29.9, Diss: Discourse Analysis; Pragmatics; Text/Corpus Linguistics: Darcey Browning: ''#TwitterDiscourseMarkers: A Corpora Based Study of the Pragmatic Functions of Hashtags''

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LINGUIST List: Vol-29-9. Tue Jan 02 2018. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 29.9, Diss: Discourse Analysis; Pragmatics; Text/Corpus Linguistics: Darcey Browning: ''#TwitterDiscourseMarkers: A Corpora Based Study of the Pragmatic Functions of Hashtags''

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Date: Tue, 02 Jan 2018 16:01:57
From: Darcey Browning [darcey.browning at mavs.uta.edu]
Subject: #TwitterDiscourseMarkers: A Corpora Based Study of the Pragmatic Functions of Hashtags

 
Institution: University of Texas at Arlington 
Program: PhD in Linguistics 
Dissertation Status: Completed 
Degree Date: 2017 

Author: Darcey Browning

Dissertation Title: #TwitterDiscourseMarkers: A Corpora Based Study of the
Pragmatic Functions of Hashtags 

Dissertation URL:  http://hdl.handle.net/10106/26992

Linguistic Field(s): Discourse Analysis
                     Pragmatics
                     Text/Corpus Linguistics


Dissertation Director(s):
Laurel Stvan

Dissertation Abstract:

In this dissertation, I posit that hashtags can function as discourse markers,
where space constraints of 140 characters on Twitter complicate their
realization. Through the progression of research questions that shape each
chapter, this dissertation analyzes how hashtags assist with felicitous
communication to the intended audience of a tweet via four distinct corpora. 

The first function of discourse markers investigated in this dissertation
involves delays; in emotional narratives, we would expect to find discourse
markers acting as delays. Starting with a corpus of survivor interviews, I
investigate which traditional discourse markers appear frequently when
survivors talk about violence and which content environments seem to prompt
traditional, spoken discourse markers in these emotional narratives. Following
up on the spoken discourse markers, I found similar patterns in survivor
tweets from the #whyIstayed campaign. Using a corpus of 443 survivor tweets
from across 73 days, I show how the initial placement of some hashtags before
sensitive information can be a delay device. I also explore what linguistic
content is more likely to cause this tweet-initial placement through
statistical evidence, showing similarities between the hashtags and
traditional discourse markers. Through answering the research questions for
Chapter 2 and 3, I show how hashtags are act as delays in a similar fashion to
some spoken DMs. 

The second discourse marker function investigated in this dissertation is
clarification. Starting with a general corpus of 1791 tweets from 2012, I
explore the different functions of hashtags, finding that over 75% of hashtags
in this corpus are involved with clarifying tweet content. Using the
heuristics presented in Clark and Marshall (1981), I investigate how some
hashtags can clarify the meaning of the tweet, through what I call tag
reframing hashtags in Chapter 4. The third function is to reveal speaker’s
attitude, and in Chapter 5, I look at how two very different attitudes are
expressed through the use of #NastyWoman. Using tag reframing hashtags in
conjunction with a learning algorithm, I was able to analyze a second corpus
of over 55,000 tweets from the 2016 presidential election to show the
reclamation of a pejorative in Chapter 5. I show through the density of
pejorative and reclaimed uses of #NastyWoman the power struggle in the use of
this term at the associated attitudes in the 18 days before the election. 

Using a progression of corpus collection methods and data management, this
dissertation shows that some hashtags are discourse markers, indicating that
hashtags in computer mediated language pattern in form and function as
discourse markers in other language genres do.




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