Internet Pragmatics - Online First

The paper investigates formal language in persuasive discourse on the r/ChangeMyView subreddit. We collected a corpus of 100 million messages, split into subcorpora based on the user-awarded marker delta, which rewards changing an original poster’s view. Assuming that formality/informality is potentially an important factor in the persuasiveness of a message, we examine the two subcorpora with respect to formality markers. The results indicate no systematic variation along the formality/informality continuum between persuasive and non-persuasive posts on r/ChangeMyView. The posters use personal pronouns, suasive verbs, emphatics, imperatives, elaborate connectors and WH-questions with similar frequency, and express themselves using vocabulary and syntax of similar complexity. Moreover, keyword lists and n-gram rankings indicate no register difference. A qualitative analysis of concordance lines for persuade and change PRONOUN view paints a picture of a community that values factual, evidence-based discourse and openness to logical persuasion, with a linguistic norm of relatively formal, sophisticated register.

This paper investigates multimodal strategies for balancing formality and informality online. The analysis of 300 comment-reply interactions on a recipe sharing site in Japan demonstrates that writers tend to avoid being overly formal or informal in their messages. For example, most comments and replies are written in polite forms but many incorporate some plain forms and colloquial expressions. Linguistic features, however, are not the only way through which the writers manage an appropriate level of formality and informality. The study examines the role of kaomoji or Japanese-style emoticons for socio-relational work online. Some kaomoji function locally as cues for interpreting the sentences featuring kaomoji. All kaomoji, including those with local functions, work to enhance the social presence of the writers on the screen via pictographic gaze and gestures, which increases the perception of intimate rapport. The findings underscore the importance of a multimodal perspective in examining how people handle social relationships online.

In this paper, I investigate how the structure of and discursive performance on North American YouTube eating shows contribute to the creation of intimacy and informality. In a typical eating show, the performer eats copious amounts of food while talking to their non-copresent audience, making use of interactional registers to ‘break’ from the solitary setting and to build rapport with their viewers. The material for this study is based on two case studies drawn from a corpus of YouTube eating shows. At the heart of the eating show performances lies the persona of a ‘friend’ of the viewer, diverting from their highly structured and technologically-mediated communicative nature. While the language used on eating shows may thus seem spontaneous and unprompted, the videos are not only planned but also edited. The simultaneous presence of selected unedited moments (i.e., slips of the tongue and other mishaps), however, is evidence of a conscious blending of front- and backstage performance ( Goffman 1959 ; Shulman 2017 ).

This study explores how and why people are impolite in danmu. Danmu refers to anonymous comments overlaid on videos uploaded to video-sharing sites. Although there is wide recognition that impoliteness prevails in danmu, the questions of how and why people are impolite in this context have rarely been investigated. This study addresses this lacuna of research. Using both an analysis of comments identified as impolite by participants and an analysis of focus group interview data, this research identified seven impoliteness strategies, covering both conventionalised formulae and implicational impoliteness. By applying uses and gratifications theory, this study identified five uses and gratifications for performing impoliteness in danmu: social interaction, entertainment, relaxation, expression of (usually differing) opinions and finding connections. The dialectic of resonance and opposition that emerged from the data helped explain why impolite comments tended not to be perceived as inappropriate in danmu. Thus, this study contributes to the emerging research on impoliteness in social media.

This paper presents a case study of identity construction and performance by examining the dynamic translanguaging practices of a Chinese student in the UK on a widely-used social media platform, WeChat. Drawing on data from WeChat Moment posts, chatting records, face-to-face interviews and online interviews over a period of 10 months, the study discusses identity construction in a digital world with a particular focus on heterogeneity and fluidity. The main findings include the following two points. First, the participant is the epitome of his world; he selects and manipulates linguistic and other semiotic resources indicating his beliefs, attitudes and life trajectory, and he actively, creatively, critically and strategically uses resources from his communicative repertoire to construct heterogeneous and fluid self-identities in his interactions with others. Second, the participant actively creates a virtual translanguaging space on WeChat, within which his new and old identities and different knowledge meet, integrate and fuse. The findings of this research provide detailed insights of digital translanguaging practices of WeChat users and contribute to a comprehensive understanding of identity (re)construction and (re)formation of an increasing number of overseas Chinese students.

This paper analyzes humorous comments created through a popular viewing-and-commenting system used in China and Japan, known as danmu (or danmaku). This system enables its users to superimpose anonymous comments on the video frame, which are displayed in subsequent viewing. We collected 327 user-selected ‘funniest’ screenshots of comments from danmu video sharing sites. Using content and discourse analysis, we re-contextualized the comments and identified main mechanisms of humor. Results show that speakers make fun of the plot, characters and of each other, relating to the video frame, Chinese culture and Japanese fandom. They rely on non-aggressive but rather playful teasing, allusions and retorts, and apply multimodal resources such as color, layout, and symbols to enhance the humorous effect. Our study contributes to the emerging research focus on multimodal humor ( Yus 2016 ), social semiotics and a discursive approach to danmu-mediated communication.