Language and the Internet

Catalog description

This course focuses on how language is used online and investigates different forms of electronically-mediated communication. Students will look at the language of text messaging, social media, and other genres of online interaction to understand both the structural and social functions of digital communication from a linguistic perspective. To achieve this goal, students will examine research from various sub-fields of linguistics, including semantics, pragmatics, and sociolinguistics. This course will also offer students practice in identifying a range of perspectives on ethical issues in linguistics pertaining to both researchers as well as citizens in online spaces. Coursework will involve not only learning about linguistic approaches to examining language online, but also learning to put yourself in another's shoes to investigate issues of ethical problem-solving. Students will be introduced to different ways of analyzing digital language data and will critically discuss various research methodologies used in the field and some ethical dilemmas that accompany doing linguistic research in the digital age.