About the project
Within this project we wish to take a closer look at youthful linguistic practices in Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC), and examine how data from these sources may complement traditional ones (e.g. sociolinguistic interviews, ethnography, and participant observation). These new fieldwork sites allow for unprecedented access not only to users’ self-generated video, music, speech and writing, but also to appropriations and recontextualizations of global trends in local codes and for local audiences. By looking at the ways in which youth recontextualize language for their perceived audience, our aim is to gain insight into how various languages, registers, local dialects and speech varieties become culturally noticed or unregistered. We are currently editing a volume for Cambridge University Press that showcases different approaches to the study of youth language in CMC and raises issues that researchers should consider when mining and analyzing these forms of data.
Collaboration
Cecelia Cutler, Lehman College, City University of New York