Language and Dialogue - Volume 16, Issue 1, 2026

This paper explores the visual nature of emoji and their potential to co-create meaning when in dialogue with other visual semiotic resources, such as images, paintings, videos, and photographs. Drawing on a multimodal social semiotic framework and studies that emphasise the independent meaning-making capabilities of visual communication, it challenges the traditional view that emoji are merely paralinguistic elements dependent on verbal co-texts. The study analyses a corpus of art museum social media posts, highlighting instances of intermodal convergence between the shared images and emoji used in the captions. This analysis reveals formal and semantic dialogic relations, showcasing how emoji can function as independent semiotic resources, capable of establishing meaningful interactions with other visual elements.

Social media platforms function as key environments for the creation, modification, and eventual standardisation of neologisms. This study seeks to investigate the communicative objectives of internet users when employing linguistic forms that have not yet been incorporated into conventional language. The real-time, interactive nature of social media accelerates the diffusion and transformation of novel linguistic expressions, making it an optimal setting for examining language adaptation in response to users’ needs and technological limitations. By analysing neologisms across three prominent platforms, namely TikTok, X and Instagram, the research aims to identify the motivations driving linguistic innovation. This study contributes to the understanding of neologism production and linguistic creativity in digital contexts, offering an updated framework for their analysis and demonstrating that social media acts as an active catalyst in linguistic evolution, rather than a passive repository of language change.

The number of people using social networks to learn languages is constantly increasing. Although TikTok is one of the most popular social networks, little research has been conducted on its use for language learning. Our study examines a corpus of English pronunciation videos to explore the relationship between this platform and language learning. Specifically, we aim to determine whether interactions in the comment section are focused on learning or primarily social in nature. We analyzed 750 comments using an adaptation of the Interaction Analysis Model (IAM) developed by Gunawardena et al. (1997). Our results indicate that users discuss pronunciation and other aspects of English linguistic competence, with the most frequent phases involving information sharing and socialization.

What happens when people interact through the exchange of texts in messaging software applications? Through these applications, people exchange messages that present them as doing certain things: informing, asking something, reassuring, joking, etc. These messages therefore act on people’s behalf. To account for this reality, we need to develop a theory of communication that allows us to analyze the phenomenon by which what we say or write speaks or do things on our behalf. We propose a ventriloquial approach to communication, that highlights that all communication is an act of delegation by which various signs express themselves on our behalf or the behalf of what we also represent and make present.

This study investigates user participation in an online cooking community based on 265 comments about a recipe by Jamila, a popular food blogger, chosen for her significant influence in the Romanian culinary blogosphere. 73.6% (n = 195) are positive, whereas 26.4% (n = 70) are negative. While positive comments are more common, negative comments reveal more engagement from critics, often characterized by longer responses, detailed critiques, and frequent interactions. Using dialogue analysis and politeness research, we illustrate how users construct identities by balancing critique with indirect language use and defensive reactions. Common actions include hedging, justification, indirect criticism, and face-saving acts. We also analyze how commenters use humor, sarcasm, and multimedia components such as emoji to convey tone and emotion.

This paper explores the promotion and discourse of the new values of the term slow in the context of Slow Tourism. Within Slow Tourism, slow means sustainability with host communities and tourists working towards green and eco-friendly goals. This paper aims to explore how slow travelling associations engage with their audiences online. Under the lens of dialogic action and through a corpus-assisted discourse analysis of websites and respective social media accounts of two slow travelling associations operating in the UK, I will analyze and compare recurring phraseologies in the way they communicate with their readers. Results shed light on how discourse on slow tourism is co-created through different forms of online interaction.

The Action-Research involved 19 Italian preschools within a teachers’ training on coding and educational robotics as innovative tools for enhancing children’s learning processes. The initial program used BeeBot, Cubetto, and Lego Wedo 2.0 technologies, while a subsequent version introduced i-Code, a newly developed tool specifically designed for Programmable Digital Storytelling applications. The research framework incorporated two fundamental methodological approaches: training conceptualized as a dialogic process emphasizing collective reflection on authentic educational practices, and small group methodology implemented with both children and adult participants. Initial findings demonstrate that adopting a practice-based, dialogic perspective successfully transformed teachers’ initial “oppositional ideas” regarding the integration of coding and robotics with 3-to-6-year-old children, while simultaneously revealing significant transformative processes in teachers’ discursive positioning within collaborative small group contexts.