Combining digital discourse analysis and Citizen Sociolinguistics, methodological frames that con... more Combining digital discourse analysis and Citizen Sociolinguistics, methodological frames that contend with the effects of evolving digital practices, I present an approach to studying sociolinguistic trends by investigating how social media users talk about what language is doing. This approach is applicable to research on a wide range of linguistic and cultural contexts. The particular focus in this paper, however, is on U.S.-based social issues and linguistic features of American English as they appear in pieces of digital discourse from the micro-blogging platforms Twitter and Tumblr. Situated within the highly fractured sociopolitical climate of the pandemic-afflicted United States, the language under discussion provides a glimpse of some historically relevant sociocultural beliefs and attitudes towards the role of gender and racial identity in sociopolitical discourse. Focusing on uses of -splain, a metapragmatic bound morpheme, the paper demonstrates how social media users ass...
In this response I address the discussion notes written in reply to my focus article, “Explaining... more In this response I address the discussion notes written in reply to my focus article, “Explaining -splain in digital discourse.” In the remarks from Andrea R. Leone-Pizzighella, Bárbara Marqueta Gracia, Chaim Noy, François Cooren, Barbara Fultner, and Ursula Lutzky and Robert Lawson, some common themes emerged regarding the instability of meanings, how we treat neologisms, and some research methods for understanding the equivocal nature of metapragmatic neologisms. My reply addresses these issues. With the intent to accomplish the sort of productive, interdisciplinary conversation that Language Under Discussion promotes, I hope my reflection and final contribution helps us better understand language and communication.
This study investigates the language of "citizen sociolinguists," everyday users of social networ... more This study investigates the language of "citizen sociolinguists," everyday users of social network sites (SNS) who contribute to the discourses about language on Twitter, Reddit, and Tumblr, platforms with distinctive user demographics and technological affordances. The data were collected through keyword searches for mansplain, whitesplain, richsplain and thinsplain, metapragmatic neologisms which are lexical blends of the verb explain and one of four social categories. Disputes of macro-level ideologies are revealed by users' creative meaning-making strategies and metapragmatic awareness of micro-level texts and utterances. Making use of the linguistic practices of the SNS, as well as the concisely-compacted semantic and pragmatic meanings of the four splain words, users come to evaluate communicative dynamics between speakers who differ from or relate with others in their experiences of sex, skin color, economic status, and physical form. Drawing on elements of Citizen Sociolinguistics (Rymes & Leone, 2014) with Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough, 1989) and Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis (Herring, 2004), I question how users make metapragmatic judgements to convey varying meanings of the four focal words, and how the uses of [x]splain and the surrounding discourses illuminate socio-ideological values about language, about its intersection with gender, race, class, and body size, and the authority to speak on topics that are macro-contextually situated in discourses of privilege, power, and inequality. Lastly, I compare the findings across the three SNS platforms to understand how competing discourses differ in relation to each site's user demographics, technological affordances and limitations, and subsequent linguistic practices. 1 Because the story of @Astro_Jessica and @CASEYOQUIN was a viral story shared on numerous news sites (e.g., Amatulli, 2016), the usernames here are not anonymized. However, for my own data presented in the chapters four and five, the usernames and profiles are replaced with pseudonyms.
Peer-to-peer business models rely on interpersonal communication for their success. In this artic... more Peer-to-peer business models rely on interpersonal communication for their success. In this article, we focus on Airbnban exemplar of the so-called 'sharing economy'and more specifically, on Airbnb's reciprocal reviewing system, which enables both hosts and guests to review one another. Our study takes a computer-assisted, qualitative approach to explore linguistic patterns of evaluation in Airbnb reviews. Our findings indicate that Airbnb reviews tend to comprise a very restricted set of linguistic resources, establishing the site's norm of highly positive commentary, which in turn makes Airbnb reviews, on the surface, appear to be quite similar to one another. However, a micro-analytic comparison of positive reviews reveals that less-thanpositive experiences are sometimes communicated using more nuanced, subtle cues. This study contributes to existing literature on electronic word of mouth in the tourism industry by highlighting how evaluation is communicated, while simultaneously responding to hospitality scholars' calls for analyses which extend beyond the star ratings and also take into account consumers' constructions of experience in the review texts themselves.
The edited volume, Computer-Assisted Language Learning: Diversity in Research and Practice, offer... more The edited volume, Computer-Assisted Language Learning: Diversity in Research and Practice, offers a unique and informative look at diversity in language learning instruction and research. From diversity in the range of technology to diverse contexts to diversity of learners, this edited volume aims to reach a wide range of audiences including researchers, educators, and graduate students. Each chapter in the book points to the diversity of CALL and serves as a strong reminder that technology use alone is not an effective tool for language instruction. To help instructors reflect more on theoretically sound technology use into their teaching, Diversity in Research and Practice presents ten chapters (including an introduction and conclusion) that focus on various aspects of diversity in CALL. There is also a useful list of abbreviations at the beginning of the book and a list of websites and glossary at the end. The organization of the chapters provides readers with insights that further their understanding of diversity in the context of CALL and how it can help move foreign/second language instruction in innovative and pedagogically sound directions. In Chapter 1 (the Introduction) the book's editor, Glenn Stockwell, gives an up-to-date overview of current technology use both in and out of the classroom. He discusses diversity in terms of its potential to alter the way in which CALL is viewed in that it ''may include diversity in the technologies, diversities in the environments in which CALL is used, diversity in the pedagogies employed, diversity in the users of CALL, and diversity in the methods used to research and further our understanding of CALL'' (p. 1). Robert Fischer, in Chapter 2, looks at what students do when using CALL and the diversity of strategies and usage patterns that emerge from tracking data. He highlights the importance of tracking data, which can provide direct observation of what students do in various CALL environments. After providing an overview of the
This study investigates the language of “citizen sociolinguists,” everyday users of social networ... more This study investigates the language of “citizen sociolinguists,” everyday users of social network sites (SNS) who contribute to the discourses about language on Twitter, Reddit, and Tumblr, platforms with distinctive user demographics and technological affordances. The data were collected through keyword searches for mansplain, whitesplain, richsplain and thinsplain, metapragmatic neologisms which are lexical blends of the verb explain and one of four social categories. Disputes of macro-level ideologies are revealed by users’ creative meaning-making strategies and metapragmatic awareness of micro-level texts and utterances. Making use of the linguistic practices of the SNS, as well as the concisely-compacted semantic and pragmatic meanings of the four splain words, users come to evaluate communicative dynamics between speakers who differ from or relate with others in their experiences of sex, skin color, economic status, and physical form. Drawing on elements of Citizen Sociolingu...
Combining digital discourse analysis and Citizen Sociolinguistics, methodological frames that con... more Combining digital discourse analysis and Citizen Sociolinguistics, methodological frames that contend with the effects of evolving digital practices, I present an approach to studying sociolinguistic trends by investigating how social media users talk about what language is doing. This approach is applicable to research on a wide range of linguistic and cultural contexts. The particular focus in this paper, however, is on U.S.-based social issues and linguistic features of American English as they appear in pieces of digital discourse from the micro-blogging platforms Twitter and Tumblr. Situated within the highly fractured sociopolitical climate of the pandemic-afflicted United States, the language under discussion provides a glimpse of some historically relevant sociocultural beliefs and attitudes towards the role of gender and racial identity in sociopolitical discourse. Focusing on uses of -splain, a metapragmatic bound morpheme, the paper demonstrates how social media users ass...
Study Abroad Research in Second Language Acquisition and International Education
This study explored the attrition / maintenance of second language (L2) proficiency by examining ... more This study explored the attrition / maintenance of second language (L2) proficiency by examining longitudinally the oral skills of a group of L2 French and L2 Spanish participants (n = 33) four years after study abroad, and three years after completing an undergraduate degree in languages. Multiple regressions were conducted to determine the extent to which language contact / use and attained proficiency at the end of study abroad could predict changes in fluency and oral proficiency. Results demonstrated that those variables that improved significantly during study abroad (e.g., speech rate) were maintained four years later. The amount of target language contact / use played a role in maintenance of aspects of fluency such as speech rate and frequency of silent pauses, whereas proficiency attained at the end of study abroad played a role in the use of corrections. Both language contact / use and proficiency attained are important variables in the long-term maintenance of overall pr...
Gendering metapragmatics in online discourse: “Mansplaining man gonna mansplain…”, 2017
This study considers uses of the word mansplain as a phenomenon of gendered metapragmatics, or me... more This study considers uses of the word mansplain as a phenomenon of gendered metapragmatics, or metalinguistic commentary related to male-female communicative dynamics. Mansplain (a portmanteau of man and explain), a neologism recently popularized on social media, is typically used by women to describe men speaking to women in a patronizing manner. However, the analysis of social media discourse reveals a wider range of meanings and uses, as users employ the word to critique, evaluate and/or normalize the appropriateness of other users’ language. From a dataset of 200 Twitter and Facebook posts, the study analyzes patterns of the word’s functions, showing how uses of mansplain not only expose varying beliefs about how men and women should or should not talk to each other, but also communicate affective and epistemic stances about the value of discussing other people’s language use more generally. Some reactions to the prevalence of the word are observable in various usages of mansplain, demonstrating both acceptance and rejection of gender-specific metalanguage. For example, some use the term deliberately to exhibit metapragmatic self-monitoring (e.g., “Not trying to mansplain but…”). However, others who reject the legitimacy of the term consider it to be a linguistic weapon used to unduly silence men’s voices. I argue that online comments using the word mansplain illuminate multiple sociocultural issues such as: how women, by labeling their verbal repression, are empowered to defy it through metapragmatics; how users retaliate against a gendered term; and how a word can be re-contextualized and re-appropriated transforming its meaning to reflect multiple viewpoints.
Peer-to-peer business models rely on interpersonal communication for their success. In this artic... more Peer-to-peer business models rely on interpersonal communication for their success. In this article, we focus on Airbnb – an exemplar of the so-called ‘sharing economy’ – and more specifically, on Airbnb’s reciprocal reviewing system, which enables both hosts and guests to review one another. Our study takes a computer-assisted, qualitative approach to explore linguistic patterns of evaluation in Airbnb reviews. Our findings indicate that Airbnb reviews tend to comprise a very restricted set of linguistic resources, establishing the site’s norm of highly positive commentary, which in turn makes Airbnb reviews, on the surface, appear to be quite similar to one another. However, a micro-analytic comparison of positive reviews reveals that less-than-positive experiences are sometimes communicated using more nuanced, subtle cues. This study contributes to existing literature on electronic word of mouth (eWOM) in the tourism industry by highlighting how evaluation is communicated, while simultaneously responding to hospitality scholars’ calls for analyses which extend beyond the star ratings and also take into account consumers’ constructions of experience in the review texts themselves.
Combining digital discourse analysis and Citizen Sociolinguistics, methodological frames that con... more Combining digital discourse analysis and Citizen Sociolinguistics, methodological frames that contend with the effects of evolving digital practices, I present an approach to studying sociolinguistic trends by investigating how social media users talk about what language is doing. This approach is applicable to research on a wide range of linguistic and cultural contexts. The particular focus in this paper, however, is on U.S.-based social issues and linguistic features of American English as they appear in pieces of digital discourse from the micro-blogging platforms Twitter and Tumblr. Situated within the highly fractured sociopolitical climate of the pandemic-afflicted United States, the language under discussion provides a glimpse of some historically relevant sociocultural beliefs and attitudes towards the role of gender and racial identity in sociopolitical discourse. Focusing on uses of -splain, a metapragmatic bound morpheme, the paper demonstrates how social media users ass...
In this response I address the discussion notes written in reply to my focus article, “Explaining... more In this response I address the discussion notes written in reply to my focus article, “Explaining -splain in digital discourse.” In the remarks from Andrea R. Leone-Pizzighella, Bárbara Marqueta Gracia, Chaim Noy, François Cooren, Barbara Fultner, and Ursula Lutzky and Robert Lawson, some common themes emerged regarding the instability of meanings, how we treat neologisms, and some research methods for understanding the equivocal nature of metapragmatic neologisms. My reply addresses these issues. With the intent to accomplish the sort of productive, interdisciplinary conversation that Language Under Discussion promotes, I hope my reflection and final contribution helps us better understand language and communication.
This study investigates the language of "citizen sociolinguists," everyday users of social networ... more This study investigates the language of "citizen sociolinguists," everyday users of social network sites (SNS) who contribute to the discourses about language on Twitter, Reddit, and Tumblr, platforms with distinctive user demographics and technological affordances. The data were collected through keyword searches for mansplain, whitesplain, richsplain and thinsplain, metapragmatic neologisms which are lexical blends of the verb explain and one of four social categories. Disputes of macro-level ideologies are revealed by users' creative meaning-making strategies and metapragmatic awareness of micro-level texts and utterances. Making use of the linguistic practices of the SNS, as well as the concisely-compacted semantic and pragmatic meanings of the four splain words, users come to evaluate communicative dynamics between speakers who differ from or relate with others in their experiences of sex, skin color, economic status, and physical form. Drawing on elements of Citizen Sociolinguistics (Rymes & Leone, 2014) with Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough, 1989) and Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis (Herring, 2004), I question how users make metapragmatic judgements to convey varying meanings of the four focal words, and how the uses of [x]splain and the surrounding discourses illuminate socio-ideological values about language, about its intersection with gender, race, class, and body size, and the authority to speak on topics that are macro-contextually situated in discourses of privilege, power, and inequality. Lastly, I compare the findings across the three SNS platforms to understand how competing discourses differ in relation to each site's user demographics, technological affordances and limitations, and subsequent linguistic practices. 1 Because the story of @Astro_Jessica and @CASEYOQUIN was a viral story shared on numerous news sites (e.g., Amatulli, 2016), the usernames here are not anonymized. However, for my own data presented in the chapters four and five, the usernames and profiles are replaced with pseudonyms.
Peer-to-peer business models rely on interpersonal communication for their success. In this artic... more Peer-to-peer business models rely on interpersonal communication for their success. In this article, we focus on Airbnban exemplar of the so-called 'sharing economy'and more specifically, on Airbnb's reciprocal reviewing system, which enables both hosts and guests to review one another. Our study takes a computer-assisted, qualitative approach to explore linguistic patterns of evaluation in Airbnb reviews. Our findings indicate that Airbnb reviews tend to comprise a very restricted set of linguistic resources, establishing the site's norm of highly positive commentary, which in turn makes Airbnb reviews, on the surface, appear to be quite similar to one another. However, a micro-analytic comparison of positive reviews reveals that less-thanpositive experiences are sometimes communicated using more nuanced, subtle cues. This study contributes to existing literature on electronic word of mouth in the tourism industry by highlighting how evaluation is communicated, while simultaneously responding to hospitality scholars' calls for analyses which extend beyond the star ratings and also take into account consumers' constructions of experience in the review texts themselves.
The edited volume, Computer-Assisted Language Learning: Diversity in Research and Practice, offer... more The edited volume, Computer-Assisted Language Learning: Diversity in Research and Practice, offers a unique and informative look at diversity in language learning instruction and research. From diversity in the range of technology to diverse contexts to diversity of learners, this edited volume aims to reach a wide range of audiences including researchers, educators, and graduate students. Each chapter in the book points to the diversity of CALL and serves as a strong reminder that technology use alone is not an effective tool for language instruction. To help instructors reflect more on theoretically sound technology use into their teaching, Diversity in Research and Practice presents ten chapters (including an introduction and conclusion) that focus on various aspects of diversity in CALL. There is also a useful list of abbreviations at the beginning of the book and a list of websites and glossary at the end. The organization of the chapters provides readers with insights that further their understanding of diversity in the context of CALL and how it can help move foreign/second language instruction in innovative and pedagogically sound directions. In Chapter 1 (the Introduction) the book's editor, Glenn Stockwell, gives an up-to-date overview of current technology use both in and out of the classroom. He discusses diversity in terms of its potential to alter the way in which CALL is viewed in that it ''may include diversity in the technologies, diversities in the environments in which CALL is used, diversity in the pedagogies employed, diversity in the users of CALL, and diversity in the methods used to research and further our understanding of CALL'' (p. 1). Robert Fischer, in Chapter 2, looks at what students do when using CALL and the diversity of strategies and usage patterns that emerge from tracking data. He highlights the importance of tracking data, which can provide direct observation of what students do in various CALL environments. After providing an overview of the
This study investigates the language of “citizen sociolinguists,” everyday users of social networ... more This study investigates the language of “citizen sociolinguists,” everyday users of social network sites (SNS) who contribute to the discourses about language on Twitter, Reddit, and Tumblr, platforms with distinctive user demographics and technological affordances. The data were collected through keyword searches for mansplain, whitesplain, richsplain and thinsplain, metapragmatic neologisms which are lexical blends of the verb explain and one of four social categories. Disputes of macro-level ideologies are revealed by users’ creative meaning-making strategies and metapragmatic awareness of micro-level texts and utterances. Making use of the linguistic practices of the SNS, as well as the concisely-compacted semantic and pragmatic meanings of the four splain words, users come to evaluate communicative dynamics between speakers who differ from or relate with others in their experiences of sex, skin color, economic status, and physical form. Drawing on elements of Citizen Sociolingu...
Combining digital discourse analysis and Citizen Sociolinguistics, methodological frames that con... more Combining digital discourse analysis and Citizen Sociolinguistics, methodological frames that contend with the effects of evolving digital practices, I present an approach to studying sociolinguistic trends by investigating how social media users talk about what language is doing. This approach is applicable to research on a wide range of linguistic and cultural contexts. The particular focus in this paper, however, is on U.S.-based social issues and linguistic features of American English as they appear in pieces of digital discourse from the micro-blogging platforms Twitter and Tumblr. Situated within the highly fractured sociopolitical climate of the pandemic-afflicted United States, the language under discussion provides a glimpse of some historically relevant sociocultural beliefs and attitudes towards the role of gender and racial identity in sociopolitical discourse. Focusing on uses of -splain, a metapragmatic bound morpheme, the paper demonstrates how social media users ass...
Study Abroad Research in Second Language Acquisition and International Education
This study explored the attrition / maintenance of second language (L2) proficiency by examining ... more This study explored the attrition / maintenance of second language (L2) proficiency by examining longitudinally the oral skills of a group of L2 French and L2 Spanish participants (n = 33) four years after study abroad, and three years after completing an undergraduate degree in languages. Multiple regressions were conducted to determine the extent to which language contact / use and attained proficiency at the end of study abroad could predict changes in fluency and oral proficiency. Results demonstrated that those variables that improved significantly during study abroad (e.g., speech rate) were maintained four years later. The amount of target language contact / use played a role in maintenance of aspects of fluency such as speech rate and frequency of silent pauses, whereas proficiency attained at the end of study abroad played a role in the use of corrections. Both language contact / use and proficiency attained are important variables in the long-term maintenance of overall pr...
Gendering metapragmatics in online discourse: “Mansplaining man gonna mansplain…”, 2017
This study considers uses of the word mansplain as a phenomenon of gendered metapragmatics, or me... more This study considers uses of the word mansplain as a phenomenon of gendered metapragmatics, or metalinguistic commentary related to male-female communicative dynamics. Mansplain (a portmanteau of man and explain), a neologism recently popularized on social media, is typically used by women to describe men speaking to women in a patronizing manner. However, the analysis of social media discourse reveals a wider range of meanings and uses, as users employ the word to critique, evaluate and/or normalize the appropriateness of other users’ language. From a dataset of 200 Twitter and Facebook posts, the study analyzes patterns of the word’s functions, showing how uses of mansplain not only expose varying beliefs about how men and women should or should not talk to each other, but also communicate affective and epistemic stances about the value of discussing other people’s language use more generally. Some reactions to the prevalence of the word are observable in various usages of mansplain, demonstrating both acceptance and rejection of gender-specific metalanguage. For example, some use the term deliberately to exhibit metapragmatic self-monitoring (e.g., “Not trying to mansplain but…”). However, others who reject the legitimacy of the term consider it to be a linguistic weapon used to unduly silence men’s voices. I argue that online comments using the word mansplain illuminate multiple sociocultural issues such as: how women, by labeling their verbal repression, are empowered to defy it through metapragmatics; how users retaliate against a gendered term; and how a word can be re-contextualized and re-appropriated transforming its meaning to reflect multiple viewpoints.
Peer-to-peer business models rely on interpersonal communication for their success. In this artic... more Peer-to-peer business models rely on interpersonal communication for their success. In this article, we focus on Airbnb – an exemplar of the so-called ‘sharing economy’ – and more specifically, on Airbnb’s reciprocal reviewing system, which enables both hosts and guests to review one another. Our study takes a computer-assisted, qualitative approach to explore linguistic patterns of evaluation in Airbnb reviews. Our findings indicate that Airbnb reviews tend to comprise a very restricted set of linguistic resources, establishing the site’s norm of highly positive commentary, which in turn makes Airbnb reviews, on the surface, appear to be quite similar to one another. However, a micro-analytic comparison of positive reviews reveals that less-than-positive experiences are sometimes communicated using more nuanced, subtle cues. This study contributes to existing literature on electronic word of mouth (eWOM) in the tourism industry by highlighting how evaluation is communicated, while simultaneously responding to hospitality scholars’ calls for analyses which extend beyond the star ratings and also take into account consumers’ constructions of experience in the review texts themselves.
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Papers by Judith Bridges