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English Language Contacts and Change in the Digital Age
Series: - Language and Computers, Volume: 87
Digitalization has profoundly transformed our communicative and linguistic environment, and the language used most in digital media around the globe is English. The articles in this book present new research focusing on the ways in which the English language and its speakers are influenced by digital modes of communication. Traditional notions of language contact and change are being redefined, and data obtained from digital platforms offer new answers to old questions. In addition to descriptions of linguistic development, the book illuminates sociolinguistically motivated perceptions and performativity regarding English language use in diverse digital media environments.
Heli Paulasto is Senior Lecturer in English linguistics at the University of Eastern Finland. She specializes in English language contacts, variation and change in multilingual contexts. Her publications include Welsh English (de Gruyter, 2021) and English and Celtic in Contact (Routledge, 2008) as well as other publications in the fields of contact linguistics, sociolinguistics and English as a lingua franca. Her current projects involve multilingual workplace interaction.
Lea Meriläinen is Senior Lecturer in English Linguistics at the University of Eastern Finland. Her research interests cover second language acquisition, English language learning and teaching, learner corpora, and the interface between learner English and world Englishes from the perspective of language contact and acquisition phenomena. She has published in several peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes.
Samuli Kaislaniemi is a university researcher at the University of Eastern Finland. He works on Early Modern English letters and letter-writing, combining historical sociolinguistics with manuscript studies. He is a compiler of the Corpus of Early English Correspondence, and a contributor to the Oxford Handbook of Southeast Asian Englishes and the New Cambridge History of the English Language.
Mikko Laitinen is Professor of English at the University of Eastern Finland. His research focuses on digital social networks and World Englishes. He is currently leading a project on the weak-tie hypothesis in complex digital social networks, funded by the Research Council of Finland, and recently completed a project for the Prime Minister’s Office on the role of English in Finland.
Lea Meriläinen is Senior Lecturer in English Linguistics at the University of Eastern Finland. Her research interests cover second language acquisition, English language learning and teaching, learner corpora, and the interface between learner English and world Englishes from the perspective of language contact and acquisition phenomena. She has published in several peer-reviewed journals and edited volumes.
Samuli Kaislaniemi is a university researcher at the University of Eastern Finland. He works on Early Modern English letters and letter-writing, combining historical sociolinguistics with manuscript studies. He is a compiler of the Corpus of Early English Correspondence, and a contributor to the Oxford Handbook of Southeast Asian Englishes and the New Cambridge History of the English Language.
Mikko Laitinen is Professor of English at the University of Eastern Finland. His research focuses on digital social networks and World Englishes. He is currently leading a project on the weak-tie hypothesis in complex digital social networks, funded by the Research Council of Finland, and recently completed a project for the Prime Minister’s Office on the role of English in Finland.
Acknowledgements
List of Figures
List of Tables
Abbreviations
Notes on Contributors
English Language Contacts and Change in the Digital Age: Key Themes and Future Directions
Heli Paulasto, Lea Meriläinen, Samuli Kaislaniemi and Mikko Laitinen
1 Writing Nigerian Pidgin on the Web: Dynamic Developments on a Diasporic Forum
Axel Bohmann and Mirka Honkanen
2 Lingua Franca English in 280 Characters: Tracking Americanization in Finnish Tweets
Irene Taipale
3 “I’d Say It’s a Smart English Accent”: A Case Study of Language Attitudes on Reddit
Sven Leuckert
4 “Jamaica Is Not the Only Jamaica”: Language and Place on YouTube
Axel Bohmann
5 Accent Change without Face-to-Face Interaction among University Students during Covid-19: The Role of Technologically Mediated Communication
Amanda Cole and Ella Jeffries
6 The Era of Digital Journalism: A Corpus-Based Analysis of the Syntactic Features of Online News
Difei Zhang
7 Online Authenticity and Communicative Choices in 2010s Cue-Card Vlogs
Mel Evans and Caroline Tagg
Index
List of Figures
List of Tables
Abbreviations
Notes on Contributors
English Language Contacts and Change in the Digital Age: Key Themes and Future Directions
Heli Paulasto, Lea Meriläinen, Samuli Kaislaniemi and Mikko Laitinen
Part 1 Contact in Digital Communication
1 Writing Nigerian Pidgin on the Web: Dynamic Developments on a Diasporic Forum
Axel Bohmann and Mirka Honkanen
2 Lingua Franca English in 280 Characters: Tracking Americanization in Finnish Tweets
Irene Taipale
3 “I’d Say It’s a Smart English Accent”: A Case Study of Language Attitudes on Reddit
Sven Leuckert
4 “Jamaica Is Not the Only Jamaica”: Language and Place on YouTube
Axel Bohmann
Part 2 Change through Digital Media
5 Accent Change without Face-to-Face Interaction among University Students during Covid-19: The Role of Technologically Mediated Communication
Amanda Cole and Ella Jeffries
6 The Era of Digital Journalism: A Corpus-Based Analysis of the Syntactic Features of Online News
Difei Zhang
7 Online Authenticity and Communicative Choices in 2010s Cue-Card Vlogs
Mel Evans and Caroline Tagg
Index
University libraries, scholars, lecturers and university students who are interested in English language contacts and change and in the impact of digitalization on language use.