Hi, Denis!  Recently you wrote in netmail to Ardith Hinton:   
      
    AH>  Assuming you're asking about English usage here...   
      
    AH>  * As I understand it, "Short Message Sevice" is a technical   
    AH>  term used by cell(ular) (tele)phone providers.   
      
    AH>  * The average person usually says "text messaging" or   
    AH>  "texting".  :-)   
      
      
              I'm glad you asked for further input, because I don't know how well   
   you understood what I said if I don't get some sort of response....  :-)   
      
      
      
    DM>  1) SMS - text messaging   
      
      
              "SMS" is a term the telephone companies use.  With a cellphone, you   
   may be able to send brief text messages... to other cellphones.   
      
      
      
    DM>  2) E-Mail - text messaging.   
      
      
              Here's where things get more complicated.  Basically, however... as   
   Dallas has just pointed out to me... people don't describe sending & receiving   
   text messages on a computer as "texting".  They may describe it as "messaging"   
   ... but this usage is rare.   
      
              IOW... "text messaging" is synonymous with "SMS".  But neither term   
   is generally used to describe what people do in electronic mail.  :-)   
      
      
      
    DM>  How determinate 1) and 2) ?   
      
      
              How does one determine the difference between 1) and 2)?  I think I   
   have already addressed your concerns.  If not, I hope you'll write back & tell   
   me!  The next paragraph, dealing with the whys & wherefores, is optional.  :-)   
      
      
                                        ...   
      
      
              One of the features which make English both adaptable & potentially   
   confusing is that, as time goes by, folks may begin to use a noun as a verb or   
   as an adjective.  I think that may be what has happened here.  Just for fun, I   
   looked up "text" and "message" in my 1983 GAGE CANADIAN DICTIONARY.  Back then   
   ... as I'd suspected... both were classified as nouns only.  Five years later,   
   Dallas & I got involved in Fidonet.  Five years after that, the mothers of our   
   daughter's schoolmates were stopping me on the street to ask what the Internet   
   was.  Five years after that, I saw a cellphone for the first time.  Five years   
   after that, people were taking for granted that they could leave voice or text   
   messages on other people's cellphones.  Bottom line is that the descriptors we   
   use for new technologies reflect the language of the year in which such things   
   became available to us.  The younger crowd, consciously or subconsciously, saw   
   an opportunity to carry the language forward by adopting a pair of nouns which   
   ... as far as they were concerned... had been underutilized as verbs.  That is   
   my theory, but if anyone here has a better idea I'm open to argument....  :-))   
      
      
      
      
   --- timEd/386 1.10.y2k+   
    * Origin: Wits' End, Vancouver CANADA (1:153/716)