech acts differ, which fills a gap in existing research. Based on a corpus of student–supervisor email correspondence, the forms (elastic quantifiers, intensifiers, possibility indicators, subjectivizers and general stretchers) and functions of EL (mitigation and providing the right amount of information) are investigated. A significant statistical difference in the distribution of the five forms of EL between two types of emails (follow-up emails vs. decline emails) is revealed: follow-up emails are more elastic than decline emails. These two types of emails also have distinct rank order and item-level differences. Four factors affecting the frequency of occurrence of EL are identified: the content of the reply, the number of emails exchanged, the possibility that subsequent emails will be exchanged and the level of rapport established through the emails. The findings are important because understanding how EL is used will enable us to contribute to effective communication in academic discourse and beyond.