Manual of Romance Languages in the Media 3110314711, 9783110314717

Table of contents :
Manuals of Romance Linguistics
Table of Contents
Media and Linguistics
0. Preface
1. Media Linguistics: Interfaces to Media and Communication Studies
Text Linguistic Approaches to Language in the Media
2. Text Linguistic Approaches I: Analysis of Media Texts
3. Text Linguistic Approaches II: Textuality of Online Media
4. Television Text Types
5. Online Text Types
6. Aspects of Advertising Language Online
Orality and Literacy of Media Text Types
7. Orality and Literacy in Cinema and Television
8. Orality and Literacy of Telephony and SMS
9. Orality and Literacy of Online Communication
Methods in Linguistic Media Research
10. Critical Discourse Analysis and New Media
11. Analyzing Multicodal Media Texts
12. Language in the Media: The Process Perspective
13. Tertiary Media Corpora of the Romance Languages
Romance Matters
14. The Role of Small Languages in the Media I: Presence of Romanian in Medial Communication
15. The Role of Small Languages in the Media II: Presence of Picard in Medial Communication
16. Audiovisual Latino Media in the US: The Emergence of Bilingual Media Text Genres in the Interface between Language Contact, Language Policy and Translation
17. Language Change through Medial Communication
18. Broadcast Advertising – Issues of Linguistic Research (with Special Regard to Italy and France)
Media Texts and Multilingualism
19. Minority Languages in Media Communication
20. Audiovisual Translation
21. Crowdsourcing Translation
22. Software Localization into Romance Languages
Index

Citation preview

Manual of Romance Languages in the Media MRL 23

Manuals of Romance Linguistics Manuels de linguistique romane Manuali di linguistica romanza Manuales de lingüística románica

Edited by Günter Holtus and Fernando Sánchez Miret

Volume 23

Manual of Romance Languages in the Media

Edited by Kristina Bedijs and Christiane Maaß

ISBN 978-3-11-031471-7 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-031475-5 e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-039521-1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress. Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at: http://dnb.dnb.de. © 2017 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston Typesetting: jürgen ullrich typosatz, Nördlingen Printing and binding: CPI books GmbH, Leck ♾ Printed on acid-free paper Printed in Germany www.degruyter.com

Manuals of Romance Linguistics The new international handbook series Manuals of Romance Linguistics (MRL) will offer an extensive, systematic and state-of-the-art overview of linguistic research in the entire field of present-day Romance Studies. MRL aims to update and expand the contents of the two major reference works available to date: Lexikon der Romanistischen Linguistik (LRL) (1988–2005, vol. 1–8) and Romanische Sprachgeschichte (RSG) (2003–2008, vol. 1–3). It will also seek to integrate new research trends as well as topics that have not yet been explored systematically. Given that a complete revision of LRL and RSG would not be feasible, at least not in a sensible timeframe, the MRL editors have opted for a modular approach that is much more flexible: The series will include approximately 60 volumes (each comprised of approx. 400–600 pages and 15–30 chapters). Each volume will focus on the most central aspects of its topic in a clear and structured manner. As a series, the volumes will cover the entire field of present-day Romance Linguistics, but they can also be used individually. Given that the work on individual MRL volumes will be nowhere near as time-consuming as that on a major reference work in the style of LRL, it will be much easier to take into account even the most recent trends and developments in linguistic research. MRL’s languages of publication are French, Spanish, Italian, English and, in exceptional cases, Portuguese. Each volume will consistently be written in only one of these languages. In each case, the choice of language will depend on the specific topic. English will be used for topics that are of more general relevance beyond the field of Romance Studies (for example Manual of Language Acquisition or Manual of Romance Languages in the Media). The focus of each volume will be either (1) on one specific language or (2) on one specific research field. Concerning volumes of the first type, each of the Romance languages – including Romance-based creoles – will be discussed in a separate volume. A particularly strong focus will be placed on the smaller languages (linguae minores) that other reference works have not treated extensively. MRL will comprise volumes on Friulian, Corsican, Galician, Vulgar Latin, among others, as well as a Manual of Judaeo-Romance Linguistics and Philology.Volumes of the second type will be devoted to the systematic presentation of all traditional and new fields of Romance Linguistics, with the research methods of Romance Linguistics being discussed in a separate volume. Dynamic new research fields and trends will yet again be of particular interest, because although they have become increasingly important in both research and teaching, older reference works have not dealt with them at all or touched upon them only tangentially. MRL will feature volumes dedicated to research fields such as Grammatical Interfaces, Youth Language Research, Urban Varieties, Computational Linguistics, Neurolinguistics, Sign Languages or Forensic Linguistics.  

 

 

 

 

DOI 10.1515/9783110314755-202

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Each volume will offer a structured and informative, easy-to-read overview of the history of research as well as of recent research trends. We are delighted that internationally-renowned colleagues from a variety of Romance-speaking countries and beyond have agreed to collaborate on this series and take on the editorship of individual MRL volumes. Thanks to the expertise of the volume editors responsible for the concept and structure of their volumes, as well as for the selection of suitable authors, MRL will not only summarize the current state of knowledge in Romance Linguistics, but will also present much new information and recent research results. As a whole, the MRL series will present a panorama of the discipline that is both extensive and up-to-date, providing interesting and relevant information and useful orientation for every reader, with detailed coverage of specific topics as well as general overviews of present-day Romance Linguistics. We believe that the series will offer a fresh, innovative approach, suited to adequately map the constant advancement of our discipline. Günter Holtus (Lohra/Göttingen) Fernando Sánchez Miret (Salamanca) July 2017

Table of Contents Media and Linguistics 0

Kristina Bedijs and Christiane Maaß Preface 3

1

Heinz-Helmut Lüger Media Linguistics: Interfaces to Media and Communication Studies

Text Linguistic Approaches to Language in the Media 2

Martina Schrader-Kniffki Text Linguistic Approaches I: Analysis of Media Texts

3

Nadine Rentel Text Linguistic Approaches II: Textuality of Online Media

4

Kristin Reinke Television Text Types

5

Kathrin Wenz Online Text Types

6

Tilman Schröder Aspects of Advertising Language Online

73

94

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Orality and Literacy of Media Text Types 7

Kristina Bedijs Orality and Literacy in Cinema and Television

8

Louise-Amélie Cougnon and Jean-Léon Bouraoui Orality and Literacy of Telephony and SMS 154

9

Anja Overbeck Orality and Literacy of Online Communication

133

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Methods in Linguistic Media Research 10

Antonio M. Bañón Hernández Critical Discourse Analysis and New Media

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Uta Fröhlich Analyzing Multicodal Media Texts

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Daniel Perrin Language in the Media: The Process Perspective

13

Martina Schrader-Kniffki, Carme Colominas, Kristina Bedijs, Paula Bouzas, Stefan Schneider and Daniel Kallweit Tertiary Media Corpora of the Romance Languages 290

203

245

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Romance Matters 14

Maren Huberty The Role of Small Languages in the Media I: Presence of Romanian in Medial Communication 325

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Judith Visser The Role of Small Languages in the Media II: Presence of Picard in Medial Communication 343

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Gabriele Knauer Audiovisual Latino Media in the US: The Emergence of Bilingual Media Text Genres in the Interface between Language Contact, Language Policy and Translation 363 Carsten Sinner Language Change through Medial Communication

381

Gudrun Held Broadcast Advertising – Issues of Linguistic Research (with Special Regard to Italy and France) 411

Table of Contents

Media Texts and Multilingualism 19

Fernando Ramallo Minority Languages in Media Communication

20

Rocío Baños Audiovisual Translation

21

Verena Thaler Crowdsourcing Translation

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Falk Seiler Software Localization into Romance Languages

Index

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Media and Linguistics

Kristina Bedijs and Christiane Maaß

0 Preface This manual in the series of Romance Linguistics is dedicated to the use of Romance languages in the media. It focuses on media linguistic research on Romance languages and media linguistic approaches from Romance countries and Romance studies. Today, media culture is clearly global, but media content is delivered in different (also Romance) languages and is part of language-bound discourses. Unlike in everyday language, where “media” usually means analog or digital messages, the term “media” in media and communication studies and linguistics is a rather broad one, and so is the term “message”. “Media” can mean the air carrying acoustic waves from a mouth to an ear; it can mean the wire between two landline telephones carrying electronic signals converted from speech; it can mean an application on a smartphone which displays text and pictures sent from another smartphone; it can mean a radio receiver. No manual of linguistics can cover all media in the broadest sense of the term. Besides the fact that much research has been done on fundamental questions by media and communication studies, there has also been research from the linguistic perspective for decades. Nonetheless, the articles in this volume cite and reflect the most relevant publications in their respective fields. Print media have long been the basis of both communication studies and media linguistics, and investigations of the language in newspapers abound (cf., e.g., the volume edited by Dahmen et al. 2006 and the overview in Wilhelm 2006) – not only because these media are the oldest, but also because they provided easy access for linguistic research even before the computer-assisted possibilities of analysis had emerged: text and visuals were directly available without technological aid. Such media are called “secondary media” in the terminology of Pross (1972): they require technical devices only on the sender’s side. Pross’s study, which became highly influential in German media studies, distinguishes between primary, secondary and tertiary media. In the case of primary media, no device is interposed between sender and recipient of a media text, and people’s senses are sufficient to produce, transport and consume the message (cf. Pross 1972, 145). Secondary media require technical devices for content production but not for content perception. Tertiary media depend on technical devices for content production and content perception. The distinction between primary, secondary and tertiary media according to the technical support needed to produce and to receive content is still the dominant classification in the German-speaking areas. Other classifications operate according to the sense of perception (visual, auditive, audiovisual) or according to the relationship between the sender and the addressed public. This manual shall focus on tertiary media. They emerged somewhat later than secondary media and comprise mainly mass media such as radio, television and Internet, but also interpersonal communication media such as telephone and messenger services.  

DOI 10.1515/9783110314755-001

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Some academics in the field of media and communication studies argue that the blurring of frontiers between the media which has taken place since the arrival and spread of the Internet necessitate a new category in the traditional threefold system, and propose “quaternary media” which cover the digital field (cf. Faßler 1997; for a discussion, cf. Büttner 2015). This discussion is still going on, and will possibly become even more complex with the proceeding diversification and cross-hybridization within digital media. This volume does, therefore, not differentiate any further than the so-called “tertiary media” and includes in this category all kinds of media that require a technical device on both sides of the communication process. The contributions in this volume, thus, do not focus on conventional media like newspapers, magazines, and print advertisements, but since research in media linguistics heavily relies on the findings that have been made with respect to such media, they will frequently refer to them and clarify when there are differences regarding tertiary media. As mentioned above, research on media is no recent academic trend, tracing its origins as far back as the turn of the 20th century with the creation of the first university departments for media studies (1916: Institut für Zeitungskunde ‘department for newspaper research’, University of Leipzig, Germany; 1919: The New School University New York, U.S.). The Romance countries established similar departments for media and communication studies only after the Second World War, generally following the lead of German and U.S. academics (in France, for instance, the C.E.C.MAS – Centre d’Études des Communications de Masse, founded in 1960 in Paris, cf. Barthes 1961). Linguistic studies of texts have always been studies in media linguistics avant la lettre: be it literature, personal letters, or proclamations, all these sources are “mediabound” in a broad sense of the term. What we call nowadays “media linguistics” is mostly related to a) mass media and b) media requiring a device on at least one side of the communication process (cf., e.g., Helfrich 2006). In contrast to most approaches in text linguistics, media linguistics regularly focuses on the polysemiotic character of media texts: media texts are normally multicodal, i.e., they are combined of verbal, para- and nonverbal signs or, in semiotic terms, involve different types of symbolic and/or iconic and indexical signs (cf., e.g., Fricke 2012; Kress/van Leeuwen 2001; Weidenmann 2002). This multicodality of media texts has lately attracted the interest of linguistic research with the boom of studies on image communication and pictorial linguistics, studies on audiovisual translation and media linguistics. Audiovisual texts are not only multicodal, but, additionally, multimodal, i.e., they involve different senses. In the past, research in media linguistics often focused on phenomena on the linguistic surface, neglecting the findings that had been made in disciplines such as media and communication studies, film studies, sociology, visual anthropology, and others. Conversely, these disciplines often refer to media-related societal processes without taking into account the role of language. Interdisciplinary research, or at least the reception and consideration of the other disciplines’ theories, models, and de 

 

 

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bates, should be obvious and is yet rare. Many authors in this volume establish ties to the other disciplines, but interdisciplinarity still remains a desideratum. Another field that still lacks attention is research on media issues in Romance languages. During the editing process of this manual, authors and editors have become more and more aware that some Romance-speaking areas generate very little research on language in the media. This is notably the case for Romania, Portugal and Brazil. However, there are also remarkable lacunae in some domains of media linguistics in the French, Spanish and Italian-speaking areas, especially as to modern research methodology with regards to digital media (an early exception is the 2004 volume on Romance studies and the “new” media, edited by Dahmen et al.). In the meantime, the traditional departments of Romance philology in Germany, Switzerland and Austria generate much investigation in Romance media linguistics, which is also the reason why many of the authors in this volume are based in these countries and are part of the German-speaking academic community. Although many aspects are underrepresented in Romance media linguistics research, some theories and findings are universal. This is another argument for more interdisciplinary exchange – and the principal reason to edit this volume in English and not in the respective Romance languages. With the intent to cover current international research on languages in the media, this volume starts with a general and universal outline by Heinz-Helmut Lüger regarding media and communication studies, linguistics and their overlaps. He sums up the most important theories and models in both communication studies and linguistics and shows the potential of interdisciplinary research. This first overview is followed by 21 articles in five sections, focused on different aspects of media linguistics and languages. The articles in section I take up the matter of text and its linguistic analysis (cf., e.g., Pérennec 2000) with regards to tertiary media. Martina Schrader-Kniffki and Nadine Rentel present theories and methods of text linguistics applied to different text types. Schrader-Kniffki’s contribution focuses on text linguistic analysis of movies and television and thus also includes the emerging subject of multimodal media texts. Rentel’s contribution presents classifications of online texts and their specific features, using Twitter microblog entries to exemplify the theoretical descriptions. The concrete textual features of the most common tertiary media are presented in the next three chapters: Kristin Reinke discusses textuality and textual features of television and exemplifies the notion of “prototypical text type” through the newscast. Kathrin Wenz shows in what respect online text types follow well-known discourse traditions (cf., e.g., Frank-Job 2010) or emerge as discrete media text types on their own account. She focuses on blogs, an online-specific medium which presents features of both traditional text types and innovative characteristics. Whereas many other text types, especially in the media, have no persuasive intent, this is a central feature of advertising. Tilman Schröder outlines in his contribution on online  

 

 

 

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advertising how advertisers make use of multimodality and interactivity in order to reach their goal of persuasion. The contributions in section II are dedicated to the distinction of orality and literacy in the media. Several tertiary media present a coexistence of visually and aurally perceived elements, and whilst the medial distinction of both is rather clear, there is no such explicit frontier as to the conception of the messages. Kristina Bedijs shows how the different medial codes interact in movies and television, and how the conceptional continuum (cf. Koch/Oesterreicher 22011) can be applied to different text types in these genres. Louise-Amélie Cougnon and JeanLéon Bouraoui describe the recent history of telephony, originally a typical medium of interpersonal oral communication which is undergoing an enormous evolution towards a mixed, multimodal medium (cf., e.g., Reinkemeyer 2013). The aforementioned multimodality is also a key concept in Anja Overbeck’s contribution. She sums up the different theoretical approaches to describe online communication for linguistic purposes (cf., e.g., the contributions on microblogs in the Romance languages in Siever/Schlobinski 2013). The articles in section III present research methods commonly used in media linguistics. A field that has been gaining ground for several decades now is discourse linguistics (cf., e.g., van Dijk 2007). The linguistic analysis of media discourse is often used to explain not only strictly linguistic phenomena, but also societal processes. Antonio Bañón Hernández sums up the most important theoretical lines. Multicodality and multimodality (cf., e.g., Kress/van Leeuwen 2001) are particularly prominent in online communication. The analysis of such complex media texts requires special diligence and categories which are presented in the contribution by Uta Fröhlich. Daniel Perrin explains methods of analyzing written text from the process perspective (cf., e.g., Weinzierl/Wrobel 2017). He demonstrates a way of writing process research through the genesis of a news text which undergoes several steps of rewording by the journalist. Corpus linguistics is a well-known method to analyze language usage in a collection of texts (cf. the volumes edited by Pusch/Raible 2002/2005). Computers have been helping in the process for a long time now, but have gained even greater importance with the growth of the Internet and the possibility to create huge specialized corpora from the infinite abundance of texts available online. The collective article on corpus linguistics provides an overview of the existing tertiary media corpora in the Romance languages: Kristina Bedijs on French, Stefan Schneider on Italian, Daniel Kallweit on Spanish, Carme Colominas on Catalan, Martina Schrader-Kniffki on Portuguese and Paula Bouzas on Galician. Whilst the sections I to III concern rather universal questions of media linguistics that could be investigated in every language, section IV is dedicated to issues only relevant for the Romance-speaking regions.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Two articles present the situation of small languages in the media and their consideration in linguistic research (cf., e.g., Dahmen et al. 2016). Judith Visser describes to what extent Picard is used in medial communication – with the particularity that Picard is a minority language within the territory of France, which means that there is a diglottic concurrence with the official language French and that the audience is mostly bilingual. The situation of Romanian, described in the contribution by Maren Huberty, is different in that it is the official language of two countries (Romania and Moldova) and not of a minority. Yet Romanian is viewed as a “small language” since it is less widespread and less considered in linguistic research (cf., e.g., Dahmen/Munteanu 2004). The case is very different for Latin American Spanish, the focus of Gabriele Knauer’s contribution. Not only is Spanish the official language in many Southern and Central American countries, it is also spreading in the United States, where Spanish is by now the second most spoken language. In every big regional speech community, a specific variety of Spanish predominates. For media linguistics, it is interesting to investigate to what extent these regional norms are used in the media, in which contexts they are used and how much prestige they are ascribed by media producers and by the audience (cf., e.g., Wilkinson 2016). Media are said to be an important motor of language change, be it grammar, lexicon or pronunciation. Carsten Sinner provides insight into this subject regarding the Romance languages and also touches upon the presumption that language use in the media promotes language decay (cf., e.g., Chambers 1998; Dürscheid/Wagner/ Brommer 2010; Plewnia/Witt 2014). The diachronic evolution is also the subject of Gudrun Held’s contribution on advertising language (cf., e.g., Gerstenberg 2006). Section V closes the manual with four contributions on multilingualism in Romance-speaking media. Fernando Ramallo exemplifies the case of media using more than one language in Galicia, a bilingual region in Spain (cf., e.g., Becker 2016). Rocío Baños sums up the different options for providing access to movies and television for the hearing or the visually impaired and for language learners through additional visual or auditive elements – namely subtitles, dubbing and voiceover (cf., e.g., Díaz Cintas/Remael 22014; Díaz Cintas/Baños Piñero 2015). Beyond the services of professional translators, translation of media has become an issue for laypeople since the Internet allows outsourcing this work onto the shoulders of many volunteers. Verena Thaler describes possibilities and issues of crowdsourcing (cf., e.g., European Commission 2012; Klaus 2014) in her contribution. Another growing field in translation is software localization, the need to adapt software to a regional audience (cf. Jiménez-Crespo 2013). This is the subject of Falk Seiler’s contribution, closing the manual. Many people have contributed to the success of this project. First and foremost, we would like to thank all the many authors who have contributed to this manual. The editors of the series, Günter Holtus and Fernando Sánchez Miret, have given us  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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valuable feedback at various stages of the project. Paul Willin and Jacob Jones have done a great job in proofreading and copy-editing all the articles. Swenja Schum has proven her excellent skills in laying out parts of the text of the manual. Catharina Struve has managed the last stage of the layout; Pia Roser created the index. We could count on so many excellent colleagues and helpful hands and hope that our manual will now be of use for the researchers and students for whom we conceived it.

Note All citations are kept in their original language and translated into English. For a better reading experience, longer quotations are translated in the footnotes. Short quotations and terms are translated in square brackets. German citations are translated directly in the text, the original appears in the footnote. Even though it is not mentioned at every instance, all translations are made by the authors themselves or by the editors’ team.

1 References Barthes, Roland (1961), Le centre d’études des communications de masse: Le C.E.C.MAS, Annales – Économies, Sociétés, Civilisations 16:5, 991–992. Becker, Lidia (2016), Zum Stand der Korpus- und Statusplanung des Galicischen, in: Wolfgang Dahmen et al. (edd.), Romanische Kleinsprachen heute. Romanistisches Kolloquium XXVII, Tübingen, Narr, 281–303. Büttner, Vivian (2015), Akzidentielle Medienhypes: Entstehung, Dynamik und mediale Verbreitung, Wiesbaden, Springer. Chambers, Jack K. (1998), TV makes people sound the same, in: Laurie Bauer/Peter Trudgill (edd.), Language Myths, New York, Penguin, 123–131. Dahmen, Wolfgang/Munteanu, Eugen (2004), Rumänisch im Internet, in: Wolfgang Dahmen et al. (edd.), Romanistik und neue Medien. Romanistisches Kolloquium XVI, Tübingen, Narr, 37–52. Dahmen, Wolfgang, et al. (edd.) (2004), Romanistik und neue Medien. Romanistisches Kolloquium XVI, Tübingen, Narr. Dahmen, Wolfgang, et al. (edd.) (2006), Historische Pressesprache. Romanistisches Kolloquium XIX, Tübingen, Narr. Dahmen, Wolfgang, et al. (edd.) (2016), Romanische Kleinsprachen heute. Romanistisches Kolloquium XXVII, Tübingen, Narr. Díaz Cintas, Jorge/Baños Piñero, Rocío (edd.) (2015), Audiovisual Translation in a Global Context: Mapping an Ever-changing Landscape, London/New York, Palgrave Macmillan. Díaz Cintas, Jorge/Remael, Aline (22014), Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling, London/New York, Routledge. Dürscheid, Christa/Wagner, Franc/Brommer, Sarah (2010), Wie Jugendliche schreiben: Schreibkompetenz und neue Medien, Berlin/New York, de Gruyter. European Commission (2012), Studies on translation and multilingualism – Crowdsourcing translation, Luxembourg, Publications Office of the European Union.  

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Faßler, Manfred (1997), Was ist Kommunikation?, München, Fink. Frank-Job, Barbara (2010), Medienwandel und der Wandel von Diskurstraditionen, in: Tilmann Sutter/ Alexander Mehler (edd.), Medienwandel als Wandel von Interaktionsformen, Wiesbaden, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 27–45. Fricke, Ellen (2012), Grammatik multimodal. Wie Wörter und Gesten zusammenwirken, Berlin/Boston, de Gruyter. Gerstenberg, Annette (2006), Geschichte der Sprache der Werbung in der Romania, in: Gerhard Ernst et al. (edd.), Romanische Sprachgeschichte/Histoire linguistique de la Romania, vol. 2, Berlin/ New York, de Gruyter, 2161–2175. Helfrich, Uta (2006), Geschichte der Sprache von Hörfunk, Kino und Fernsehen in der Romania, in: Gerhard Ernst et al. (edd.), Romanische Sprachgeschichte/Histoire linguistique de la Romania, vol. 2, Berlin/New York, de Gruyter, 2263–2278. Jiménez-Crespo, Miguel A. (2013), Translation and Web Localization, London/New York, Routledge. Klaus, Carmen (2014), Translationsqualität und Crowdsourced Translation: Untertitelung und ihre Bewertung – am Beispiel des audiovisuellen Mediums TEDTalk, Berlin, Frank & Timme. Koch, Peter/Oesterreicher, Wulf (22011 [1990]), Gesprochene Sprache in der Romania: Französisch, Italienisch, Spanisch, Berlin/New York, de Gruyter. Kress, Gunther R./van Leeuwen, Theo (2001), Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication, London, Arnold. Pérennec, Marie-Hélène (2000), Textlinguistik im romanischen Sprachraum, in: Klaus Brinker et al. (edd.), Text- und Gesprächslinguistik/Linguistics of Text and Conversation, vol. 1, Berlin/New York, de Gruyter, 145–153. Plewnia, Albrecht/Witt, Andreas (2014), Sprachverfall? Dynamik – Wandel – Variation, Berlin/Boston, de Gruyter. Pross, Harry (1972), Medienforschung. Film, Funk, Presse, Fernsehen, Darmstadt, Habel. Pusch, Claus D./Raible, Wolfgang (2002/2005), Romanistische Korpuslinguistik: Korpora und gesprochene Sprache/Romance corpus linguistics: corpora and spoken language, 2 volumes, Tübingen, Narr. Reinkemeyer, Anja (2013), Die Formenvielfalt des “langage SMS” im Wechselspiel zwischen Effizienz, Expertise und Expressivität: eine Untersuchung der innovativen Schreibweise in französischen SMS, Tübingen, Narr. Siever, Torsten/Schlobinski, Peter (edd.) (2013), Microblogs global. Eine internationale Studie zu Twitter & Co. aus der Perspektive von zehn Sprachen und elf Ländern, Frankfurt am Main, Lang. van Dijk, Teun A. (ed.) (2007), Discourse Studies, London, Sage. Weidenmann, Bernd (2002), Multicodierung und Multimodalität im Lernprozess, in: Ludwig J. Issing/ Paul Klimsa (edd.), Information und Lernen mit Multimedia und Internet. Lehrbuch für Studium und Praxis, 3rd edition, Weinheim, Beltz, 45–62. Weinzierl, Christian/Wrobel, Arne (2017), Schreibprozesse untersuchen, in: Michael Becker-Mrotzek/ Joachim Grabowski/Torsten Steinhoff (edd.), Forschungshandbuch empirische Schreibdidaktik, Münster, Waxmann, 221–238. Wilhelm, Raymund (2006), Geschichte der Pressesprache in der Romania / Histoire du langage de la presse dans la Romania, in: Gerhard Ernst et al. (edd.), Romanische Sprachgeschichte/Histoire linguistique de la Romania, vol. 2, Berlin/New York, de Gruyter, 2252–2262. Wilkinson, Kenton T. (2016), Spanish-Language Television in the United States: Fifty Years of Development, New York, Routledge.

Heinz-Helmut Lüger

1 Media Linguistics: Interfaces to Media and Communication Studies Abstract: Media linguistics is usually understood as a linguistic subdiscipline dealing with the use of language in the context of newspapers and magazines, television, radio, advertising and in online publications. The topics thus are extremely heterogeneous. Consequently, at first it is important to clarify the conceptual principles with special regard to the possibility of an integrated approach, and to sketch possible tasks of media linguistics. Of course, this article discusses traditional working fields (such as lexis, syntax, phraseology), but also considers textual and pragmatic approaches. The semiotic complexity of communication in the context of media is outlined with the help of the concept of “multimodality”. Cultural aspects are emphasized in a contrastive way. The last chapter names some fields of research where media linguistics should adopt the approaches and concepts of other disciplines and where an extension of the linguistic focus seems to be appropriate.  

Keywords: audience design, contrastive description, hybridization, hypertext, interdisciplinarity, media communication, multimodality, prototypes, text and image linguistics, text types  

1 Media, media texts, media linguistics Media linguistics is usually seen as a branch of research in linguistic science, focusing on language use in the press, on TV and radio, but also in advertising and online publications. It is debatable whether it is, in fact, already possible to speak of an independent linguistic subdiscipline. The obvious relationship to public, medially transmitted communication offerings and the specific issues in comparison to the more traditional fields of work known to us from applied linguistics are good arguments in favor (cf. Perrin 2006, 30ss.). On the other hand, there is some opinion that we are talking of research which could be done quite appropriately within pragmalinguistics. Why not use the concepts and methods of analysis developed in verbal action theory? Added to this, as Lenk (2013, 69) succinctly notes, there is as yet neither any specific journal, nor any particular specialist organization for this field of research. However, considering the now-established series of conferences on media linguistics and the corresponding documentation (cf. Lenk/Chesterman 2005; Lüger/ Lenk 2008; Luginbühl/Hauser 2010; Grösslinger/Held/Stöckl 2012), it is possible to speak of a subdiscipline in statu nascendi. DOI 10.1515/9783110314755-002

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1.1 Basic concepts Instead of discussing the intradisciplinary status of media linguistics, it has in the meantime become more urgent to clearly define a specialist profile, as well as to formulate the most important aims, develop approaches and identify the research focus. Following a wide consensus, the object of research into media linguistics is above all mass media communication: “The field of media linguistics research covers all those types of texts which are to be found in the mass media” (Burger 2005, 64).1

This general definition has the advantage of being relatively comprehensively applicable, including early forms of media-driven information, the Korrespondenzen at the beginning of the 17th century, up until more recent forms of communication. If we attempt to make the text orientation more precise, there are above all three factors to be considered: the arrangement of media texts is dependent on (a) the given social context to which the addressees (with their respective recipient habits) belong, (b) the type of medium, i.e., the possibilities and constraints which go hand in hand with, for example, TV news reports or Internet blogs, and (c) the sign modalities used, i.e., which codes are used, which semiotic resources (e.g., speech and noises on the radio); cf. Held (2011; following Fig. 1).  

Figure 1: The media text and its determinants (Held 2011, 33)2

Before taking a closer look at the characteristics of media texts, we should briefly discuss how best to grasp the concept of media. Indeed, the use of this term is anything

1 ‘Objektbereich der Medienlinguistik sind alle Arten von Texten, die in den Massenmedien angeboten werden’ (translation above by the author). 2 Translation of the figure: ‘Media text – social context, conditions of environment – medium (print article, radio, weblog…) – modality of signs (language, image, typography, music, sound’ (translation by the editors).

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but clear. The technological concept is the most widespread, indicating – in contrast to direct, immediate communication – the necessity of certain aids, especially with respect to storage and transmissibility. Holly has developed the following definition: “The media are concrete, material aids with which signs can be enhanced, produced, stored and/ or transmitted” (Holly 1997, 69s.).3

Not to be forgotten is, as Dürscheid notes (2003, 39), the moment of reception; media are also a means by which signs can be received. It must be understood that the choice of the medium will usually considerably influence the type of communication: for a start, differences in the use of communication channels can be ascertained. While, for instance, newspapers remain restricted to the visual and radio to the auditive channels, television or computers are an audiovisual medium. In addition, depending on the respective medium, different forms of communication may arise. Compared to the conventional daily newspaper, which offers only articles, online newspapers, or computers as a medium, for example, make it possible to use e-mail, blogs, chats and Twitter (Jakobs 1998; Schmitz 2004, 57ss.; Stöckl 2012, 19s.). The technological concept of media must, however, be distinguished from the use of the term that attributes medium status to language itself. From this perspective, language is always also a means to achieve certain aims, for example to gain insight, to create reality, to help society move forward (Ehlich 1998). An additional terminological extension can be made, if, following Koch/Oesterreicher (1985), different media varieties are also accepted, i.e., when, in the practical implementation of language utterances, a media-based oral or written language use is opposed to a conceptional one.

1.2 Development trends As indicated above, contemporary media texts can often be distinguished by their semiotic complexity. In the process of text production, elements of different sign systems or codes which can mutually influence, complement or clarify one another are employed. Media texts are thus designated as multimodal all-in products, whose effect is primarily based on the interplay of verbal and visual components: “La multimodalità [. . .] riguarda non solo l’uso dei diversi codici, bensì la fabbricazione semiotica del messaggio, l’elaborazione di un tema nei modi più svariati. Si può dire che è il resultato del complesso processo di far interagire visual e testo, ottica e stilistica per produrre una semiosi che deduce la sua particolarità solo da effetti di sinergia” (Held 2005a, 51s.; cf. Giessen 2012, 81ss.).4

3 ‘Medien sind konkrete materielle Hilfsmittel, mit denen Zeichen verstärkt, hergestellt, gespeichert und/oder übertragen werden können’ (translation above by the author). 4 ‘Multimodality means not only the use of different codes, but also the semiotic fabrication of the message, and the elaboration of a subject in the most diverse modes. One can say that it is the result of

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Consequently, linear written language use and the linear construction of meaning are no longer paramount in every case. The survey in Fig. 2 (as set out by Stöckl 2006, 29) shows which types of sign in print and audio texts can work together.

Figure 2: Modalities (and submodalities) in print and audio texts (Stöckl 2006, 29)

With a view to audiovisual media texts, the dynamic forms of image and typography must be included. The semiotic complexity increases from print text via audio texts to audiovisual contributions (Stöckl 2012, 20). For media linguistics, this also means taking into account the multimodality outlined above as a characteristic feature of modern media reality and widening the view of traditional text linguistics accordingly. It is essential to devote more attention to the interaction of different codes and/ or modalities, and to consider the occurrence of language-image texts or languagesounds/music texts as the normal case, exploring their potential for meaning with regard to the whole text or the whole communication, and thus rejecting, in the words of Klemm/Stöckl (2011, 11), “the decades-old linguistic self-restriction to the analysis of verbal signs”.5 It remains to be seen whether, in this context, something similar to Bildlinguistik [‘image linguistics’] or Sehflächenforschung [‘research into visual screening’] (cf. Schmitz 2011) will be established. We must also ask how far linguistically founded concepts can be applied to other sign systems, for example to the combined effect of

the complex process of making interact visual and text, optics and stylistics to produce a semiosis which draws its particularity only from the effects of synergy’ (translation by the editors). 5 ‘die jahrzehntelange linguistische Selbstbeschränkung auf die Analyse verbaler Zeichen’ (translation above by the author).

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language and image, and whether definitions such as Bildakt [‘image act’] (Schmitz 2007), Bildpragmatik [‘image pragmatics’] (Klemm 2011) or Grammatikalisierung von Modalitäten [‘grammaticalization of modalities’] (Stöckl 2006) keep in their explanations what they terminologically promise. The fact that a certain skepticism in this regard is appropriate has been critically noted on several occasions (cf. Muckenhaupt 1986; Bucher 2010). And that such analogies are not axiomatic is also shown in diverse media text analyses, for example of political posters (Demarmels 2007), online news reporting (Hauser 2010) and TV news (Luginbühl 2011), to mention just a few. One may not deduce from these comments that language in media texts is thus losing its importance. To quote Ehlich: “No matter how intensive the flood of images may be, language remains powerful in its own right” (1998, 20).6 Verbal components are, however, increasingly seen in combination with other sign systems, especially in their interplay with static or moving images. In addition, spoken language is always connected with intonation, facial expressions and gestures as well as with paraverbal and extraverbal elements. Written language is necessarily dependent on forms of typographical transfer, and, as a secondary sign system, the latter is able to develop a broad spectrum of meanings (cf. Stöckl 2004). The distinctions between the codes involved remain undisputed; an “integrative concept” guarantees a (considerable) reality-embracing weighting and an extension of the scientific text issues (cf. Eckkrammer/Held 2006, 4). It is not unimportant which functions the relative text-image or image-sound combinations respectively take on, and which illustrative, explanatory, constitutive or stylistically persuasive part they play (Hoffmann 2012, 52ss.). The appropriate research into this field has barely begun. Only indirectly is another development interconnected with the multimodality and general “complementarity of the codes” (Hess-Lüttich 1992):7 the tendency to favor selective information extraction. The well-known keywords are: cluster principle and text design8 (Püschel 1992; Bucher 1996). A comprehensive report is so subdivided into a hierarchically organized text assemblage that the recipient can choose according to previous knowledge and range of interests. The presentation of the information is quasi modular; several contributions may be offered on a given topic, dealing with different aspects, reflecting different perspectives and (in the press) possibly complemented by graphics, photos and cartoons or caricatures. This form of orientation towards the addressees has meanwhile become firmly established (cf. Freytag 1992; Lüger 2002; 2003) and has been consistently carried over to online publications with their various possibilities of hypertext structuring (cf. Lilienthal 1998). Linguistics cannot alone lay claim to researching into media texts. Overlapping with other disciplines is unavoidable, because of the complexity and polymorphism 6 ‘Auch bei einer noch so reichen Bilderüberflutung bleibt Sprache in ihrem eigenen Recht’ (translation above by the author). 7 ‘Komplementarität der Codes’ (translation above by the author). 8 ‘Clusterprinzip resp. Textdesign’ (translation above by the editors).

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of the object under discussion. Thus, it is no surprise that there has always been a considerable readiness to adopt insights and impulses from other lines of research into language in the media, not least from the science of journalism. Altogether, there is an unmistakable endeavor to analyze media communication in such a way that “media production, the production and reception of feature articles, are treated as aspects of public communication in an integrative way” (Bucher 1986, 19).9 This view will be given further consideration in the following, where we will be concerned with presenting fields of research into media linguistics, above all from a Romance perspective.

2 Fields of study in media linguistics In the following, we shall be outlining important text features and going into the details of further work, but also looking at the typical questions that have to be answered when analyzing mass communication.

2.1 Lexis, syntax, phraseology 2.1.1 Normative orientation Early comments on the use of language in the media refer in most cases to the stylistic appropriateness, and presuppose the observance of certain norms. When it is above all a question of a qualitative evaluation of journalistic articles, the benchmarks of literary standards often also play a role. The use of language in the press is thus almost too easily termed as an “échantillon de mauvais goût et de mauvais style” [‘a specimen of bad taste and bad style’] (Chaurand 21972, 105), or the reproach is made of an “offense permanente à la pureté de la langue française” [‘a permanent offence to the purity of the French language’], as Pucheu (1965, 18) is obliged to declare. Such a partly puristic tendency from a language point of view appears to be especially valid for French. This need not, however, exclude similar evaluations in Italian, for example, in the case of critical undertones of language use and pejorative designations such as giornalese (Magni 1992; Schafroth 2006, 52ss.; cf. for Spanish, Gillich 1998). Many such language observations often end in recommendations for the “right” choice of word and a suitable sentence structure. Referring to the so-called “subtilités du vocabulaire”, Pucheu (1965, 21) cites the alternatives:

9 ‘die Medienproduktion, die Beitragsprodukte und die Beitragsrezeption als Aspekte einer öffentlichen Kommunikation in integrativer Weise behandelt werden’ (translation above by the editors).

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Don’t say affamé concert intéressant une salle pleine le chat étrange parfait

Say famélique récital palpitant une salle archicomble le félin mystérieux impeccable

etc. Today, suggestions of this kind appear rather strange and arbitrary. Recent scholarly publications therefore usually abstain from such a normative bias. A completely different picture emerges, however, when dealing with publications which are intended for practical work or for the training of journalists. Similar to the “elevator check”, the top priority must be, for instance, to be able to reduce a piece of information to its core message, in concrete terms: to not more than two sentences: “Quelle que soit la complexité du sujet, ce que l’on veut dire d’essentiel peut se formuler en deux phrases. C’est la brève que l’on ferait si l’on ne disposait que de dix lignes dans le journal, les phrases que l’on prononcerait si l’on n’avait que dix secondes d’antenne” (Voirol 82006, 17s.).10

Imperatives of this kind are then the starting point for further language guidelines; they remind us indeed of the prescriptive language criticism mentioned above. They are often formulated as relatively binding rules, even going as far as the recommendation to avoid certain expressions as far as possible: “Débrouillons-nous pour contourner les mots incontournables, les snober, leur faire la nique, les mettre en quarantaine. Ces tics d’écriture font décidément toc” (Cuypers 22011, 21).11

There are, too, clear instructions for syntax: sentences with 20 to 30 words should be preferred as they are easier to understand and to remember, and long sentences should be avoided altogether. In addition, alternating between very short and longer sentences is necessary (cf. Voirol 82006, 19). The text dimension is not usually mentioned in these style guides; one exception is publications which are devoted to particular forms of presentation, for example press or TV reports (cf. Boucher 1995;

10 ‘No matter how complex the subject may be, the essential can be formulated in two sentences. It is the short version that we would produce if we had only ten lines in the newspaper at our disposal, the sentences we would utter if we had only ten seconds of air time’ (translation by the editors). 11 ‘Let’s sort ourselves out to get round words that are not-get-roundable, turn our noses up at them, make fun of them, put them in quarantine. These writing tics decidedly go tock’ (translation by the editors).

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Brabant 2012). But there is one general, overall language-science statement that is left to us at any rate: we will search in vain for traces of (text-)linguistic insights in journalism handbooks, the influence of scientific language models and methods is downright humble (cf. Hennig 2000; Lebsanft 2001, 295).

2.1.2 Descriptive orientation An early study composed by Charles Bruneau in 1958, “La langue du journal”, provides an interesting mixture of language analysis and the presentation of the media environment, including culture-specific expectations connected with newspaper texts. Particular elements of journalistic language use (in the press, on the radio) can mostly be explained by external factors, if we follow the implicit basic suppositions of the author. Accordingly, contexts of the following kind, for example, may be postulated: commercialization → nouvelles sensationnelles orientation towards the addressees → différentes variétés (degré le plus proche de la langue parlée dans la langue écrite) comprehensibility → complexité syntaxique réduite restricted certainty → conditionnel journalistique originality, entertainment → images, procédés rhétoriques diversity of expression → locutions verbales denomination gaps → créations néologiques, emprunts economy of expression → noms composés Bruneau’s work therefore goes far beyond a list of language structure features taken out of context and – long before the so-called pragmatic turnaround – looks at a broad spectrum of communicative processes (procédés) as they are applied to fulfill mediaspecific tasks. Even if the text level does not yet play a role, we may without doubt speak of a pioneering concept. Remarks on journalists being entrusted with the mission of the guardians of language standards and language culture must be seen as pure nostalgia. In the face of present-day media developments, there should also be some research into the degree of truth in assertions that the professional image of French journalists is still today more heavily weighted towards literary figures and the model of the journaliste-écrivain than elsewhere (cf. Preisinger 2004; Robert 2011, 149s.). The method implied by Bruneau may meanwhile be considered mutatis mutandis, as a generally accepted approach when working on the presentation of the results of media-related language analyses. To this extent, media linguistics research is generally characterized by recording, evaluating and explaining the language features or structures under examination solely in combination with their respective functional

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context. Often, contrasting comparisons are included. To illustrate this, some examples from the large amount of appropriate research work are now considered. For instance, the lexical design of media texts is dependent not only on the respectively considered topics or data, but also on the text type, the section, the publication and kind of addressee orientation intended. In journalistic commentaries, for example, we may find specific argumentative connectors, a broad spectrum of judgmental vocabulary and metaphorical and stirring forms of expression (cf. Lüger 2012). Advertising portrayals in trendy sports magazines are, according to MüllerLancé (2014), characterized by, among other things, high-value lexemes, superlative expressions and emotional and figurative formulations. In blogs, it is above all the frequent coherence-supporting means, concise judgments and counter-judgments and ironical signals that are so striking (cf. Fiorentino 2011). In the case of tweets, Overbeck (2014) gives special mention to the perception of elements of spoken language (including grapheme iterations, abbreviations, code-switching) as striking features. Furthermore, phraseological expressions are to be particularly expected in commentary contexts. Normally, they additionally express attitudes, or signal a certain informal or emotional mindset on the part of the author of the text on the basis of their semantic added value. It is not rare for phraseologisms to be used in a modified form, whereby plays on words or poetic effects can be achieved (cf. Hammer 2005). Advertising slogans are especially productive in this respect, but also attention-inducing formulations in magazines; homophony or paronyms and playing with different readings can be used to produce allusions, comic effects and thus entertainment for the reader: “Bien que la reconnaissance de l’allusion n’apporte en l’occurrence aucune information supplémentaire, elle représente pour l’initié une sorte de clin d’œil, un appel qui l’invitera peut-être à poursuivre la lecture” (Bender-Berland 1997, 382s.).12

The satirical French newspaper Le Canard enchaîné presents an almost unsurpassed intensity in this domain (cf. Hausmann 1974). A further aspect that should not be neglected is the contribution of phraseological units to the constitution of the text. Through the recurrence of individual lexemes or the uptake of certain semantic features, an isotopic direction becomes apparent, i.e., there is intersentential networking, which, according to context, supports coherence and text structuring. On many occasions, such effects also result from the interplay with metaphors specific to the theme and their extension to groups of images (cf. Schowalter 2005; Lüger 2006). Pioneer Bruneau’s favored procedure (1958) is also a practicable approach for analyses of syntax. Assertions are not made generally for media texts, but rather for

12 ‘Although the recognition of the allusion provides no further information by its occurrence, it represents a sly wink for the initiated, a quiet invitation perhaps to continue reading’ (translation by the editors).

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certain functional areas. And generalizations stating that language use in the media is syntactically complex or tendentially nominal are as such hardly plausible and need at all events more detailed specification (cf. Dardano as early as 1973; Allaire 1990; Lebsanft 1997). This is even more valid for the analysis of individual phenomena such as the distribution of tenses in press texts (e.g., Klöden 1998; Favre 2014). Also, studies of different sentence types usually concentrate on daily newspapers, and only seldom do they refer to other media. On the other hand, quasi inter-media attention is given to structures of dislocation (for example, in French news magazines, cf. Havu 2003; for Italian TV reports, cf. Spina 2006). They belong to those structures which can be used, as and when required, to focus upon certain constituents in a statement. It is therefore hardly surprising if they are often used in the media as a means of flexible gradation to establish importance (for a more detailed syntactic description, including cleft sentences/phrases clivées, cf. Schöpp 2005). Another explanation for their use is important: constructions of dislocation with diverse other language techniques fit nicely to the tendency to strengthen the connection to the addressees and to create a feeling of spatial, social and emotional proximity. For this change from distance to proximity language behavior, a generally observable “apertura al parlato” [‘opening to orality’] (Schafroth 2006, 59) on all levels of language use can practically be considered, starting with phonetics and the choice of various registers to syntactic structures (cf. the synopsis in Große 2003). Schäfer (2006) has published detailed, statistically well-founded research on the basis of French regional newspapers, with comparisons to the German press; Müller-Lancé (1998) is also able to show that the absolute constructions generally classified in French as distance language behavior (participe en construction absolue) are omnipresent in media texts (also in interviews with sportsmen and in talk shows), thus showing that they are feasible in proximity language behavior. An extension of oral language analyses to free newspapers was undertaken by Große (2008). Friedl (2010) also includes (young people’s language) magazines, while Haug (1997) carries out a comparative analysis of literary magazines on French and German TV, and the article published by Nicklaus (2006) looks at the details of proximity language in chats. The language design of headlines represents a special case. In the foreground are issues of syntactic typology, often linked to normative indicators (cf. Sutter 1955; Elwert 1968). To be noted are, among other things, the lack of hypotactic constructions, the dominance of statements (as opposed to questions and interjections) and a high frequency of nominal and elliptic forms. However, we must consider that these observations are usually drawn from informative articles. As soon as texts with an emphasis on opinion are included, another picture emerges. Information transfer is not the sole yardstick. The incentive to read, the arousal of curiosity, original formulations that are rich in allusions or puzzling – all these features gain considerably in importance in the framework of a general infotainment trend. Therefore, pure résumé headlines are here simply a subcategory. Generally more important are reader correspondence and the optimization of reception:  

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“Il titolo decide dell’interpretazione dell’articolo. […] Il titolo funge cioè da ‘codice’ per il resto dell’articolo. Se non lo sostituisce, nel senso che il lettore riceve l’informazione data dal titolo e trascura l’articolo, determina tuttavia il modo in cui l’articolo sarà letto” (Eco 1971, 354).13

Thus, headlines fulfill the function of pre-signals, as they point to the intention inherent in an article and often also indicate the text type to be expected, give some orientation on how the topic is treated and, together with the above-mentioned attention-increasing and aesthetic characteristics, are above all a useful means in text advertising (cf. Lüger 1987). A further semiotic dimension becomes relevant when we consider language design in headlines in combination with typographic and pictorial means. This proves to be unavoidable, for example, when considering the front pages of daily newspapers, news magazines or popular magazines (cf. Große 1996; Seibold 1995 and 1996). Even if it is not always clear which effects can be obtained by which means, the text-image relationship moves decidedly to the center of our attention. Especially when magazine covers are analyzed, the obvious question is to what extent we can still speak of a language-mediated textuality. At all events, the adjustments to the functions of accentuation and contact initiation are especially important here. This is reflected in a tendency to personalization, inconsistencies in creative expectations, rhetorization, intertextual allusions and playing with divergent readings of text and image, of language and iconic components (cf. Held 2005b and c; cf. 2.3).

2.2 Forms of presentation, text types One important object of media linguistics research is not least the differentiation and description of mass media text types. In Lebsanft (1997), the suggestion is made, for example, to base the studies on models or examples from journalistic practice. Advice from handbooks on the production of media texts also plays an important part: “A linguistic description and thereof derived theory of press text types should build on such journalistic data and arrive at categorizations which are maybe more explicit, but not supposedly ‘sharper’, or ‘stricter’ than those of the practicians” (Lebsanft 1997, 373).14

13 ‘The title decides on the interpretation of the article. […] The title thus serves as a code for the rest of the article. If it does not substitute it, in the sense that the reader receives the information given in the title and neglects the article, it determines nonetheless the mode in which the article will be read’ (translation by the editors). 14 ‘Auf solche journalistischen Vorgaben sollte […] eine linguistische Beschreibung und daraus abgeleitete Theorie pressesprachlicher Textsorten aufbauen und dabei zu Kategorisierungen kommen, die zwar expliziter, aber nicht vermeintlich ‘schärfer’ bzw. ‘strenger’ als diejenigen der Praktiker sind’ (translation above by the editors).

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Franke (1997, 165s.) has already pointed out the basic problem of such a conception: the respective denominations and demarcations are then, above all, not the result of well-founded reflection. This is understandable if one envisions, for example, the relatively flexible use of French terms like commentaire, éditorial, chronique, analyse, billet, tribune (libre), libre opinion for judgmental texts. Initial attempts at differentiation have thus tried as far as possible to put together a consistent classification with the aid of overlapping criteria. The important starting points in this work were terms or concepts such as “text intention”, “text function”, “macrostructure” (Lüger 1977 and 11983/21995; Schröder 1984).

Figure 3: Journalistic text types and overlappings (cf. Große/Seibold 1996, 46)

Subsequently, Große/Seibold (1996) suggest a rather comprehensive overall model, featuring three characteristics (Fig. 3): a) on the first level, four general text functions are assumed (informer, conseiller, juger/persuader, louer/vanter); b) the text types concerned represent prototypical patterns through their family resemblance; c) finally, exact borders are relinquished in favor of smooth transitions (cf. Adam 31999, 15ss.; Foschi Albert 2009, 63ss.). Historically, too, the model can be developed accordingly and individual sections made more specific (cf. Hrbek 1995; Große 2000). Because of the current media development, it is becoming more difficult anyway to distinguish clearly according to text type or text genre, independent of whether it is a matter of traditional press texts or hypermedia communication on the Internet (cf. Lugrin 2000). The picture is determined increasingly by innovative pattern mixtures,

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or hybrid forms, which are used to try to gain the attention and interest of the users in the sense of recipient design or audience design.

2.3 Multimodality Another phenomenon is connected with the orientation towards changes in recipient habits: the trend towards multimodality. The more the media compete with one another for the attention of the addressees, the more comprehensive and sophisticated the measures taken by text producers become in order to reach their audience. In any case, the striving for positive advertising effects at any price appears to be the motor for increased recourse to various sign systems and codes. Roland Barthes, in his early pioneering work (1961), already pointed to this possibility and to the corresponding synergetic effects. For him, it is “only” a matter of the message photographique and the combination with text communications, but insights are mentioned here which are later applied to audiovisual and screen media. With a view to the text-image relationship, for example, a differentiation is made, with regard to language, between headline, legend and article. Depending on the case, the image is differently enriched regarding its connotations. In this context, Barthes refutes the notion that photography is a perfect analogy, purely a message sans code and thus quasi an objective reproduction of a certain detail of reality: “Or, ce statut purement ‘dénotant’ de la photographie, la perfection et la plénitude de son analogie, bref son ‘objectivité’, tout cela risque d’être mythique […]” (Barthes 1961, 129).15

And in the processes that can make a photo appear full of meaning, i.e., “connoted”, six different possibilities are named: from truquage, a montage or forgery, to photogénie, the usage of lighting effects (Barthes 1961, 131ss.). More recent research into text-image analysis has taken the same direction, for instance when imputing a “connotative evocation of associations” (Eckkrammer/Held 2006, 2).16 Or, with regard to Internet presentations: “Most moving and still images do not function purely as an image, no, they show a deeper meaning” (Kirstein 2008, 419).17

Cartoons and caricatures represent a still further developed form of multicodal feature design. They aim not at a neutral representation of reality; their intention is

15 ‘This purely ‘denotative’ status of the photograph, the perfection and plenitude of its analogy, in short its ‘objectivity’, has every chance of being mythical’ (translation drawn from: Stephen Heath (ed./ transl.), Roland Barthes: Image Music Text, London, HarperCollins 1977, 19). 16 ‘konnotative Evokation von Assoziationen’ (translation above by the editors). 17 ‘Die meisten bewegten und unbewegten Bilder fungieren nicht nur als bloßes Abbild, sondern weisen auf einen tieferen Sinngehalt hin’ (translation above by the editors).

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the alienated representation of a given object or subject matter, often combined with a provocative, humorous punch line (Häußler 1999; Lenk 2012). The language elements occur in different forms: as a picture heading, in a legend, as so-called inserts (e.g., as writing on an object), as speech or thought bubbles (communication between figures, talking to oneself). Independent of whether we attribute a persuasive orientation to caricatures or see them merely as utterances of opinion (Hammer 2012), the words function consistently as a means of understanding. It is the language commentary that usually prevents the information in the image from falling short of the mark, with the result that a surprising or comic overall meaning can emerge. Caricatures which figuratively represent the literal meaning of idiomatic phraseologisms or of metaphorical expressions present an especially pregnant form of visual-verbal constitution of meaning. The complementary interaction of the sign systems involved, the establishing of bimodal coherence cannot be any more clearly practicable. An increase in (multimodal) complexity comes through Internet presentations, because here additional semiotic resources (images, graphics, typography, colors, symbols) are included, as Seibold (2003) demonstrates, using the online versions of French newspapers and news magazines. In audiovisual communication, for example TV news, we are talking about moving images, about the combination with further sign types like music, sounds and spoken language. Depending on the multimodal linking and on the cutting technique, the effect is more of an intensive staging of proximity and the creation of “sympraxis”, a systematic involvement of the recipients (Landbeck 1991; cf. Luginbühl 2011). This development does not need to exclude the handing down of different journalistic styles.  

2.4 Contrastivity Media linguistics analyses can be contrastively angled in many ways and pursue very different aims: a) as a comparison of media texts, originating from different languages or cultures (e.g., Drewnowska-Vargáné 2005), b) as an intralingual comparison, in which material from different media, consisting of different text types, sections and topic groupings are contrasted (e.g., Seibold 2003), c) as a diachronic text comparison, in which certain developments referring to one medium, one text type or one text component are in the forefront (e.g., Hrbek 1995). It is meanwhile hardly possible to count the number of papers on contrastive media linguistics. The bibliography at the Internet portal contains a general survey. For analyses of type a), it is important to find a descriptive level which, on the one hand, prescinds from the concrete nature of individual texts, but, on the other, avoids detached, no longer verifiable generalizations. To avoid this dilemma, the text type as tertium comparationis is chosen in many papers to be the basis for contrast. The  

 

 

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variables to be examined are then respectively correlated with this criterion above and beyond the individual language. The most important aspects of such a procedure can be seen in Fig. 4. As a matter of principle, comparisons can be made on a bilateral or multilateral basis, so that a text type can be examined relative to various cultural environments (C1. . .n). When attributing the characteristic feature “cultural”, or “culture-specific”, it is necessary to avoid overgeneralizations. The evaluation of contrastive text comparisons can make sense only in relation to certain communication communities, and the latter may very well be regional or local. Therefore, an overall cultural concept stemming from a homogeneous society is out of the question, and the range of language findings should be classified accordingly. Further, it must be borne in mind that text types need not necessarily stand in every case as culturally neutral invariables. A text type, like the opinion column or the TV news item, may thus follow different traditions and norms in the respective social context, taking on another value in the range of media. This will in turn affect reception, especially the credibility of the information passed on – up to and including consequences for the whole of the medium, in this case the press or TV (cf. Landbeck 1991; Lüger 2005). That means, ultimately, that the role which a text type plays in its respective environment has to be considered from the start. It therefore often appears sensible to choose a combination of text types as a basis for analysis, rather than a single text type.

Figure 4: The text type as a basis for comparison

The subject of culturally contrastive studies is often, for the reasons given above, the comparison of text types, or of text type features. Tendentially holistic approaches are taken, to list one or two examples, in the case of multimodal contact texts in news magazines (cf. Held 2005b), book reviews in specialist journals (cf. Foschi Albert 2009), advertising portrayals in sports magazines (cf. Müller-Lancé 2014), text design in TV news programs (cf. Landbeck 1991) or tweets (cf. Overbeck 2014). Other research concentrates on – in the framework of certain text types – particular language

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features, for example the use of figurative expressions (cf. Kirstein 2008), the nature of proximity and distance (cf. Haug 1997) and the usage and intensity of evaluative expressions (cf. Lüger 2012). No less diverse are the studies which can be assigned to type b): they may deal with, among other things, the structure of headlines in the press and advertising (cf. Dardano 1973), the language differences in free and retail newspapers (cf. Große 2008), language usage in diverse sections in the press and on TV (cf. Schafroth 2006; Spina 2006) or the syntax of blogs in comparison to other forms of communication (cf. Fiorentino 2011). Historically comparative studies (type c) take a close look at either the development of a wider text type spectrum (e.g., Große 2000) or, as described in 2.1.2, concentrate on individual communicative processes, or selected syntactic and lexical characteristics. The first impulses for this came from Bruneau (1958).  

3 Interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary aspects Up to now, the discussion should have sufficiently shown that the field of media linguistics is characterized by considerable diversity and heterogeneity. A narrower approach in the linguistic sense would have limitations and would in no way do justice to the complexity of today’s media communication. Thus, as Perrin (2006, 31) rightly concludes, “an approach across disciplines”18 is required. Last but not least, the multimodality factor indicates what integrative endeavors are necessary to combine the different sign systems in the analysis. In a traditional text linguistics framework alone, the insights and methods of diverse subdisciplines have to be taken into account, for example from morphology, semantics, syntax or rhetoric. Additionally, there will be support from sociolinguistics and conversation linguistics. The inclusion of image and sound requires an additional extension of the theoretical and methodological instruments. Various authors have established that it is not enough to simply transfer linguistic categories to other phenomena (cf. Bucher 2010). Media communication does not take place, as is well known, in a socially neutral or homogeneous environment. In the analysis of media texts, it is necessary to consider reading habits, the preferences of certain groups of readers and political and institutional circumstances, not forgetting the innovations which technical developments make possible. Viewed thus, it is a matter of course for media linguists to include sociology, cultural science and politics in their considerations. One special point is quite clearly the interaction with communication science and so-called media practice. As desirable as a “transdisciplinary bridging”19 (cf. Perrin

18 ‘disziplinen-übergreifende Ansätze’ (translation above by the editors). 19 ‘transdisziplinärer Brückenschlag’ (translation above by the editors).

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2006) may be, the chances of it happening are not very good. As long as language analyses which work precisely are confronted with the reproach of “counting flies’ legs in their micro-analysis”20 (cf. the criticism in Lenk 2013, 74), then the idea of a fruitful, interdisciplinary contact cannot have won recognition yet. It therefore still remains a lot to do for media linguistics.

4 References Adam, Jean-Michel (31999), Les textes: types et prototypes, Paris, Colin. Allaire, Suzanne (1990), Sprache und Massenmedien / Langue et mass média, in: Günter Holtus/ Michael Metzeltin/Christian Schmitt (edd.), Lexikon der Romanistischen Linguistik, vol. V,1: Französisch, Tübingen, Niemeyer, 211–224. Barthes, Roland (1961), Le message photographique, Communications 1, 127–138. Bender-Berland, Geneviève (1997), Jeux de mots à la une. Usage et détournement des expressions idiomatiques dans les titres de la presse, Französisch heute 28, 375–388. Boucher, Jean-Dominique (1995), Le reportage écrit, Paris, Éditions Victoires. Brabant, Stéphanie (2012), Le reportage à la télévision. De la conception à la diffusion, Paris, CFPJ Éditions. Bruneau, Charles (1958), La langue du journal, Paris, Éditions Estienne. Bucher, Hans-Jürgen (1986), Pressekommunikation. Grundstrukturen einer öffentlichen Form der Kommunikation aus linguistischer Sicht, Tübingen, Niemeyer. Bucher, Hans-Jürgen (1996), Textdesign – Zaubermittel der Verständlichkeit?, in: Ernest W.B. HessLüttich/Werner Holly/Ulrich Püschel (edd.), Textstrukturen im Medienwandel, Frankfurt am Main et al., Lang, 31–59. Bucher, Hans-Jürgen (2010), Multimodalität – eine Universalie des Medienwandels: Problemstellungen und Theorien der Multimodalitätsforschung, in: Hans-Jürgen Bucher/Thomas Gloning/ Katrin Lehnen (edd.), Neue Medien – neue Formate. Ausdifferenzierung und Konvergenz in der Medienkommunikation, Frankfurt am Main, Campus, 41–79. Burger, Harald (2005), Mediensprache. Eine Einführung in Sprache und Kommunikationsformen der Massenmedien, Berlin/New York, de Gruyter. Chaurand, Jacques (21972), Histoire de la langue française, Paris, PUF. Cuypers, Dane (22011), Question de style. Manuel d’écriture, Paris, CFPJ Éditions. Dardano, Maurizio (1973), Il linguaggio dei giornali italiani, Roma, Laterza. Demarmels, Sascha (2007), Konvergenz und Divergenz im Text-Bild-Design von politischen Plakaten, in: Kersten Sven Roth/Jürgen Spitzmüller (edd.), Textdesign und Textwirkung in der massenmedialen Kommunikation, Konstanz, UVK, 143–160. Drewnowska-Vargáné, Ewa (2005), Argumentative Topoi in Pressekommentaren – ein interlingualer und interkultureller Vergleich, in: Françoise Hammer/Heinz-Helmut Lüger (edd.), Entwicklungen und Innovationen in der Regionalpresse, Landau, Knecht, 107–127. Dürscheid, Christa (2003), Medienkommunikation im Kontinuum von Mündlichkeit und Schriftlichkeit, Zeitschrift für Angewandte Linguistik 38, 37–56.

20 ‘fliegenbeinzählender Mikroanalyse’ (translation above by the editors).

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Text Linguistic Approaches to Language in the Media

Martina Schrader-Kniffki

2 Text Linguistic Approaches I: Analysis of Media Texts Abstract: Text linguistics as one key discipline in linguistic media research is nowadays challenged with an increased complexity of its subject. Media texts in tertiary media are often multimodal and address various semiotic dimensions through (hyper)text, moving or still pictures, sound, and graphic effects. This article outlines theoretical approaches to the analysis of media texts in the era of multimodality with a focus on film and television text, which are usually characterized by linearity and a separation of the producer and the receiver, as well as hypertext, which is characterized by nonlinearity and interactivity. Borders of texts, especially in online contexts, are becoming more and more blurred and require new analytical approaches.  

Keywords: film, hypertext, interactivity, linearity, multimodality, television, text linguistics  

1 Introduction It is a generally accepted assumption that due to recent and ongoing technical innovation, text and media text are undergoing profound changes which interact with alterations in society. The general claim of the growing “visuality of society” indicates the nature of change that not only society but especially communication and text are experiencing (cf. Sutter/Mehler 2010): Lesser importance is being given to the written word, whereas other semiotic modalities, mainly visualization and design (cf. Eckkrammer/Held 2006, 1) take over the “informational weight” and seem to make written information almost superfluous (cf. Eder/Eckkrammer 2000). The dynamism of media change is bound to technical innovation. Research areas such as media studies, cultural studies, and linguistics are in the process of modeling the textual and linguistic innovation that emerges out of the processes of technological progress. Text linguistics as area of linguistic research that traditionally takes into consideration the complexity of language use in communication is the genuine field of research and theory-building that responds to the mentioned changes. An overview of relevant literature on language and (new) media in general suggests a classification of the existing work roughly according to: 1) models based on analysis of linguistic features of language and variety use in distinct media formats, such as television and computer-mediated communication, 2) text linguistic models which shape media text as an extension of features of traditional text and DOI 10.1515/9783110314755-003

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3) theoretical approaches that perceive media text as requiring complex new models. As the title of this chapter suggests, the focus here is on text linguistic approaches, including (2) and (3). Text linguistic approaches have to be considered as distinct from linguistically-inspired media study or cultural study accounts mainly because they elaborate not only theoretical models but make available systematic methodological suggestions for empirical text linguistic work. Desiderata lead us to pay attention to studies that emerge in fields other than Portuguese and/or Spanish studies in order to provide perspectives for future work for these contexts. The emerging dynamic multimodal text realities of modern societies are interpreted in terms of the “turn”-vocabulary, such as, e.g., the “iconic turn” (cf. Burda/ Maar 2004), the “visualistic turn” (cf. Sachs-Hombach 2005; 2009), the “multimodal turn” (cf. Bucher 2010). Generally, claims for modeling these new text realities evoke ideas about an ongoing media-text revolution that raises many new questions for the field of text linguistics. Indeed, some have argued that in light of the transformations, the name of the field should itself be changed to “text semiotics” (cf. Eckkrammer/ Held 2006). The seminal work of Kress/van Leeuwen (2001) supports the idea of a decisive change by claiming that western culture for a long time was marked by its preference for monomodality. Multimodality is thus conceived of as a recent phenomenon. However, there are more “traditional” multimodal text types such as comics, film, photography, even, for example, paintings in the context of an exhibition (cf. Pang 2004). Their existence previous to new media texts suggests that text linguistics hitherto has delimited itself deliberately by focusing mainly on monomodal texts or even on multimodal texts, but, from a monomodal point of view.1 Notably, multimodal accounts did exist before the “revolution” of media text: Film theory is an appropriate example for a longer tradition of multimodal approaches as from its very beginning it has established a strong relationship between film and text and the concept of “film text” (cf. 3). Nevertheless, although the phenomenon of multimodality is rooted in earlier text types, new multimodal communication forms and technical possibilities inspire new perspectives on the phenomenon. One of the innovations in text linguistic approaches to media text in general is derived from the text linguistic criterion of intertextuality and becomes manifest in a strong and consistent focus on network (cf. Mehler et al. 2008; Bucher 2013) and relational meaning making (cf. Wildfeuer 2014, 1) not only within the field of text linguistic approaches to film (cf. 3) but also in hypertext linguistics (cf. 5). This focus goes beyond text linguistics or text semiotics in a strict linguistic sense of the concept. It is related to neurophysiological-oriented assumptions about the working of the human brain  

1 Kress (2010, 1) also confirms the “normality” of multimodal communication which suggests the idea of universality of multimediality and gives it a historical dimension too.

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and to sociological assumptions about the operating of human social relations. Thus, the interdisciplinarity of the field nowadays goes hand in hand with research progress in other fields that are also dependent on technical advances, as is the case in neurophysiological research. This chapter will consider text linguistic access to media text, taking into consideration mainly newer perspectives on “film text” (3), TV text (4) and hypertext (5). Due to the dynamics of technological development and accompanying innovations in computer-mediated communication and media text, the chapter has to be delimited to a record of the state of the art valid for the very moment of its elaboration.2

2 Media Text and Text Linguistics: Main Questions and Concepts Notably, technology plays the fundamental role in characterizing new “tertiary media”. A basic difference to other types of media is the new form of access to information presented on a screen, which implies new forms of information arrangements (cf. Eckkrammer/Held 2006). As a consequence, tertiary media text has to be considered as recontextualizing traditional forms of texts in new opposition relations as for example the very basic one between a paper text and a screen text. Due to the nature of technically-mediated texts, this apparently rather material difference raises fundamental questions about the conditions and modes of perception of text conceived as a “Sehfläche” [‘visual surface’] (cf. Schmitz 2011). Recent neurophysiological research explores, for example, differences between text perception and understanding text on computer surfaces (e.g., iPad) versus on traditional paper surfaces.3 Among other results of a respective survey (cf. footnote 3), which benefits from interdisciplinary approaches in new media studies, users’ still existing opinions about and preferences for paper text are attributed to a specific tradition of text perception and reading culture which nowadays is in process of change. Brain waves indicate that the users’ belief that they understand better media on paper than a media screen text is not in accordance with their respective neurophysiological  

2 Following the track of studies on the topic since the late 1990s, remarkable changes in terminology as well as in approaches to the subject can be noted. Accounts on the origins of the Internet (cf. Huber 2002) as well as explanations of new terminologies such as those which are built using the prefix cyber(cf. Eder/Eckkrammer 2000, 11s.) are part of early studies and don’t figure any more in newer studies. In the Hispanophone context, Almela Pérez (1999) still writes about the notion of hypertext as an unknown concept and presents a survey that supports his hypothesis about the general unawareness of the concept. A similar survey a few years later probably would have led to completely different results. 3 (05.01.2017).

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activity. Thus, apparently, media (text) change is responded to earlier by the human brain than by human consciousness. Text linguistics has also responded to this recent media text change with a number of questions and concepts, some of which will be presented in the following. Generally, text linguistic approaches to (new) media texts are driven by the aim to retrace processes of meaning construction in complex linguistic entities, especially those of multimodal design. One of the main research topics consists in achieving adequate analysis methods that respond to the challenges of multimodal communication and information-transmitting processes. Multimodality is not comprehended as the sum of different modes to be explained separately from each other, but as generating intersemiotic processes emerging out of the interaction of different semiotic modes that lead to “relational meaning-making” (cf. Wildfeuer 2014, 1). The aim is to reach full comprehension of the interplay between the different semiotic modes both from the information producer’s and the receiver’s point of view. Part of the research question is to find out if and how relational meaning making in multimodal communication leads to new forms of knowledge transmission and even new forms of knowledge. These questions indicate that text linguistic approaches to multimodality are driven by deeper interests than just describing new textual modes of communication. There is much progress in proposing and refining research and analysis methods that support the exploration of the different and complex ways and processes of meaning-making and “meaning multiplication” (Bateman 2014, 5ss.). The outcome of this dynamic interaction between (new) technical media and traditional forms of communication, i.e., the convergence of technical media and communication forms (cf. Bucher 2010; Stöckl 2012, 19), are different types of media texts of high semiotic complexity which include, for example, bimodal texts, multimodal texts and hypertexts. Thus, definitions and concepts of “text” as one of the core topics of text linguistics are challenged by the emergence of technology-based text types. As a consequence, one of the main problems of text linguistic approaches to media texts is the question of how to come to grips with a text concept that takes into account the above-mentioned specific, changing and dynamic features of media texts. Up to now, these are mainly the questions of relations between: 1) text and image, 3) text and other modalities of communication (sound, motion etc.), 3) non-linearity, associative array of information and/or 4) the interplay of these features within one “text”. Technical developments in the field of computer-mediated communication lead to new possibilities and high frequency of bottom-up multimodal interactive text production and reception which requires modified approaches to text linguistics. As to the basic concept of text, text linguistics still pays attention to criteria of textuality as established by Beaugrande/Dressler (1981), often narrowing the list to cohesion and

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coherence as the most relevant criteria as suggested by Vater (2005). However, as a starting point for text linguistic approaches, the whole catalogue of seven criteria (Beaugrande/Dressler 1981) is also often taken into consideration, as in the case of empirical research on (new) media textuality (cf. Eder/Eckkrammer 2000, 39; Huber 2002; Stöckl 2004) also called “elektronische Textualität” [‘electronic textuality’] (Eder/Eckkrammer 2000, 33). Here, on the contrary, criticism to the model leads to broadening the catalogue, which results in an even larger list of text features that determine textuality. New media require new criteria and distinctions as the one between prototypical and peripheral (subordinated) criteria (cf. Stöckl 2004, 100). In view of the increasing frequency of phatic communication in new media, such as communication in chatrooms and discussion forums, the criterium of informativity, also part of the Beaugrande/Dressler catalogue (1981), raises new distinctions of different degree between the two poles of textual informativity and “disinformativity”, (cf. Eder/Eckkrammer 2000, 10), i.e., the amount of text production which is not supposed to contain information but is rather to be understood as phatic communication. The question of classifying texts according to text types remains an exhaustive ongoing discussion in “traditional” text linguistics, let alone in approaches to new media texts. One of the basic questions concerns the relation between old text types and new text types. Do we deal with a continuation of existing text types, their production and reception under different technical conditions as for example indicates the research on cooking recipes and contact announcements in Eder/Eckkrammer (2000), or do we deal with the emergence of new text types? Not surprisingly, the observation of the general principle of change and continuity applied to the relation between old and new text and communication forms is rather part of earlier work on text pattern and typology which focuses on new media texts at the beginnings of their appearance. In their study on job advertisements, Eder/Eckkrammer (2000, 192) indicate that with regard to this text type, which has like others undergone a change from print media to hypertext publication, the traditional features of its paper form are found also in its hypertext publication, though the screen mask has consequences for text structure and influences and changes text pattern conventions. More recent work focuses directly on questions of classification of bimodal (or multimodal) text patterns (cf. Stöckl 2004, 113; 2006, 13). Relying on basic distinctions between technical medium, communication form, multimodal text and semiotic modality, put into hierarchical order, Stöckl (2012, 19s.) deepens this complex task. With reference to semiotic modalities, he distinguishes three main media text types: 1) print media including writing, static picture and typography, 2) audio media including spoken language, music, noise, and, 3) as the most complex form of media text, audio-visual media which comprises spoken and written language, static and dynamic typography, static and dynamic picture, music, and noise.

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His basic schema can be applied to empirical work on (new) media text typology and lead to further typological distinctions related to topic, function and/or type of topic development.

3 Textuality and Multimodal Analysis of Film: The “Film Text” Approach Film is considered to be one of the most important and “powerful contemporary text types” (Wildfeuer 2014, 19). Although sharing features and aims of text linguistic approaches to media text which seek to analyze and understand meaning construction in film, the original concept of “film text” did not arise out of a text linguistic context in the strict sense of the term. The concept is connected with the name and the work of Christian Metz (1971), a film theoretician and semiotician, today usually mentioned and critically discussed in introductory parts of studies on the subject. “Film text” was related to the idea of “film language” and intended to get a better understanding of the structural conditions of meaning construction and communication within a linguistically-inspired model of syntagmatic relations in film.4 Notably, this early theoretical perspective on film and its empirical consequences were based already on technical development and corresponding new possibilities of watching single parts of the whole film repeatedly (cf. Blüher/Kessler/Troehler 1999, 3), which allow analysis. Also, they were already focused on the multimodal character of the “film text”. However, because of – from today’s (text)linguistic point of view – the limited linguistic value ascribed to the model, it rather contributed to film theory than to text theory or (text)linguistics. As such, Metz’ approach had strong influences on research on film in France, Great Britain and the USA, whereas German film theory didn’t take into consideration much from the ideas that arose from Metz’ work (cf. Blüher/Kessler/Troehler 1999). As Bateman (2014) points out, this was also due to the contemporary linguistic mainstream characterized by a limited focus on language. As to Spanish film studies and analysis, only recent references to Metz (1971) are giving evidence that his work is still being perceived by scholars (cf. García Escrivá 2011, 84), although not going far beyond the original frame, as for example, taking it as only a starting point to develop a text linguistic approach in the linguistic sense of the term. The “film text” idea is currently being picked up in Germany by an interdisciplinary project with a strong text linguistic focus. Textualität des Films [‘Textuality of film’]

4 As Bateman/Schmidt (2011, 114) indicate, for a structuralist account on film as text, the syntagmatic dimension is too weakly elaborated and the paradigmatic dimension in Metz’ approach is completely missing.

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is, probably, the most recent, thought-out text linguistic research account where the well-known notion of “film text” reappears in a linguistic perspective, especially in Bateman/Kepser/Kuhn (2013) and Wildfeuer (2013a and 2014)5. Although so far no text linguistic analysis of Spanish or Portuguese film can be identified within this new approach, it is worthwhile to discuss it here in order to instigate studies especially in the field of the textuality of Spanish and Portuguese film which could lead to working out culture-specific features of “film text” both in the European and the Latin-American context. The approach offers a stringent methodology of analysis6 which could stand up to comparative textuality studies, hitherto only realized in the field of specialized text and not text linguistics (cf. the project Kontrastive Textologie [‘Contrastive Textology’], cf. Eckkrammer 1999). It stands for a general turn of linguistics towards a wider idea of text which comprises two main perspectives on text: the one that parting from the text as a static object of linguistic interest opens the concept to a dynamic text concept, and the one that exceeds the limits of the spoken/written word and includes semiotic modes such as static and/or moving pictures, noise, camera move, etc. “Film text” theory and research today goes hand in hand with research on multimodal items (cf. Kress/van Leeuwen 2001) and is defined as follows: “[…] a multimodal text which is meaningfully structured by a variety of semiotic modes. It is a dynamic but formally confined artifact in chronological, linear order. It may have intertextual references to further text types and may produce various communicative intentions according to the context” (Wildfeuer 2014, 10).

“Meaningfully structured” gives a hint to one of the hitherto main foci of the approach, the analysis of multimodal cohesion means and coherence structure called “film discourse relations” (Wildfeuer 2014, 11s.). In order to give an overview of the whole analytic dimension of “film text”, Wildfeuer (2013a) offers the following schematic representation which comprises traditional linguistic and textual criteria such as semioticity, coherence, and intertextuality, and more specific ones such as linearity, multimodality, and dynamicity (cf. Figure 1). In the following, the single aspects will be shortly presented and discussed: The text linguistic criterion of ‘semioticity’ (Semiotizität) comprises aspects such as ‘communicative function’ (kommunikative Funktion) and ‘situationality’ (Situationalität) of film text. One of the key concepts is ‘multimodality’ (Multimodalität) which in this schema refers to the complex possibilities of interplay between auditive means, visual means, action, and its contribution to meaning construction. As such, multimodality  

 

5 This ongoing project and the publications that result from the work of its members can be consulted and followed on and the respective links. 6 Cf. also Wildfeuer/Bateman (2017).

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Figure 1: Schematic presentation of film as text (Wildfeuer 2013a, 46)7

opens a field of research topics such as types of film music, synchronicity vs. nonsynchronicity of music and picture and, generally, the degree of integration of multimodal means in filmic action. Film text contrasts with other multimodal texts as, e.g., texts in new media, which are characterized by interactivity in production and reception (cf. 5). Thus, film is bound to ‘linearity’ (Linearität) and also characterized by ‘non-interactivity’ (Nicht-Interaktivität). Notably, this criterion refers to a “traditional” concept of film to be watched in cinema.8 As in verbal text, ‘coherence’ (Kohärenz) refers to the structural character of film text (Strukturiertheit) and is considered to be constructed by the producer of a film as a set of strategies with the function of channeling active processes of coherence reconstruction by the film audience. Different from verbal text, it is considered to be co-constructed by different semiotic means and thus challenges methodologies of analysis. ‘Dynamicity’ (Dynamizität) comprises aspects as temporality, successivity and montage of the “film text”. The very complex  

7 ‘kommunikative Funktion – communicative function; Situationalität – situationality; Semiotizität – semioticity; Intertextualität – intertextuality; Multimodalität – multimodality; (audio-)visuelle Beschaffenheit – (audio-)visual nature; Dynamizität – dynamicity; Linearität – linearity; Temporalität – temporality; Sukzessivität/Montage – successivity/montage; Kohärenz – coherence; Nicht-Interaktivität – non-interactivity; Strukturiertheit – structure’ (translation by the editors). 8 Film has undergone (media text) changes too. There is an ‘interactive film’, cf. the following discussion in this section and Wildfeuer (2013b).

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aspect of ‘intertextuality’ (Intertextualität) is not yet especially worked-out and opens perspectives for further research. Existing research on this subject, including related linguistic topics such as polyphony and evidentiality, and their realization within multimodal means, can contribute to deepen film text studies on this topic. One of the most important characteristics of this schema is the interconnection of the different aspects of the “film text”. From the receiver’s point of view, this corresponds to the process of intersemiosis, which refers to the interaction between the different aspects in the process of meaning making. At the same time, while keeping in mind the logic of the whole, the model allows to highlight and to work out only parts of the whole within an empirical analysis. Methodological steps to analysis are explained in detail in Wildfeuer (2014, 32ss.) and, by means of a model analysis of the film “Das Leben der Anderen” [‘The Lives of Others’, Henckel von Donnersmarck 2006] (Wildfeuer 2013a). Methodology within the focused approach comprises, e.g., modes and manners of transcription of sequences of film and its representation in tabular form. Transcription as first step of multimodal “film text” analysis is an especially complex undertaking. It is based on the film shot as the minimal unit of analysis, and comprises the visual and the auditory track with corresponding submodes such as static and moving picture, camera movement, music, speech, and so on; a schematic model to present the transcription is given and explained in Wildfeuer (2013a and 2014). Further steps of analysis on different levels such as the visual level, the auditive level, and analysis of salience (foreground vs. background) including the different respective sub-levels can be traced following the step-by-step analysis of the mentioned film. In view of new representations of film, part of the criteria of film text above presented and discussed have to be modified. This concerns mainly the criteria of linearity and non-interactivity which are changed into their opposite, i.e., non-linearity and interactivity, in the genre of the “new interactive film” (cf. Wildfeuer 2013b) to be found on the Internet. As the notion of “cinematic hypertext” (cf. Miles 1999; Wildfeuer 2013b, 65) suggests, it converges with concepts and characteristic features of hypertext (cf. 5). The “new interactive film” is found on Internet platforms like YouTube (and others), and is characterized by offering to the receiver different technically-supported possibilities to intervene in the linearity of the filmic narration and create their own film text. Due to the innovative character of this film genre, further research is a desideratum. Mainly from a media studies and even applied media studies perspective (cf. Santanilla Cala 2009), but hardly from a linguistic point of view – in Spanish and Portuguese film theory and analysis the notions “film text” and “textual analysis” are also being used (cf. Gómez Tarín 2006; García Escrivá 2011). However, no text linguistic model of analysis in the strict sense of the term is applied. As there are translations into Spanish, theoretical studies are linguistically-inspired by Metz’ work (cf. Gómez Tarín 2006). Film analysis is made mainly with the aim to understand better the filmic narrative based on Aumont/Marie (1988). Notably, Gómez Tarín (2006) mentions  

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Kristeva’s concept of intertextuality (cf. Gómez Tarín 2006, 9), which could be a starting point for deepening this very aspect in film analysis. This specific stance on intertextuality opens a perspective on intertextual and/or discursive accounts on “film text” to be further in a text linguistic perspective.

4 Television text As Hickethier9 (2010, 109) emphasizes, television text presents a similar, but far more complex form of media text than film and thus has to be approached by different and additional means of textual analysis. The concepts of “film text” analysis can be transferred to TV text, yet some special features suggest an expansion of TV text analysis from text to intertextual and transtextual relations, which leads to discourse analysis of TV text. Discourse here is not to be understood in the sense of a macro text as González Requena suggests (1988, cf. below), but in the sense of linguistic discourse analysis according to Michel Foucault (cf. Spitzmüller/Warnke 2011). The relation between text analysis and discourse analysis is especially interesting for topics such as coherence structure in TV formats (cf. also Hickethier 2010, 101) and various facets and levels of inter- and transtextuality. It comprises the wide range of topics from “paratext” to TV text formats and, regarding different subject matter and transtextual relations, as for example, Vergara Heidke (2010) shows in a TV text analysis of criminal discourse in Costa Rican television news. As these topics represent TV features that do change in time, they are also interesting for diachronic studies relating them to changes in media text, media language and their relation to changes in society. “Paratext” has its origin in Genette’s intertextuality theory (1987) and refers to any additional text produced in relation to a specific main text. Its functions are defined as presenting the main text, controlling the receiver’s expectations and the reception of the text itself (cf. Hickethier 2010, 103). Types of paratext in TV, for example, are the multimedia announcements of TV programs. As they are published in newspapers, journals, Internet and TV itself, they generate intermedia and intersemiotic relations between different media texts and media resources (written language, picture, voice, music, etc.) and thus can also be analyzed according to the coherence structures they channel. As to the intertextual phenomenon of TV formats, a basic distinction is made between TV “film texts”, such as TV film and telenovela (cf. below), “live texts” such as news broadcasting (cf. below), and combined texts (cf. Hickethier 2010, 110ss.). In the context of research on TV text in Spanish and Portuguese language, TV discourse and, for example, telenovela as a mainly in Latin America relevant impor-

9 For film and TV analysis cf. also Hickethier (2012).

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tant form of “film text”, and news broadcasting as “live-text”, have received much attention from education studies, media studies and sociology and less attention from linguistics. Due to the complexity of language use in TV, in Spanish media theory, academics disapprove of the notion of “TV language”, which they think leads to focus attention on “TV discourse”, here understood in the sense of TV text. Linguistic work itself pays much attention to aspects of TV language and lesser attention on text linguistic problems. Spanish and Portuguese TV language studies focus on specific aspects and questions concerning language and variety use and their relation to and influence on political power, social distinction and identity (cf. Bachmann 2010; 2011a and 2011b; Hofmann 2011; Porto 2012). According to the approach of González Requena (1988, 30), TV text is considered as a “macrodiscourse”, a global macrotext, characterized by a “presencia simultánea de la fragmentación y la continuidad”10 (cf. also Eckkrammer/Held 2006, 5) on this aspect in new media text) and by a “coherencia textual profunda”11 (Aguaded Gómez 2000, 5). Although the idea of a global TV macro text which makes cultural differences fade away in TV formats may respond to observations on the reality of globalization effects on media texts, it does not offer a methodology for systematic text linguistic analysis. A stringent methodological approach that would highlight the complex cohesion of a TV series such as the telenovela keeps being a desideratum. However, taking into consideration that TV text today very often forms part of an expanded concept of hypertext, its analysis could profit from “film text” as well as hypertext theory and methodology.

5 Text and Computer-Mediated Communication: The Hypertext Notably, the new, Internet-based manifestations of the hitherto discussed media text formats converge in the concept of hypertext, which seems to be the most comprehensive concept of tertiary media text. Considering the question of how text meaning is constructed as part of text linguistics, hypertext linguistics contributes certainly with new insights in new forms and processes of meaning construction which could enrich also traditional text linguistics, and especially text concepts. Structure of texts and possibilities of intertextuality, as well as combination between text and image, and the dynamic interactivity of written text, are some of the specific aspects of textuality of new media texts which sometimes raise the question of the end of linearity.

10 ‘simultaneous presence of fragmentation and continuity’ (translation by the editors). 11 ‘deep textual coherence’ (translation by the editors).

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Whereas text linguistic approaches to film – as shown before – go far back to the beginnings of film analysis, hypertext is a fairly new communication form and object of text linguistic analysis. As a computer-mediated form of communication, it matches – at least in its written form – more obviously with the traditional concept of “text” than film does. However, its characteristics re-raise questions about text definition in general and hypertext as a legitimate object for linguistic research; in Spain – as well as in Germany – these kinds of questions mark the beginnings of linguistic work on the topic (cf. Almela Pérez 1999; Huber 2002, 1; Jakobs/Lehnen 2005, 160). Complaints about the lack of text linguistic studies on hypertext were expressed already in 2005 (cf. Jakobs/Lehnen 2005), notably in the context of Spanish and Portuguese language, and this kind of study remain a desideratum. Hypertext cannot be determined as a proper text type. Rather, it is understood as a generic term comprising a wide range of different texts organized by distinctive features which can be grouped around hypertext types (cf. Jakobs 2003; Jakobs/ Lehnen 2005, 163ss.); a notion which by itself suggests an advanced process of conventionalization of respective text patterns (cf. Eder/Eckkrammer 2000, 13ss.; Jakobs/Lehnen 2005, 163). Hypertext with its characteristics contests traditional text types also in the field of scientific writing, as illustrated by a doctoral thesis on the topic (Lamarca Lapuente 2013) which designed itself as hypertext. Special features are, for example, the indication of the publication date as update, and a sophisticated inner textual linking system. Its dynamic and interactive form stands in an obvious contradiction to the traditional text type of a doctoral dissertation, and thus opens a perspective of expanding traditional forms of text to hypertext. From a rather technical point of view, the linking principle introduces a functionoriented hypertext terminology: texts are referred to as knots which are related to each other by links (cf. Huber 2002; Jakobs/Lehnen 2005, 160; Mehler et al. 2008); the textreception process is considered to be guided by a choice of reading options indicated by the linking system of a text called text navigation. Hypertext linguistics however does not make much use of these terminological innovations of the technical vocabulary; their use is rather a feature of specialized interdisciplinary work such as text linguistic computer science (cf. Huber 2002) or cognition oriented (hyper-)text linguistics (cf. Mehler et al. 2008). An attempt to develop a consistent hypertext model based on the text linguistic approach of Sandig (1997) is found in Jakobs/Lehnen (2005). The model is intended to relate text categories such as speech act and topic structure, patterns of sequentiality and formulation, to hypertext, including multimodality and interactivity as additional features and evidences further theoretical desiderata. Recently, Bucher (2013) suggests a network concept for hypertext, expanding older concepts by emphasizing its multimodal character and arrives at a very complex and innovative theoretical and methodological approach. Distinctions are made between: 1) the linking of information chunks, 2) the social network character,  

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3) multimodality (text, image, voice), 4) interactivity and the overall dynamicity of hypertext as a result of the interplay between those factors. The resources of hypertext go beyond the frontiers of text and, at a more theoretical level, lead to a new text concept which overcomes the idea of text as an object of study with well-defined “borders”. At the same time, referring to corpus constitution and delimitation and, reliability and validity of empiric research, new questions about the old problem of empirical databases arise. Analogous to the debordering of text, the growing complexity to be dealt with in empirical studies possibly leads to a debordering of the corpus itself. Solutions to resolve the problem of a well-defined corpus depend very much on the subject matter of the respective empirical research and cannot be suggested in a general way. Passing the frontiers of text is organized within two dimensions, an intertextual dimension and a semiotic dimension (cf. Bucher 2013, 59). The intertextual dimension comprises the hypertext-specific distinction between the manifest text and the text the receiver is constructing by making use of linking signs. The linking principle, as the most prominent feature of hypertext, comprises operational and participatory signs (cf. Bucher 2013). Operational signs (links to further text) give text a new spatial dimension which can be related to the text criterion of intertextuality (cf. Beaugrande/Dressler 1981) or intermodality (cf. Kress/van Leeuwen 1996, 33; Bucher 2013, 73) and questions the traditional idea of linearity of text, text reception and textual representation of knowledge (cf. Huber 2002, 11). Links are participatory signs, and as such present a receiver-addressed offer to (inter-)activity and participation and comprise multimodal communication possibilities. An empirical approach to hypertext should then take into account the “complex multimodal action structure” (cf. Bucher 2013, 69) it offers. Action structure is the result of the receiver’s configurative and text generating action (cf. Aarseth 1997, 65) which consists of semiotic moves rather than representing navigation paths (cf. Kress 2010, 170). As mentioned before, the notion of hypertext comprises different text types. Weblogs as one type of hypertext – generating as well a number of further subtypes (cf. Schlobinski/Siever 2005, 9) – have been described in an international comparative project (cf. Schlobinski/Siever 2005) including Spanish (cf. Franco 2005) as well as Portuguese (cf. Sieberg 2005) weblogs. Due to the book concept, they are treated in the wider context of “language and text” and as is often the case, linguistic and text linguistic features are not treated as mutually interwoven. Instead, text linguistic criteria appear as one part within a catalogue of several characteristics. Both articles are based on a Spanish respectively Portuguese blog corpus, provide an insight in relevant publications on the topic (state 2005) and, guided by a catalogue of features of hypertextuality, provide a more general description to the reader. This kind of overall view, which is found in Spanish and Portuguese hypertext linguistic work (cf. Magnabosco 2010), is not yet complemented by systematic

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text linguistic empirical research such as comparative hypertext analysis. In Spanish as well as in Portuguese, there is a strong focus on online newspaper texts as one type of hypertext (cf. Pérez Marco 2003; Canavilhas 2008; Vieira Barbosa/Barbosa de Sousa 2013). The approaches are less systematically text linguistic oriented, but ask questions about reader’s management of these interaction-requiring text types. Hypertext production and reception favor the creativity of the “every day” text producer. In this context, a parallelism between the (hyper)text linking principle and the working of human intelligence, both generating links that bear meaning, is remarked (cf. Eder/Eckkrammer 2000, 34). New forms of knowledge are being generated via new (technology-based) forms of linking fragments of knowledge, thus written information nodes are being combined with links as a creative process of generating informative texts such as Wikipedia as a knowledge-oriented form of hypertext. By means of connecting (linking) chunks of knowledge, contrary to “film text”, new media texts are breaking with the principles of linearity. As Eder/Eckkrammer (2000, 41) emphasize, the linking principle bears efficiency of information-seeking and cognitive relief for the text receiver. The cognitive aspect of knowledge production in hypertext is continued and methodologically elaborated in the textual network model of an interdisciplinary project on linguistic networks (cf. Mehler et al. 2008). As the title of this contribution – “linguistic network” – indicates, the main focus of interest lies in mechanisms of production of intertextuality as principle and main feature of hypertext communication. The linguistic background and research question behind is to obtain insight in processes of ongoing change in and diffusion of linguistic and textual routines and norms. The study is based on knowledge-oriented hypertext networks, with focus on Wikipedia and different types of Wikis, the presence of which on the Internet are a result of interactive production and reception of text within different forms and levels of intertextuality. The “discussion function” of Wikipedia is used to reconstruct textbuilding processes. Thus, interactively produced hypertext networks offer special forms of access to text, textual network, the processes of its generation, and therefore also technology-based possibilities of building a corpus that include the dynamics of processes of text production. As the schematic representation of the model shows, the intertextual levels to be explored are different types of networks that are produced and reproduced within the text building processes of the chosen type of hypertext and are linked to each other: Whereas social network is not a recent concept, taking textual network and network of lexico-grammatical choices as basic units of (text)linguistic analysis is an innovative aspect and intent to respond to the special nature of web 2.0 communication (cf. Mehler et al. 2008). Notably, the model does not assume the notion of text, but of textual network, which inspires the idea of giving up the notion of text and to instead focus on textual network as basic unit for empirical analysis and theoretical thought and result of media change. Furthermore, the model integrates language use

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Figure 2: Texts as multilayered linguistic networks (Mehler et al. 2008, 416)

as a choice out of a network of choices of lexical and grammatical units which makes allusion to the discursive (and not exclusively lexical) meanings these choices may include. Taking this model as a starting point, different forms of Internet-based communication can be analyzed according to the intertextual processes going on. It can be adapted to forum discussion (cf. Schrader-Kniffki 2012) as well as Facebook or blog texts and text networks.

6 Conclusion In this article, text linguistic approaches to tertiary media text were presented referring to film analysis, TV analysis and, hypertext. Notably, there are a number of desiderata in Spanish and Portuguese text linguistics which take into consideration and discuss recent approaches from other text linguistic contexts such as German and English text- and discourse linguistics regarding their relevance for and transferability to Spanish and Portuguese research on the topic. Wherever possible, studies from Spanish and Portuguese context were mentioned. As to the single subjects that were treated, multimodality turns out to be one of the common grounds of and key notions for text in tertiary media. Multimodality nowadays is approached methodologically by refined methods that intend to respond to the complexity of a multimodal analysis by suggesting an – in relation to traditional text linguistic approaches – extended number of distinct categories and, as one of the most relevant points, trace interrelations between these categories. The understanding of relational meaning-making is a further and related common key notion of different approaches that leads to a preference of holistic perspectives on multimodal media text on the one hand and interdisciplinary research perspec-

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tives – including for example neurophysiological and computer science insights – on the other. Further empirical research, especially in the field of European Spanish and Portuguese as well as Non-European Spanish and Portuguese linguistic and cultural context, is not only an urgent desideratum, but could also lead to further theoretical and methodological progress in the field of text linguistic approaches to media text.  

7 References Aarseth, Espen J. (1997), Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature, Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press. Aguaded Gómez, José Ignacio (2000), El discurso televisivo: los fundamentos semiológicos de la televisión, (07.10.2016). Almela Pérez, Ramón (1999), Hipertexto. ¿Una clase de texto?, Revista de Investigación Lingüística 2:2, 11–19. Aumont, Jacques/Marie, Michel (1988), Análisis del film, Barcelona, Paidós. Bachmann, Iris (2010), “Planeta Brasil”: Language Practices and the construction of space on Brasilia TV abroad, in: Sally Johnson/Tommaso Milan (edd.), Language Ideologies and Media Discourses. Text, Practices, Politics, London/New York, Continuum, 81–100. Bachmann, Iris (2011a), “A Gente é Latino”. The Making of New Cultural Spaces in Brazilian Diaspora Television, in: Nuria Lorenzo-Dus (ed.), Spanish at Work: Analysing Institutional Discourse across the Spanish-Speaking World, London, Palgrave Macmillan, 50–66. Bachmann, Iris (2011b), Norm and Variation on Brazilian TV Evening News Programmes: The Case of Third-Person Direct-Object Anaphoric Reference, Bulletin of Hispanic Studies 88:1, 1–22. Bateman, John (2014), Text and Image. A Critical Introduction to the Visual/Verbal Divide, New York, Routledge. Bateman, John/Kepser, Matthias/Kuhn, Markus (edd.) (2013), Film, Text, Kultur. Beiträge zur Textualität des Films, Marburg, Schüren. Bateman, John/Schmidt, Karl-Heinrich (2011), Multimodal Film Analysis. How film means, New York, Routledge. Beaugrande, Robert Alain de/Dressler, Wolfgang U. (1981), Einführung in die Textlinguistik, Tübingen, Niemeyer. Blüher, Dominique/Kessler, Frank/Tröhler, Margrit (1999), Film als Text. Theorie und Praxis der “analyse textuelle”, (07.10.2016). Bucher, Hans-Jürgen (2010), Multimodalität – eine Universalie des Medienwandels: Problemstellungen und Theorien der Multimodalitätsforschung, in: Hans-Jürgen Bucher (ed.), Neue Medien – neue Formate: Ausdifferenzierung und Konvergenz in der Medienkommunikation, Frankfurt am Main, Campus, 41–79. Bucher, Hans-Jürgen (2013), Online-Diskurse als multimodale Netzwerk-Kommunikation. Plädoyer für eine Paradigmenerweiterung, in: Claudia Fraas/Stefan Meier/Christian Pentzold (edd.), OnlineDiskurse. Theorien und Methoden transmedialer Online-Diskursforschung, Magdeburg, von Halem, 57–101. Burda, Hubert/Maar, Christa (edd.) (2004), Iconic Turn: Die neue Macht der Bilder, Köln, Du Mont.

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Canavilhas, João Messias (2008), Hipertexto e recepção de notícias online, (07.10.2016). Eckkrammer, Eva Martha (1999), Kontrastive Textologie, Wien, Praesens. Eckkrammer, Eva Martha/Held, Gudrun (2006), Textsemiotik – Plädoyer für eine erweiterte Konzeption der Textlinguistik zur Erfassung der multimodalen Realität, in: Eva Martha Eckkrammer/Gudrun Held (edd.), Textsemiotik. Studien zu multimodalen Texten, Frankfurt am Main et al., Lang, 1–10. Eder, Hildegund Maria/Eckkrammer, Eva Martha (2000), Cyber-Diskurs zwischen Konvention und Revolution. Eine multilinguale textlinguistische Analyse von Gebrauchstextsorten im realen und virtuellen Raum, Frankfurt am Main et al., Lang. Franco, Mario (2005), Spanische Weblogs, in: Peter Schlobinski/Torsten Siever (edd.), Sprachliche und textuelle Merkmale in Weblogs. Ein internationales Projekt, Networx 46, (07.10.2016), 288–319. Friess, Regina (2011), Narrative versus spielerische Rezeption? Eine Fallstudie zum interaktiven Film, Wiesbaden, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. García Escrivá, Vicente (2011), Análisis textual de “Apocalypse Now”, Memoria para optar al grado de doctor, (07.10.2016). Genette, Gérard (1987), Seuils, Paris, Seuil. Gómez Tarín, Francisco Javier (2006), El análisis del texto fílmico, (07.10.2016). González Requena, Jesús (1988), El discurso televisivo: espectáculo de la posmodernidad, Madrid, Cátedra. Gutierrez Gonzalez, Zeli Miranda (2007), Lingüística de corpus na análise do internetês, Dissertação, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, (07.10.2016). Henckel von Donnersmarck, Florian (2006), Das Leben der Anderen, Wiedemann & Berg Filmproduktion. Hickethier, Knut (2010), Einführung in die Medienwissenschaft, Stuttgart/Weimar, Metzler. Hickethier, Knut (2012), Film- und Fernsehanalyse, Stuttgart/Weimar, Metzler. Hofmann, Sabine (2011), Sprache im Massenmedium Fernsehen: Sprachliches Design, sprachliche Variation und mediale Räume in Lateinamerika, Tübingen, Narr. Huber, Oliver (2002), Hypertextlinguistik. TAH: Ein textlinguistisches Analysemodell für Hypertexte. Theoretisch und praktisch exemplifiziert am Problemfeld der typisierten Links von Hypertexten im World Wide Web, Inauguraldissertation, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, (07.10.2016). Jakobs, Eva-Maria (2003), Hypertextsorten, Zeitschrift für germanistische Linguistik 31, 232–273. Jakobs, Eva-Maria/Lehnen, Katrin (2005), Hypertext – Klassifikation und Evaluation, in: Torsten Siever/Peter Schlobinski/Jens Runkehl (edd.), Websprache.net. Sprache und Kommunikation im Internet, Berlin/New York, de Gruyter, 159–184. Kress, Gunther (2010), Multimodality. A social semiotic approach to contemporary communication, New York, Routledge. Kress, Gunther/van Leeuwen, Theo (1996), Reading Images. The Grammar of Visual Design. London/ New York, Routledge. Kress, Gunther/van Leeuwen, Theo (2001), Multimodal Discourse. The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication, London, Hodder Education. Lamarca Lapuente, María Jesús (2013), Hipertexto: El nuevo concepto de documento en la cultura de la imagen, Tesis Doctoral, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, (07.10.2016). Magnabosco, Gislaine Gracia (2010), Contribuições da linguística textual para a análise da coerência em hipertextos, Texto livre: Linguagem e technologia 3:1, (07.10.2016).

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Martins, Simone (2008), A Construção da Identidade das Telenovelas Brasileiras: O Processo de Identificação dos Telespectadores com a Narrativa Ficcional Televisiva, (07.10.2016). Mehler, Alexander, et al. (2008), Sprachliche Netzwerke, in: Christian Stegbauer (ed.), Netzwerkanalyse und Netzwerktheorie. Ein neues Paradigma in den Sozialwissenschaften, Wiesbaden, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften, 413–427. Metz, Christian (1971), Langage et cinéma, Paris, Larousse. Miles, Adrian (1999), Cinematic Paradigms for Hypertext, Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies 13:2, 217–226. Pang, Alfred (2004), Making history in From Colony to Nation: a multimodal analysis of a museum exhibition in Singapore, in: Kay O’Halloran (ed.), Multimodal Discourse Analysis. System-Functional Perspectives, London, Continuum, 28–54. Pérez Marco, Sonia (2003), El concepto de hipertexto en el periodismo digital: análisis de la aplicación del hipertexto en la estructuración de las noticias de las ediciones digitales de tres periódicos españoles (www.elpais.es, www.elmundo.es, www.abc.es), Tesis Doctoral, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, (07.10.2016). Porto, Mauro (2012), Media Power and Democratization in Brazil. TV Globo and the Dilemmas of Political Accountability, New York/London, Routledge. Sachs-Hombach, Klaus (ed.) (2005), Bildwissenschaft. Disziplinen, Themen, Methoden, Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp. Sachs-Hombach, Klaus (ed.) (2009), Bildtheorien: Anthropologische und kulturelle Grundlagen des Visualistic Turn, Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp. Sandig, Barbara (1997), Sprech- und Gesprächsstile, Berlin/Boston, de Gruyter. Santanilla Cala, Diana Carolina (2009), Análisis semiótico-visual de películas ganadoras a mejor fotografía en el Festival de San Sebastián. Tesis Doctoral, Pontificia Universidad Javeriana de Bogotá, (07.10.2016) Schlobinski, Peter/Siever, Torsten (edd.) (2005), Sprachliche und textuelle Merkmale in Weblogs. Ein internationales Projekt, Networx 46, (07.10.2016). Schmitz, Ulrich (2011), Sehflächenforschung. Eine Einführung, in: Hajo Diekmannshenke/Michael Klemm/Hartmut Stöckl (edd.), Bildlinguistik. Theorien – Methoden – Fallbeispiele, Berlin, Schmidt, 23–42. Schrader-Kniffki, Martina (2012), Das französische Internetforum “Français notre belle langue”: Kommunikativer Raum und (meta-)sprachliches Netzwerk zwischen Virtualität und Realität, in: Annette Gerstenberg/Claudia Polzin-Haumann/Dietmar Osthus (edd.), Sprache und Öffentlichkeit in realen und virtuellen Räumen, Bonn, Romanistischer Verlag, 251–271. Sieberg, Bernd (2005), Sprachliche und textuelle Aspekte in portugiesischen Weblogs, in: Peter Schlobinski/Torsten Siever (edd.), Sprachliche und textuelle Merkmale in Weblogs. Ein internationales Projekt, Networx 46, (07.10.2016), 198–224. Spitzmüller, Jürgen/Warnke, Ingo (2011), Diskurslinguistik. Eine Einführung in Theorien und Methoden der transtextuellen Sprachanalyse, Berlin/Boston, de Gruyter. Stöckl, Hartmut (2004), Die Sprache im Bild – Das Bild der Sprache. Zur Verknüpfung von Sprache und Bild im massenmedialen Text. Konzepte – Theorien – Analysemethoden, Berlin/New York, de Gruyter. Stöckl, Hartmut (2006), Zeichen, Text und Sinn – Theorie und Praxis der multimodalen Textanalyse, in: Eva Martha Eckkrammer/Gudrun Held (edd.), Textsemiotik. Studien zu multimodalen Texten, Frankfurt am Main et al., Lang, 11–36.

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Stöckl, Hartmut (2012), Medienlinguistik. Zu Status und Methodik eines (noch) emergenten Forschungsfeldes, in: Christian Grösslinger/Gudrun Held/Hartmut Stöckl (edd.), Pressetextsorten jenseits der “News”: Medienlinguistische Perspektiven auf journalistische Kreativität, Frankfurt am Main et al., Lang, 13–34. Sutter, Tilmann/Mehler, Alexander (edd.) (2010), Medienwandel als Wandel von Interaktionsformen, Wiesbaden, VS-Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. Vater, Heinz (2005), Einführung in die Textlinguistik, München, Fink. Vergara Heidke, Adrián (2010), El discurso alarmista en la televisión en Costa Rica: El discurso sobre la criminalidad en los textos informativos, Dissertation, Universität Bremen, (07.10.2016). Vieira Barbosa, Maria Lourdilene/Barbosa de Sousa, Emanoel (2013), A relação entre portais de notícias e hipertextualidade, (07.10.2016). Wildfeuer, Janina (2013a), Der Film als Text? Ein Definitionsversuch aus linguistischer Sicht, in: John Bateman/Matthis Kepser/Markus Kuhn (edd.), Film, Text, Kultur. Beiträge zur Textualität des Films, Marburg, Schüren, 32–57. Wildfeuer, Janina (2013b), Der neue interaktive Film. Zu hybriden Filmformen im Internet und der Adaption eines Genrebegriffs, Rabbit Eye – Zeitschrift für Filmforschung 5, 56–70. Wildfeuer, Janina (2014), Film Discourse Interpretation. Towards a New Paradigm for Multimodal Film Analysis, New York, Routledge. Wildfeuer, Janina/Bateman, John A. (edd.) (2017), Film Text Analysis: New Perspectives on the Analysis of Filmic Meaning, London/New York, Routledge. Ziegler, Arne (2002), E-Mail – Textsorte oder Kommunikationsform? Eine textlinguistische Annäherung, in: Arne Ziegler/Christa Dürscheid (edd.), Kommunikationsform E-Mail, Tübingen, Stauffenburg, 9–32.

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3 Text Linguistic Approaches II: Textuality of Online Media Abstract: In the present article, we describe how the methodological framework of text linguistics can be applied to the analysis of multimodal texts in the media. The first part of the article consists in describing the general research framework of the subject. After the discussion of key concepts and definitions concerning text linguistic approaches in the domain of the description and analysis of texts in the media, we will refer to the most relevant theories and models, highlighting the cross-references between general studies and those dedicated to Romance languages. The accent will then be put on research that focuses on various texts in French and Italian. In addition, we will have a closer look at the linguistic corpora on which the studies are based. To close this main part of the article, we will refer to the most relevant research results that have been obtained by basing the analyses on a text linguistic model. The article closes with a short summary and an outlook on new research perspectives.  

Keywords: computer-mediated communication (CMC), multimodal character of CMC, multi-level framework, semiotic complexity, text linguistics  

1 The linguistic research framework of the subject 1.1 Key concepts and definitions In the context of the discussion of communication in the new media and of computermediated communication (CMC; for a detailed theoretical discussion of the concept cf. Thurlow/Lengel/Tomic 2004), a variety of terms and designations is used, each of them highlighting different methodological aspects and theoretical approaches. This terminological multiplicity starts with the question whether linguists should speak of text types when analyzing SMS or tweets or whether the designation forms of communication is more appropriate. In linguistic studies on CMC, both terms and their corresponding analytical approaches can be found. While both designations refer to subsets of texts that can be classified in terms of the similarity of communicative parameters, forms of communication are characterized by their functional multiplicity (e.g., private and informal SMS vs. business SMS vs. SMS for the sake of advertising; newsgroups centered on legal questions vs. newsgroups dealing with fertility problems). In contrast, there is one central communicative function attributed to text types. Forms of communication are multifunctional and not determined with regard to their communicative function while text types are always linked to one dominant text  

 

DOI 10.1515/9783110314755-004

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function (cf. Ziegler 2007, 21). The classification of text types is closely interrelated to the question of the text function, and in contrastive oriented linguistic analyses, the comparison is based on the text function as “tertium comparationis” (cf. Spillner 1997). When taking into account both the thematic and functional variety of forms of CMC on the one hand, and functional constants that apply to messages realized in different forms of CMC on the other hand, it becomes clear that the function is not essential for the description of this type of communication. The classification of text types in the new media has to be based on a combination of communicative criteria. We therefore propose to denominate texts in the new media as forms of communication and to understand these as virtual constellations of structural and semiotic features that belong, with reference to text linguistics, to the external dimension of a text type (for more details cf. Dürscheid 2005, 7ss.). The definition of the terms new media and computer-mediated communication is also subject to a variety of approaches. With Thurlow/Poff (2011), computer-mediated communication (CMC) is considered as a form of communication in the new media that is realized via the intermittence of a medium (computer, tablet computer, smartphone, mobile phone, etc.). The technical conditions and the resulting constraints determine the communicative context of forms of communication in the new media and have also an impact on their function. Furthermore, the terminological discussion shows that the terms new media and computer-mediated communication and their underlying concepts are strongly interwoven.

1.2 Formal and functional criteria for the description of forms of communication in the new media Texts (or forms of communication) in the new media consist of both verbal and of non-verbal (visual, auditive…) items of content. When describing those texts (or forms of communication), research has to take into account their semiotic complexity, more precisely the numerous interdependencies that exist between the different semiotic codes that are used. Therefore, linguists need a methodological framework that combines “classical” (e.g., text linguistics) as well as more recent or “innovative” perspectives. This need concerning multimodal texts was already apparent to linguists in the early 1980s (e.g., to Spillner 1982, focusing on advertisements), highlighting the fact that the meaning of semiotically complex texts cannot be deduced without the extension of the notion of “text”. The discussion about this theoretical key concept of text linguistics, which reflects itself as well on the level of designation (e.g., visual and verbal text, visual and verbal parts of text), has been conducted in a very controversial way among linguists, but nowadays, most researchers agree that a limitation on verbal text elements cannot lead to valid research results. In contrast to those multimodal, visual-verbal texts for which a large number of empirical studies have been carried out (cf. Schmitz 2007; Stöckl 1998; 2004), the combination of  

 

 

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semiotic codes goes beyond verbal and visual elements concerning texts in the new media that, in addition to “text” and “image”, often comprise auditive elements (e.g., speech or music). The central question in the context of analyses of CMC is how far the methodological framework of traditional text linguistics can be applied and extended to the description of communication processes in the new media. In other words: to which degree can text linguistic approaches contribute to a better understanding of the form(s) and the function(s) of texts in the new media? It is also important to ask which internal and external criteria of the linguistic description of texts are relevant for the analysis of new forms of communication, and, on the other hand, to point out where the limits of a linguistic analysis model are. In order to elaborate a theoretical framework allowing linguists to classify forms of communication in the new media, the question of the criteria the model is composed of has to be taken as the starting point. As the external criteria of a type of communication are essential for the (verbal and non-verbal) form of a text, reflecting themselves on the level of its structure and concerning the choice of linguistic (and of other semiotic codes) means, the analysis should start with the determination of the core communicative parameters of CMC. As there is no methodological approach designed especially for communication processes in the new media, linguists orient themselves to the criteria offered by classical text linguistic models. The core criteria aiming at describing the communicative setting are the following (cf. Spillner 2009): the semiotic code (verbal vs. non-verbal), the medium (computer, mobile phone, third party device, …), the dimension of time (synchronicity or asynchronicity) and space (distance or proximity), the dialogic character, and the number of persons that are involved (one-to-one-communication, one-to-many-communication, …). Given the number of different forms of communication in the new media, it is impossible to determine, on the list of external criteria, the characteristics that are valid for their totality. In this context, a tweet differs from a text message or a message posted on Facebook. Nevertheless, it is possible to identify some central characteristics that seem to be constitutive for most CMC texts. Concerning the semiotic code, the messages are in general realized in the written medium, often complemented by non-verbal elements (e.g., posted photos on Facebook). In those messages, users have to face a restriction of non- and paraverbal resources. The use of smileys can compensate for the absence of gesture and facial expression, but can never substitute them entirely. The medium in which the messages are realized are the computer, the mobile or smartphone and third party devices. In contrast to face-to-face-communication, the computer (or another) medium is interposed in the communication process (CMC). In times of growing user rates of the mobile Internet, the boundaries between the different devices are about to dissolve: a status update on Facebook can be made from a computer or by using a smartphone, and an e-mail cannot only be sent from the computer, but also with the help of a smartphone. Internet services are available for  

 

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different media, and it is therefore no longer only the medium that determines the form and the function of the communication. In communication science, this development is designated as medium convergence (cf. Jenkins 2006). The question whether the formal characteristics change due to the possibilities offered by the medium has not yet been explored in depth. Considering the dimensions of time and space of communication processes in the new media, the most important difference between forms of communication such as text messaging, Twitter, etc. on the one hand and face-to-face-communication on the other hand is the temporal asynchronicity that characterizes CMC. Nevertheless, the criterion of asynchronicity can be discussed controversially as different constellations may occur in CMC. Due to the fact that a medium is interposed in the communication process, and due to the technical restrictions resulting from this, CMC will never reach the degree of complete temporal synchronicity as is the case in face-to-face communication. For the different forms of CMC, there are gradations concerning asynchronicity, mostly caused by the functions of the texts and the mutual expectations of the users concerning reactiveness. For example, a chat communication can reach a degree of quasi synchronicity, as the users can observe the composition of the messages on the screen, whereas the interval between text messages, tweets or Facebook messages can be very short, but never completely synchronous. Nevertheless, concerning SMS communication, users expect the other to reply immediately; long intervals between the messages will be commented and sanctioned verbally (cf. Laursen 2005). As for the spatial distance in CMC, the users are in general separated from each other, but it may also occur that two persons sitting in the same room send each other text messages or have a look at a status update on Twitter. For many forms of communication in the new media, linguists highlight their dialogic character. While the traditional website is conceived by the sender, not allowing the receiver to comment on the content or to change it, Web 2.0 applications, especially communication in the social media (Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, …), are in general characterized by a high degree of interactivity. Depending on the degree of familiarity of the users and on the number of persons taking part in the communication process, the degree of dialogicity can be situated on a scale, ranging from a very high degree in text messages (where an immediate reply is expected, and, in the case of its absence, sanctioned; cf. above) to a lower degree (e.g., the possibility to comment on a message in a public newsgroup, where interactivity is not an obligation). The time that may elapse between a message and a reply depends strongly on social expectations and, for communication in the social media, on what is common in a community of practice. The last criterion to be discussed in order to describe communication in the new media is the number of people involved in the communication process. Whereas forms of communication such as text messages are strictly intimate, individual and personal, with in general two persons involved that know each other well (one-to-one communication), sharing the same context of knowledge (cf. Anis 2007, 94), messages  

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in the social media are addressed to a multiple audience (cf. Marwick/Boyd 2010, 1), with the sender intending a certain group of receivers while not knowing who will finally read the text, e.g., on Twitter (one-to-many communication). In newsgroups that are only accessible via a password, the number of receivers of a message is limited (one-to-few-communication). Status updates on Facebook can be open to the public or spread in a restrictive way, only accessible for a small group of friends. The degree of familiarity may have an impact on the verbal (and non-verbal) form of the message, and it also influences the topics discussed. This leads us to the discussion of the function(s) of communication in the new media. What is/are the communicative aim(s) of the users? What motivates them to communicate via Twitter, Facebook or to send an SMS instead of approaching someone directly? And which topics do users discuss? The communicative purpose of CMC varies along its different forms. Studies show that SMS communication is mainly used for socio-coordinative and affective purposes (cf. Thurlow/Poff 2011, 4), and it occurs also in the context of phatic communication. As the number of people communicating is strongly limited, personal and intimate topics are discussed in text messages, with the users being honest concerning their feelings and emotions. In contrast to SMS communication, the functions of self-promotion, self-commodification and personal branding (cf. Marwick/Boyd 2011) play a crucial role in social media such as Twitter or Facebook, which can affect the form and the content of the messages. In the social media, identity is constructed through communication and in a permanent exchange with others. This can lead to the result that a user’s identity in the real world can be quite different from his or her virtual one:  

“In other words, self-presentation is collaborative. Individuals work together to uphold preferred self-images of themselves and their conversation partners, through strategies like maintaining (or “saving”) face, collectively encouraging social norms, or negotiating power differentials and disagreements” (Marwick/Boyd 2010, 10).

In newsgroups giving advice on certain issues, users want to be perceived as competent and as an expert in their domain. On Facebook, users are interested to post creative status updates; on Twitter, Twitterers with a public account want to be followed by as many people as possible, drawing conclusions concerning their degree of popularity depending on the number of their followers, while those Twitterers who operate in the private mode aim at selecting their followers. Furthermore, the users in social media aim at community building, adapting their messages to the expectations of their community of practice. The communicative criteria and the functions described above have an impact both on the content and on the formal characteristics of CMC. As to the formal peculiarities of the language that is used in texts in the new media, one has to state the fact that they depend on the specific function of each form of communication, but what seems to be common in all cases is a certain influence of spoken communication (cf. Koch/Oesterreicher 1990). This can be explained by technical restrictions (e.g., the  

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limitation to 140 characters for a tweet) and the need to be short, but also by the attempt of the users to use their language in a creative way (for a detailed discussion of creative language use in e-mails, SMS, and MMS, cf. Frehner 2008). The context of producing a message may also enhance traces of orality, because users do not pay special attention to a high degree of planning of their texts. The conscious use of orality (or the imitation of certain characteristics) can furthermore reduce the distance between users and strengthen social cohesion. It is therefore not surprising that elements of spoken language manifest themselves in texts produced in the context of social closeness (for a detailed discussion of the relationship between orality and literacy in online communication and SMS cf. ↗8 Orality and Literacy of Telephony and SMS).

1.3 Leading theories and models (general) Both in linguistics and in communication science, there is a general lack of theoryoriented studies. To my knowledge, there is no (text linguistic) framework able to categorize different forms of communication in the new media. Some theoreticallyoriented studies focus on the question of how to classify the variety of textual manifestations, and some theoretical-methodological analyses highlight the need for an analysis model, by describing, for example, the functions of Twitter communication (cf. Moraldo 2009; Overbeck 2014; Zappavigna 2011), chat communication (cf. Thaler 2003) or the characteristics of hypertext communication (cf. Schröder 2012; Storrer 2008), but the findings do not go beyond single forms of communication (expect, e.g., Moraldo, illustrating the interdependency of Twitter and SMS communication). As mentioned above, the difficulty of classifying texts in the new media results from their functional multiplicity as well as from the complexity of some texts, e.g., hypertexts, which are non-linear and multimodal (cf. Storrer 2008, 318). On the other hand, some empirical studies have been carried out that shed some light on the language use in selected forms of communication (SMS, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, etc.), without proposing a comprehensive classification model. Apart from the more theoretical-methodological studies on the one hand, and the empirical analyses on the other hand, a number of linguists put the question of corpus building in the center of their research. They focus on the possibilities of how to collect authentic data and of how to analyze large corpora automatically. The most influential researchers and research groups for the theoretical-methodological discussion in the context of CMC and the communication in the new media are, for the German-speaking domain (but with a strong influence on the general discussion in the scientific community), Androutsopoulos/Schmidt (2002), Androutsopoulos (2007), Dürscheid (2005), Storrer (2008), Hauser/Luginbühl (2012). These authors describe not only single forms of communication (e.g., text messaging, Dürscheid, or hypertext communication, Storrer), but they also discuss communication models and  

 

 

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classification approaches. Dürscheid (2002) reflects on the influence of SMS communication on everyday language use. The debate concerning linguistic competence reemerges in the studies of different forms of CMC. E-mail as one of the first forms of communication in the context of CMC has often been described in contrast to traditional letters (cf. Frehner 2008; Höflich/Gebhardt 2005). The focus on the research of Hauser and Luginbühl is put on the contrastive analysis of the communication in the new media while Luginbühl, analyzing television broadcasts, takes as well dialectal varieties of media communication into consideration. In his earlier studies, Androutsopoulos provides a systematic analysis of the typographic resources of new forms of communication (e.g., the use of emoticons and abbreviations) while his newer publications take into account the pragmatics of selected forms of communication. Furthermore, the author sheds some light on language varieties when describing youth language. The dialogic and interactional character of CMC is illustrated by means of text messaging in the studies of Günthner (2011). The author analyzes dialogue sequences and the linguistic form of messages (e.g., anaphoric messages) related to each other. For the English-speaking world, the most important theoretical studies are those of Herring et al. (2005) and Thurlow/Poff (2011). In addition to the elaboration of theoretical models and methodological studies on CMC in general, these authors focus their research on selected forms of communication (Herring: weblogs; Thurlow/Poff: text messaging). Cosh (2008) proposes to base the classification of forms of CMC on the analysis of content. The newest research on Twitter communication has been conducted by Zappavigna (2011). The microblogging service and blogging in general are the topic of numerous linguists in this domain (cf. Java et al. 2007; Puschmann 2010; Schmidt 2011 for a functional oriented discussion of blogs; Stefanone/Jang 2007; Tremayne 2007). The authors come to the result that microblogging platforms allow their users, on the one hand, to cooperate (cf. Honeycutt/Herring 2009) and to strengthen social cohesion, while, on the other hand, the crucial aim consists in privacy management. Concerning the linguistic form and the content of weblogs, Messner/DiStaso (2008) underline a high degree of intertextuality, as traditional media and weblogs use each other as source. As to text messaging, anglophone studies do not only describe their formal characteristics, as was the case in the earliest works, but they adopt a more discourseanalytic perspective (cf. Laursen 2005) when describing the reciprocity of SMS communication and the resulting mutual expectancy of an immediate reply. Hillebrand (2010) poses the interesting question of the origin of text messaging, which was closely related to its technical supplies. One can consider text messaging as the precursor of communication in the social media, although the service was created, at that time, for informing customers about a missed call or a message on the mailbox on their mobile phone. The interpersonal character, and the functions linguists and sociolinguists (e.g., Hård af Segerstad 2005) are discussing nowadays, developed later.  

 

 

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2 Romance perspectives on the subject 2.1 Trends and topics in research: Influential researchers/groups In the Romance context, the most influential (both methodological and empirical) studies on newer forms of communication can be attributed to Eckkrammer/Eder (2000) and to Eckkrammer (2004; 2010) who mainly analyzes hypertext communication (with a focus on French), e.g., the characteristics of medical discussion boards, but as well the structure, the language use and the multimodal text structure of websites in general. Her research interest focuses furthermore on the attribution of textual function(s) to hypertexts, which is difficult to determine due to their structural complexity. Therefore, Eckkrammer proposes to rethink the notion of textual function and to adapt it to the specific needs of hypertexts. In her approach, it seems more realistic to attribute different functions to the different parts of hypertexts instead of trying to determine one central text function. In addition to Eckkrammer’s research, important studies on hypertext communication have been realized by Schröder (2012; 2014; 2015a; 2015b) who mainly focuses on the self-presentation of companies on their websites. Besides his strongly empirical approach, he contributes to the conception of methods and theories that should underlie further studies in the field. Schröder also considers the communication in the social web and adopts a contrastive perspective, with a focus on the Romance languages Spanish and French. Another important publication, combining both the development of a methodological approach as well as the empirical analysis of texts, is the monograph published by Sánchez Prieto in 2011. The author analyzes website communication of French, Spanish and German company websites, thus taking into account a Romance-German contrastive perspective. The importance of a contrastive perspective is underlined in most of the numerous publications of Lüger/Lenk (e.g., 2008), who not only proposes a theoretical framework and points to the potential as well as the constraints of contrastiveoriented studies, but who illustrates his methodological thoughts by empirical analyses of texts in the traditional and new media in different Romance languages. One important and influential author one has to mention in the context of research on communication in the new media for Romance languages is certainly Reutner. Among her numerous studies on CMC, covering the totality of the important Romance languages (Spanish, French and Italian), we just refer Reutner (2010; describing differences in e-mail communication of French and Spanish scholars), Reutner (2014a; investigating the linguistic structure of Italian entries in the digital encyclopedia Wikipedia), Reutner (2014b; a contrastive-oriented study of German and French websites of banks and automobile manufacturers) and Reutner (2015). In her most recent publication on online communication, Reutner considers cultural differences on Spanish and German bank websites. Further studies concerning theoretical reflections on the classification of texts in the new media in general and focusing furthermore on the forms and functions of  

 

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French Twitter communication have been carried by Overbeck (2014). Overbeck adopts, in her empirical studies, a contrastive (French-German) perspective. In the center of her research stands the text linguistic classification and differentiation of polyfunctional forms of communication in the new media. Overbeck highlights the fact that existing classification approaches take into account the modeling of the use of spoken language in new forms of communication (Overbeck 2012) as well as the very specific and creative use of written language. A second approach concerns the relationship between the real and the virtual sphere. The relationship between spoken and written language has also been described in studies on “older” forms of communication that are relatively well described in linguistics; Kailuweit (2009) compares the occurrence of conceptional orality in French, Italian and Spanish chat communication, while Thaler (2003) focuses on orality and literacy in chat communication. In a more recent study (2012), Thaler investigates politeness in CMC, connecting two fields of linguistic research that previously have been treated separately, namely politeness research on the one hand and CMC on the other hand. The author builds her theory based on French and German Chat communication, thereby integrating a contrastive, Romance-German perspective. Thaler (2014) has also carried out research on evaluation strategies in French and Italian online comments, taking into account the notion of face. Maaß (2012) has studied language use in French and Spanish discussion forums and has recently (2014) published a volume (with Bedijs and Held) on the notion of face and face work in social media, with a large number of the contributions concentrating on Romance languages. Helfrich (2014) has recently carried out research on face work in social media in general as well as on the characteristics of political discourse in Spanish Twitter communication. For Italian, important studies have been conducted by Moraldo (2009) and Pistolesi (2004) who put the focus on the empirical analysis and description of Italian SMS (Pistolesi) and Twitter communication (Moraldo). Both authors refer to the fact that single forms of communication in the new media might be interwoven, Moraldo pointing out the mutual influence of Twitter and SMS communication, and Pistolesi highlighting that both informal e-mail and chat communication show traces of orality. Ursini (2008) concentrates on language varieties in her research on SMS communication when she describes the characteristics of youth language in text messages. Besides the purely linguistic oriented studies on text messaging and other forms of communication, the users’ need to ensure social closeness via CMC is in the center of interest in more sociologically and psychologically-oriented research (cf. Spagnolli/ Gamberini 2007). The most influential empirical studies for French SMS communication have been conducted by Anis (2007), Fairon/Klein/Paumier (2006), Stark (2011; 2012a; 2012b), and Stark/Dürscheid (2011; 2013). While Anis was the first to describe systematically the graphic of text messages, in particular the meaning of abbreviations that are characteristic for French SMS communication, Fairon/Klein/Paumier

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can be considered as the pioneers in establishing and analyzing a large corpus of French SMS. The largest and most important research project in the field of communication in the new media concerning SMS communication is certainly the international research project SMS4Science (cf. the details in the discussion of corpora building). Stark focuses in her studies on the grammatical characteristics of (French) SMS and also takes a contrastive perspective, including Standard-German and Swiss-German text messages into her research. It is mainly syntax theory and linguistic varieties that interest her concerning language use in the new media. Desjeux (2005) compares the use of French in text messages to Polish and Chinese.

2.2 Sources for research/Corpora In the context of the discussion of the constitution of corpora for research, we focus on SMS communication. This restriction is due to the fact that the data collection of text messages is particularly difficult in contrast to other forms of communication. Furthermore, to my knowledge, there are no larger corpora or reference corpora of Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc. because each researcher constitutes his or her own corpus, according to his or her research interest. In general, communication in the new media is accessible to the public so that there is no need to access already established corpora. This is helpful for merely qualitative-oriented analyses, allowing the researcher to get a first view of the field. Nevertheless, edited corpora are of great use for the research community as, for example, annotations facilitate an automated analysis of a high quantity of data. The largest data collection in the context of SMS communication has been established in the context of the international research project SMS4Science, where researchers from more than 15 countries have collected text messages in order to analyze their linguistic peculiarities. This cooperative project was started in 2006 at the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium, with researchers collecting approximately 30,000 SMS that are freely accessible on the Internet. The general aim of the project is the study of spontaneous and authentic language use in SMS communication (for more details on the project cf. Fairon/Klein/Paumier 2006). Despite the large amount of data of the project SMS4Science, some particularities of the methodology underlying the data collection have to be discussed critically. Users were asked to transfer their text messages to a free phone number installed by a telecommunications operator, and in order to convince them to take part in the project, they were offered some presents in the context of a lottery. On the one hand, the research design solves the ethical problem of how to gain insight into a very private and intimate form of communication as the users were informed about the purpose of the data collection; on the other hand, the question arises whether the collected data can still be considered spontaneous and authentic. The project managers wanted to get access to SMS

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that have really been sent, stored in the memory of the mobile phones of the users. Nevertheless, the project set-up may have led to messages that have been written especially for that occasion, while real and authentic SMS may have been modified, corrected or not transferred. Another problematic aspect is the fact that the users were informed about the academic purpose of the data collection; knowing that their SMS communication would be analyzed subsequently can have an impact on their spontaneous speech production. To sum up, the data collection probably does not reflect real and spontaneous language use in text messages and can therefore not claim to represent the totality of forms and functions of SMS communication. During the years that followed, more partners worldwide joined the research network SMS4Science, allowing researchers to conduct contrastive oriented studies and to describe varieties of French. The state of the analysis of the data varies between the projects as the main difficulty concerns the standardization of the messages which is required for their automatic analysis. Rentel established in 2005 a multilingual corpus containing 800,000 private and informal SMS in different languages – the majority in German and English – in order to get access to authentic language use in SMS communication. A German telecommunications operator recorded, during a lapse of time of 24 hours, the text messages that the customers composed at their computer and sent them to the mobile phone of their receiver via the platform. As the users were not informed about the scientific aims of the data collection, one can assume that the language used in the messages is free from any personal bias. One disadvantage of the corpus is the fact that it does not provide any demographic information concerning the persons who sent the SMS. Furthermore, one has to discuss the question of research ethics, as SMS communication is strictly private and confidential. The telecommunications operator demanded the written and signed affirmation that the data will be anonymized for publication and used only for scientific purposes. Concerning the distribution of different languages in the corpus, 658,640 (82.3%) of the text messages are written in German, followed by English (29,484; 3.7%), Italian (11,105; 1.4%), French (1,780; 0.22%), Spanish (1,229; 0.15%), and other languages (98,075; 2.25%). For more details on the corpus, cf. Rentel (2013, 131). One last difference between the two corpora concerns the modalities of their redaction. While in the Rentel corpus the messages have been composed with the help of a computer keyboard, offering graphic resources differing from the keyboard of a mobile phone, the SMS in the project sms4science have been written directly on mobile phones. This difference has an impact on the form of the messages (cf. Frehner 2008, 28). One could argue that a text message should in any case be sent from a mobile phone; research should nevertheless take into account other forms of composing SMS, in order to describe the characteristics of this form of communication in its totality. Even if the form of the messages may vary considerably, the communicative context and the purpose of the messages sent from a computer and from a mobile phone are comparable. SMS written on a computer are rather a subgenre of SMS

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communication in general whose differences as well as the similarities have to be described by linguists.

2.3 Established and new research methods While the first studies on language use in the media were mainly qualitatively oriented, with selected examples serving to illustrate particular linguistic phenomena, newer analyses are based on larger corpora and/or computer linguistic approaches. The use of special analysis software allows linguists to analyze large volumes of data, making it possible to combine qualitative with quantitative research questions and thus reducing the personal bias. The bibliographic research on communication in the new media shows furthermore that the formal and typographic characteristics of new forms of communication are relatively well described while the functional-pragmatic perspective only has been taken into account in newer studies. It is still a desideratum to describe the functions of different forms of CMC because a systematic classification has to be based on functional considerations. Another development from established to newer research methods concerns the shift from purely text linguistic approaches to the consideration of the multimodal character of texts in the media. As many other semiotically complex texts, e.g., advertisements, texts in the media constitute verbal and non-verbal codes, and in order to understand the message as a whole, all semiotic codes have to be taken into account.  

2.4 Important findings Studies show that for all forms of communication in CMC, the shortness of the texts is not in the first place due to technical restrictions, but can be explained by the users’ need to communicate under specific conditions and in a creative way. It is therefore a sign of progress in linguistic research that not only the formal characteristics of new forms of communication are taken into consideration, but that a growing number of studies focus on their pragmatics. This “pragmatic shift” in the context of the analysis of new forms of communication allows us to understand for which communicative purposes users choose a certain way to communicate. Studies reveal that for most forms of communication, users do not employ completely new linguistic strategies, but that certain linguistic means occur more (or less) frequently than in “traditional” texts (e.g., missing greetings at the beginning or at the end of a text message can be explained by the dialogic character of the communication). On the other hand, we find linguistic strategies that are well known from these “traditional” texts. Some linguistic means may have different communica 

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tive functions in new forms of communication. The use of insults in text messages is one example. While in informal face-to-face communication, where speaker and hearer know each other well, insulting language may serve as a means of creating social cohesion and of expressing positive emotions, this specific function may also be observed in SMS communication. In contrast, insulting the other in a newsgroup with a low degree of familiarity would violate the communicative norms. The function a linguistic strategy may have in new forms of communication thus strongly depends on the communicative parameters, concerning to a special extent politeness strategies. The empirical analysis of new forms of communication also shows that, from a functional perspective, they are not strictly separated from each other, but that users often shift between different forms, starting a communication with a text message and continuing on Facebook. Researchers call this phenomenon mode switching. Studies on communication in the new media come to the result that the specific communicative parameters (e.g., anonymity and multiple audience) lead to a new definition of identity. As the real and the virtual identity of a person may differ, the identity of a user is constructed mutually by communicating and using specific linguistic strategies. Thus, personal branding and identity management play an important role.  

3 Conclusions and desiderata 3.1 Short resume The discussion shows that there are numerous studies in different languages, each adopting a specific theoretical approach and focusing, for the empirical research, on different forms of communication, but what is still lacking is a comprehensive classification model for CMC. Nevertheless, some researchers put this interest of establishing a functional classification model in the center of their research, going back to classification criteria of text linguistics and extending the catalogue with regard to the characteristics of CMC. In order to establish a classification model, researchers identify differences and similarities between selected forms of communication (e.g., between e-mails and SMS or between Twitter and SMS communication). When analyzing the theoretical-methodological approaches coming from different academic traditions in different languages, we note that they stand in a strong relation of interdependency, with some differences both on the level of designation and concerning the definition of central terms. A large part of the (text linguistic) studies describe selected formal characteristics such as abbreviations, syntactic characteristics and typography and interpret their use in matters of creative language use. Most of the newer studies go beyond purely formal characteristics of CMC and focus, in the context of a “pragmatic shift”, on the  

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function of communication processes in the media. Traditional text linguistic analyses are completed by semiotic approaches based on an enlarged notion of “text”, allowing taking into consideration the multimodal character of CMC, and by discourseanalytic approaches, aiming at describing its dialogic character. A central topic in many of the theoretical as well as the empirical studies concerning CMC in different languages is the interdependency of orality and literacy. In contrast, only a few studies highlight the occurrence of language variation in CMC and the function of the use of different language varieties. Concerning the empirical analysis of forms of communication in the new media, most researchers constitute their own corpora, with CMC in general being easily accessible on the Internet. To my knowledge, and with the exception of the corpus SMS4Science, there are no “reference corpora” for the Romance languages. Nevertheless, linguistic studies on new forms of communication should go beyond purely qualitative approaches and be based on large corpora. The need for empirical studies concerns to a special extent text messaging for which the access to spontaneous speech production is difficult. In the context of a globalized world, differences between languages and cultures manifest themselves on all levels of a text. Computer-mediated communication is to a special extent affected by intercultural communication. Linguistic analyses of new forms of communication therefore have to describe language- and culture-specific characteristics of the communication in the new media. Those contrastive-oriented studies may help us to find an answer to the question whether there are differences between languages or whether we have to deal with a leveling of divergences. Concerning this contrastive-oriented approach, we want to highlight not only the considerable research activities of Lüger/Lenk (2008), but as well the research network Kontrastive Medienlinguistik [‘Contrastive Media Linguistics’], associating different research perspectives in the domain of the contrastive analysis of communication in the (traditional and new) media. The activities of the research network are published on the website . Research questions coming up in the present concern could be, to mention a few, the relationship between the real and the virtual world, and the function of identity management via CMC. It is important to continue research in this domain because not only the textual function always has an impact on the linguistic form of a message, but communicative needs can lead to the emergence of new forms of communication.

3.2 Future prospects for research on the topic Linguistics still lacks both theoretical-methodological and empirical studies in order to describe and to classify forms of communication in the new media. While older forms of communication such as e-mail and chat communication are relatively well described, we still need research focusing on communication processes in social

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networks. Furthermore, new and innovative forms of communication emerge regularly, enhanced by the possibilities that the mobile Internet and the use of smartphones offer to customers. These innovations have to be analyzed in relation to existing forms of communication, by highlighting functional and formal differences. To give an example, in order to complete the linguistic discussion about text messaging, a growing number of people communicating via smartphones choose WhatsApp for their spontaneous communication. Due to the possibility to constitute groups, to post a status message, and to add images (enhancing the multimodal character of the communication), WhatsApp shows some characteristics of communication in social networks. Apart from the need of more theory-oriented and empirical research of forms of communication in different languages, studies should adopt a contrastive oriented perspective. Despite the fact that there are some analyses contrasting languages and cultures, this has to be realized systematically for the totality of the existing forms of communication. It is furthermore obvious that a restriction to purely text linguistic approaches cannot lead to significant results in the context of the description of communication processes in the new media. Throughout this article, the strong interdependence of text linguistic, semiotic and pragmatic approaches (as well as of discourse-analytic approaches) has been pointed out. From the author’s point of view, a description model should be multifaceted and take into account different methodological approaches. To close the discussion of prospects for future research, linguistics has to focus on the phenomena of medium convergence and hybridization (e.g., an e-mail sent from a smartphone may have characteristics of a text message), in order to take into consideration the correlation of function, technical device and form in the time of the mobile Internet.  

4 References Androutsopoulos, Jannis (2007), Neue Medien – neue Schriftlichkeit?, in: Werner Holly/Paul Holly (edd.), Medialität und Sprache, Bielefeld, Aisthesis-Verlag, 72–97. Androutsopoulos, Jannis/Schmidt, Gurly (2002), SMS-Kommunikation: Ethnografische Gattungsanalyse am Beispiel einer Kleingruppe, Zeitschrift für Angewandte Linguistik 36, 49–80. Anis, Jacques (2007), Neography. Unconventional Spelling in French SMS Text Messages, in: Brenda Danet/Susan C. Herring (edd.), The Multilingual Internet. Language, Culture and Communication Online, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 87–115. Boyd, Danah/Golder, Scott/Lotan, Gilad (2010), Tweet, Tweet, Retweet: Conversational Aspects of Retweeting on Twitter, in: 43rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), (13.10.2016) Cosh, Kenneth C., et al. (2008), Content Clouds: Classifying Contents in Web 2.0, Library Review 57:9, 722–729.

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Desjeux, Dominique (2005), Usages et enjeux du SMS en Chine, en France et en Pologne, Consommation & Sociétés, (13.10.2016) Dürscheid, Christa (2002), SMS-Schreiben als Gegenstand der Sprachreflexion, Networx 28, (13.10.2016). Dürscheid, Christa (2005), Medien, Kommunikationsformen, kommunikative Gattungen, Linguistik Online 22:1, (13.10.2016). Eckkrammer, Eva (2004), Drawing on theories of inter-semiotic layering to analyse multimodality in medical self-counselling texts and hypertexts, in: Eija Ventola/Cassily Charles/Martin Katenbacher (edd.), Perspectives on Multimodality, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, Benjamins, 211– 226. Eckkrammer, Eva (2010), Kontrastive Medientextologie und die historische Dimension. Eine theoretisch-methodische Auslotung, in: Martin Luginbühl/Stefan Hauser (edd.), MedienTextKultur. Beiträge zur Fremdsprachenvermittlung, Sonderheft 16, Landau, Verlag Empirische Pädagogik, 42–65. Eckkrammer, Eva/Eder, Hildegund M. (2000), (Cyber)Diskurs zwischen Konvention und Revolution. Eine multilinguale textlinguistische Analyse von Gebrauchstextsorten im realen und virtuellen Raum, Frankfurt am Main et al., Lang. Fairon, Cédrick/Klein, Jean René/Paumier, Sébastien (2006), Le langage SMS. Étude d’un corpus informatisé à partir de l’enquête “Faites don de vos SMS à la science”, Louvain-la-Neuve, Presses Universitaires de Louvain. Frehner, Carmen (2008), Email – SMS – MMS. The Linguistic Creativity of Asynchronous Discourse in the New Media Age, Bern et al., Lang. Günthner, Susanne (2011), Zur Dialogizität von SMS-Nachrichten – eine interaktionale Perspektive auf die SMS-Kommunikation, Networx 60, (13.10.2016). Hård af Segerstad, Ylva (2005), Language in SMS – A Socio-Linguistic View, in: Richard Harper/Leysia Palen/Alex Taylor (edd.), The Inside Text. Social, Cultural and Design Perspectives, Dordrecht, Springer, 33–51. Hauser, Stefan/Luginbühl, Martin (edd.) (2012), Contrastive Media Analysis. Approaches to linguistic and cultural aspects of mass media communication, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, Benjamins. Helfrich, Uta (2014), Face Work and Flaming in Social Media, in: Kristina Bedijs/Gudrun Held/ Christiane Maaß (edd.), Face Work and Social Media, Münster, LIT, 297–321. Herring, Susan C., et al. (2005), Weblogs as a Bridging Genre, Information, Technology & People 18:2, 142–171. Hillebrand, Friedhelm (2010), Who Invented SMS?, in: Friedhelm Hillebrand et al. (edd.), Short Message Service (SMS). The Creation of Personal Global Text Messaging, Chichester, Wiley, 15–22. Höflich, Joachim R./Gebhardt, Julian (2005), Changing Cultures of Written Communication: Letter – E-Mail – SMS, in: Richard Harper/Leysia Palen/Alex Taylor (edd.), The Inside Text. Social, Cultural and Design Perspectives, Dordrecht, Springer, 9–31. Honeycutt, Courtenay/Herring, Susan C. (2009), Beyond Microblogging: Conversation and Collaboration via Twitter, 42nd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), (13.10.2016). Java, Akshay, et al. (2007), Why We Twitter: Understanding the Microblogging Effect in User Intentions and Communities, 9th WebKDD and 1st SNA-KDD workshop on Web mining and social network analysis, (13.10.2016). Jenkins, Henry (2006), Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide, New York, New York University Press.

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Kailuweit, Rolf (2009), Konzeptionelle Mündlichkeit!? Überlegungen zur Chat-Kommunikation anhand französischer, italienischer und spanischer Materialien, Philologie im Netz 48, 1–19, (13.10.2016). Koch, Peter/Oesterreicher, Wulf (1990), Gesprochene Sprache in der Romania: Französisch, Italienisch, Spanisch, Tübingen, Niemeyer. Laursen, Ditte (2005), Please reply! The Replying Norm in Adolescent SMS Communication, in: Richard Harper/Leysia Palen/Alex Taylor (edd.), The Inside Text. Social, Cultural and Design Perspectives, Dordrecht, Springer, 53–73. Lüger, Heinz-Helmut/Lenk, Hartmut E. H. (edd.) (2008), Kontrastive Medienlinguistik, Landau, Verlag Empirische Pädagogik. Luginbühl, Martin (2012), “Ich wünsche Ihnen einen schönen Abend, uf Widerluege”. Dialekt und Standard in Schweizer Medien, in: Barbara Jańczak/Konstanze Jungbluth/Harald Weydt (edd.), Mehrsprachigkeit aus deutscher Perspektive, Tübingen, Narr, 195–211. Maaß, Christiane (2012), Der anwesende Dritte im Internetforum, in: Kristina Bedijs/Karoline Henriette Heyder (edd.), Sprache und Personen im Web 2.0, Münster, LIT, 73–93. Maaß, Christiane/Bedijs, Kristina (2014), Face Work and Social Media, Münster, LIT. Marwick, Alice/Boyd, Danah (2010), I Tweet Honestly, I Tweet Passionately: Twitter Users, Context Collapse, and the Imagined Internet, New Media and Society, (13.10.2016). Marwick, Alice/Boyd, Danah (2011), To See and to Be Seen: Celebrity Practice on Twitter, Convergence – The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 17:2, 139–158. Messner, Marcus/DiStaso, Marcia W. (2008), The Source Cycle: How Traditional media and Weblogs Use Each Other as Sources, Journalism Studies 9:3, 447–463. Moraldo, Sandro M. (2009), Twitter: Kommunikationsplattform zwischen Nachrichtendienst, Small Talk und SMS, in: Sandro M. Moraldo (ed.), Internet.kom. Neue Sprach- und Kommunikationsformen im World Wide Web. Band 1: Kommunikationsplattformen, Roma, Aracne, 245–281. Overbeck, Anja (2012), Parlez-vous texto? Soziale Netzwerke an der Schnittstelle zwischen realem und virtuellem Raum, in: Annette Gerstenberg/Claudia Polzin-Haumann/Dieter Osthus (edd.), Sprache und Öffentlichkeit in realen und virtuellen Räumen, Bonn, Romanistischer Verlag, 217–247. Overbeck, Anja (2014), Twitterdämmerung: ein textlinguistischer Klassifikationsversuch, in: Nadine Rentel/Ursula Reutner/Ramona Schröpf (edd.), Von der Zeitung zur Twitterdämmerung. Medientextsorten und neue Kommunikationsformen im deutsch-französischen Vergleich, Münster, LIT, 207–228. Pistolesi, Elena (2004), Il parlar spedito. L’italiano di chat, e-mail e SMS, Padova, Esedra. Puschmann, Cornelius (2010), The Corporate Blog as an Emerging Genre of Computer-Mediated Communication: Features, Constraints, Discourse Situation, Göttingen, Universitätsverlag. Rentel, Nadine (2013), Différences culturelles dans la communication par sms. Une analyse empirique des formes de salutation, in: Anne-Catherine Gonnot/Nadine Rentel/Stephanie Schwerter (edd.), Dialogues entre langues et cultures, Frankfurt am Main et al., Lang, 127–144. Reutner, Ursula (2010), E-Mail-Kulturen im Vergleich. Zum Sprachverhalten spanischer und französischer Linguisten, Romanistik in Geschichte und Gegenwart 16:2, 3–28. Reutner, Ursula (2014a), L’enciclopedia digitale Wikipedia. Linee di analisi interculturale e intermediale, in: Elina Suomela-Härmä (ed.), Dal manoscritto al web: canali e modalità di trasmissione dell’italiano. Tecniche, materiali e usi nella storia della lingua, Firenze, Cesati, 689–698. Reutner, Ursula (2014b), Französisches Bilderspiel und deutsches Informationspaket. Ein Vergleich der Internetpräsenzen von Banken und Automobilherstellern, in: Nadine Rentel/Ursula Reutner/ Ramona Schröpf (edd.), Von der Zeitung zur Twitterdämmerung. Medientextsorten und neue Kommunikationsformen im deutsch-französischen Vergleich, Münster, LIT, 135–160.

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Reutner, Ursula (2015), ¿El sitio web – un espacio cultural? Un estudio comparativo germano-español de bancos y aseguradoras, Nadine Rentel/Ursula Reutner/Ramona Schröpf (edd.), Traducción audiovisual y lingüística contrastiva en los medios en diálogo con la Filología Hispánica, Frankfurt am Main et al., Lang, 3–26. Sánchez Prieto, Raúl (2011), Unternehmenswebseiten kontrastiv. Eine sprachwissenschaftlich motivierte und praxisorientierte Vorgehensweise für eine kontrastiv orientierte Analyse deutscher, spanischer und französischer Unternehmenswebseiten, Tübingen, Narr. Schmidt, Jan-Hinrik (2011), (Micro)Blogs: Practices of Privacy Management, in: Sabine Trepte/Leonard Reinecke (edd.), Privacy Online, Heidelberg, Springer, 157–171. Schmitz, Ulrich (2007), Sehlesen. Text-Bild-Gestalten in massenmedialer Kommunikation, in: Sven K. Roth/Jürgen Spitzmüller (edd.), Textdesign und Textwirkung in der massenmedialen Kommunikation, Konstanz, UVK, 93–108. Schröder, Tilman (2012), Marketingstrategien auf Unternehmenswebsites im internationalen Vergleich. Eine hypertextlinguistische und kulturkontrastive Analyse kommerzieller Websites aus Deutschland, Frankreich, Spanien, Großbritannien und den USA, Tübingen, Narr. Schröder, Tilman (2014), Informationsarchitektur und Kohärenzbildung im Web: Kontrastive Perspektiven, in: Nadine Rentel/Ursula Reutner/Ramona Schröpf (edd.), Von der Zeitung zur Twitterdämmerung. Medientextsorten und neue Kommunikationsformen im deutsch-französischen Vergleich, Münster, LIT, 113–134. Schröder, Tilman (2015a), Information oder Inszenierung? Zur Selbstpräsentation deutscher, französischer und spanischer Unternehmen im Web, in: Eva Lavric/Wolfgang Pöckl (edd.), Comparatio delectat II. Akten der VII. Internationalen Arbeitstagung zum romanisch-deutschen und innerromanischen Sprachvergleich, Frankfurt am Main et al., Lang, 633–646. Schröder, Tilman (2015b), La web social como libro de quejas: un análisis contrastivo de reclamaciones en Facebook, in: Nadine Rentel/Ursula Reutner/Ramona Schröpf (edd.), Traducción audiovisual y lingüística contrastiva en los medios en diálogo con la Filología Hispánica, Frankfurt am Main et al., Lang, 47–69. Spagnolli, Anna/Gamberini, Luciano (2007), Interacting via SMS. Practices of Social Closeness and Reciprocation, British Journal of Social Psychology 46, 343–364. Spillner, Bernd (1982), Stilanalyse semiotisch komplexer Texte. Zum Verhältnis von sprachlicher und bildlicher Information in Werbeanzeigen, in: Bernd Spillner (ed.), Stilforschung und Semiotik, Tübingen, Narr, 91–106. Spillner, Bernd (1997), Methoden des interkulturellen Sprachvergleichs: Kontrastive Linguistik, Paralleltextanalyse, Übersetzungsvergleich, in: Hans-Jürgen Lüsebrink/Rolf Reichardt (edd.), Kulturtransfer im Epochenumbruch. Frankreich – Deutschland 1770–1815, Leipzig, Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 103–130. Spillner, Bernd (2009), Verfahren stilistischer Textanalyse, in: Ulla Fix/Andreas Gardt/Joachim Knape (edd.), Rhetorik und Stilistik. Ein internationales Handbuch historischer und systematischer Forschung, Berlin/New York, de Gruyter, 1739–1778. Stark, Elisabeth (2011), La morphosyntaxe dans les SMS suisses francophones: Le marquage de l’accord sujet – verbe conjugué, Linguistik Online 48:4, (13.10.2016). Stark, Elisabeth (2012a), Negation Marking in French Text Messages, Linguisticæ Investigationes 35:2, 341–366. Stark, Elisabeth (2012b), Clitic Subjects in French Text Messages: Does Technical Change Provoke and/or Reveal Linguistic Change?, in: Kirsten Jeppesen Kragh/Jan Lindschouw (edd.), Deixis and Pronouns in Romance Languages, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, Benjamins, 147–169. Stark, Elisabeth/Dürscheid, Christa (2011), SMS4science: An International Corpus-based Texting Project and the Specific Challenges for Multilingual Switzerland, in: Crispin Thurlow/Kristine  

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Kristin Reinke

4 Television Text Types Abstract: Research on language and communication in television is usually based on classifications of different text types which can differ notably from each other depending on the research focus and cultural context. Years ago, Jost (1997) underlined the fact that the question of text types had not as yet been resolved, and this is still true today since the progression of media communication strategies has even accelerated. In view of the vast number of research fields and approaches, the scope of this article is not to provide an exhaustive inventory of television text types. Instead, I shall summarize the most important approaches in order to identify factors, underlying assumptions and research perspectives leading to the different categorizations. Classification criteria and recent changes such as the internal heterogeneity of television text types will be discussed. Furthermore, special attention will be paid to their historical nature and to the dynamic relationship between text types and language use. The article will focus on those aspects of television text types that might be particularly relevant for French language use in this medium.  

Keywords: classification criteria, fictional and non-fictional worlds, genres, heterogeneity of text types, historical nature, language and communication in television, media communication strategies, newscasts, production, reception, television text types, text types and language use  

1 Introduction It is generally accepted that there is no such thing as a special language which one might refer to as “television language”, however the language usage we encounter when we switch on the television varies greatly depending on the program we choose (cf. Reinke 2004; Schmitz 2004). It is thus important to take a closer look at television text types as an extra-linguistic factor influencing the way language is used in this particular medium. Anyone who is expecting to find, in this article, an exhaustive inventory of television text types, including a complete list of criteria allowing one to differentiate among them as well as a description of their respective characteristics will be disappointed. Indeed, one could almost say that there are as many television text types as scholars studying this phenomenon, giving rise to distinct classifications depending on the scholar’s special background and respective research interests.1 In fact, the 1 Schmidt (2003, 165) quotes different authors who have counted genre names: Nies (1978) 1200 for French literature, Dimter (1981) 1600 in the German Duden and Rusch/Hauptmeier (1988) 900 in television programs. DOI 10.1515/9783110314755-005

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question of television text types and genres has been investigated by scholars coming from different fields of study such as film, communication, philosophy, sociology, linguistics, etc. Furthermore, these terms are used in various social circumstances with different meanings: the film industry relies on genres for self-definition or scheduling, audiences use the same term to organize fan-based events or in everyday conversations, academics use it to circumscribe research projects, etc. (cf. Mittell 2001, 3). It would therefore be impossible to provide a complete overview of the numerous typologies and theoretical approaches to television text types. I shall nevertheless attempt to bring some degree of order to the huge amount of what has so far been said about television text types and highlight what constitute, in my opinion, the main aspects that should concern the readers of this manual – undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students as well as academic teaching staff of the Romance languages and philology who are familiarizing themselves for the first time with this field. My choices are of course influenced by my own scientific background as a German and French Canadian romanist/sociolinguist who is interested in language use in television. I shall thus focus on those aspects of television text types that might be relevant for French language use in this medium. However, as television is a striking illustration of the penetration of American culture in Europe where successful American formats have been adopted everywhere (cf. Bourdon 2001), the article will focus on general transnational characteristics valid for French television text types rather than unique national particularities.2

2 Discriminating between similar concepts The first problem one encounters when studying television text types is that they are not always called just that: one comes across terms such as text type, genre and format in English, type de texte, genre and format in French and Textsorte, Genre, Gattung and Format in German, to mention only the most common ones. They all seem to signify more or less the same thing and are often freely interchanged.3 Sometimes one of the terms is even used to define another: “The word genre comes from the French (and originally Latin) word for ‘kind’ or ‘class’. The term is widely used in rhetoric, literary theory, media theory, and more recently linguistics, to refer to a distinctive type of ‘text’” (Chandler 1997, 1).

2 Also, Lebsanft (2001, 299) mentions that all over the world, the mass media follow the same procedures in order to create standardized text products. Lüger/Lenk (2008, 17) underline, in turn, that many text types possess features that characterize more than one language. 3 With regard to the French genre, Große/Seibold (1994, 32) note: “On les appelle aussi ‘types de discours’ (en allemand: ‘Texttypen’, ‘Textsorten’)”.

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“Annonçons donc de prime abord que, pour nous, un genre est un type de texte […]” (Charaudeau 1997a, 84).4

More broadly speaking, it is all about elaborating a typology that would allow us to categorize a very complex reality of texts into groups on the basis of shared characteristics that differentiate them from others. Entitling this chapter text types and not genres or formats reflects a certain theoretical position, that is to say a text-based linguistic view that extends the concept of text to all kinds of language production, be it written or spoken, and also takes into account the importance of screen images in constructing meaning (cf. Lüger/Lenk 2008, 12; Burger 2000, 615). Therefore, I shall use the term text in its broader sense to define all kinds of texts transmitted via television. However, I shall use text types and genre as synonyms depending on the more common usage within a particular source. Even if genre, text type, format and Gattung are often used as synonyms, there appear to be some distinctions. There is a large consensus that the concept of genre has its origins in the Aristotelian Greco-Roman rhetorics and the subsequent theory of literary genres. The study of literary genres such as poetry, prose and drama, and moreover of numerous subgenres, are still part of school curricula all over the world. Later, genre was applied to other art forms as well as to radio and then television, continually extending its meaning and adapting to the needs of the new media. Such changes have accelerated over the last decades. Schaeffer (1986) uses the term categories généalogiques [‘genealogical categories’] to describe this tradition of fitting new creations into historical categories. Adopting the notion of genre to television represents a certain continuity with the tradition of literary genres, although television and literary genres are not identical.5 The closest similarities can be found within fictional genres. This might explain why the notion of genre sometimes seems to be reserved for film genres (e.g., western, comedy, science-fiction), whereas text types more often refer to non-fictional television texts (e.g., news, reports, magazines).6 The latter distinction might have been established in analogy to the more common usage of the term genre for literary texts as opposed to text type for texts in everyday communication (cf. Dammann 2000, 547). From a linguistic point of view, these text types could also be studied using text linguistic and interactional approaches. These  

 

4 ‘Let us announce first of all that, for us, a genre is a text type […]’ (translation by the author). 5 In fact, many authors point out that research on genres and research on text types are closely linked to each other (Aschenberg 2002, 154; Adamzik 2007, 24; Fix 2008, 86). 6 This is, for example, the case in Burger (2000), who does not deal with any kind of fictional texts, although he explains why the exclusion of fictional texts in any discussion on media text types is not justified: A clear distinction is no longer possible between texts produced by the media themselves and those that they only present without being responsible for content and form.

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would be based on the distinction between discourse genres as social construction in context as opposed to text types as a mode of organization of a text without contextual considerations (cf. Bakhtine 1984; Adam 1992). Accordingly, Jolicoeur (2014) uses text types when referring to the televisual product and genre when referring to a social norm across all stages of production, programming, and reception and whose interpretation ultimately leads to a standardization of text types. Sometimes, genre and format are also not adequately discriminated one from the other (cf. Türschmann/Wagner 2011, 8; Keane/Fung/Moran 2007, 63). Hickethier (2002, 90) believes that the notion of genre is, more and more, being replaced by the notion of format, which refers rather to the specific form of a program and stems from the commercialization and internationalization of the television market. It describes a concept of program that has been imported and is protected by copyright and licenses. The format is purchased by a television channel and adapted to different national audiences, these adaptations being limited by a contract and, compared to genres, is less susceptible to alteration (cf. Mikos 2008, 268). The most famous example is the quiz show “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?” that has been imported from the USA and copied in 67 territories around the world employing the same form (cf. Keane/Fung/Moran 2007, 101). Whereas the presenter, the candidates and the questions vary from one country to another, the basic rules and the spatial arrangements are the same (cf. Mikos 2008, 269). As a purely economically-motivated phenomenon that can nevertheless be assigned to a genre, this article will not further discuss the particularities of formats, but will deal solely with genres and text types. Some German authors oppose Genre to Gattungen, even though they are commonly used as synonyms (cf. Dammann 2000, 548; Türschmann/Wagner 2011, 8). Nevertheless, Genre is sometimes considered as a subcategory of Gattung (cf. Mikos 2008, 263; Hickethier 2002, 63). Genres are defined on the basis of content, whereas Gattung is defined on the basis of the representational mode (e.g., motion picture, documentary film) and its utilization (e.g., advertising film, educational film; cf. Hickethier 2002, 63). A good example would be the crime genre that is characterized by a specific storyline based on a crime and the solving of it. This genre is found in different Filmgattungen (e.g., motion picture, animated movie); furthermore, it can be found in other media (e.g., in novels, as radio drama; cf. Hickethier 2002, 63). For the purpose of this article, the distinction between Genre and Gattung is not relevant as the English and French language do not make such a distinction. With regard to television, genres and text types enable producers, the audience as well as researchers to classify the elements of a complex program within a precise category. But “practitioners and the general public make their own labels (de facto genres) quite apart from those of academic theorists” (Chandler 1997, 2). Even among scholars, the question of text types/genres has not yet been resolved. Within the French context, a thematic issue of the journal Réseaux (№ 81, 1997) proposed some theoretical approaches that are still valid (cf. Jost 1997; Charaudeau 1997a). Identify 

 

 

 

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ing a specific genre or text type is a difficult task,7 even more so because of the use of different classification criteria, their ongoing changes and their internal heterogeneity. For these reasons, the following sections will focus on the latter aspects.

3 Approaches to television text types: A trend towards functional approaches 3.1 General remarks – Overlapping labels There is often considerable theoretical disagreement regarding the definition of specific genres (cf. Chandler 1997, 1). This is due to the fact that different approaches deal with the same phenomenon. In the following section, I will summarize a number of different approaches, but will avoid labeling or naming them as this would create a somewhat artificial classification. In actual fact, we do not deal with established or recognized schools of thought, but rather with different, sometimes individual attempts to categorize television genres or text types. Schmidt (2003, 165) distinguishes two main approaches in the history of genre theory: typological and functional (cf. also Mittell 2001, 4s.). According to Schmidt, typological approaches endeavor to deliver exact definitions of each genre and to integrate them into a hierarchical system of supra-, sub- and neighboring genres. They determine genres on the basis of characteristics of what is offered by the media, but exclude the relationship between media and public. Functional approaches, on the contrary, try not to define what genres are, but how they function. Another problem is that typological approaches do not always exclude the functioning of genres, but analyze them more in relation to their textual characteristics. On the other hand, some functional approaches might also lead to a typology of genres. Of course, one could seek to categorize the approaches in terms of their dominant characteristics, but the same label is sometimes used to describe different approaches, or different labels are used to describe similar approaches. In this respect, some of the approaches, as a common denominator, focus on what is offered by the producers and how it is interpreted by the audience. They could be called “functional” or “pragmatic” since they refer to the actual use of genres and to the construction of meaning in a specific context, but they could also be called “constructivist” to give more weight to the latter aspect. Finally, Schmidt (2003, 165) himself recognizes that functional approaches offer many possibilities for investigating how a genre operates in the public arena.

7 As a matter of fact, all attempts to find a typology with zero overlap have been unsuccessful (Hickethier 2002, 65).

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3.2 Text types from the viewpoint of production and reception Many classifications of television text types and genres are based on patterns and conventions of content and form that guide the producers and create expectations on the part of the audience, thus influencing reception (cf. Lochard/Soulange 1998, 91). However, such categorizations are often ambiguous, as some TV productions might correspond to one genre in content and to another in form. In some cases, the same program could even be attributed to different genres, or the same classification criteria might be employed to identify different genres (cf. Chandler 1997, 2; Charaudeau 1997a, 82; Jost 2009, 40s.). Therefore, most of the recent approaches to genres focus not only on the structure of television production and programming, but also on spectator habits and expectations (cf. Mikos 2008). Within this perspective, the standardizations regarding form and content depend upon technical, economic, political and legal constraints as well as on dramaturgical, narrative and artistic tools (cf. Mikos 2008, 262). The relationship between producers and audience thus becomes a critical factor in any analysis of television text types: “A basic model underlying contemporary media theory is a triangular relationship between text, its producers and its interpreters” (Chandler 1997, 5). Identifying a text belonging to a specific genre might awaken the interest of a spectator or, on the contrary, provoke a negative attitude. Genres thus also incorporate the producer’s assumptions concerning their audience in terms of social criteria, beliefs, taste, reactions, etc. Thus, they insure the loyalty of their audience and the TV ratings, “The relative stability of genres enables producers to predict audience expectations” (Chandler 1997, 5). In this respect, genres allow producers to make a profit with their product. A new genre emerges when a film or a program was particularly successful, so that producers will try to repeat such success by adopting similar patterns of narration and presentation. By doing so, they create a standardization that ensures an economic advantage (cf. Mikos 2008, 263). For many recent authors, the main function of genres is to aid the public to make sense of the broadcast, that is to say, by offering meaning and to “provide frameworks within which texts are produced and interpreted” (Chandler 1997, 5). A prominent example is Schmidt’s (2003) theory of genre8 that distances itself from the actual classification offered by the media and defines genres according to cognitive and communicative schema with an orientation function (cf. Schmidt 2003). This functional approach does not question what genres are, but instead how people deal with them, i.e., the meaning cannot be found in the object itself (the media product itself), but is attributed by the audience depending on the social context (cf. Schmidt/Weischenberg 1994, 212). Linking a text to a specific

8 German “Mediengattungstheorie”. Schmidt’s very theoretical approach has many ideas in common with Jost’s approach (cf. 2.3). The latter, however, does not exclude the media offer and, finally, establishes a typology.

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genre directs its reception and interpretation and the construction of meaning. For example, recognizing a given text as fictional instead of non-fictional results in a different understanding of its meaning. The distinction between fictional and nonfictional texts is in fact a very fundamental one that can be found in almost every typology. However, it is not in itself sufficient, as we shall see in the following paragraphs.

3.3 Genres between fictional and non-fictional worlds We probably owe one of the most detailed discussions of the relationship between the fictional and non-fictional world to the internationally-known French scholar Jost (1997; 2003; 2009; 2011). His classification system positions television within the arts of image and sound (cf. Lochard/Soulange 1998, 93). In his initial writings, he adopts a strict audience-based perspective and conceives the genre as a promise (“La promesse des genres”) regarding the relationship between image and reality/authenticity. This promise guides the spectator in his perception and understanding of what is viewed. According to Jost (2011, 24), static definitions of genre that are independent of their use would mislead the interpretability as the same broadcast might be seen as fiction, documentary or artwork, depending on which particular elements of the audiovisual material are selected. Based on the assumption that the evidence for reality or fiction is not an inherent part of the object but of the subject,9 he proposes a classification of genres according to three modalities of utterance (modes d’énonciation): (1) the informative mode (mode informatif) that reports the truth and indicates how the assertions can be proved, (2) the fictive mode (mode fictif) where the only rule is coherence within the created universe, and (3) the ludic mode (mode ludique) that creates its own rules (cf. Jost 1997, 22; 2011, 25). Fig. 1 shows the dynamic character of this model on a macro level,10 and allows us to situate, on a micro level, the “classic” genres such as news, talk shows, documentaries, etc. as well as incorporate future genres (cf. Jost 2011, 26). Finally, the interpretation of a program depends on which of the modes is recognized by the spectator. An example reported by Jost (2011, 26) is the case of the faked 2006 Belgium television news program that announced the separation of Belgium into two independent states. The audience reaction varied from fear to laughter depending on the spectator’s ability to uncover the farce.11 In response to the critics of his model as well as to the events of 9/11 and to the adaptation of “Big Brother” in France (fr. “Loft Story”), Jost (2011, 28) modified the

9 Cf. also Schmidt (2003). 10 Indicated in bold lettering; later called archigenres (Jost 2009, 45). 11 Cf. also Dufiet (2009) who dedicates a whole article to this case.

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Figure 1: Jost (2003, 25)

criteria of modes into that of worlds (mondes). In fact, the model in Fig. 1 has a disadvantage in that it presupposes some knowledge about genres and their discursive characteristics (cf. Jost 2011, 28). In the revisited model, such knowledge is not required; instead of a narrative model, the perspective becomes semiotic. It takes into account that the spectators first perceive the object that is represented by the image and only thereafter appreciate its narrative structure. This means that the first reflex of a spectator is to determine if the images refer to our real world (le monde réel) or not. We willingly oppose the fictive world (le monde fictif) to the real world and are ready to accept events that we would not believe to be possible in the latter (cf. Jost 2009, 42). Finally, the ludic world (monde ludique) invokes either the real or the fictive world and refers to itself (cf. Jost 2009, 44). In this model, it is the sign that is interpreted through its reference to a real or fictive object; or it itself becomes the object. The new model also considers the producers’ point of view. With the arrival of reality TV, the above mentioned promise concerning the relationship between image and reality becomes fuzzy, e.g., “Loft Story” was promoted by sometimes highlighting its authentic, and at other times its fictive or ludic character. Similarly, misinterpreting the faked Belgium newscast about Flanders’ independence was only possible because, according to the producers, the audience had not learned to understand images and took the attributed genre for granted, i.e., spectators normally believe that a program labeled as news is indeed anchored in the real world (cf. Jost 2011, 32). Attributing a program to a specific genre is also linked to legal and economic interests (cf. Jost 2009, 46s.). For example, the French channel TF1 must dedicate 16% of its net profits earned during the previous year to new original or European programming, scheduled between 8 and 9 PM, among which 120 hours must comprise new French fiction (cf. Jost 2009, 46). France Télévision is obligated to broadcast at least one cultural program every day in the early evening (cf. Jost 2009, 47). Consequently, defining a program as being fiction or cultural would allow the channels to  

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fulfill these obligations. Jost (2009, 47) also shows, using the example of the casting show “Popstars”, how broadcasting companies use and manipulate the genre concept in order to be eligible to obtain production funds (Compte de soutien à l’industrie des Programmes) which exclude entertainment type programs. In the case of “Popstars”, the show has been classified as a documentary, that is to say, its relationship to the real world has been overemphasized while its affiliation to the fictive and ludic world is undermined. Obviously, attributing a given program to a specific genre becomes a matter of economic relevance. Ultimately, the spectator should be wary of the proposed categorization of a program, should confront it with what he or she views on the screen, and question the authority of the broadcast companies (cf. Jost 2011, 34).

3.4 Text types in the information domain Approaches involving a text-based linguistic and discourse-analytical orientation deal mainly with the informative domain (cf. Charaudeau 1997a; Burger 2000; 2004; Lüger/Lenk 2008). Although they primarily focus on the textual or discursive characteristics or on the narrative structure of texts, they do this in relation to text function and intention and also consider various pragmatic aspects.12 Within the French context, Charaudeau’s (1997a; 1997b; 22011) discourse-analytical approach has to be mentioned here and will be outlined in the following pages. He also deals exclusively with media information and offers a typology that applies to press, radio and television. Charaudeau (1997a, 91) explicitly rejects approaches that use the categories of function (associated with the three traditional television functions to inform, to entertain, and to educate), effects (emotional, cognitive), and modes (informative, fictive, ludic). According to him, they are too general and overlap each other, mainly because of the dual aim of every media information discourse of being both credible and able to capture audience attention. Although Charaudeau (1997a) focuses on the components of texts and offers a hierarchical typology including genres and subgenres, it would be shortsighted to simply label his approach as “typological” in opposition to “functional”13 since the text properties are analyzed against the background of their discursive functioning. Charaudeau actually tries to reconcile the two approaches and emphasizes the precautions one needs to take before importing typological genres into television (cf. also Charaudeau 1997b). He describes genres as text types and texts as the result of a speech act produced by a subject in a situation of contractual social exchange (cf. Charaudeau 1997a, 85). The “communication contract” (contrat de communication) depends on situational constraints that allow speakers a degree of legitimacy as subjects. As in any other act of communication, media communication is interactive 12 Cf. Lüger (21995, 76) for text types in the press. 13 Cf. Schmidt (2003, 165) and 3.1.

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and contractual. This is because the meaning depends on the exchange between production and reception as well as on norms and conventions allowing a certain reciprocal understanding and the negotiation of meaning (cf. Charaudeau 1991, 11).14 The meaning of a text thus depends on the enunciative intention (finalité-visée énonciative), on the identity of the individual speakers (identité des partenaires de l’échange), the theme or subject matter (propos) and the specific material and physical circumstances in the exchange (dispositif) (cf. Charaudeau 1997a, 85). While a model integrating many variables reflects the complexity of genres at the cost of intelligibility, a model based upon few variables would be rather reductive. For this reason, Charaudeau (1997a, 87) suggests building a basic typology capable of embedding successive typologies as represented in Fig. 2. For him, “[…] hors quelques rares textes entièrement codifiés (comme les textes sacrés), tout texte est composite du point de vue discursif, et donc un type de texte ne peut être défini que comme une classe de propriétés semblables, c’est-à-dire un représentant abstrait des textes qui sont censés y correspondre. On n’a affaire ici qu’à un positionnement doublement relatif des types: d’une part par rapport aux pôles des deux axes, d’autre part les uns par rapport aux autres” (Charaudeau 1997a, 90).15

Figure 2: Charaudeau (1997a, 89)

14 Cf. Casetti’s (2001) notion of “communicative agreement”. 15 ‘[…] aside from some rare totally codified texts (such as sacred texts), all texts incorporate a discursive point of view, and therefore one text type cannot simply be defined as comprising classes with similar properties, that is to say an abstract representative of supposedly corresponding texts. What is involved here is a relative double positioning of types: on the one hand with regard to the poles of the two axes, on the other hand with regard to the others’ (translation by the author).

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On the horizontal axis of this basic typology (Fig. 2) are situated three zones of discursive modes (modes discursifs): the “reported event” on the left side (E.R = événement rapporté), the “provoked event” on the opposite side (E.P. = événement provoqué) and in-between the “commented event” (E.C. = événement commenté). These modes concern the general handling of the information, allowing us to define a reportage within the reported event, a debate within the provoked event and an editorial within the commented event since the latter may relate to either the one or the other explaining causes, motives, intentions, etc. The vertical axis opposes the actual entity of the enunciators (instances énonciatrices): the “internal entity” (instance interne) belongs to the media itself (e.g., a journalist), the “external entity” (instance externe) has its origin outside of the media (e.g., an expert, a politician). The continuum between the two identifies the respective degree of commitment, i.e., the enunciator more or less expresses their own opinion. For example, commitment is related to the identification of the news source or to the manner by which the word is given to the protagonists. Combining the above-mentioned discursive modes with another text component – the topic – would allow us to define subgenres, e.g., we would be able to differentiate between different kinds of debate depending on whether the topic is cultural, political or scientific. Considering the characteristics of the scenic setup (dispositif scénique) that further specifies a given text within its material component would allow us to differentiate genres according to the media support (press, radio, television). An important particularity of television is the combination of the two semiological systems: sound and image. The confluence and combination of both, the characteristics of the televisual setup and the two semiological materials, determine the specificity of television text types as opposed to other media text types. This is why television texts have to be studied as multisemiotic and multimodal phenomena. Here non- and paraverbal elements are not simply added to the verbal text, but all interrelate in different ways and contribute thus to the construction of meaning (cf. Houdebine-Gravaus 1991; Lüger/Lenk 2008, 16).16 The setup also contributes to the process of constructing meaning: filming, framing, angle of view, cutting techniques and the arrangement of elements in the studio all produce different perceptions of what is shown and can influence audience interpretation (cf. Charaudeau 1997a, 92). Regarding the discourse, Charaudeau (1997a, 92) identifies five utterance types: description, explanation, testimony, proclamation and contradiction. Finally, he attributes three functions to the image: designation (in order to create effects of authenticity), figuration (in order to create effects of verisimilitude) and visualization (in order to create effects of  

 

 

 

16 Particularly well studied is the correlation between facial expressions and emotions (e.g., Ekman/ Sorenson/Friesen 1969).  

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discovering the truth). The combination of these features and their relative dominance generate highly complex television text types.

4 The dynamic and historical nature of genres and text types As cultural conventions carrying meaning and based on a reciprocal relationship between producers and audience, genres are closely linked to social context and undergo constant change. They obey economic pressure and public expectations in order to attract an audience and depend on the dominant ideologies of a historical period reflecting social and cultural values (cf. Chandler 1997, 4; Mikos 2008, 264). They also take in changes in communication conventions, e.g., one can observe changes in the way of interviewing politicians, facilitating a debate or presenting news (cf. Charaudeau 1997a, 90). But their change is also related to the evolution of technologies that offer more and more possibilities in staging (cf. Charaudeau 1997a, 90). Finally, every new text contributes to some variation and change of the genre it belongs to. The emergence of new genres can be explained by applying the prototype theory of cognitive science to media studies. According to Hickethier (2002, 71), a very successful individual case becomes the starting-point for the birth of a specific genre. Its prototypical nature stems from its patterns of narration and presentation that differ considerably from those that existed previously. Forms and structures of this popular prototype are reproduced and new variants are created that are linked to each other by resemblance. The new set of variants constitutes a specific genre (cf. Hickethier 2002, 71). However, from the audience perspective, the prototype as the best member of a category is not traced back to the emergence of a genre, but is based on the concrete viewing experience (cf. Mikos 2008, 265). This is why personal affinities, cultural norms and social criteria influence which prototype comes to mind (cf. Mikos 2008, 267). Considering genres as a set of variants related by similarity also means that, with time, the variants move further away from the prototype until the new products are so different that they can no longer be considered as variants. Consequently, genres are transformed, new genres and sub-genres emerge and others are no longer pursued because they have lost popularity. Also, endless multiplication of genres is self-limiting since they bring order by organizing huge amount of texts into simpler categories (cf. Hickethier 2002, 74). These changes, however, do not occur abruptly, but rather bit by bit, respecting the communicative contract. The most striking recent development concerns the trend towards mixed genres, often referred to as hybrid genres, that make the unambiguous classification of a text under a single genre difficult, even impossible (cf. Mikos 2008, 270). However, the use  

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of the designation mixed genres is inconsistent. Most of the time, it refers to a mixing of Jost’s “worlds”, e.g., docu-fiction (real + fictive world), infotainment (real + ludic world; cf. Jost 2009, 50). This is the meaning that Veyrat-Masson (2008) uses in her analysis of a very specific case of hybrid genres: the television programs that pretend to reconstruct the past and to be close to specific historical events, but that, at the same time, mix fiction and reality, documents and references (cf. Veyrat-Masson 2008, 5). The mixing of fictional and non-fictional genres has become particularly frequent and sometimes represents a source of irritation for the audience (cf. Jost 2009, 41). While the mixing of reality and fiction in the case of programs that deal with historical topics serves to attract the audience and to awaken their interest in history, it becomes a crucial matter since it touches on our perception of the past and the truth of what constitutes our collective memory, our group identity and even political issues (cf. Veyrat-Masson 2008, 6). Hybrid genres can be “additive” or “integrated” (Kilborn 2003, 12). Whereas additive forms display influences from different genres (e.g., in magazines), integrated forms combine different genre elements into new forms (e.g., reality shows). Additive forms appeared already in the 1980s and were a direct response to the new habit of “zapping”, made possible through the television remote control; they enable people to instantly embark on an ongoing program and are aimed at reaching different audience target groups. Integrated forms such as reality shows are a more recent marketing strategy in search of satisfying the everlasting need for innovation. They stem from growing economic constraints as a result of competition between channels, of changes in the status of media organizations and of modifications in the regulations governing cable TV. Finally, such mixing might be observable when there is discordance between the topic and the manner in which it is treated (cf. Jost 2009, 51) or simply in a mingling of public and private topics as is the case in reality and talk shows (cf. Charaudeau 1997a, 100). Other changes concern the increase in contact with the audience, creating an illusion of friendliness and connivance in contrast to the greater distance that existed formerly between the media and public. Furthermore, there is a tendency toward a continuous flow of similar programs so that everybody can feel “at home” as opposed to the earlier tradition of scheduling well-defined and targeted scheduled appointments for different audience groups. Correspondingly, one can observe a trend towards the shortening of programs and a kind of “clip” form (cf. Charaudeau 1997a, 99; Charaudeau 22011, 195; Duccini 1998, 5). All these recent changes are symptoms of the transition since the 1980s from the so-called paleo-TV (paléo-télévision) towards a neo-TV (néo-télévision, cf. Eco 1985).17 This transformation was a result of the influence of American media culture leading to the emergence of private channels and, accordingly, to growing competition in the  

 

 

17 These notions have been introduced by Eco in his essay “Tv: la trasparenza perduta” (cf. Eco 1985).

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French television landscape (cf. Lochard/Boyer 1998, 67; Bourdon 2001). While paleoTV is characterized by an asymmetric and hierarchical relationship between the television and its more passive audience, neo-TV focuses more on relating with the public as active citizen-spectators (cf. Jost 1997; Duccini 1998). It should be noted that this evolution has often been criticized since paleo-TV had an explicit educational purpose (cf. the three “classical” functions of TV – to inform, to educate, to entertain), whereas neo-TV, whose main goal is that of seducing and amusing the audience, is seen as being mainly commercially oriented.

5 The television newscast as a prototypical text type As television newscasts (le journal télévisé = JT) are generally considered a prototypical text type (cf. Lebsanft 2001, 294), it is particularly interesting to verify how the most salient characteristics of television text types can be applied to them. Newscasts are a perfect example for the above mentioned hybrid genres. Contemporary television news integrates many different text types such as reports, interviews, etc. Burger (2000; 2004) highlights the existence of large formats that integrate the traditional text types as components and that correspond to the “additive form”. A common type in television is represented by the magazine. Burger (2000; 2004) postulates a multilevel structure: On the “macro-level”, he situates the magazine as a whole (e.g., the news journal as a whole), on the “meso-level”, each contribution (e.g., thematic sections such as national/international) and, on the “micro-level”, each element/text type within each contribution (e.g., presentation, film report, commentary). On the vertical axis of Charaudeau’s typological model (cf. Fig. 2), the newscast would be situated in the upper half corresponding to the “internal entity” because everything is coordinated and carried out by the media personnel in charge. However, with respect to commitment, it is situated rather low on this axis due to the requirement of objectivity (cf. Charaudeau 1997a, 94; 22011, 192). On the horizontal axis, the newscast is strongly in line with the “reported event” according to an ideal communicative contract which postulates that news reports facts as they really are. Journalistic objectivity is obviously an ideal. As described by different theories on media studies (e.g., gatekeeping, agenda setting), other individual, organizational and institutional constraints will influence the selection of the information in order to draw attention to certain facts considered to be of “public interest” at the expense of others (cf. Shoemaker/Vos 2009; McCombs/Shaw 1972). Still, the newscast includes all discursive modes: invited experts comment on events and debates between social protagonists are provoked. Finally, the particularity of newscasts in comparison with other genres resides in two dominant aspects: its intent (propos) and the identity and interrelation of the partners (cf. Charaudeau 1997a, 94; 22011, 192).  

 

 

 

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The first aspect (intent) concerns the here and now: a newscast cuts what has happened in the public domain during the temporal unit of a day; it is thus based on a thematic fragmentation imposed by the media (cf. Charaudeau 1997a, 94; 22011, 193). Depending on the topics, news can further be subdivided into “hard news” (e.g., central political, economic and cultural topics) and “soft news” (e.g., gossip, accidents, scandals considered of human interest) as well as spot news (e.g., crimes; cf. Burger 2004, 211; Lüger 21995, 94 ss.). The second aspect (identity and interrelation) relates mainly to the role played by the announcers who have a pivotal role and organize the newscast. With their greetings they open the newscast and establish contact between the studio and the audience. They build up the image of personalized commentators expressing themselves as if they were appealing directly to every individual spectator. Moreover, they ensure the link between the referential world and the audience. They hold the reins in their hands, function as guides throughout the newscast, invite and take back the conversation, run reports and interview invited guests and experts, schedule an appointment for the next day, etc. (Charaudeau 1997a, 94; 22011, 193; cf. also Bourdon 2001, 225).18 Martel describes the role of the “anchorman” as a way of “personifying news”, i.e.  

 

 

“[…] c’est recourir à un support humain, non pas comme un simple intermédiaire de transmission entre l’information et le public, mais comme un lieu privilégié d’émergence, d’incarnation de la nouvelle permettant au téléspectorat d’interpréter l’information comme étant inscrite dans l’humanité, le caractère humain du présentateur s’attachant d’emblée à la nouvelle, l’humanisant” (Martel 2002, 1).19

Whereas simply reading the news establishes a certain distance with the audience who would thus feel less concerned by the events, the anchorman ensures an interactional relationship between himself and the public. He not only reports the events, but becomes a “discursive personality” (personnalité discursive), a TV star who relates the perception of the world to his own. Personifying news thus implies the building of a human image favoring the emergence of the news (cf. Martel 2002, 1). Finally, all of these characteristics demonstrate that the newscast type of genre only delivers a world of events created by itself. Consequently, it is all about establishing the illusion of realism rather than the real truth and it is this “making believe” that defines a newscast (cf. Charaudeau 1997a, 95; 22011, 194). In this regard, the position

18 That said, there is obviously a whole team working behind the scenes, invisible to the audience, but nevertheless important for what is presented and how. 19 ‘[…] it is resorting to a human element, but not as a simple intermediary for the transmission between the information and the public, but as a privileged site for the emergence and incarnation of news, allowing the spectator to interpret the information as if inscribed within humanity, the human character of the presenter linking itself straightaway with the news, humanizing it’ (translation by the author). The same ideas have been published in Martel (2004).

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of the newscast (JT) in the lower left angle of Jost’s model (cf. Fig. 1) could be questioned. However, the role of an announcer as “anchorperson” has not always been such. In France, the traditional news format of the 1950/1960s was characterized by an invisible presenter or by a succession of more than one presenter within the same newscast.20 In no way was the announcer responsible for the program; his function was reduced to reading the news, and he was not required to establish any form of relationship with the audience. This might be explained by a rejection of the star system, considered incompatible with the seriousness and objectivity of information (cf. Bourdon 2001, 222). The “anchorman”21 was imported from the USA in the 1970s; TF1 introduced this type of presenter in each of its three newscasts in 1975, but one had to wait until 1981 before the anchorman also took on the role of chief editor (cf. Bourdon 2001, 225s.). These changes in the role of the announcer appeared along with the reorganization of the television landscape, including the opening up to the private sector, the multiplication of channels and the greater dependence on advertising revenues (cf. Duccini 1998, 67). Importing the American anchorman-model was thus a consequence of commercialization and the growing competition between channels since the anchorman, through his voice and image, became a distinctive feature of the newscast and insured the loyalty of the audience (cf. Martel 2002, 1; Duccini 1998, 6). Nowadays, it represents the predominant model all over the world, with only few exceptions like the German ARD-news where the announcer has no editorial responsibilities but simply acts as “speaker” (cf. Bourdon 2001, 226).

6 Television text types and language As already mentioned, the “raison d’être” of an article about television text types in a “Manual of Romance Languages in the Media” is the relationship between text types and language use in this medium. Even though a special television language does not exist, one can observe some tendencies in the manner in which language is used and what is selected from the linguistic repertory (cf. Schmitz 2004, 33). It is beyond the scope of the present article to discuss in detail the language use in television which depends on many other factors such as its multimodal character (cf. HoudebineGravaus 1991; Lebsanft 2001, 298; Lüger/Lenk 2008, 16) and the particular production process (cf. Holly 2002, 2455). For further details, the interested reader should consult the publications of the International Colloquium “Le français parlé dans les médias” 20 The French public saw an announcer on their screens for the first time in 1954; until 1971, more than one announcer followed each other in the same edition. A short intermezzo from 1963–1965 having tried to adopt the star-announcer format has not been continued (Bourdon 2001, 223). 21 The anchorman is called chef d’antenne in the French-speaking Canadian province of Quebec in order to avoid an Anglicism.

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(e.g., Broth et al. 2007; Martel 2010; Burger/Jacquin/Micheli 2010) as well as the recent collective work by Mauroni/Piotti (2010).22 However, here some salient features linked to the relationship between language and text types will be mentioned in brief. As we have seen in this article, television is a highly complex composition of text types/genres and it is not surprising that this heterogeneity is also reflected in the language use. Any attempt to identify the role of language in television communication has to take into account television text types as unique linguistic expressions of television communication (cf. Lebsanft 2001, 293). If one asks a “normal” spectator (one not particularly interested in linguistic questions) about the most salient feature of language use in television, there is a good chance that he would point to television as being responsible for the so-called deterioration of language, i.e., the negative influence of television on language use in general (cf. Lebsanft 2001, 293; Schmitz 2004, 26; Reinke 2004; 2005). For many spectators, television serves as a model in language matters and should reflect the standard variety because of its public character. Nevertheless, the requirements for creativity and originality linked to the competitive environment, the commercial pressure, the shifting from a more informative to a more entertaining television format, etc. have resulted in rapid modifications of media text types as well as in steady language innovations (cf. Lüger/Lenk 2008, 15). This tendency has certainly accelerated with the appearance of neo-TV oriented towards the audience. As television tries to approach everyday experiences, conversational text types are more and more favored, such as those illustrated by the increase in talk shows and interviews. It would thus be particularly interesting to pursue research from an interactional perspective such as undertaken by Thompson (1995), Scollon (1998), Hutchby (2005) and Martel (2008). The result of this is a proliferation of non-standard language forms (cf. Holly 2002, 2456; Reinke 2004 and 2005; Martel et al. 2010). The categorization of text types/genre becomes of crucial interest in nuancing this idea related to the increase in more informal language varieties and in arguing against the supposed degradation of language quality. By applying the theory and methods of language variation to television text types (cf. Labov 1976; Koch/Oesterreicher 22011), one can actually observe language variation depending on text types/genres similar to that occurring in everyday situations (cf. Reinke 2004 and 2005; Martel et al. 2010). Finally, if while it is true that, globally, a huge amount of informal language forms can be identified within television communication, it is also true that they are governed according to similar norms that govern language use in daily life (cf. Reinke 2004 and 2005). Professional television speakers use their communicative abilities to exploit the possibilities offered by the linguistic variation and to dose the frequency of informal variants according to their socio-stylistic values. The use and dosage of these  

22 Cf. also (19. 10. 2016) and (19. 10. 2016).

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forms contributes to simulating an authentic relationship with the audience (cf. Martel et al. 2010, 103). Of course, investigating how the discursive entities and the extralinguistic conditions determine verbalization (cf. Lebsanft 2001, 297) also means that television language can be considered as a “secondary orality”, i.e., it is based on the written word and prepared in such a way as to imitate or stage spontaneity (cf. Koch/Oesterreicher 22011; Holly 2002, 2455). However, within the constraints of the medium, actual language use depends on the communicative intention and hence on the text type (cf. Lebsanft 2001, 298; Reinke 2004).

7 Conclusion As we have seen in this article, many aspects have to be taken into account when investigating television text types and these could not all be included. Because interdisciplinary communication is lacking, it is difficult to summarize all existing approaches. Instead, I have selected two important approaches within the French research tradition, those of Jost and Charaudeau. While the first places television genres within the tradition of pre-existing audiovisual forms, the latter concentrates on the specificities of television information. However, both situate text types/genres along a continuum. Even though the notion of television text type/genre poses many problems, we have seen that it is very useful since it offers practical advantages for both producers and spectators as well as methodological advantages for researchers; it also represents a reality in people’s minds since spectators will always attempt to understand and categorize what they see on the screen. One main problem is the absence of interdisciplinary communication between scholars coming from different disciplinary backgrounds who do not always share their results. A quick look at the reference list of most publications on this subject confirms that scholarly exchange only occurs within the boundaries of each discipline. This makes it difficult to obtain a comprehensive understanding of this very complex phenomenon. Bringing together, through a more global approach, scholars working on television text types/ genres would thus be one of the most urgent desiderata.

8 References Adam, Jean-Michel (1992), Les textes: types et prototypes. Récit, description, argumentation, explication et dialogue, Paris, Nathan. Adamzik, Kirsten (2007), Die Zukunft der Text(sorten)linguistik. Textsortennetze, Textsortenfelder, Textsorten im Verbund, in: Ulla Fix/Stephan Habscheid/Josef Klein (edd.), Zur Kulturspezifik von Textsorten, Tübingen, Stauffenburg, 15–30. Aschenberg, Heidi (2002), Historische Textsortenlinguistik – Beobachtungen und Überlegungen, in: Martina Drescher (ed.), Textsorten im romanischen Sprachvergleich, Tübingen, Stauffenburg, 153–170.

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Bakhtine, Mikhaïl (1984), Esthétique de la création verbale, traduit du russe par Alfreda Aucouturier, Paris, Gallimard. Bourdon, Jérôme (1988), Propositions pour une sémiologie des genres audiovisuels, Quaderni 4 – Les mises en scènes télévisuelles, 19–36. Bourdon, Jérôme (2001), Genres télévisuels et emprunts culturels. L’américanisation invisible des télévisions européennes, Réseaux 107, 211–236. Broth, Mathias, et al. (edd.) (2007), Le français parlé des médias. Actes du colloque de Stockholm 8–12 juin 2005, Stockholm, Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis. Burger, Harald (2000), Textsorten in den Massenmedien, in: Klaus Brinker et al. (edd.), Text- und Gesprächslinguistik: ein internationales Handbuch zeitgenössischer Forschung, vol. 1, Berlin/ New York, de Gruyter, 614–628. Burger, Harald (2004), Mediensprache. Eine Einführung in Sprache und Kommunikationsformen der Massenmedien, Berlin/New York, de Gruyter. Burger, Marcel/Jacquin, Jérôme/Micheli, Raphaël (edd.) (2010), Les médias et le politique. Actes du colloque “Le français parlé dans les medias”, Lausanne, 1–4 septembre 2009, Lausanne, Centre de linguistique et des sciences du langage, (19.10.2016). Casetti, Francesco (2001), Filmgenres, Verständigungsvorgänge und kommunikativer Vertrag, Montage-av: Zeitschrift für Theorie und Geschichte audiovisueller Kommunikation 10:2, 155– 173. Chandler, Daniel (1997), An introduction to Genre Theory, (19.10.2016). Charaudeau, Patrick (1991), Contrats de communication et ritualisations des débats télévisés, in: Patrick Charaudeau (ed.), La Télévision. Les débats culturels “Apostrophes”, Paris, Didier Érudition, 11–35. Charaudeau, Patrick (1997a), Les conditions d’une typologie des genres télévisuels d’information, Réseaux 15:81, 79–101. Charaudeau, Patrick (1997b), Le discours d’information médiatique. La construction du miroir social, Paris, Nathan. Charaudeau, Patrick (22011), Les médias et l’information. L’impossible transparence du discours, Bruxelles, De Boeck. Dammann, Günter (2000), Textsorten und literarische Gattungen, in: Klaus Brinker et al. (edd.), Textund Gesprächslinguistik: ein internationales Handbuch zeitgenössischer Forschung, vol. 1, Berlin/New York, de Gruyter, 546–561. Dimter, Matthias (1981), Textklassenkonzepte heutiger Alltagssprache, Tübingen, Niemeyer. Duccini, Hélène (1998), La télévision et ses mises en scènes, Paris, Nathan. Dufiet, Jean-Paul (2009), Manipulation et information fictionnelle, Communication 27:2, 133– 149. Große, Ernst Ulrich/Seibold, Ernst (1994), Typologie des genres journalistiques, in: Ernst Ulrich Große/Ernst Seibold (edd.), Panorama de la presse parisienne. Histoire et actualité, genres et langages, Frankfurt am Main et al., Lang, 32–55. Eco, Umberto (1985), Tv: la trasparenza perduta, in: Umberto Eco, Sette anni di desiderio. Cronache 1977–1983, Milano, Bompiani, 163–179. Ekman, Paul/Sorenson, E. Richard/Friesen, Wallace V. (1969), Pan-Cultural Elements in Facial Display of Emotions, Science 164, 86–88. Fix, Ulla (2008), Texte und Textsorten – sprachliche, kommunikative und kulturelle Phänomene, Berlin, Frank & Timme. Hickethier, Knut (2002), Genretheorie und Genreanalyse, in: Jürgen Felix (ed.), Moderne Film Theorie, Mainz, Bender, 62–96.

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Holly, Werner (2002), Fernsehspezifik von Präsentationsformen und Texttypen, in: Joachim-Felix Leonhard et al. (edd.), Medienwissenschaft. Ein Handbuch zur Entwicklung der Medien und Kommunikationsformen, vol. 3, Berlin/New York, de Gruyter, 2452–2464. Houdebine-Gravaus, Anne-Marie (1991), La mise en scène gestuelle, in: Patrick Charaudeau (ed.), La Télévision. Les débats culturels “Apostrophes”, Paris, Didier Érudition, 93–101. Hutchby, Ian (2005), Conversation analysis and the study of broadcast talk, in: Kristine L. Fitch/Robert E. Sanders (edd.), Handbook of Language and Social Interaction, Mahwah (N.J.), Erlbaum, 437– 460. Jolicoeur, Martin (2014), Le politicien entre stratégies et contraintes: l’analyse conversationnelle et l’analyse du discours pour revisiter la problématique des genres en communication publique, Colloque annuel des Journées de linguistique, Québec, CIRAL. Jost, François (1997), La promesse des genres, Réseaux 15:81, 11–31. Jost, François (2003), La télévision du quotidien. Entre réalité et fiction, Bruxelles, De Boeck. Jost, François (2009), Comprendre la télévision et ses programmes, Paris, Colin. Jost, François (2011), “Mode” oder “monde”? Zwei Wege zur Definition von Fernsehgenres, in: Jörg Türschmann/Birgit Wagner (edd.), TV global. Erfolgreiche Fernseh-Formate im internationalen Vergleich, Bielefeld, Transcript, 19–35. Keane, Michael/Fung, Anthony/Moran, Albert (2007), New Television, Globalisation, and the East Asian Cultural Imagination, Hong Kong, Hong Kong University Press. Kilborn, Richard (2003), Staging the Real. Factual TV programming in the Age of “Big Brother”, Manchester/New York, Manchester University Press. Koch, Peter/Oesterreicher, Wulf (22011), Gesprochene Sprache in der Romania, Berlin/New York, de Gruyter. Labov, William (1976), Sociolinguistique, traduit de l’anglais par Alain Kihm, Paris, Minuit. Lebsanft, Franz (2001), Sprache und Massenkommunikation, in: Günter Holtus/Michael Metzeltin/ Christian Schmitt (edd.), Lexikon der Romanistischen Linguistik, vol. I,2: Methodologie Tübingen, Niemeyer, 292–304. Lochard, Guy/Boyer, Henri (1998), La communication médiatique, Paris, Seuil. Lochard, Guy/Soulange, Jean-Claude (1998), La communication télévisuelle, Paris, Colin. Lüger, Heinz-Helmut (21995), Pressesprache, Tübingen, Niemeyer. Lüger, Heinz-Helmut/Lenk, Hartmut E. H. (2008), Kontrastive Medienlinguistik. Ansätze, Ziele, Analyse, in: Heinz-Helmut Lüger/Hartmut E.H. Lenk (edd.), Kontrastive Medienlinguistik, Landau, Verlag Empirische Pädagogik, 11–28. Martel, Guylaine (2002), Personnifier l’information, Communication au 70e Congrès annuel de l’Association canadienne-française pour l’avancement des sciences (Acfas), Université Laval, Québec (mai 2002). Martel, Guylaine (2004), Humaniser les téléjournaux. Les lieux privilégiés du journalisme d’interaction au Québec, Les Cahiers du journalisme 13, 182–205. Martel, Guylaine (2008), Un point de vue interactionnel sur la communication médiatique, in: Marcel Burger (ed.), L’analyse linguistique des discours médiatiques. Entre sciences du langage et sciences de la communication, Québec, Nota bene, 113–133. Martel, Guylaine (ed.) (2010), Mises en scène du discours médiatique, Numéro spécial: Communication 27:2. Martel, Guylaine, et al. (2010), Variations sociodiscursives dans la mise en scène de l’information télévisée, in: Wim Remysen/Diane Vincent (edd.), Hétérogénéité et homogénéité dans les pratiques langagières: mélanges offerts à Denise Deshaies, Québec, Presses de l’Université Laval, 87–114. Mauroni, Elisabetta/Piotti, Mario (edd.) (2010), L’italiano televisivo. 1976–2006, Firenze, Accademia della Crusca.

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McCombs, Maxwell E./Shaw, Donald L. (1972), Agenda-Setting-Function of Mass Media, The Public Opinion Quarterly 36:2, 176–187. Mikos, Lothar (2008), Film- und Fernsehanalyse, Konstanz, UVK. Mittell, Jason (2001), A cultural approach to television genre theory, Cinema Journal 40:3, 3–24. Nies, Fritz (1978), Das Ärgernis “Historiette”. Für eine Semiotik der literarischen Gattungen, Zeitschrift für romanische Philologie 89, 421–439. Reinke, Kristin (2004), Sprachnorm und Sprachqualität im frankophonen Fernsehen Québecs. Untersuchung anhand phonologischer und morphologischer Variablen, Tübingen, Niemeyer. Reinke, Kristin, en coll. avec Luc Ostiguy (2005), La langue à la télévision québécoise: aspects sociophonétiques, Québec, Office québécois de la langue française. Rusch, Gebhard/Hauptmeier, Helmut (1988), Projektbericht Mediengattungstheorie, SFB 240, Universität Siegen. Schaeffer, Jean-Marie (1986), Du texte au genre, in: Gérard Genette/Tristan Todorov (edd.), Théorie des genres, Paris, Seuil, 179–205. Schmidt, Siegfried J. (2003), Kognitive Autonomie und soziale Orientierung. Konstruktivistische Bemerkungen zum Zusammenhang von Kognition, Kommunikation, Medien und Kultur, Münster, LIT. Schmidt, Siegfried J./Weischenberg, Siegfried (1994), Mediengattungen, Berichterstattungsmuster, Darstellungsformen, in: Klaus Merten/Siegfried J. Schmidt/Siegfried Weischenberg (edd.), Die Wirklichkeit der Medien, Opladen, Westdeutscher Verlag, 212–236. Schmitz, Ulrich (2004), Sprache in modernen Medien. Einführung in Tatsachen und Theorien, Themen und Thesen, Berlin, Schmidt. Scollon, Ron (1998), Mediated Discourse as Social Interaction. A Study of News Discourse, London, Longman. Shoemaker, Pamela J./Vos, Tim P. (2009), Gatekeeping Theory, New York, Routledge. Thompson, John B. (1995), The Media and Modernity. A Social Theory of the Media, Cambridge, Polity Press. Türschmann, Jörg/Wagner, Birgit (2011), Vorwort, in: Jörg Türschmann/Birgit Wagner (edd.), TV global. Erfolgreiche Fernseh-Formate im internationalen Vergleich, Bielefeld, Transcript, 7–16. Veyrat-Masson, Isabelle (2008), Télévision et histoire, la confusion des genres. Docudramas, docufictions et fictions du réel, Bruxelles, De Boeck.

Kathrin Wenz

5 Online Text Types Abstract: Online text types are of particular interest for text linguistics due to the option to analyze developing discourse traditions and emerging text types and genres. First, this can be observed in formulated guidelines, the netiquette. Second, applying text linguistic theories established before the creation of the world-spanning net of web pages to analyze online text types helps to describe their key characteristics, i.e., hypertextuality, interactivity, fluidity, and multimodality. At the same time, emerging boundaries of these theories are discussed and new approaches presented, for instance the importance to extend text linguistics to include multimodal and typographic aspects or the notion of shortness. Third, it is shown that an increased fragmentation of written texts and the dissolving frontiers between text types require new classifications. One possible option lies in analyzing text genres instead of the broader categories of text types.  

Keywords: fragmentation, multimodality, netiquette, online text types, text linguistics  

1 Terminology The World Wide Web (WWW) as an immense world-spanning net of web pages offers countless options to present content, to find information, and to communicate with others. Since the 1990s, written documents have been transferred to this virtual world, adapted, and modified. New forms of communication have been invented, rejected, or developed further. Some of these text types have been around since the early 1990s, e.g., e-mails, chats, and blogs. Others, like social networks, microblogging etc. were only introduced in the 2000s. All text types are defined as forms of communication and can be distinguished from one another by formal and technical characteristics.1 The categories are number of participants, mediality, degree of synchronicity, and sign limitation. Ermert introduced this definition with the term Kommunikationsform or form of communication; the idea has been adopted by Brinker and developed further (cf. Ermert 1979; Brinker 1997). Within a text type, a variety of text genres can be applied and used for specific communicative needs and functions. Hence, a text type comprises a group of texts in the same format without considering the pragmatic and  

1 The concept text type has been used by various scholars in text linguistics with different meanings that deviate from the definition employed in this contribution (for a detailed overview cf. Heinemann 2000, 523ss.). DOI 10.1515/9783110314755-006

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the situational embedding. A text genre, however, is in addition to formal aspects clearly defined by both inherent and external features. Inherent features are semantic sequences, cohesion elements and deictic references; external features that have to be taken into account are the situation of the communication, the roles of the participants, and the purpose of the communication. These genres are routines developed in communities to facilitate recurrent communicative needs. In every Romance language there are different discourse traditions and accordingly diverging genres. Text linguistics has to take into account these varying genres which can form the foundation for emerging text genres online. Since online communication is not restricted to users’ offline speech community, comparative studies of the differences in online communication between Romance (and other) languages are needed.

2 The linguistic research framework of online text types A common feature of all the online text types is the medium. A medium is an instrument or a device that enhances, produces, stores, and reproduces signs. In the case of online texts the medium is “tertiary”, because an electronic device, i.e., a computer or a smartphone, is needed both for production and reception (Dürscheid 2005, 2). Internet technology offers specific features for communication that users adapt, transform, change, or reject for their communicative aims. Thus, the text types and the emerging communicative routines are not only defined by technical settings; they emerge rather as a mutual negotiation between social and communicative purposes and the formal options (cf. Pentzold/Fraas/Meier 2013, 86; Holly 2011). This negotiation is designated by the term affordances. This term, deriving from the field of psychology of perception, stands for the fact that technical possibilities support and boost specific applications and communicative habits while preventing and inhibiting other options. The digital environment of the online text types differs in some points from that of offline text types. The distinctive features which emerge from the technical disposition of the medium itself are hypertextuality, interactivity, multimodality, and fluidity. None of these aspects were introduced or invented with the development of Internet technology, but the technical possibilities support and boost their importance for online text types.

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2.1 Hypertextuality A widely discussed question in text linguistics is whether the online text types and the various online text genres can be described and analyzed with the same categories and theories as the offline texts. This is especially important for the notion of hypertext. This structured principle is characteristic of the WWW and consists of units of information that are connected by links (cf. Burger 2014, 448ss.). The idea of hypertext goes back to an idea developed by Vannevar Bush in 1945 to store and organize knowledge (cf. Eckkrammer/Eder 2000; Seitz 2008). It was used in text types even before the rise of the Internet, like dictionaries, scientific articles, and encyclopedia. In contrast to traditional books and texts, the online text types contain a lot of hyperlinks that can be directly accessed by selecting and thus activating the link. In text linguistics, the question arises if the hypertext is a form of text that possesses the same characteristics as a paper-based text (cf. Endres 2004; Storrer 2000). This matter has been answered by distinguishing between hypertext as a structure of the WWW and a specific hypertext document (cf. Endres 2004, 40). The hypertext structure cannot be considered a form of text; it rather presents an organization system. A digital document or text, like a personal homepage, is divided into different pages that are linked via hypertexts and usually accompanied by a navigation bar on the side of each page. Each of these documents presents a self-contained text unit and can be described with the established categories for offline texts (cf. Eckkrammer 2002, 41; Endres 2004, 38). The discrete text parts, however, are not related by cohesive means; the links refer to other text parts by thematic or intertextual relations. These cohesive means and their typographic realizations deserve further study since links are increased in online text types and present a wider range of relations than links in paper-based encyclopedias or scientific articles.

2.2 Interactivity Interactivity is becoming a more prominent feature with the evolution of the WWW. Users are not only able to access information, use services to communicate, or choose their way along the hyperlinks, but they can themselves create content and publish it online (cf. Pentzold/Fraas/Meier 2013, 89). This changes modern societies radically, because the small number of journalists producing news and mass media content are not the gatekeepers of the information anymore. On the Internet, everybody can contribute and publicly announce a personal point of view. Bruns created the term produser for this development to show the dissolution of the frontiers between producers and users (cf. Bruns 2008, 21). This also allows for different or new text types to be used in public spaces and to enhance the textual variety in the digital world. Furthermore, a growing number of web pages contain an option for commentaries. This feature enables discussions between readers and author(s) of a text and

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seems to have become the most important text genre on the Internet (cf. Mishne/ Glance 2006; Schulmeister 2010). Moreover, messages can be sent via Internet technology virtually instantaneously. This contributes to the interactivity in virtual texts and online communication.2 The increased interactivity can also influence the notion of authorship. Internet technology allows for the creation of intertwined and linked texts which can have repercussions for further communication. Information or opinions can be published referring to an article, a discussion or a video by including a hashtag or a hyperlink to the source. The option to share content via embedded linking allows for the introduction of a video or an audio file, even a whole post, into the text of another person. The option to share content is already implemented in a number of services. Questions of authorship can follow, because even if links and trackback are provided for all the content from other sources, the texts present a hybrid collage or mix of various elements (cf. Miles 2006, 221). The author of this new text does not actually create new content; they rather choose and combine already existing elements to create a new text. Does this have an impact on the notion of authorship? On the one hand, the collection of content can be seen as a personal filter for the mass of information on the WWW, which can help the audience find the most relevant content. In this case, however, the person sharing the content cannot be considered the author. On the other hand, the arrangement of information in a different context and creative collage technique can also be viewed as a totally new text and thus a new content provided by the author. On Twitter, retweeting a post, i.e., sharing the tweet of another person and adding the abbreviation RT followed by the name of the author, can cause problems with the attribution of this tweet (cf. Yus Ramos 2010, 163s.). First, the retweeted messages can become ambiguous, because users tend to resume or shorten the original tweet to fit the 140 sign limitation. The users in many cases do not know the original message and what parts the other author added or altered. Second, the retweet includes the source or the original author of the tweet. If a tweet has been retweeted more than once, some users tend to cite only the person the tweet has been taken from, the most recent one or the whole chain or retweets (cf. Boyd/Golder/Lotan 2010). In brief, the technical possibilities of the medium influence and alter the notion of authorship and the attribution of content to its owner. It is important for text linguistics to account for these changes and to analyze the collage techniques evolving through sharing and embedding text, audio and video files.

2 The conception of text types off and on the Internet has been widely debated and discussed (cf. Koch/ Oesterreicher 22011). The questions are how these text types or text genres can be described and if they can be compared to oral communication (cf. Dürscheid 2003; Kattenbusch 2002; Thaler 2008). For studies regarding chats cf. Anis (2003), Frank-Job (2010), Spelz (2009); for blogs cf. Durkiewicz (2009), Schlobinski/Siever (2005); and regarding other text types or general reflections on the subject cf. Luzzati (1991), Moraldo (2012), Pistolesi (2004), Panckhurst (2006) and Véronis/Guimier de Neef (2006).

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2.3 Multimodality Multimodality, being the third major category, refers to the fact that online texts not only contain writing but consist of different signs, i.e., writing, images, and embedded audio and video files (cf. also ↗11 Analyzing Multicodal Media Texts). This is – as in the case of hypertextuality – not a new characteristic of texts. Written language has always been combined with images or arranged in typographical structures to reinforce meaning. Examples of such combinations can be found in medieval manuscripts, children’s literature, poems, advertisement, and newspaper articles or flyers. Computer technology, however, simplifies the inclusion of written text, images, audios or videos on the same screen surface. Every part of a text, i.e., every sign, contributes to the main message and to the understanding of the text as a whole. Hence, a multimodal approach has become indispensable for text linguistics, a discipline that concentrated essentially on the writing and less on images and typographic presentation of texts. Recently, there have been big efforts in the fields of semiotics (cf. Kress/van Leeuwen 22006) and text linguistics (cf. Stöckl 2004) to combine the analysis of writing and non-written signs. The importance of multimodal approaches, and the inclusion of picture analysis in linguistics, clearly show the efforts to establish a Bildlinguistik [‘image linguistics’] (cf. Diekmannshenke/Klemm/Stöckl 2011, title of the collection). The necessity for a multimodal approach in text linguistics to describe online text types is becoming more and more evident with the evolution of the social web.3 In contrast to chat, e-mail, and forum conversations which are mainly based on writing, online services, like social networks, microblogging, photo and video sharing applications contain a variety of signs. Research interests lie in particular in the relationship of writing and images in a text, the typography, i.e., the arrangement of the signs on the screen, and specific picture conventions that are developing, e.g., the selfie.4 Typographic composition, which also plays an important role in offline press publications, is indeed relevant, because the flow and volume of information has increased enormously and even written texts are arranged in such a way to capture the attention of the readers and to convey a message. Schmitz confirms this: “Typography catches, wording is subordinated”5 (Schmitz 2003, 246). The textual arrangements and visuality of the whole text play an important role, because users are offered huge amounts of information in a short time. This implies that users first catch a glimpse of the pictures and typographic design before starting to read a text or watch a video.  

3 The social web is a designation for the web applications that allow the users to publish and easily upload texts, pictures, video and audio files, e.g., the blog platforms, the social networks and the microblogging sites. 4 A selfie is a picture taken with a smartphone or photo camera; the person seen in the photo takes a picture of him or herself by extending the arm with the cell phone. 5 ‘Das Schriftbild fängt, der Wortlaut ist nachgeordnet’ (translation above by the author).  

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2.4 The creation and evolution of online text types and text genres Text genres are not invented; they emerge and evolve in a speech community or a society slowly over time to facilitate both communicative routines for recurring situations and production as well as reception of a message. With the massive use of online communication, the question arises whether traditional text genres are simply transferred to the digital world, transformed there into something else, or are entirely new ones created. In the case of the early web, it can be observed that a lot of conventional text genres can be found, but they were adapted and modified in regard to their new embedding. This indicates that text types in the WWW develop from discourse traditions in a speech community more or less continuously to form new and independent types and genres. In the following, three examples of text types will show the different forms of evolution of online text types and text genres.

2.4.1 E-mails In the case of e-mails, the paper-based letter is seen as the model for this type of communication as also indicated by the designation itself (cf. Cusin-Berche 1999; Elspaß 2002; Panckhurst 1998). This view is not shared by every linguist, however. For example, López Alonso (2006) does not see e-mails as an evolution of the paper-based letters, but rather as its own and independent genre.6 Nonetheless, common features of paper-based and digital mail are salutation and goodbye formulas, a signature and an address. Attention was drawn to functions that differentiate the digital from the paper-based mail, as for example the subject case, the option to write and respond easily to one or many persons, to attach documents, and to create a dialogue by introducing answers and text fragments in the received text that are marked by angle brackets. Since the sending and receiving of a message only takes a few seconds, a dialogue similar to chat conversations can build up. The rapidity of this form of communication in comparison to the slow exchange of paper-based letters has an influence on the various letter text genres evolving in the e-mail environment. Commercial correspondence, cover letters, and official invitations still follow the same established conventions in a society as before the rise of the WWW. Inappropriate style or spelling mistakes in formal letters (cf. Panckhurst 1998, 49ss.) are rather due to the rising speed of communication and the novelty of this form of communication than to a real change in the text genre of the official letter. In a more private setting, however, e-mail messages can become shorter, show more interactive features and are sent within shorter time lapses than traditional letters and converge with text

6 Große (2012) offers a critical discussion of the different e-mail typologies and the comparison between e-mails and paper-based letters.

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messages or chat conversations. Personal and private paper-based letters have not disappeared; the practice of the text forms has differentiated. Thus, paper-based letters have acquired a higher status and are reserved for private communication purposes with longer texts that are thoughtfully structured and elaborated.

2.4.2 Online newspapers Traditional paper-based newspapers rapidly established online appearances and homepages for their readers. In the late 1990s, most of the print articles were uploaded to the website without adapting or changing either the content or the presentation (cf. Yus Ramos 2010, 95). Burger states that the potentials of the hypertext structures were not adequately exploited and the multimodality was scarce (cf. Burger 2014, 483ss.). Over time, the articles and other elements of the online newspapers changed and became cross-media products. Consequently, the content is divided into smaller parts to fit the computer screen. Images and videos supplement the texts and the first page contains only teasers with hyperlinks to access the articles. Moreover, the hyperlinks can also direct users to sources, different articles, and other information (cf. Burger 2014, 490). The interactivity has steadily increased with commentary functions for each article instead of a section with letters to the editors, online polls and options for readers to add their own pictures, or for sharing and tweeting articles. The anthology by Cardon (2006) treats especially the mutual influences of weblogs and webzines as well as online and traditional journalism (cf. Pledel 2006; Mancera Rueda 2011). Meanwhile, in addition to homepages with options to download the print version of the newspaper and online adapted articles, many publishing companies offer specialized services (so-called apps) for portable devices such as tablets and smartphones. The content can be presented on each device with different key aspects and time lapses. The mobile versions of articles for tablets and smartphones, for example, contain less text due to the smaller screens and are updated more frequently than the online articles. Meanwhile, the Internet has also altered the pace of news publishing. Instead of publishing an article about an accident or the result of a football match a few hours after the event, the format tends to become a live ticker where new information is published every few minutes. This fluidity and changing of the published information has significantly increased with the evolution of smartphones and provides the readers with nearly instantaneous updates of the news in the entire world. The evolution of the distribution and presentation of information is omnipresent and has repercussions on the print versions of the newspapers. As in the online news articles, the texts in the print versions become shorter and more clustered; the information is structured for accessibility and attracts readers with visual content. In brief, pages do not contain mainly text and a few images, but rather images with different boxes that contain the textual information arranged to present a visual idea of the content.

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2.4.3 Weblogs Even if weblogs7 have been claimed the only unique digital text type (cf. Blood 2002, xi), they still have predecessors that share some of the features and serve as sources of inspiration. On the one hand, there are not only print genres, but online text types that have been replaced by the blog type. The personal homepage and the electronic guest book are two early online text genres that disappeared with the emergence of blogs, especially with the introduction of blogging tools and platforms that simplified and facilitated the creation and maintenance of content (cf. Klein 2001). The blog concept is more dynamic due to the inverted chronological order, the growing blogging community and its archive and tagging systems. Blogs enable participation through commentaries, blogroll, private messages or even chat functions that were beforehand restricted to the external guest books (cf. Yus Ramos 2010, 119). On the other hand, in the text type blog, a wide range of different blog genres has evolved (cf. Orihuela 2006). The blog itself constitutes only a technical structure that can be used for multiple purposes (cf. Couleau/Hellégouarc’h 2010; Primo et al. 2013). There have been various proposals as how to define the different blog genres and to distinguish them from one another. Topic based categories are abundant; for instance Herring et al. (2004) divide blogs into the most popular categories, “filterblogs”, “personal journal”, and as a third category “k-blog” or “knowledge-blog”. The sociologist Klein (2007) proposes a typology based on the work of Cardon/Delaunay-Téterel (2006) that focuses on the relation between author and content and between author and audience. These distinctions offer a first approach, but do not account for the text genres used in the blog types. Studies show that even in the blog of one person a variety of text genres are used for the blog posts, for instance the paper by Primo et al. about Brazilian blogs (2013), Lehti (2011), Soumela-Salmi (2009) on blogs of French politicians and Wenz (2017) about French personal blogs. A blog therefore presents rather a bricolage of posts. This indicates that a text linguistic approach has to tackle at the level of a single blog post rather than on the blog as a whole (cf. examples of different text genres presented in Rouquette 2009).

7 Weblogs, or in short blogs, are websites that contain posts to various topics that are organized in reversed chronological order.

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3 Divergent text types and dissolving differentiations Online text types are distinguished by a number of categories; the most important are the number of participants, the interactivity, the mediality, the degree of synchronicity, and the sign limitations (cf. Anis 2003). This differentiation helps to get a first understanding of the text types. With the continuing development of Internet technology, the frontiers between the text types are becoming less and less clear. The number of participants, for instance, can change from two people in an e-mail, a private chat or a private message in a social network, to a one-to-many conversation in blogs, through tweets from a politician with thousands of followers and e-mails, to a many-to-many conversation in chat rooms or twitter comments evolving around a topic. The interactivity is extremely high in all the online text types because of the commentary function, the option to share content and the “like” buttons. The degree of synchronicity is especially high in chat communication, but does vary considerably in all the text types depending on the situation and circumstances. Sign limitation is only a distinctive feature of microblogging services. The mediality can present a category to differentiate some, but not all of the online text types, as the following examples demonstrate. Video-sharing websites enable users to view, share, or upload videos. There are also written elements, like titles, descriptions, and commentaries, but the videos are the main focus of these websites. Photography and images are the most important part of social network sites. Chat, e-mail, digital encyclopedia, and microblogging services are foremost composed of written signs. However, pictures can be included and are becoming increasingly important.8 Nevertheless, text types like social networks, and weblogs, cannot be categorized by their multimodality. The weblog setting allows for blogs to include only writing or to create rich media blogs including images, writing, audio, and video files (cf. Miles 2006). Social network sites also allow the embedding of pictures, videos, written text and links to other pages. In addition, these sites combine a variety of already existing text types. First, members can, next to the publicly displayed friendships and messages on the wall, engage in chat conversations or send private messages that resemble e-mails. Second, photo albums can be created and published. And third, the social networks can be used in a similar way to a blog.9 Summing up, the categories to distinguish the online text types tend to lose viability, because all the text types allow a flexible use and a wide range of functions. Furthermore, more recent text types, like social networks, converge various ways of 8 A study shows that tweets are more frequently retweeted when containing photos or pictures and generate more overall engagement (cf. Stadd 2014). 9 Schildhauer demonstrated a function differentiation between social networks and blogs: the former is used for short status updates and the latter for longer and in depth reflections (cf. Schildhauer 2014).

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communicating that were beforehand separated and restricted to individual text types. The degree of multimodality shows the most significant differences between the existing forms of communication; still, this does not suffice for a classification. One problem of the approach seems to be the focus on solely formal categories of the text types. The content and the numerous usages that evolve in each text type separately, as well as throughout different text types, are not considered. Even if different services belong to the same group, they can be used for various purposes: One service is not only used to share pictures, but has a lot of social network features. Another service focuses more on the presentation of high quality and nearly professional photography. Accordingly, social networks are used more for close and private relationships, while other networks enable maintaining and establishing business contacts. It becomes clear that a text linguistic classification cannot stop on the text type level but has to include the communicative routines and text genres evolving within every text type. Instead of drawing attention to text types, in fact a possible path in text linguistics is to consider text genres that are not bound to a singular text type and are used throughout different text types. One example is the commentary, which is included in nearly every text type. Several scholars have analyzed the world of online comments and conversations that depend on the content of the main text (cf. Fiorentino 2011; Pano 2008; Schulmeister 2010; Wenz 2017). Status updates can be found in blogs, microblogging, and in social networks, and the existing results could be deepened and compared (cf. Moraldo 2012). Internet phenomena, like macro images, originally published and distributed in image boards, have acquired such popularity that they are shared through all possible communication canals.10 These are only a few examples of text genres that can be found in various online text types and could be examined to acquire a more detailed understanding of the textual conventions building in the WWW.

4 Fragmented and hybrid texts The observation that online texts contain less writing than similar paper-based texts depends less on the hypertext structure than on the screen format and the way content is presented and consumed. For easy accessibility, the whole text is adapted to fit the screen. The different sizes of the used devices, i.e., laptops, tablets, and smartphones demand different arrangements. The smaller the screen the less information, and thus written text can appear for the users to read. Other aspects that stimulate the creation of shorter text forms are the acceleration of communication and the increased visual-

10 Macro images are a form of memes, often humorous or ironic cultural units that comment on current events or daily life.

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ity, as discussed in the anthology Testi brevi, which revolves around short texts and the fragmentation of texts in digital environments (cf. Held/Schwarze 2011). The various articles show that scarcity is manifest in various offline and especially online text genres. Another important aspect creating hybrid texts is the fluidity. Online newspapers or blogs that are updated daily, or even more frequently, contain mostly fragments of texts. Combined, these text parts, for instance in a live ticker, can provide all the information on a specific topic. The information is released in small fragments and does not necessarily form a whole cohesive unit. Alternatively, a text is updated to include more recent information without changing the title or indicating the changes. For text linguistics, this fluidity represents a challenge to define a text as a research object. An analysis would have to include a diachronic point of view to take into account all possible changes from the first publication up to the moment of the assembling of a corpus. In addition, texts can present a hybrid mix of different conventional text genres. The online text genres do not only adapt already existing text genres to the new medium and communicative needs, but combine patterns from various genres to create new digital text genres. This shows that comparisons to conventional text genres can be valuable, but it is imperative to also consider the new text genres as independent and unique (cf. López Alonso 2006). This way, the analyses focus more on the specific communicative aims and the emerging conventions in the digital world.

5 Netiquette The creation of text types and the emergence of communicative routines and text genres within these online text types cannot be viewed as the result of a continuous process of negotiation between the users, their aims, and the attributes of the medium. These negotiations or discussions present an interesting subject of analysis since potential conventions and norms for emerging text genres are discussed. The question of how to behave in a certain online situation can be debated and decided by different actors. On the one hand, there are groups where every interested user can contribute to the negotiation by proposing rules for the behavior and for the style of the messages. Often, users who have been part of an online community for a long time and earned respect and popularity among the group have a higher impact in establishing a norm or a rule. These negotiations emerge in the dynamic of the group; the conventions can change over time until the group agrees on a set of guidelines. On the other hand, in some communities hosts and moderators observe the communication and warn or even punish users’ misbehavior, for instance by restricting access to the community. The rules or advice for social behavior, textual and graphic conventions, politeness, and style are called netiquette in French or cibermaneras in Spanish (Yus Ramos 2010, 276). They can be implicitly respected by the members of a group or be expressed in a special section for everybody to view. Of course, these guidelines

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also influence the structure, the style, and the content of the text genres used in a chat community or on a blog platform. The discussions on text genres are particularly of interest in the discussion boards of the Wikipedia community (cf. Bruns 2008, 101ss.; Levrel 2006). The users debate the characteristics of encyclopedia entries, i.e., an objective point of view, or references to sources in order to maintain a certain standard and quality of the articles. Nonetheless, negotiations around the netiquette can be found in various text types (cf. Große 2012, 154ss.; Strätz 2011, 64s.). Furthermore, textual conventions are building over time in and through text types. On microblogging sites, for instance, textual patterns do not only concern the structure, the orthographic conventions, and the style but also the time of publication. Some posts are only published on a specific weekday and have received a designation. The first to emerge was the “Follow Friday”, when users recommended their followers other accounts. This time-based convention has been extended to “Transformation Tuesday” to publish pictures of people who have transformed themselves or their lives and “Throwback Thursday” to commemorate childhood memories (cf. Moraldo 2012; Boyd/Golder/Lotan 2010). Another important feature is the hashtag, which has become standard in many text types.11 By searching the keyword, all the entries and information tagged with this word can be found. This means that hyperlinks or trackbacks are no longer required in order to take part in an ongoing discussion around a topic. Thus, this convention can influence and change textual patterns in an online environment.

6 Conclusion The main focus in text linguistic research lies in exploring specific characteristics of the medium of the online texts, i.e., hypertextuality, fluidity, interactivity, and multimodality. Especially multimodal aspects of text types and text genres have to be analyzed in more detail and included in the text linguistic framework. Another important aspect has been the categorization of the existing text types. Since classification relies heavily on technical and formal characteristics, an understanding of the developing text genres within a text type cannot be accounted for. The investigations focusing rather on text genres that emerge within and throughout online text types provide useful insights in these communicative routines. Most of the analyses concentrate on one Romance language; thus, in further research, comparisons of the Romance text genres and communicative conventions should be pursued. It seems that the creation of a world-spanning net of web pages results in a global unification. Does this globalization also have an impact on the creation and use of the same text genres and styles that emerge in each of the Romance languages?

11 A hashtag is a label or tag that includes # followed by a keyword added to a blog post or a message.

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For the study of the first text types and text genres in the WWW, the comparison of the new textual forms with the conventionalized paper-based text genres proved valuable describing the online text worlds. Meanwhile, online communication has evolved further, so that analyses should rather focus on the specific situation and the function of the online communication without comparing the new text types to the paper-based text types. The introduction of new categories or notions, e.g., the concept of “shortness” as proposed by Held/Schwarze (2011), can be necessary for an adequate description. Similar to the text linguistic research of paper-based text genres, problems arise also regarding the online text types and text genres due to the denominations of the users on the one hand and the desire to establish a linguistic classification of text genres on the other. Despite the manifold text types and genres that have emerged in the digital era, text linguistics can help gain a deeper understanding of this multimodal communication.  

7 References Androutsopoulos, Jannis K. (2007), Neue Medien – neue Schriftlichkeit?, Mitteilungen des Deutschen Germanistenverbandes 54:1, 72–97. Anis, Jacques (2003), Communication électronique scripturale et formes langagières, in: Actes des Quatrièmes Rencontres Réseaux Humains / Réseaux Technologiques, Poitiers, 31 mai et 1er juin 2002, “Documents, Actes et Rapports pour l’Éducation”, CNDP 4, 57–70. Blood, Rebecca (2002), Introduction, in: John Rodzvilla (ed.), We’ve Got Blog: How Weblogs are Changing Our Culture, Cambridge (MA), Perseus Publishing, ix–xiii. Boyd, Danah/Golder, Scott/Lotan, Gilad (2010), Tweet, Tweet, Retweet: Conversational Aspects of Retweeting on Twitter, 43rd Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS), (19.10.2016). Brinker, Klaus (1997), Linguistische Textanalyse – Eine Einführung in Grundbegriffe und Methoden, Berlin, Schmidt. Bruns, Axel (2008), Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and Beyond, New York, Lang. Burger, Harald (2014), Mediensprache: Eine Einführung in Sprache und Kommunikationsformen der Massenmedien, Berlin/Boston, de Gruyter. Cardon, Dominique (ed.) (2006), Autopublications, Réseaux 137 (numéro spécial). Cardon, Dominique/Delaunay-Téterel, Hélène (2006), La production de soi comme technique relationnelle. Un essai de typologie des blogs par leurs publics, Réseaux 24:138, 15–71. Couleau, Christèle/Hellégouarc’h, Pascale (edd.) (2010), Les blogs. Écritures d’un nouveau genre?, Itinéraires – Littérature, Textes, Cultures 2010:2 (numéro spécial). Cusin-Berche, Fabienne (1999), Courriel et genres discursifs, in: Jacques Anis (ed.), Internet, communication et langue française, Paris, Hermès Science, 31–54. Diekmannshenke, Hans-Joachim/Klemm, Michael/Stöckl, Hartmut (2011), Bildlinguistik. Theorien – Methoden – Fallbeispiele, Berlin, Schmidt. Dürscheid, Christa (2003), Medienkommunikation im Kontinuum von Mündlichkeit und Schriftlichkeit. Theoretische und empirische Probleme, Zeitschrift für Angewandte Linguistik 38, 37– 56. Dürscheid, Christa (2005), Medien, Kommunikationsformen, kommunikative Gattungen, Linguistik Online 22:1, (19.10.2016).

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Tilman Schröder

6 Aspects of Advertising Language Online Abstract: Online advertising possesses several features that differentiate it from advertising in legacy mass media. Its hypertext design allows for multimodal, interactive and personalized ad formats, which offer numerous opportunities for linguistic research. First analyses of online advertising genres such as commercial websites, web ads, marketing e-mails and corporate social media often rely on traditional linguistic concepts such as text and genre. Their findings suggest that web ads and marketing e-mails tend to resemble offline advertising genres, while commercial websites form new digital genres that combine different features from legacy media advertising. Social media advertising produces new digital genres whose linguistic structures tend to have little in common with traditional advertising. Further research on online advertising and its linguistic structures is critical in the future, particularly with regards to online advertising in Romance languages.  

Keywords: advertising, blogs, digital genre, homepage, hypertext, Facebook, marketing, social media, Twitter, web, websites  

1 Online advertising Online advertising refers to the distribution of promotional messages through Internetbased instruments such as websites, web advertisements, e-mails or social media. The terminology applied to online advertising in research literature varies depending on the source. Online advertising is also known as online marketing, digital marketing or Internet marketing. By contrast, some publications use online advertising exclusively for web advertisements (e.g., banner ads). The present contribution uses online advertising as a generic term that includes all forms of advertising on the Internet, as opposed to traditional advertising through legacy mass media, such as newspapers, radio and television.  

1.1 General features of online advertising Due to its hypertext design, online advertising possesses several features that differentiate it from advertising in legacy mass media. In hypertexts, authors can spread information over several different pages and connect these pages via hyperlinks (cf. Storrer 2008, 319). Web ads, for instance, can work as links that take users directly to a website with purchasing options for the advertised product (cf. Runkehl 2013, 96). Moreover, the multimodal potential of hypertexts allows for incorporating not only DOI 10.1515/9783110314755-007

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text and images, but also animation, videos, music and sound into online advertising (cf. Kollmann 2007, 36). Online advertising can also be interactive, particularly in Web 2.0-based applications: users can purchase products, subscribe to newsletters, write product reviews or directly communicate with the company, thereby dissolving the traditional boundary between sender and receiver that exists in legacy media advertising (ibid., 39). Online advertising also differs from traditional advertising in communications terms. Legacy media advertising typically shows features of push communication, where the transmission of promotional messages is initiated by the sender, e.g., by placing a print advertisement into a newspaper or buying advertisement time on broadcast media. Online advertising, by contrast, can also exhibit features of pull communication, where users deliberately decide to retrieve promotional content at their convenience (cf. Siever 2005, 221s.). This occurs when a user visits a commercial website, subscribes to a company’s newsletters or follows its social media feed. Another important feature of online advertising is its potential for personalization. While mass media advertising is typically impersonal, online advertising can be custom-tailored to individual recipients and their preferences (cf. Kollmann 2007, 41). The ads displayed to a user on the results pages of a search engine, for example, match the user’s previously entered search keywords (cf. Siever 2005, 224). Cookies used by commercial websites can collect information about the browsing and purchasing behavior of an individual user, which enables advertisers to customize the ads a specific user sees while navigating through the web (ibid., 225). Furthermore, technographic targeting allows an advertiser to use connection attributes, such as a geo-located IP address, operating system, browser type and connection speed to target the offer based on aggregate and regional demographic data (ibid.). From a business perspective, online advertising offers even more advantages in comparison with offline advertising. The same tracking methods that are used to customize promotional messages can help evaluate the success rate of certain online advertising instruments, e.g., by measuring the click-through-rate for a banner advertisement or a marketing e-mail, and subsequently the conversion rate of new customers to the solicitations. Similarly, it is possible to count the visitors of a commercial website and evaluate which pages receive most attention (cf. Molenaar 2012, 87). Another advantage is the fact that online advertising messages can be delivered around the clock and around the globe, without any time or space constraints (cf. Janoschka 2004, 47).  

 

1.2 Linguistic research methods and paradigms Linguistic research on online advertising is still at its beginning (cf. Runkehl 2013, 95), despite the fact that commercial websites, web ads, marketing e-mails and corporate social media offer numerous possibilities to conduct linguistic analyses. The existing

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publications on online advertising generally take a synchronic approach. Diachronic perspectives are still rare, since, when compared with traditional print material, at just over 20 years of age, online advertising is still in its infancy. Linguistic analysis of online advertising begins with several studies on web ads in the late 1990s. Through the date of this publication, web ads continue to be the online advertising instrument that has received most linguistic attention, however in the early 2000s, linguists also began to recognize companies’ websites as objects of interest, and corporate social media started to attract linguistic awareness at the end of the same decade. By contrast, e-mail advertising, despite being older than commercial websites or social media, has received less linguistic attention. Marketing literature, on the other hand, extensively debates all forms of online advertising (e.g., Kollmann 2007; Lammenett 2009; Hettler 2010; Weinberg 2010; Homburg 2012 and Molenaar 2012). Most linguistic research on online advertising relies on the concepts of text and genre (cf. Swales 1990; Bhatia 1993; Sandig 1997). Genres (Textsorten) are groups of texts that share a communicative purpose and formal characteristics. Examples of genres in legacy media advertising are print ads, company brochures or customer mailings. When standardized textual entities appear in online media, these are referred to as digital genres or web genres (cf. Crowston/Williams 1997; Rehm 2006; Jakobs 2009). Linguists often use the concept of digital genres to approach the different instruments in online advertising. The multimodal nature of digital genres calls for deploying semiotic analytical models that allow for studying verbal, visual and acoustic textual levels at the same time (cf. Eckkrammer/Held 2006, 2). Linguistic studies of online advertising typically discuss the following questions:  

– – –

What are the structural, verbal and visual characteristics of online advertising genres? How do online advertising genres compare with traditional advertising genres? How do online advertising genres vary across different languages and cultures?

The methodological frameworks used for studying formal characteristics of online advertising genres are diverse and have yet to be standardized. For analyzing the lexis, syntax, rhetoric and pragmatics of online advertising, linguists often refer to analytical models developed for legacy media advertising, such as Leech (1966) for English, Janich (62013 [1999]) for German, Grunig (1990) for French or Ferraz Martínez (2001) for Spanish. Semiotics and multimodality theories (Stöckl 2004; Kress/van Leeuwen 2006) are used to describe the images, typography and layout of online advertising instruments. Dissecting the structure and layout of commercial websites requires even more analytical dimensions. First attempts to establish frameworks for linguistic website analyses can be found in Rehm (2006), Jakobs (2009), Sánchez Prieto (2011) and Schröder (2013). The study of social media advertising and its interactional dimensions, on the other hand, requires methodological borrowings from computer-mediated discourse analysis (e.g., Herring 2001; Jucker/Dürscheid  

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2012). Furthermore, online advertising research frequently extends beyond the traditional boundaries of linguistics and establishes links to computer linguistics, business, marketing and communications research. Linguistic contributions that compare online and traditional advertising genres detect differences on both functional and formal levels (cf. Fortanet/Palmer/Posteguillo 1999; Janich 2002; Rossbach 2002; Juhl Bang 2004; González García 2012). Some consider these differences sufficient for discussing online advertising texts as new digital genres. Others do not see new genres emerging from online advertising texts, given their low level of standardization and their close relationship with traditional advertising genres. Some linguistic studies also adopt a contrastive linguistics approach in the tradition of Hartmann (1980) and Spillner (1981) and uncover culturespecific characteristics in online advertising genres (cf. Wrobel 2003; Schütte 2004; Ylönen 2007). Contrastive perspectives that include Romance languages can be found in Emmerling (2007), Sánchez Prieto (2011), Edo Marzá (2012), Rentel (2012), Schröder (2013) and Reutner (2014).

2 Online advertising in Romance languages While there are ample amounts of linguistic research literature concerning online advertising in English and German, the number of publications focusing on online advertising in Romance languages is considerably lower. The following paragraphs will therefore highlight general findings on the features of online advertising and, when possible, describe specific characteristics of online advertising in French and Spanish.

2.1 Commercial websites 2.1.1 General description Companies maintain commercial websites to generate revenue, which implies that their underlying purpose is persuasive. Most commercial websites, however, are multi-functional units, whose linguistic structures exhibit more than just a persuasive function. The ratio between different textual functions depends on the business model a company pursues with its website (cf. Kollmann 2007, 51s.; Molenaar 2012, 125ss.). As an example, a corporate portal (e.g., peugeot.com, zara.com) can include company information, product descriptions, product purchasing opportunities and contact forms, thereby exhibiting informative, persuasive, transaction-centered and phatic textual functions at the same time. These different functions are fulfilled by diverse sections of the same corporate website (cf. Jakobs 2009, 359). Commercial websites designed to sell products (e.g., amazon.com, voyagermoinscher.com) exhibit persua 

 

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sive and transactional functions, while news portals that generate most of their revenue by selling advertising space are information-centered (lemonde.fr, abc.es). Commercial websites that combine selling advertising space and user data can be orientation-centered (google.com) or connection-centered (facebook.com). A precise classification of commercial websites and their textual functions, however, remains difficult.

2.1.2 Linguistic Research Linguistic contributions have thus far predominantly addressed corporate portals and studied both their macro-level features, such as the overall design and architecture of the website, as well as their micro-level features, i.e., the verbal and visual characteristics of its pages (cf. Wrobel 2003; Grabienski 2005; Ylönen 2007). Additionally, Schmitz (2002) and Juhl Bang (2004) debate the intertextual relationship between commercial websites and the company brochure as a traditional advertising genre. Schütte (2004) exclusively focuses on the homepage as the entry point to a website. While most contributions are based on German or English website corpora, the works of Wedler (2006), Lühken (2010), Sánchez Prieto (2011), Rentel (2012), Reutner/Schubach (2012), Schröder (2013) and Reutner (2014) also include French commercial websites in their analyses. Spanish commercial websites are studied in the works of Emmerling (2007), Sánchez Prieto (2011), González García (2012), Edo Marzá (2012) and Schröder (2013).

2.1.3 Macro-level features The size of different functional sections, the number of pages, and the organization of commercial websites, can vary considerably across different websites, ranging from websites with only a few web pages to larger sites with several thousands of pages and very complex structures. Moreover, commercial websites can incorporate elements from a variety of offline genres, such as product catalogues, image brochures, annual reports or press releases (cf. González García 2012, 18, 25). Web pages are composed of different multimodal layout elements, such as running text, tables, lists, web forms, images and graphics. The header of a page generally includes the company name and its logo, a login form for registered users, a search form and a language selection button (cf. Münz 2008, 238ss.). A navigation bar with links to the most important website sections can usually be found underneath the header. The footer section is composed of links to the company’s contact details, terms and conditions, data protection information or other websites belonging to the same company (cf. Henick 2010, 65). The screen design and navigational structure are the main instruments for achieving coherence on websites (cf. Schmitz 2003, 270).

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There is no general agreement with regards to specific layout features of Romance websites. In a corpus of homepages belonging to German and French commercial websites, Reutner/Schubach (2012, 245ss.) observe stable layout patterns across most German homepages, while the layout of the French homepages tends to vary more. Research on the use of multimodal elements on Romance websites also shows different findings. Reutner (2014, 149), for instance, notes more images on French than on German homepages. French product presentation pages on airline websites, by contrast, seem to include fewer images than their German and Spanish counterparts (cf. Schröder 2013, 174), while Lühken (2010, 256) hardly sees any multimodal content on the product presentation pages of French car manufacturers. Some Spanish companies seem to use elements from offline advertising materials on their websites instead of creating separate multimodal contents (cf. Sánchez Prieto 2011, 15). In general, and regardless of the cultural background, homepages and persuasive sections within a website tend to use more images than informative sections. Despite the multimodal potential of websites, written text continues to play an important role.

2.1.4 Micro-level features The linguistic style of pages within a website strongly depends on their respective communicative purpose. Informative sections tend to exhibit a rather neutral linguistic style, while persuasive sections are more likely to show features of advertising language (cf. González García 2012, 20), such as nouns and adjectives with positive connotations, superlative forms, metaphors, a simple syntax, imperatives and direct questions (cf. Dyer 1982, 303ss.). Headlines and teasers on company websites try to catch a user’s attention by summarizing the promotional message of a page in a few easy-to-memorize words, using a concise and elliptical style (cf. González García 2012, 20), such as “Tout pour une peau sans imperfections” (www.nivea.fr) or “Nivea innova para ti” (www.nivea.es). In this sense, headlines and teasers resemble slogans known from print advertising. For Spanish hotel websites, Edo Marzá (2012, 61) reports an overall nominal style and a high frequency of positive keywords (ibid., 73), as well as many comparative and superlative forms (ibid., 76). Similarly, positive keywords and superlatives are abundant on Spanish airline websites, while they seem to be less frequent on French airline websites (cf. Schröder 2013, 336ss.). With regards to syntax, Wedler (2006), who compares press releases on German and French corporate websites, sees longer sentences and a more complex syntax in the French texts (ibid., 97). Similarly, in a corpus of Spanish tourism websites, González García (2012, 27) observes a rather elaborate syntactical style. An elaborate syntax is also being reported for French and Spanish airline websites (cf. Schröder 2013, 336ss.). In the same corpus of airline websites, the French companies tend to use implicit and narrative linguistic strategies, while promotional messages on Spanish web pages are more explicit and direct

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(ibid., 336ss.). In general, the French and Spanish companies give less detailed information about their products than English and German companies (ibid.). For German and French hotel websites, Rentel (2012, 242ss.) reports a more creative and more reader-centered language in the French texts, as well as a stronger focus on French regional culture and cuisine. In an analysis of tourism websites, Suau Jiménez (2012, 149) discovers a focus on tradition and history in Spanish marketing, while English websites emphasize qualities such as modern, unique and emotional. Images on company websites often show the company’s products, customers or employees. Some websites also use interactive animations or video clips to exhibit their products and services, enabling users to interactively explore the promoted products. The relationship between text and visual modes is often analogical, with both modes essentially giving the same information. Schröder (2013, 336ss.) observes more emotional pictures used in Romance product presentations than in German and English ones. Furthermore, French and Spanish websites tend to use stand-alone images, while German and American websites explain the image contents in written text. On a typographical level, Reutner/Schubach (2012, 238) observe that French homepages exhibit larger numbers of typefaces than German homepages. When highlighting hyperlinks or certain keywords, French homepages are more likely to use capital letters than their German counterparts (ibid., 242). Moreover, French homepages show a more diverse selection of colors than German homepages (ibid., 252). Similarly, González García (2012, 27) notes that Spanish websites use different font colors and sizes to highlight important keywords. The heterogeneous linguistic findings regarding commercial websites suggest that the subject is rather complex. The cultural background of a website is apparently not the only factor that determines its structural and linguistic features. The size of a company, the industry it belongs to, the budgets allocated to web design and the reception habits of its target group also play an important role. Presumably, further research will bring more insights into website design and language, in particular with regards to websites in Romance languages.

2.2 Web advertising 2.2.1 General description Web advertising refers to the paid display of promotional messages on the web. Web ads appear in all corners of the Internet, including commercial websites, discussion forums, private homepages, special interest portals, social network pages and mobile apps. A click on a web ad typically routes Internet users to the advertising company’s website, where they can retrieve further information or directly purchase the company’s products and services (cf. Kollmann 2007, 175s.). Other names for this form of online advertising are banner advertising or display advertising.

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In functional terms, a web ad is supposed to raise awareness and motivate users to click it, but it also needs to provide users with an idea of what to expect on the linked website. Web ads therefore fulfill a phatic, a persuasive and an informative purpose (cf. Janoschka 2004, 193). The commercial nature of web ads allows for concluding that their persuasive function is the dominant one (cf. Sanz Gil 2006, 239). Web statistics show, however, that current web ads barely receive any clicks, which leads Lammenett (2009, 144) to conclude that web ads mainly have a phatic function and serve to build general brand awareness by appearing on the screen. It has been argued that web ads are a form of one-to-many communication, with one sender delivering a message to a widely-dispersed audience (cf. Hettler 2010, 31), which leads Runkehl (2013, 98) to conclude that web ads are the online counterparts of print advertisements. However, with web ads being increasingly customized to individual user profiles, web advertising seems to be shifting towards a one-to-one communication pattern. In general, web ads are considered push advertising communication, because their display on the web does not require the users’ consent (cf. Hettler 2010, 31).

2.2.2 Linguistic Research While early linguistic publications mainly focus on the language used in web ads (cf. Stöckl 1998; Skrzypek 2000), subsequent analyses also study typography, images and sounds of web ads (cf. Janoschka 2004; Siever 2005; Ruiz Madrid 2006; Runkehl/ Janich 2006; Sanz Gil 2006; Runkehl 2013). Sánchez Prieto (2010) is among the first researchers to linguistically examine web ads displayed on the results pages of search engines. The most recent and most comprehensive linguistic analysis of web advertising can be found in Runkehl (2011). While most of the works cited study English or German web ads, Sanz Gil (2006) and Sánchez Prieto (2010) examine web advertising in French and Spanish.

2.2.3 Macro-level features There are different options for positioning web ads on a web page. Embedded web ads, such as the well-known banner ads, are integrated into the screen design of a web page (cf. Homburg 2012, 801). Other formats, such as floating ads, sticky ads, pop ups and interstitials interrupt the browsing process by partially covering a web page, moving along when scrolling down or opening new windows, and can therefore be perceived as bothersome (ibid.). Web ads can only consist of text and still images, or include animated features that are supposed to raise more awareness, such as video clips, forms for entering information, or even entire games that users can play on the screen (cf. Kollmann 2007, 181). The positioning, size and layout types of web adver-

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tisements are globally standardized, as such, the degree of cross-cultural variation is relatively low.

2.2.4 Search engine advertising Ads that appear on the results pages on search engines differ from other web ads in terms of size and layout. Marketing literature therefore tends to treat search engine advertising as a separate category next to display advertising. Search engine ads are typically displayed at the top or the right margin of a search engine’s results page. Search engine ads are exclusively text-based and follow an invariable design pattern set by the hosting search engine. Google Adwords, for example, consist of a headline, two lines of text and the URL of the advertising company (cf. Sánchez Prieto 2010, 339).

2.2.5 Micro-level features Regardless of the specific language, the linguistic features of web ads are similar to the language of traditional print advertising (cf. Runkehl/Janich 2006, 315). Web ads often use positive keywords, e.g., “accessible”, “réussite”, “chance”, “bonheur”, “nouveau”, “special”, “super” in French web ads (cf. Sanz Gil 2006, 242; Sánchez Prieto 2010, 345) and “oferta”, “descuento”, “gratis”, “mayor” in Spanish web ads. Expressions of local and regional deixis are a common trait in Spanish web ads (cf. Siever 2005, 229s.), such as “descargue aquí su código”, “regístrate ya”, but appear less frequently in French web ads (cf. Sanz Gil 2006, 242; Sánchez Prieto 2010, 347). Calques from English are common in French web ads, e.g., “en ligne” or “dernière minute” (cf. Sánchez Prieto 2010, 344). Furthermore, French web ads present numerous abbreviations and acronyms, such as “sympa”, “promo”, “infos” (ibid.) and “en savoir +” instead of “en savoir plus”. Similar to print advertisements, space in web ads is limited (cf. Siever 2005, 230) and exposure times are short, with the effect that the overall linguistic style tends to be concise and elliptical (cf. Runkehl/Janich 2006, 307; Sánchez Prieto 2010, 345). The two main components used in web ads are nominal phrases (cf. Runkehl/Janich 2006, 307), e.g., “garantie illimité” or “ofertas increíbles”, and verbal phrases with imperatives that directly address the users (cf. Sanz Gil 2006, 242; Sánchez Prieto 2010, 345), e.g., “profitez de l’offre” and “aprovecha las promociones”. Another way of directly approaching the user are interrogatives, such as “apprendre l’Italien?” or “buscando un viaje a su medida?” The findings of Sánchez Prieto (2010, 346s.) suggest that such direct questions are less frequent in Romance language web ads than in German or English web ads. Whenever interrogatives are used, they can particularly be found in animated banners that release their promotional message in several steps, with the  

 

 

 

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last step providing the answer to an initially posed rhetorical question (cf. Runkehl/ Janich 2006, 307). On the nonverbal level, web ads also present some recurring characteristics that are similar to other forms of computer-mediated discourse (e.g., chat communication). Repeated exclamation marks can be used as a means for intensifying imperatives (cf. Runkehl/Janich 2006, 307) and seem to be more common in German than in English or Romance web ads (cf. Sánchez Prieto 2010, 347). Some web ads use capital letters or different font sizes to accentuate important elements of their promotional message (cf. Siever 2005, 229). Images used in web ads for instance show the advertised product, customers using the product, employees of the company or the company logo. The relationship between text and images can be analogical, with both text and images carrying the same promotional message (cf. Runkehl/Janich 2006, 309s.). The text-image relation can also be additive, where text and image give different information that together form the promotional message (ibid.). Animations in web ads generally increase the likelihood of a user noticing the ad. Additionally, animated web ad layouts can help split the promotional message into several screens, thereby communicating it to the Internet user sequentially (ibid., 308). It is not uncommon for web ads to use symbols known from other web contexts, such as “X” for “close the ad”, an arrow pointing down for “download” or a shopping cart for “purchasing opportunity” (cf. Runkehl/Janich 2006, 309). Some web ads use certain layout strategies to raise awareness and trick users into clicking the ad. For instance, ads appear in the Microsoft Windows layout, emulating system messages such as alert windows, download progress bars or other buttons (cf. Siever 2005, 236). Other ads show a virtual mouse whose movements point towards a desired click spot (ibid.). While such layout strategies can generally be found in any ads around the web, there is no specific data on their frequencies in Romance languages.  

2.3 E-mail advertising 2.3.1 General description Companies use e-mail advertising to address potentially new customers or to stay in touch with existing ones (cf. Kollmann 2007, 183). Advertising e-mails typically provide the addressees with information updates on the company and its products or special offers (cf. Molenaar 2012, 111). Hyperlinks within the e-mail take recipients directly to the company’s website where product purchases can be made or more information about the product be found (ibid.). Users typically consent to receiving advertising e-mails via an opt-in system on the company’s website (cf. Kollmann 2007, 183), e.g., when signing up for a personal account or purchasing a product.  

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Advertising e-mails are predominantly persuasive texts. Their main purpose is to motivate the addressees to visit the company’s website and purchase its products. In order to accomplish this, advertising e-mails also fulfill an informative function, informing the recipients about new products or special discounts. The mere arrival of a commercial e-mail in a recipient’s inbox also fulfills a phatic function, since it regularly reminds the addressee of the company’s name and existence, thereby trying to raise his awareness. Advertising e-mails tend to be standardized texts and can therefore be considered one-to-many communication. In many advertising e-mails, however, a personalized address line precedes the standardized promotional message, with the effect of insinuating a one-to-one communication situation between the company and the recipient. With regards to push or pull communication, e-mails sent out with an opt-in system are hybrid: the recipients generally agree to receive promotional messages (pull), but it is the company who ultimately decides when these promotional messages are sent (push).

2.3.2 Linguistic Research The number of linguistic publications on e-mail advertising is extremely low. One of the few publications with a focus on e-mail marketing is Schmückle/Chi (2004), who carry out a linguistic analysis on the form and features of spam e-mails. Newsletters and mailings, by contrast, have thus far received very little linguistic attention.

2.3.3 Macro-level features The structural composition of advertising e-mails is generally more uniform than the layout of web ads. The top of the message usually contains the company logo, a salutation formula and an index of the e-mail’s contents (cf. Lammenett 2009, 73). The main message body contains several clickable teasers, often composed of a product depiction, a short introductory text and a price tag (ibid., 51). A click on such teasers takes the customer to a sales portal for the advertised product on the company’s website (ibid.). At the footer of the message body, companies usually list their contact details and include a link to a web page where the user can unsubscribe from receiving further messages (ibid., 73). Additionally, the newsletter footer may include links to further website sections, to customer loyalty programs, to the company’s social media channels on Twitter and Facebook or to the company’s mobile app. Some advertising e-mails emulate the design of the company’s website by displaying the website’s navigational structure. This can include a menu bar with links to special discounts, to a customer login form or to product overview pages. Similar to websites, advertising e-mails are often formatted in HTML, which creates a base for using text in various typefaces, font sizes and colors, as well as

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embedding images into the message (cf. Lammenett 2009, 58s.). Text with typographical variations and static images are the main components of most advertising e-mails. Compared with other forms of online advertising, the multimodal structure of advertising e-mails is therefore relatively simple. In terms of interactivity, promotional emails may include a form where the addressee is encouraged to enter personal data (ibid.). Non HTML-based e-mails, however, have a substantially lower potential for interaction.

2.3.4 Micro-level features Advertising e-mails often reproduce text and images that appear on the special offer sections or product presentation pages of the sender’s website. The language of such e-mails thus appears to be closely related to persuasive sections of commercial websites. For the sender, particular attention must be paid to the e-mail subject, since it is likely the only opportunity to convince the user to proceed with reading the full message (cf. Lammenett 2009, 62). To catch the user’s attention and motivate him to read the e-mail, the subject line often summarizes the key promotional message. Its concise linguistic style is comparable to headlines or slogans used in print advertisements (cf. Schmückle/Chi 2004, 14).

2.3.5 Spam As opposed to the personalized and consented-to e-mail advertising described so far, impersonal and mass solicitation e-mails are referred to as spam (cf. Molenaar 2012, 110). Users generally perceive spam e-mails as irritating and of little value (ibid.). Spam frequently promotes illegal, medical and pornographic offers or contains fake winning or inheritance notifications (cf. Schmückle/Chi 2004, 9). Spam e-mails often purport to be part of an existing e-mail thread or to be sent by a friend or family member. This can be achieved by headlines beginning with Re: (‘in the matter of’) or Fw: (‘forwarded’) or by using a private person’s name as the e-mail sender and by including fake personal salutations and intimate language (ibid., 16ss.). Many spams contain links, but are otherwise text-only (ibid., 32). The language of spam uses simple syntactic structures and often shows many orthographical mistakes. It can be argued that such mistakes are made intentionally, with the objective of either emulating intimate writing styles or bypassing spam-filtering systems that work with certain trigger words (cf. ibid., 54ss.).

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2.4 Social media advertising 2.4.1 General description Social media advertising is online advertising that uses Web 2.0 technologies, enabling users to add their own or modify existing content on the web (cf. Hettler 2010, 5ss.). In social media, users can share opinions, comments, stories, experiences, recommendations, pictures and videos with other users (ibid., 14). Common forms of social media advertising are corporate blogs, social network profiles and microblogs. Social media advertising is a hybrid communications phenomenon that has low correlation with traditional advertising. While companies can act as senders by pushing messages through social media channels, recipients actively pull these messages by deciding to follow a company’s social media feed. Users can also become senders themselves by sharing a company’s messages with their friends. Companies use social media advertising to share promotional messages or company information with other users (cf. Homburg 2012, 798). Company postings, however, are not always persuasive, but can also invite users to some form of interaction, e.g., to discuss new products or give opinions on certain brands (cf. González García 2012, 39). Users, in turn, can use social media channels to publicly post questions and comments, which companies are required to react to (cf. Hettler 2010, 76). Interactions with the company through social media can make users feel understood and included (Martínez Rodrigo/Sánchez Martín 2012, 477), which can lead them to build trust towards the company (cf. Homburg 2012, 798). Overall, social media advertising aims to create positive attitudes towards companies, products and brands through interaction and entertainment (cf. Martínez Rodrigo/Sánchez Martín 2012, 475). Public discussions between a company and its customers through social media, however, can also put a company’s reputation at risk, particularly if users post negative comments or complaints (cf. Weinberg 2010, 87).  

2.4.2 Linguistic Research The number of linguistic publications on social media advertising is still somewhat limited. González García (2012) and Sánchez Prieto (2012a; 2012b) analyze the linguistic form of postings in corporate blogs, while Martínez Rodrigo/Sánchez Martín (2012) and Schröder (2015) examine corporate social media profiles from formal, functional and pragmatic standpoints. Linguistic research on corporate microblogging is still rare. In general, there is still a lot of room for linguistic investigation, in particular with regards to the interactional dimension of social media advertising.

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2.4.3 Corporate Blogs Corporate blogs are used to regularly post updates on the company, its products and services or its management and employees. Blog postings can be text-only, but also include multimodal content such as pictures and videos. Similar to any other blog, users have the possibility to comment on the company’s postings (cf. Homburg 2012, 797), which can lead to discussions between the company and blog readers (cf. Hettler 2010, 45). Corporate blogs belong to the generic category of weblogs as an emerging web genre (cf. Miller/Shepherd 2004, 2). Every blog has a title (e.g., Me gusta volar) and is accessible via its own URL (megustavolar.iberia.com). Blog postings appear in chronological order, with the most recent post at the top of the page. Every posting has a separate URL, which allows for users to forward blog postings to other users by sharing the link (cf. Hettler 2010, 45). Postings are composed of a headline, a body with text, images or other content, comments published by other users and a form for adding new comments. According to Sánchez Prieto (2012b, 213), Spanish blog authors include fewer images in their postings than German blog authors do. On the other hand, multimodal content such as video or audio files seem to be generally rare in corporate blogs (ibid.). Compared with other corporate publications, the linguistic style of company blogs has been characterized as storytelling. Blog postings exhibit a less formal and more subjective language, with authors releasing private information and giving their own opinions (cf. Pleil/Zerfaß 2007, 527). González García (2012, 30) speaks of a diary style in corporate blog postings, which serves to veil the blogging company’s commercial intentions. Blog headlines are typically composed of nominal phrases (cf. Sánchez Prieto 2012b, 207). Compared with German blogs, the use of verbal phrases is more common in many elements of Spanish blogs, such as the blog headline, the title of the about the author section and the titles of blog postings (ibid., 208ss.). Spanish corporate blogs postings are also somewhat shorter than their German counterparts, tend to use fewer Anglicisms, but more complex syntactical structures (ibid., 211s.), which leads Sánchez Prieto to conclude that Spanish corporate blog postings were copied into the blog from other media (ibid., 212). Spanish corporate blog authors have been reported to use the 2nd person plural (ibid.) or the 1st person plural (cf. González García 2012, 31) in their postings. The number of users commenting on Spanish blog postings appears to be lower than on German blogs (Sánchez Prieto 2012b, 213). Spanish and French users, however, tend to use a more informal and emotional style in their comments to corporate blogs than German users do (cf. Sánchez Prieto 2012a, 218). Despite these findings, it should be noted that companies currently tend to replace their blogs with social media channels, so that the blog as a corporate communication genre may become obsolete in the near future.  

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2.4.4 Social network profiles A second way for companies to advertise in social media is to create a profile in social network websites such as Facebook or YouTube. Social networks allow any Internet user to create a personalized profile and establish virtual links to other users, with the objective of establishing and maintaining relationships and sharing personal information, news or other content (cf. Hettler 2010, 54). Social networks such as Facebook work with profile templates that determine the structure and layout of user and company profiles. Company profiles in Facebook include a header, the company logo, the company name and a short about us text. Further elements can be links to images, a customer support forum and codes of conduct for user postings. The main element of company Facebook profiles is a wall where both the company and users can publish postings and comment on previous postings (cf. Schröder 2015). These postings can include text and images, but also multimodal and interactive content, such as videos and online games (cf. Martínez Rodrigo/Sánchez Martín 2012, 474). In her analysis of Spanish company profiles on Facebook, González García (2012, 39) observes that, on the one hand, companies post invitations to participate in special events, invitations to try new products and general news. In such postings, González García (ibid.) finds features inherent in advertising language, such as rhetorical questions, elliptical structures, imperatives and direct addressing. These features are used to raise the users’ awareness and motivate them to click the link to the company website that typically appears at the end of a posting (ibid.). Direct purchase encouragements, however, appear to be rare (ibid., 40). On the other hand, interaction-oriented postings, such as invitations to discussions or requests for likes, exhibit a rather informal and colloquial linguistic style with elements of spoken language, presumably designed to create a certain intimacy between the company and the social network’s users (ibid.). Schröder (2015) compares complaints posted by German and Spanish users on corporate Facebook profiles and concludes that German companies are more likely to debate and solve the complaint in public, i.e., through a dialogue on the profile wall, while Spanish companies prefer to shift the communication with the customers to private messaging.

2.4.5 Microblogging The third form of social media advertising are companies using microblogging services such as Twitter. The main difference between a regular blog and a microblog lies in the format of the postings and the possibility of multiplying them. Microblog postings (tweets) can include a maximum of 140 characters of text and/or an image (cf. Hettler 2010, 46). Twitter users can follow and comment on the tweets of other users, and also forward (re-tweet) tweets to their own followers (ibid.), using either a computer or a mobile device. Companies use microblogs to directly commu-

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nicate with customers and supply them with information on products, brands, sales promotions or job openings (cf. Homburg 2012, 798). In formal terms, tweets appear to share features with company postings in social networks. Tweets can either tend towards delivering promotional messages or towards initiating a conversation. In any case, microblogging is strongly interaction-oriented. Tweets delivering promotional messages are typically short, easy-to-memorize, sum up the key promotional message or include imperatives, thereby inviting users to click a link within the message that routes them to the company website. Tweets that initiate discussions, on the other hand, exhibit features of conceptional orality. Linguistic evaluations of tweets in general can be found in Demuth/Schulz (2010) and Siever/Schlobinski (2013).

3 Conclusions Online advertising is present in many different formats, styles and situations across the Internet. The linguistic disparity between online advertising and traditional advertising varies depending on the online instrument used to convey promotional messages. Web ads and marketing e-mails, for example, are considered relatives of traditional advertising genres. Commercial websites, in turn, can merge elements from several offline advertising genres into a new consolidated digital genre. Corporate blogs or company profiles on social networks can also form new digital genres, which, however, have little correlation with legacy media advertising genres. Additional linguistic research is required to determine further functional and formal characteristics of online advertising genres. Particular attention should be paid to commercial websites and social media advertising. Existing findings in online advertising suggest that certain linguistic features within different online advertising instruments are ubiquitous, while other features vary between languages. Research also shows that the cultural origin of the online advertisement is only one of several influencing factors on its linguistic features. The advertiser, its size, policies, budgets and industry affiliation also influence the form of online advertising. Researchers must take these factors into account when conducting online advertising analyses. In the limited publications covering Romance languages, some French and Spanish particularities of online advertising are highlighted; however, additional research on larger corpora is necessary to verify and further systemize these Romance-specific findings. A promising subject for future research, already underway in marketing studies, is the increasing degree of personalization in online advertising, made possible by tracking individual users’ browsing and purchasing histories. The possibility to custom-tailor promotional messages to individuals across varying online advertising instruments is one of the major differences between online and legacy media advertising (cf. Molenaar 2012, 163). Further linguistic research should analyze how the

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technographic personalization of web ads or marketing e-mails is reflected in their linguistic structure. A general, as yet unaddressed, problem is delineating the boundaries of advertising language online. There is little consensus if this category of analysis only includes the language of advertisers and promoters, or if user-generated content, such as product reviews or social media comments, also are within the domain of advertising language online. Moreover, in light of programs such as Amazon Vine, with companies requiring customers to write reviews in exchange for free products, or companies paying marketing agencies to write fictitious product reviews, debating the boundaries of advertising language online is critical in the future.

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Orality and Literacy of Media Text Types

Kristina Bedijs

7 Orality and Literacy in Cinema and Television Abstract: This article first provides an overview about the general linguistic comprehension of orality and literacy. Romance and non-Romance concepts are discussed and put into perspective for research on audiovisual language. These notions are crucial for research on the authenticity of orality in the domain of television and movies. Authentic orality is only present in certain communicative settings, which differ in their ways of address (direct address towards the TV spectators vs. multiple address towards spectators and studio audience). In contrast, all fictional televised or cinematic genres feature fictitious orality, i.e., prescripted dialogue enacted in planned communicative settings. We propose ways to do research on language in audiovisual media, be it authentic or not. Moreover, we present possible fields of analysis together with existing publications, focusing mainly on French television and cinema. The notion of literacy in audiovisual media covers subtitles that have been added subsequently, or that are relevant for the understanding of the narration, as well as written elements playing a role in fictional or non-fictional film.  

Keywords: audiovisual media, authenticity, broadcast formats, corpus building, language of immediacy and distance, literacy, orality, semiotic systems  

1 Introduction Cinema and television as audiovisual media consist of two semiotic systems: the visual one being represented by the shots, and the aural one by the soundtrack. In the latter, the spoken word plays a highly important role, which will be the main subject of the present contribution. We will touch briefly upon written elements within the visual system.

2 Concepts of orality and literacy In the 1970s, Söll was among the first researchers in the field of Romance linguistics to account for a clear distinction between spoken and written language. In his seminal work, “Gesprochenes und geschriebenes Französisch” [‘Spoken and written French’] (1974), he argues that spoken and written language indeed originate from distinct conceptions in the speaker’s mind. Utterances realized in the code phonique [‘phonic code’] are likely to be conceived in the code parlé [‘spoken code’], whereas utterances DOI 10.1515/9783110314755-008

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realized in the code graphique [‘graphic code’] are likely to be conceived in the code écrit [‘written code’]. To illustrate the differences between the codes, two utterances are arranged in a table: Table 1: Adapted from Söll (1974, 18) parlé

écrit

phonique

sɛpapɔsibl fopaldir

snɛpapɔsibl ilnəfopaldir

graphique

c’est pas possible faut pas le dire

ce n’est pas possible il ne faut pas le dire

The conception in the two codes may differ greatly, especially in the case of French, but to a certain extent also in the other Romance languages. There is a typical affinity between code parlé / code phonique and code écrit / code graphique, since the ephemeral code phonique often calls for spontaneous, unplanned utterances (e.g., informal conversation), whereas the persistent code graphique usually allows for more planning effort and for corrections (e.g., letters). Still, there is the possibility of crosswise correlation: for instance, informal chat conversations are realized in the code graphique but usually conceived in the code parlé; a formal speech is realized in the code phonique but conceived in the code écrit. In 1985, Koch and Oesterreicher further developed Söll’s theory and presented their model of a continuum of immediacy and distance in language (cf. Fig. 1). The key idea here is that the medial realization of a speech act can only be either phonic or graphic (in the model, below or above the horizontal line), but its conception varies along a continuum between immediacy and distance. These are determined by several factors of the communicative situation, such as the physical and emotional proximity of the persons involved, the communication being private or public, dialogic or monologic, spontaneous or reflected. Any communicative act can thus be situated either on the phonic or on the graphic part of the continuum and according to the aforementioned factors, more towards the side of immediacy or more towards the side of distance. To situate the language of cinema and television on this continuum, we will have to take into account the authenticity of filmic speech, a complex issue involving spontaneous settings and their respective screenplays. The linguistic aspects of authentic and fictitious speech will be discussed in section 2. Rather late, in the 1970s, French linguists stopped viewing spoken language as a deficient variety of written language. Apart from theoretical essays – also drawing upon the differences between spoken and written language, on the question whether spoken language is to be considered as an autonomous system, and on the erroneous mingling of diamesic variation and registers – researchers in this field published  

 

 

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Figure 1: Conceptional continuum between communicative immediacy and distance (adapted from Koch/Oesterreicher 22011, 13)

studies on the specific features of spoken language (cf. the journal Recherches sur le français parlé; Blanche-Benveniste/Jeanjean 1987; Blanche-Benveniste 1997). The difference between oral and written language production was observed before the early 20th century in the non-Romance context, too. Chafe/Tannen (1987) provide an overview of orality-literacy research. By the beginning of the 1980s, Tannen had concluded from her analyses that culture has an effect on orality and literacy, especially on the structuring of narration and the use of paralinguistic features (Tannen 1982b). To overcome a strict separation of oral and written language, she proposes an orality-literacy continuum similar to Koch and Oesterreicher’s which allows for linguistic features to be present in both modes. As a prominent aspect of spoken language, she names cohesion through paralinguistic and nonverbal features like tone of voice, pitch, speed rate, vocal and facial expression (Tannen 1982a, 41), which is an important point for research on audiovisual media: Analyzing a transcript of the spoken dialogue only can be misleading in that the complexity of semiotics is not respected in its totality. Chafe (1982) focuses on the process of speaking and writing, an aspect Söll had also drawn upon: Spontaneous speech leaves little time for planning, which makes it prone for mishaps in grammar, coherence and cohesion, less complex thematic and  

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syntactic structuring and less lexical variety, whereas writing completely lacks the usual verbal and nonverbal clues of personal interaction. The first example of quantitative research on the matter of orality and literacy can be found in the works of Biber (e.g., 1988), who argues that many contradictory findings of prior studies are due to small samples of speech and writing. It is indeed a problem to generalize results from small corpora, yet as long as movies and television broadcasts are not transcribed massively, researchers will have to rely on their own corpus production, and quantitative analyses of audiovisual speech material are restrained.  

3 Authenticity of orality in cinema and television Authentic orality means that a speech act is conceived and orally performed by the same person, without being scripted beforehand. This implies that cinema almost totally lacks authentic orality, since most movies are long-term projects with dialogue scripts that actors can only modify to a certain extent. On television, however, there are some non-fictional genres featuring spontaneous spoken language. This concerns mainly programs showing real people’s authentic utterances as statements or comments, or discussions and shows without reworking or cutting afterwards. Fictitious formats usually do not feature authentic language, but utterances that have been scripted before. Yet the aim of fictitious dialogues is usually not to be perceived as such. A very important aspect of movies is immersion, making the spectators plunge into the setting on screen and giving them the feeling of a real experience. This would be impossible if the language used by the movie characters was implausible, as cinema theorist Mitry already noted in the 1960s: “Le dialogue de film ne doit pas pour autant être débraillé ou incolore mais spontané. Il doit sortir de la bouche des personnages et non de la mémoire des comédiens. En outre, dans les moments de conversation les plus animés, les individus doivent avoir le temps de penser ce qu’ils disent, tout comme dans la vie réelle. Les mots repris, ânonnés, bafouillés […] ne peuvent qu’ajouter parfois au sentiment de réalité vraie” (Mitry 1963, 326).1

Scriptwriters thus have to produce dialogue with a certain amount of orality features. In terms of Söll, scriptwriters conceive language for the code parlé, write them down in the code graphique, and later actors realize utterances in the code phonique. This number of code transfers makes the genesis of movie dialogue highly complex and is

1 ‘Therefore, film dialogue must not be negligent or colorless, but spontaneous. It must come out of the characters’ mouth and not of the actors’ memory. Furthermore, in moments of most animated conversation, the individuals must have time to think about what they say, just like in real life. Repeated, stumbled, stammered words […] can sometimes only add to the sensation of true reality’ (translation by the author).

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certainly at the origin of an important matter: Any transcription of fiction film language will always differ greatly from a transcription of authentic language. This is, beyond the mentioned code transfers, due to the fact that many orality features are used unconsciously in spontaneous speech, highly dependent on the situative context, which makes them very hard to imitate for fictitious speech: gaps and fillers, grammatical norm deviances, anacolutha, lexical errors and self-correction are for these reasons far less frequent. What can be found, though, are grammatical constructions which are more typical of spontaneous oral speech than of written language, and a lexicon closer to colloquial language or substandard than a written text would feature. In early French cinema, substandard forms in movies were reserved for highly marked communication, e.g., among gangsters, or served to portray the working class – not necessarily in an authentic way (Abecassis 2009, 287). With the arrival of Nouvelle Vague films, the dogma of authenticity changed not only the technical and visual aspects of film production, but also fundamentally the conception of dialogue. It became more and more common to have the characters talk like credible authentic persons (Bedijs 2012, 74ss.).  

 

3.1 Audience addressing in audiovisual media Authentic programs can be classified into two subgroups in correspondence to the addressees: single-audience or multiple-audience communication (Hoffmann 1984). While the first is directed at one specific audience – the television spectators or the film team – the latter is directed at the same time at more than one public. Typical examples of single-audience communication are documentaries in which the speakers talk to other people within the filmed setting, or interviews in which the speaker addresses the interviewer. In contrast, a game show host addresses the candidates, the studio public and the television spectators at once and in different modes. Talk show guests are supposed to address each other and the talk show host like in a natural discussion, while the television spectators are usually not directly addressed and yet the reason for the whole setting. Even newscasts, a seemingly very rigid genre, can still feature different degrees of immediacy. There is scripted news read out by a talking head who has no role in the previous conception of the text and who displays no personal involvement in the content of the report(s). Other news formats, however, have an anchorman/woman (présentateur/présentatrice de nouvelles) who is usually involved in the scripting and may also bring in their personality when presenting the news. These differences must be taken into account when analyzing the linguistic features of news broadcasts: there will be wide variance according to the degree of immediacy. A recent study on language in French newscast is Garric/Léglise (2007). Meanwhile, documentaries claim, by definition, to represent unaltered reality. This holds true when the filming takes place covertly, which, in turn, entails ethical

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matters of privacy (discussed in media studies ever since). Yet hidden-camera programs have constantly been popular, like “La Caméra Invisible” (France, 1960s, succeeded by “La Caméra Cachée”) filming people unbeknownst to them in humorous situations. Without going into detail about the academic discussion on documentary techniques, we may say that the mere presence of a camera alters the setting and thus the linguistic behavior of the involved persons (Chapman 2009, 15; cf. also Labov 1972, 209 on the “Observer’s Paradox”). This is even more true in the case of the recently very popular, so-called reality TV genres like, in France, “Loft Story”, “Star Academy”, “Danse avec les stars”, “Koh-Lanta” and many more (for a detailed discussion of the various documentary and reality genres cf. Hißnauer 2011). A truly hidden camera is the exception; participants are usually aware they are being filmed, and in many genres what is presented as reality has at least partly been scripted beforehand. Thus, when analyzing the language of documentaries and reality genres, we have to distinguish between onscreen dialogue and in many cases an offscreen commentator (added to the soundtrack during postproduction), who reads out a prepared text featuring more or less orality markers in order to sound natural to the spectators. Interviews involve (at least) one person who asks questions and one or more others who reply. The degree of immediacy varies according to the setting: an interview between a journalist and a politician may be staged formally and may, from a linguistic point of view, be rather distant; an interview between an entertainer and a pop star may be informal and close; emotions in behavior and in language may be involved overtly or covertly. Beyond spontaneous interviews without any preparation, there are those with preconceived questions, sometimes even written down on cards or on the autocue. The interviewer often provides the interview partner with these questions before the shooting to avoid misunderstandings or undesired reactions in a live broadcast situation. Such aspects of preparation situate interviews between conceptional orality and literacy. Hints on how to analyze interview language can be found in Clayman/Heritage (2002); the interview as a mediatic genre is discussed in Andersen (2007). Most game shows take place in a similar setting: the show studio where the host and the candidates interact with each other and with the studio audience. This setting is being filmed and broadcast to the television spectators, who form another audience. This latter is not secondary in that it is only watching the scene: usually the host addresses the TV audience directly to create a simulation of interactivity. In some shows, the TV audience can actually participate in the event, e.g., by voting for the best candidate. Casting shows like “Popstars”, “Star Academy” and “Loft Story” are a very popular genre featuring audience voting. Talk shows are a similar case as game shows in that they also feature the hostand-guest setting. Most talk shows have a studio audience (otherwise they must be considered as single-audience communication). Often the situation can be described like an interview that takes place in a studio with an audience that comments on the dialogue with applause or break-ins. This will obviously affect the participants’  

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linguistic behavior; the host may choose provocative questions to disconcert the guest; the guest may choose to (not) answer questions by using commonplaces and platitudes, technical terminology to create an effect of invulnerability and to avoid objection, etc. Other talk shows are less focused on the structure of question and answer, but rather on conversation between the guests, with the host merely acting as a prompter. The language in talk shows is not only affected by the persons involved, but also by the scope of the format and by the specific topic. In a political talk show with the aim of a heated discussion, the participants will make more use of special language to argue their point, they will make an effort to produce grammatically correct sentences and, to undermine the opponent’s arguments, they might even be offensive.

4 Analyzing orality in cinema and television The most common way to do research on language in audiovisual media is to analyze transcriptions of the speech parts. Linguists interested in working with the collections of public audiovisual media archives should bear in mind that what is stored there is usually the media data itself; transcriptions of the speech have to be prepared in every individual case. Researchers analyzing language in fictitious films should always be aware of the constructedness of the utterances. Yet what Abecassis states for his analyses of popular language in French 1930s movies holds true for any other era and genre: “La langue du cinéma est un ensemble où la musique et les images se fondent avec la multiplicité des voix pour participer à l’illusion cinématographique. Malgré leur élément de fiction, les films nous permettent d’observer par le prisme de la caricature les faits langagiers que cinéastes et dialoguistes considèrent caractéristiques de la langue populaire et dont les traces sonores subsistent essentiellement au cinéma” (Abecassis 2008, 14).2

4.1 Corpus building Due to the tension between oral and written code, the shift from orality to literacy entails the well-known problems of conversation analysis: Providing a faithful transcription of the spoken word is nearly impossible, and transcriptions will always be incomplete. Transcribing filmic speech requires much time and effort, all the more if

2 ‘Cinematic language is an entirety in which music and images melt with the multiplicity of voices to participate in the cinematographic illusion. In spite of their fictitious element, films allow us to observe through the prism of caricature the linguistic facts which cineastes and screenwriters consider characteristic of popular language and of which the acoustic traces subsist essentially in cinema’ (translation by the author).

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the resulting text is supposed to be very detailed. Thus, a corpus of filmic language will probably comprise only a few movies or some well-chosen excerpts of several films. For qualitative analyses, this is not necessarily a disadvantage, and even small corpora can reflect quantitative linguistic tendencies, but the results should be checked against larger matching corpora of oral speech in order to give an idea of significance. For these reasons, when elaborating a corpus of transcribed TV or cinema dialogues, the old design and architecture principle “form follows function” is fundamental. This means the researcher should know exactly what she or he wants to use the corpus for, and decide on some methodological aspects according to the research questions (cf., e.g., Korte 42010, 53).  

– The decision to include or exclude the pictorial code: TV and cinema rely on sound and image. Yet including the pictorial code into a linguistic analysis requires not only knowledge about the methods of media studies, but also great effort for elaborating such a semiotically complex corpus. Once the decision is made to include the visual part, the advantage is that the transcribed speech does not have to stand for itself, but can be analyzed in context within the whole complexity of signs. Especially for research questions touching on pragmatics, it can be crucial to consider gestures, postures, facial expressions, patterns of movement, proxemics and all kinds of paraverbal behavior. – The decision for phonetic or orthographic transcription: There are several standards for the transcription of conversation for linguistic analysis (cf., as an example, Selting et al. 2009 on the elaboration of GAT 2 conventions; less detailed are the systems of the corpus Valencia Español Coloquial [Grupo Val.Es.Co., n.d.] and of the Corpus de référence du français parlé [Équipe DELIC 2004]). The researcher should choose the suitable set of standards according to the research question. If the work is about phonetic variation (for instance, between characters of different ages, geographic provenance, or social milieus, between movies from different eras, or between real persons on television in different settings), or questions of pragmatics (such as greeting patterns, conversational behavior in talk shows, prosody of political speeches), the transcription requires phonetic details. It can be a very hard task for the researcher to elaborate a phonetically faithful transcription: the sound quality of older records can be poor and she or he must listen again and again to understand correctly, or the dialogue follows the rules of natural conversation involving all kinds of interruptions, overlappings, mumblings etc. that make a recorded colloquial conversation difficult to understand and even more difficult to transcribe. Nonetheless, the more details a phonetic transcription contains, the more possibilities it offers for further analysis, and the more challenging it becomes for reading. An orthographic transcription makes the above-mentioned analyses impossible, but in contrast can be easily read and processed. For analyses concerning lexis or syntax,

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this will be the method of choice. In case the elaborated corpus shall be annotated and processed automatically, the researcher must use one single graphic form for all corresponding oral signs – e.g., always transcribe even if the phonic code varies between [ʒəsɥi], [ʃsɥi] and [ʃɥi]. There is little room to render phonetic variation, but within certain limits, the researcher can decide to include such information by transcribing variants (for instance, rendering only when the pronunciation is close to [wi] and when it is close to [wɛ]). Such varying transcription should be explained to the reader and used consequently throughout the whole transcribed excerpt.  

4.2 Fields of research In the following, we will present some possibilities for research on orality and literacy in television and cinema. Researchers should always bear in mind which data set they use as a corpus. While non-fictional television broadcasts may serve as a faithful resource to analyze linguistic features, fictional formats (be they produced for TV or for cinema) represent authentic language to a lesser extent (cf. above). The analysis of fictitious language can still tell us about the official use of language in different communicative settings and about the general image of certain linguistic features.

4.2.1 Phonetics and phonology Audiovisual media can be used to document diachronic changes in the phonetic system of a language. As an example, the phoneme /ɑ/ had disappeared from Metropolitan French by the beginning of the second half of the 20th century. Since there are only few corpora of spoken French of that era, the analysis of TV recordings could answer the question “When did /ɑ/ disappear and in which communicative contexts did it prove to be most stable?” The corpus should contain similar excerpts from different years; the pieces need not be very long but must contain possible occurrences of /ɑ/ (like [pɑt] as the archaic realization of ) or their replacements (in this case, [pat]). Jensen (2004) proposes an analysis of French liaison in different TV genres. Émond/Ménard/Martel (2007) provide an example of the use of speech processing software to investigate prosody in newscasts from Quebec.

4.2.2 Lexis Every corpus of spoken language transcribed following an orthographic standard allows lexical analyses: word frequencies, semantic maps, collocations, contextualization, phraseologisms, use of loanwords and special language, and many more.

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Such analyses can be conducted for any kind of broadcasting format, provided that the chosen corpus is consistent and can be compared with other data. For instance, a research question could be “Is there a difference between French societal and political talk shows in the use of English loan words?” or “Do politicians use more special language items in written declarations or in speeches?” Several interesting studies on lexis in French politicians’ language use have been conducted in the last years, some of them also including audiovisual media, like Mayaffre (e.g., 2012a; 2012b) in his works on Chirac, Sarkozy and Hollande.  

4.2.3 Syntax As for the case of lexis, syntactic analyses require orthographic transcripts. Especially in the field of the conflict between orality and literacy, audiovisual recordings can shed light on constructions typical of oral language. One case to analyze could be the structure of interrogative clauses in French, where we find several possibilities (intonation, inversion, est-ce que, construction with interrogative word) that are distributed very differently according to register and code. A research question could be “Is there a preference for a certain interrogation type in French interviews? Does the pattern vary according to the subject or the involved persons?” Several papers on syntactic issues in French television can be found in Broth et al. (2007) (e.g., Garric/ Léglise; Le Bot/Schuwer).  

4.2.4 Varieties It is common to have fiction film characters use a more or less colloquial version of standard language with few variational features in order to ensure maximal comprehension for the audience, which is a logical economic aim of cinema producers. Yet there are many cases in which we can witness linguistic variation on different levels (which are not always strictly separated from one another). According to Koch/Oesterreicher’s model of linguistic variation (cf. 1990, 15), the first variational level is diatopic variation. In French cinema, dialectal features are rather uncommon (cf. Chion 2008). The linguistic centralism of Parisian speech leads to a regular use of this variety as standard for French movies. When dialect is used, it is usually highly marked. An example is the very popular “Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis” (Boon 2008), which features (not very articulated) regional Southern French and (very articulated) Picard (cf. Reutner 2013; Planchenault 2012). Italian cinema makes more use of regional varieties. “Gomorra” (Garrone 2008), for instance, features Napoletan and Casalese dialect in order to make the dialogues appear more authentic – as a consequence, part of the film is subtitled in Standard Italian to be understood by all spectators.

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The second variational level involves the social background (diastratic variation). Here, many different aspects come into play: education, friends and family background, gender, age, professional environment and more. All these shape an individual’s linguistic behavior. A society usually knows stereotypes about many linguistic features, e.g., certain phonological traits, grammar mistakes and a heavy use of swear words are connected with a low educational level and a socially disadvantaged environment, whereas distinct pronunciation and the use of complex phrases is connected with higher education and material prosperity. Scriptwriters are aware of such stereotypes and make use of diastratic features to create certain effects, like the substandard speech used in French “banlieue” films since the 1990s (cf., e.g., Fiévet/ Podhorná-Polická 2008), adolescent language in French movies across six decades (cf. Bedijs 2012) or français populaire in films on the Parisian working class of the 1930s (cf. Abecassis 2005). On the third level, situative (diaphasic) variation means that an individual’s linguistic behavior depends on the communicative situation: the persons involved, the subject etc. It is often difficult to consider diaphasic variation in isolation, since the social context (and thus diastratic variation) is always part of the communicative situation. Diaphasic variation can mean the use of formal and/or special language in an office meeting, the use of swear words in a quarrel, the use of a higher voice pitch in a conversation with a child, the use of colloquial language among teenagers, etc. One of the most experimental French movies, “Zazie dans le métro” (Malle 1960), is notable not only for the portrayed Parisian working-class people’s extensive use of non-standard French (mainly français populaire and argot), but also for the little girl Zazie’s use of substandard and swear words, which must have been judged unexpected and inappropriate at least by the contemporary audience. As to language on television, there is basically no limit to variation as long as the communicative setting allows authentic linguistic behavior. Yet when people are aware of talking in front of a camera, they most probably adapt their language to what they believe is appropriate for this situation – which means that dialect speakers may switch to a less pronounced version of their usual idiolect. If they do not, subtitling is a frequent strategy. Most French TV stations subtitle in Standard Metropolitan French  

 

“[l]orsque les téléspectateurs risquent de ne pas comprendre les propos tenus par une personne qui parle dans un dialecte particulier ou dans une forme de français d’un autre pays, ou tout simplement dans un français non-compréhensible […]” (Mission à la langue française 2014).3

3 ‘… when the spectators may not understand the utterances of a person who speaks a particular dialect or in a form of French from another country, or simply in an incomprehensive French’ (translation by the author).

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Also, most people will at least try to use less – in their view – stigmatized language like vulgarisms, swear words and grammatical mishaps. In some cases, the editors of the program bleep out such unwanted utterances to avoid complaints.

4.2.5 Discourse An approach to uncover relationships between language use and the state of a society is (critical) discourse analysis. Without going into detail here (for an overview cf. Wodak/Meyer 22009), it basically assumes that our use of language is formed by the conditions we live in, and that our linguistic choices reciprocally shape our social environment. Analyzing language thus allows us to learn about norms and rules of a society, and also about the distribution of power within it. Corpora can tell about this on all linguistic levels – phonological (prosody, use of phonetic features distinct of a certain milieu), lexical (word frequencies, lexicon), syntactic (use of pronouns, structure of impersonal constructions), semantic (use of metaphors and word games, semantic relations, priming), textual (thematic development, overall structure of discourse contributions), and pragmatic (address forms, politeness, face work, communicative behavior like turn taking). A systematic analysis of at least some of these aspects can provide an understanding of underlying social structures. Especially political broadcasts lend themselves to investigation, for instance the TV debates organized between presidential candidates before elections in France: “Which linguistic means do the candidates use in order to come out on top against the adversary? Do male and female politicians use different linguistic strategies to communicate in a debate?” Sullet-Nylander/Roitman (2010) analyze questioning and answering strategies in the TV debate between Royal and Sarkozy, whereas Sandré (2009) draws on turn-taking behavior in the same debate. Some recent studies on the topic of televised political debates use an analysis of several linguistic fields to draw conclusions on the level of discourse (cf. for instance the papers in Burger/Jacquin/ Micheli (2011) and Bacot et al. 2010 on various linguistic aspects of political debates in France; Rémi-Giraud 2010 on lexis and semantics; Sandré 2011 on the use of smiles and laughter in political debates; Peñafiel 2011 on the linguistic self-construction of a political leader). Fictional genres offer perspectives on social conditions as well. As an example, we may use the French genre of banlieue movies since the beginning of the 1990s, which feature many young characters of Arab or African origin. Their language is often designed in a stereotyped way with many features of substandard, argot, phonetic markers of immigrant languages, swear words (cf., e.g., Fiévet/PodhornáPolická 2008; Bedijs 2012) – all of which are commonly recognized as belonging to a disadvantaged milieu. Comparing these characters’ linguistic behavior to that of others (mostly portrayed as white Français de souche) in the same movies, we can see whether fictitious language use manages to draw a line of power between different  

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social groups, which, in turn, may affect our perspective on the portrayed groups in real life. Another example is Palma-Fahey’s (2012) paper on the construction of social roles and power by the use of vocatives in “Machuca” (Wood 2004) and “Volver” (Almodóvar 2006).

4.2.6 Multilingualism Multicultural societies are nowadays the normal case in all Romance-speaking countries. Many communities of practice use other than the national language. In movies, this has been reflected only in recent years. The already mentioned French banlieue films make use of languages such as Arabic, Romani and others spoken by immigrant minorities. Even though this may be the reality of many French citizens, this linguistic portrait is often used for stereotyped characters from a disadvantaged environment. The multilingualism of immigrant characters is often presented as code-switching and code-mixing, that is, the alternation of languages in the conversation with complete turns or complete sentences being in one language (code-switching) or the alternation within sentences, inserting phrases or words in another language (codemixing). To make sure that all spectators can understand the whole dialogue, many movies have subtitles in the multilingual passages. In some cases, though, the director obviously does not deem this necessary. The multilingual dialogue without subtitles creates an effect of foreignness, often connected with the existing stereotypes on the respective community. It is also the reality of many native French not to understand what their immigrant fellow citizens are saying to each other, and this is mirrored in such uncommented multilingual scenes. An example of untranslated code-switching and code-mixing is “L’Esquive” (Kechiche 2004) featuring Arab mixed into French. Another way of creating foreignness in movies is to make the characters speak the audience’s language, but with a strong accent. Besides the realistic situation of a “foreign” character conversing with a character in the main movie language, the foreign accent often appears when a group of foreign characters has important roles in the movie and subtitling all of their dialogues would distract the spectators from the action. It is also used to create stereotyped effects about speakers of a certain language (cf. Planchenault 2012 on stylization in French movies). In his study on multilingualism in Hollywood movies and the consequent construction of characters, Bleichenbacher (2008b, 18) mentions the use of Mock Spanish – an artificial, ungrammatical variety of English incorporating Spanish accent and loanwords – as a means of “linguistic racism”. Several (US-produced) movies about Mexican immigrants in the United States also create a (questionable) linguistic portrait of the characters having them use a deficient variety of English (“Real Women have Curves”, Cardoso 2002; “Spanglish”, Brooks 2004; “Quinceañera”, Glatzer/Westmoreland 2006). A different example in French cinema is “L’Auberge Espagnole” (Klapisch 2002). In a community of Erasmus students sharing a flat in the Catalan capital Barcelona,

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each one speaks their own language – Spanish, French, German, Italian, English and Danish –, they use (broken) English as a lingua franca to communicate with each other, struggle with the national language Spanish and discover that the regional language Catalan is indispensable at university. To deal with the many source languages, the movie is subtitled. One version offers subtitles in the languages heard onscreen without translation, another one offers subtitles translated into the target language, distinguishing the characters by the use of colors (cf. Bartoll 2006). On television, we mostly deal with multilingualism in newscasts from foreign countries. To ensure the audience’s comprehension, such contributions are usually translated. In contrast to fictional movies, the goal here is not maximal immersion but authenticity, which can be reached by maintaining the original language and placing subtitles at the bottom of the screen. Another translation method typical of TV is voiceover: the spoken translation and the original utterance run simultaneously so that the spectator can hear the original voice. We will come back to subtitling in the section on literacy, and Baños elaborates on the different methods in audiovisual translation ↗20 Audiovisual Translation. A complex case is the Europe-wide broadcast show “Eurovision Song Contest”. Its hosts address mainly the TV audience (even though there is a considerable audience in front of the stage), usually in English, French and the main language of the host country. Each country’s broadcasting company sends their own commentators who choose to interpret as much as possible, to resume shortly what is being said or to ignore this completely in favor of their very own commentary for the TV audience. At the end of the show, spectators in all countries are invited to vote for their favorite performance. The results of the voting are presented by entertainers or journalists who address primarily the show hosts – often beginning with a ritual formula such as “thank you XY for the great show, you are beautiful, we are having a fantastic evening” –, and then reading out the scores in a ritual way: “Country X – 8 points, Country Y – 10 points, and our 12 points go to … Country Z!” In case this has been said in English, the hosts on stage repeat the number of points in French (“Pays X – huit points”). Yet the traditional bi- or even trilingualism of the whole show has eroded in the last years in favor of English as the main language. In the 2014 show, the French presenter was the only one who did not read out the results in English.

5 Literacy in cinema and television Even though both cinema and television are mainly using aural signs to transport language and visual signs to transport action, they also make use of written language elements. These may serve various aims. We will start describing written language onscreen, incorporated in the filmed setting, and then briefly broach the issue of subtitles, which is discussed in detail in ↗20 Audiovisual Translation.

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5.1 Written elements in the onscreen setting Our world is full of written elements: inscriptions and signs on shops, markers on the road, publicity posters, graffiti on walls, etc. We make sense of our surrounding by decoding these written elements. A sign on a shop window or above the door reading “Café” or “Boutique de cadeaux” lets us know what to expect inside. Many road signs include, beyond an iconic picture, written information such as toponyms, speed limits or points of interest. All these written elements – the so-called linguistic landscape (Bleichenbacher 2008a, 189ss.) – appear in the filmed setting, providing an option for the spectator to figure out meaning. They may appear without interventions by the film team, as in news, documentaries and also in movies shot on authentic locations. Movies filmed in studios also need a realistic setting, so there will be a made-up environment including written elements as well. Other common written elements are letters, e-mails, text messages, screenshots, diaries, sticky notes and all kinds of writing that is featured onscreen. Some of these elements play no special role beyond being part of the illusion of reality. Others are key features to the understanding of a scene. It certainly makes a difference if a character exchanges a few words with a person behind a desk with the sign of a travel agency or of health counseling. Notes on paper may be part of the action of the movie (as the letters that Xavier writes to his girlfriend in “L’Auberge Espagnole”) or include the central message (as in official documents shown in news reports). Even typography and font color are an important hint for the understanding of a scene – imagine a character entering a hotel with a blue or a red light sign (pointing to prostitution): these are also culturally-specific parts of the graphic meaning. This being said, we can imagine the difficulty of making a movie fully available to a foreign audience. Not only the aural part has to be taken into account; there may be written elements which are fundamental for understanding. The translators have the difficult task to decide how to transfer them from one language to another. In the case of graphics on location, there is seldom a problem. A café can be recognized as such by other elements than the sign; a road sign can often be decoded without translation. Some written elements are translated using a subtitle if the understanding is necessary. Longer written parts are usually read out aloud in the target language (mostly already in the original version) creating an effect of divergence of words and image (cf. Renner 2001), which spectators can usually ignore since their logic expects the text to be read in the target language.

5.2 Subtitles and intertitles Subtitles and intertitles are very prominent written elements in movies and television. Intertitles have been used in movies since the beginning of the cinematic age, when movies were still soundless. Full screens inserted between two movie scenes, they

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represent a practicable way to add information on the events shown onscreen, details about the actors or retrospection. It is still not uncommon to have intertitles in movies which announce a change of setting (“Paris 1995”, “A year before”, “Six months later in Marseille”…). Such information allows the spectators to immediately locate the following scene and spares the necessity of explicit explanations by the actors. It is also a common means to cope with multilingualism in the narration: An intertitle locating the setting geographically helps the viewer to understand why the characters speak a foreign language in the following sequence, or allows maintenance of the base language of the movie even if the location would logically require the use of a foreign language. Subtitles have also been part of movies for a very long time. In the early years of cinema, dubbing a movie for a foreign audience required great technical effort. An alternative was to reshoot the whole movie in the target language (the so-called “multiple-language versions”, cf. Crafton 1997, 425), which meant extremely high costs and most often a new cast of actors able to speak the target language. This was only done for the most promising movies. The solution to export movies with a lower budget was to insert subtitles: written text at the bottom of the screen, usually no more than two lines, reproducing the oral dialogue. There are different types of subtitles (for a detailed typology, cf., e.g., Díaz Cintas/ Remael 2014, 14) fulfilling very different tasks: – Subtitles for the hearing impaired. These subtitles help people with hearing difficulties who master the language of the movie to understand the dialogue. – Subtitles for a foreign audience. These subtitles help a foreign-language speaking audience to follow the action by reading the dialogue.  

Both of the cases mentioned above must cope with the conflict between oral and written language described in 1.1. To be processed rapidly by the reader in spite of the distraction of the moving picture, subtitles must comply with some graphic rules like contrast, font size and font style. Also, the space for subtitles is very limited – in order to not surpass the two bottom lines and to give the reader the chance to read the text in a decent time, the normal case is that the dialogue cannot be rendered completely and must be shortened (cf., e.g., Remael 2010, 15). Orality features such as those mentioned above – anacolutha, fillers, lexical errors – are the first to be eliminated. Next comes the linguistic variation: subtitles tend to be written in standard language, dialects and substandard language is often rendered less faithfully – for several reasons: mostly because they are not easily understood by the whole audience, then because it is sometimes difficult to render oral varieties in written code, and last because the written word is more marked and thus has a higher impact than the spoken one, i.e., a written swear word shocks the audience more than the same word in the oral dialogue (for an analysis of the rendering of emotional language in interlingual subtitles cf. Franzelli 2008). As opposed to the foreign audience, the hearing-impaired audience does not perceive the background sound of the movie, be it music or sounds made by the  

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characters, cars, planes etc. Subtitles for this audience must, therefore, provide information about these sounds, at least when they are relevant for the understanding of the action. This cuts even more from the available text space (or covers more of the image). To separate dialogue from sounds or unspecific voices, the latter are usually written in square brackets. To make a change of speakers more obvious to the hearing-impaired audience, the text lines use different colors for different characters. A detailed description of these matters can be found in Neves (2005). – Captions (cf. Ivarsson/Carroll 1998, 97) adding information to the action onscreen. These subtitles function similar to intertitles, but without interruption of the movie. They locate or date the scene, name characters, objects or places when such information is considered important for the spectators to understand the action. Although clues can often be provided through a comment in the dialogue, it is sometimes easier or more natural to insert a text. – Subtitles translating foreign language elements in the dialogue. This is usually done when written elements are relevant for the action. Many written elements in the linguistic landscape (also called displays, cf. Ivarsson/Carroll 1998, 97; Karamitroglou 2000, 5) stand for themselves or can be understood by a foreign audience without translation, but when their meaning is opaque and still relevant to the understanding of the plot, a textual translation helps the viewer. The same occurs for longer texts such as letters or e-mails, which are either read out aloud by a character or translated in subtitles. While the first two types of subtitles suppose a shift from the aural to the graphic code, the latter two are situated in different semiotic codes. Translating text that is also shown onscreen is simply an interlingual translation of written language. Adding textual information that is not necessarily redundant to the visual information means creating a new code consisting of scriptural and pictorial elements.

6 Perspectives and desiderata In the previous section, we have given some examples of research questions on audiovisual media and cited only a tiny sample of the published studies on this subject. Yet linguistic research on orality-literacy features in movies and television is not by any means a finished domain. The most crucial problem is probably the lack of corpora that can be analyzed systematically. With the advancing digitalization of audiovisual media, availability of material and tools for research, the task of building and analyzing corpora could soon be easier. Audiovisual media provide the possibility to analyze orality on every linguistic level – in the case of non-fictional recordings, the material serves as authentic data, whereas fictitious dialogue reflects the common ideas on what language is like at a given time and in a given situation. In this perspective, both fictitious and authentic

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film speech can provide insights on the state of a language in past times. At the same time, comparing features of spoken language from filmed and non-filmed situations may reveal great differences even if the setting is comparable. Such investigations have not yet been conducted. Whereas subtitles and additional text is well investigated thanks to researchers in translation studies, onscreen written elements have largely been neglected and would merit further attention; the linguistic features of text elements as well as their relation to the spoken word; their role in the polysemiotic system of audiovisual media as well as the consequences for translation. A topic that will gain importance in the following years is certainly the role of digital audiovisual media available on the Internet. Broadcasting and movie companies are no longer the only producers of audiovisual content; every individual with a filming device on hand can now create and share videos online via platforms such as YouTube, Vimeo and others. Changing habits in media consumption, the interchangeable role of producer and spectator, the interactivity of online platforms and the influence of other newly-emerging medial genres will modify the medial offerings and their linguistic features. Next-door people talk about their personal hobby into their webcam in order to create video tutorials for interested online users, being part of a worldwide community of nonprofessionals. The questions arising from this evolution are interesting not only for linguists, but also for sociology and media sciences. Interdisciplinary approaches will thus be most promising in this field.

7 References Abecassis, Michaël (2005), The Representation of Parisian Speech in the Cinema of the 1930s, Oxford et al., Lang. Abecassis, Michaël (2008), Langue et cinéma: aux origines du son, Glottopol 12, 6–16. Abecassis, Michaël (2009), La représentativité du français parisien dans le cinéma des années 30–40, in: Dorothée Aquino-Weber/Sara Cotelli/Andres Kristol (edd.), Sociolinguistique historique du domaine gallo-roman. Enjeux et méthodologies, Bern et al., Lang, 283–316. Almodóvar, Pedro (2006), Volver, El Deseo. Andersen, Hanne Leth (2007), L’interview comme genre médiatique: sous-catégories pragmatiques et leurs traits linguistiques caractéristiques, in: Mathias Broth et al. (edd.), Le français parlé des medias, Stockholm, Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis, 447–462. Bacot, Paul, et al. (edd.) (2010), Trente ans d’étude des langages du politique (1980–2010), Mots – Les langages du politique 94, numéro special, Lyon, ENS Éditions. Bartoll, Eduard (2006), Subtitling multilingual films, in: Mary Carroll/Heidrun Gerzymisch-Arbogast/ Sandra Nauert (edd.), Proceedings of the Marie Curie Euroconferences MuTra: Audiovisual Translation Scenarios, (28.10.2016). Bedijs, Kristina (2012), Die inszenierte Jugendsprache. Von “Ciao, amigo!” bis “Wesh, tranquille!”: Entwicklungen der französischen Jugendsprache in Spielfilmen (1958–2005), München, Meidenbauer. Biber, Douglas (1988), Variation Across Speech and Writing, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.

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Blanche-Benveniste, Claire (1997), Approches de la langue parlée en français, Gap/Paris, Ophrys. Blanche-Benveniste, Claire/Jeanjean, Colette (1987), Le français parlé. Transcription et édition, Paris, Didier Érudition. Bleichenbacher, Lukas (2008a), Linguistic Replacement in the Movies, Poznań Studies in Contemporary Linguistics 44:2, 179–196. Bleichenbacher, Lukas (2008b), Multilingualism in the Movies: Hollywood Characters and Their Language Choices, Tübingen, Francke. Boon, Dany (2008), Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis, Pathé. Brooks, James L. (2004), Spanglish, Columbia/Gracie Films. Broth, Mathias, et al. (edd.) (2007), Le français parlé des medias, Stockholm, Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis. Burger, Marcel/Jacquin, Jérôme/Micheli, Raphaël (edd.) (2011), La parole politique en confrontation dans les medias, Bruxelles, De Boeck. Cardoso, Patricia (2002), Real Women have Curves, HBO Films/Newmarket Films/LaVoo Productions. Chafe, Wallace (1982), Integration and Involvement in Speaking, Writing, and Oral Literature, in: Deborah Tannen (ed.), Spoken and Written Language: Exploring Orality and Literacy, Norwood/ New Jersey, Ablex, 35–53. Chafe, Wallace/Tannen, Deborah (1987), The Relation between Written and Spoken Language, Annual Review of Anthropology 16, 383–407. Chapman, Jane (2009), Issues in Contemporary Documentary, Cambridge (UK)/Malden (MA), Polity Press. Chion, Michel (2008), Le complex de Cyrano. La langue parlée dans les films français, Paris, Cahiers du cinéma. Clayman, Steven/Heritage, John (2002), The News Interview: Journalists and Public Figures on the Air, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Crafton, Donald (1997), The Talkies: American Cinema’s Transition to Sound, 1926–1931, Berkeley/Los Angeles/London, University of California Press. Díaz Cintas, Jorge/Remael, Aline (2014), Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling, Abingdon/New York, Routledge. Émond, Caroline/Ménard, Lucie/Martel, Guylaine (2007), Une analyse prosodique des téléjournaux québécois, in: Mathias Broth et al. (edd.), Le français parlé des medias, Stockholm, Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis, 159–170. Équipe DELIC (2004), Présentation du Corpus de référence du français parlé, (28.10.2016). Fiévet, Anne-Caroline/Podhorná-Polická, Alena (2008), Argot commun des jeunes et français contemporain des cités dans le cinéma français depuis 1995: entre pratiques des jeunes et reprises cinématographiques, Glottopol 12, 212–240. Franzelli, Valeria (2008), Traduire la parole émotionnelle en sous-titrage: colère et identités, Études de linguistique appliquée 150, 221–244. Garric, Nathalie/Léglise, Isabelle (2007), Aspects syntaxiques et discursifs d’un français parlé des médias: “le discours d’information télévisé”, in: Mathias Broth et al. (edd.), Le français parlé des medias, Stockholm, Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis, 243–258. Garrone, Matteo (2008), Gomorra, Fandango. Glatzer, Richard/Westmoreland, Wash (2006), Quinceañera, Cinetic Media/Kitchen Sink Entertainment. Grupo Val.Es.Co. (n.d.), Sistema de transcripción, (28.10.2016). Hißnauer, Christian (2011), Fernsehdokumentarismus: theoretische Näherungen, pragmatische Abgrenzungen, begriffliche Klärungen, Konstanz, UVK.

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Hoffmann, Ludger (1984), Mehrfachadressierung und Verständlichkeit, Zeitschrift für Literaturwissenschaft und Linguistik 55, 71–85. Ivarsson, Jan/Carroll, Mary (1998), Subtitling, Simrishamn, TransEdit. Jensen, Ole Kongsdal (2004), Liaison, enchainement et réduction, in: Hanne Leth Andersen/Christa Thomsen (edd.), Sept approches à un corpus. Analyses du français parlé, Bern et al., Lang, 139–163. Karamitroglou, Fotios (2000), Towards a Methodology for the Investigation of Norms in Audiovisual Translation: The Choice Between Subtitling and Revoicing in Greece, Amsterdam/Atlanta, Rodopi. Kechiche, Abdellatif (2004), L’Esquive, Lola Films/Noé Productions. Klapisch, Cédric (2002), L’Auberge espagnole, Bac Films/Ce Qui Me Meut. Koch, Peter/Oesterreicher, Wulf (1985), Sprache der Nähe – Sprache der Distanz. Mündlichkeit und Schriftlichkeit im Spannungsfeld von Sprachtheorie und Sprachgeschichte, Romanistisches Jahrbuch 36:85, 15–43. Koch, Peter/Oesterreicher, Wulf (22011 [1990]), Gesprochene Sprache in der Romania: Französisch, Italienisch, Spanisch, Berlin/New York, de Gruyter. Korte, Helmut (42010), Einführung in die Systematische Filmanalyse, Berlin, Schmidt. Labov, William (1972), Sociolinguistic patterns, Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press. Le Bot, Marie-Claude/Schuwer, Martine (2007), Syntaxe du français parlé des médias: le cas de la “relative orpheline”, in: Mathias Broth et al. (edd.), Le français parlé des medias, Stockholm, Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis, 419–432. Malle, Louis (1960), Zazie dans le métro, Nouvelles Éditions de Films. Mayaffre, Damon (2012a), Le discours présidentiel sous la Vème République. Chirac, Mitterrand, Giscard, Pompidou, De Gaulle, Paris, Presses de Sciences Po. Mayaffre, Damon (2012b), Mesure et démesure du discours. Nicolas Sarkozy (2007–2012), Paris, Presses de Sciences Po. Mission à la langue française (2014), L’usage du français dans les médias, via private e-mail correspondence, 20.10.2014. Mitry, Jean (1963), Esthétique et psychologie du cinéma, Paris, Éditions du Cerf. Neves, Josélia (2005), Audiovisual Translation: Subtitles for the Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing, PhD Thesis, London, Roehampton University, (28.10.2016). Palma-Fahey, María (2012), Exploring the representation of orality: the use of vocatives in two Spanish-speaking films, Machuca and Volver, Sociolinguistic Studies 5:1, 103–126. Peñafiel, Ricardo (2011), L’image du peuple. Construction de l’ethos plébéien de Hugo Chávez dans l’émission Aló Presidente, Mots – Les langages du politique 96, 29–44. Planchenault, Gaëlle (2012), Accented French in films: Performing and evaluating in-group stylisations, Multilingua 31:2, 253–275. Remael, Aline (2010), Audiovisual Translation, in: Yves Gambier/Luc van Doorslaer (edd.), Handbook of Translation Studies 1. Translating and Interpreting, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, Benjamins, 12–17. Rémi-Giraud, Sylvianne (2010), Sémantique lexicale et langages du politique. Le paradoxe d’un mariage difficile?, Mots – Les langages du politique 94, 165–173. Renner, Karl Nikolaus (2001), Die Text-Bild-Schere. Zur Explikation eines anscheinend eindeutigen Begriffs, Studies in Communication Sciences 1, 23–44. Reutner, Ursula (2013), Spécificités culturelles et traduction: l’exemple de “Bienvenidos al Norte”, in: Emili Casanova Herrero/Cesáreo Calvo Rigual (edd.), Actas del XXVI Congreso Internacional de Lingüística y Filología Románicas, València 2010, vol. VIII, Berlin/Boston, de Gruyter, 445–456.

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Sandré, Marion (2009), Débat politique télévisé et stratégies discursives: la visée polémique des ratés du système des tours, in: Marcel Burger/Jérôme Jacquin/Raphaël Micheli (edd.), Actes du colloque “Les médias et le politique. Le français parlé dans les médias”, Lausanne, Centre de linguistique et des sciences du langage, (28.10.2016). Sandré, Marion (2011), Mimiques et politique. Analyse des rires et sourires dans le débat télévisé, Mots – Les langages du politique 96, 13–28. Selting, Margret, et al. (2009), Gesprächsanalytisches Transkriptionssystem 2 (GAT 2), Gesprächsforschung 10, 353–402. Söll, Ludwig (1974), Gesprochenes und geschriebenes Französisch, Berlin, Schmidt. Sullet-Nylander, Françoise/Roitman, Malin (2010), Voix de campagne présidentielle: quelques observations sur la question et la réfutation dans le débat télévisé Royal–Sarkozy, in: Michaël Abecassis/Gudrun Ledegen (edd.), Les voix des Français à travers l’histoire, l’école et la presse, Oxford et al., Lang, 303–317. Tannen, Deborah (1982a), The Myth of Orality and Literacy, in: William Frawley (ed.), Linguistics and Literacy, New York, Plenum, 37–50. Tannen, Deborah (1982b), The Oral/Literate Continuum in Discourse, in: Deborah Tannen (ed.), Spoken and Written Language: Exploring Orality and Literacy, Norwood/New Jersey, Ablex, 1–16. Wodak, Ruth/Meyer, Michael (edd.) (22009), Methods for Critical Discourse Analysis, London, Sage. Wood, Andrés (2004), Machuca, Wood Producciones/Tornasol Films.

Louise-Amélie Cougnon and Jean-Léon Bouraoui

8 Orality and Literacy of Telephony and SMS Abstract: Interpersonal communication has recently experienced an evolution, if not a mutation, through telephony. By providing a communication tool in every household, telephone-mediated communication (TMC) enabled long distance communication between individuals. It subsequently evolved into a mobile tool: while the preexisting mediated distant exchange typical of telephony was kept intact, the reachability of individuals increased. TMC was restricted to oral communication until it offered a new written service in the form of text messaging. From that moment on, the exchange became asynchronous. This chapter exposes the features of two main telephone functions, (mobile) calls and texting, and highlights each function’s properties from a linguistic point of view, taking into account the evolution of the object “telephone”. Then, this article looks into the question of orality and literacy which remains a highly controversial issue and proposes to overcome the traditional dichotomy.  

Keywords: CMC, literacy, orality, SMS, telephony  

1 Introduction Interpersonal communication was decisively marked by the international boom of Telephone-Mediated Communication (TMC) in the 20th century, first with the fixed phone in every household, then with the mobile phone in every pocket. The notion of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) emerged in the academic world at the beginning of the 1980s to qualify the new forms of electronic communication, a part of which is TMC. Technology was then considered as a simple vehicle and researchers did not look into its influence on communication and language. Since then, it has become rather absurd to omit the influence of this medium on the nature of communication (Ko 1996; Panckhurst 1999). Studies tend to converge into one conclusion: the evolution of information processing entails changes in the genres of speech and writing. By providing a communication tool in every household, TMC enabled long distance communication between individuals. It subsequently evolved into a mobile tool: while the pre-existing mediated distant exchange typical of telephony was kept intact, the reachability of individuals increased. TMC was restricted to oral communication until it offered a new written service in the form of text messaging. From that moment on, the mediated distant exchange became asynchronous. This chapter explores the features of two main telephone functions: (mobile) calls and texting. DOI 10.1515/9783110314755-009

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We will first highlight the properties of phone conversations from a linguistic point of view, taking into account the evolution of the object “telephone”. This paper also considers the main research questions and studies carried out on phone conversations. We will then present the short message service (SMS) as one form of CMC, detailing its special characteristics. After that, we will look into the question of orality and literacy which remains a highly controversial issue, mainly regarding CMC. We will propose to overcome the traditional dichotomy by applying the models of Koch/ Oesterreicher (2001) and Herring (2001). Finally, we will present the results of our own research and the perspectives in this field.

2 Defining Telephone Communication 2.1 Language and Telephony The telephone is an object of everyday life which served for a long time exclusively aural communication. Progressively, textual functions have been added: first came SMS, then with the arrival of smartphones, the Voice Over IP systems and the text message services via Internet (such as WhatsApp, Viber, etc.). In this first part, we will elaborate on the oral communication via telephone, transmitted traditionally through cables and waves. We will then focus on communication via SMS. To raise the issue of the traits of oral telephonic communication, it is necessary to recapitulate some basic aspects of so-called spontaneous oral communication, which we take from Bouraoui (2008). The concept of spontaneous orality is used in linguistics for every oral production that has not been prepared extensively (like, for instance, a talk learned by heart, or a text read from a teleprompter), as opposed to what is traditionally thought of as literacy. The specific features usually attributed to orality have been described abundantly. The following, non-exhaustive list is based on the works of Blanche-Benveniste (1997) and Kerbrat-Orecchioni (1990). –

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The linearity of the sentence: once a word has been pronounced, it is no longer possible to go backwards to correct it, to add or to remove elements in its context, in contrast to what is possible in written discourse. This particularity of orality entails consequences on the speaker’s production strategies. For example, every attempt to correct an element ex post provokes an unexpected structure of the utterance. Likewise, the speaker may need to pause in order to plan the progression of their utterance. The flexibility of syntax: many constructions considered as defective in written discourse are accepted in oral discourse. Cleft sentences are mostly found in the structure “it/this is X who/that/whom/ which, where/when Y.” For example “It was Peter who lent us the money (not Paul).” (Thomson/Martinet 1986, 78; quoted in Nowakowska 2002, 4).

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Use of prosody: Prosody is a generic term to designate the variation of acoustic parameters of the voice. It has multiple uses, some of which can influence the structure of the utterance. For instance, there is the possibility to mark the interrogation solely by rising intonation. In this way, the speaker can avoid the use of means belonging to the written register, like in French interrogatives using est-ce que (“Est-ce que tu viens pour les vacances?”) which is substituted by a rising intonation (“Tu viens pour les vacances?”). Use of interjections: Interjections are words used to express the speaker’s emotions (e.g., “super!”) or to reproduce sounds (then called onomatopoeia). For a long time, it was thought that interjections could be used in written discourse as well, but mostly to render orally produced utterances or to simulate them (like in comics). As we will see in the second part dedicated to the new means of written communication, interjections occupy a special place in written discourse that goes far beyond imitation of orality (e.g., excessive vowel lengthening). Noise: The reception of oral production may suffer various perturbations according to the quality of the channel and the context: noisy environment, “parasites” on a telephone line, etc. Finally, disfluencies: as indicated by their etymology, disfluencies correspond to any interruption or perturbation of fluency, i.e., of the “normal” progress of spontaneous oral production. In contrast to other phenomena specific of spontaneous spoken language (such as clitics, for instance), their occurrences are not produced voluntarily by the speaker. The generic term disfluency covers a disparate number of phenomena and presents multiple modes of manifestation which we will present further down. As opposed to mistakes, they mainly occur in spontaneous orality, but not in written discourse. This latter point is contradicted by some precise usages; for instance, the author of a message in an instant messenger (unlike in chat systems) cannot correct themselves since the text appears in real time, character by character, the interlocutor having access to the writing in progress. Note, for instance, the following types of disfluency: hesitation (the classic “euh” or more generally any sound not corresponding to a word and marking a hesitation), silent pauses (a subjective notion of an abnormal long time of silence between two words), repetitions (any repetition of one or more words), and autocorrection (any correction made by the speaker themselves, consisting in an interruption of the ongoing oral production, excluding discursive correction such as “This is Malika no sorry Marika”).  

 

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These peculiarities of oral communication must be added to those defined by the medium of the telephone. Actually, the face-to-face situation traditionally associated with oral communication is henceforth replaced by a voice-to-voice which generally allows the speaker to be disinhibited and to release an intimidating discourse usually

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associated with face-to-face.1 We will note this as well on the levels of syntax and lexis as on the level of raised issues (cf. Cougnon 2008). As Caron and Caronia explain, “‘Être présent’ ou ‘absent’, ‘être ici’ ou ‘là-bas’ […] ne sont que des étiquettes lexicales qui nécessitent une renégociation”2 of communicative properties: “Les droits, les obligations, les attentes et même les bonnes manières des participants en vis-àvis doivent maintenant être négociés en fonction des droits, des obligations et des attentes des ‘participants fantômes’” (Caron/Caronia 2005, 6s.).3

This phenomenon culminates on the one hand with the answering machine, which “offers the vocal cues of speech without the opportunity for feedback from the interlocutor, thus truncating the expected parameters of spoken language” (Baron 1998, 134), and on the other hand with the necessity for the phone owners to explain their not answering a phone call immediately, in particular the obligation to justify it (cf. Licoppe/Heurtin 2001; Salovaara et al. 2011). Finally, oral telephone communication has experienced an important metamorphosis in the passage to mobile phones, which transformed deeply the relationship of humans to communication and the relationships between humans. As Ling et al. (2005, 96) explain, “the transition from exclusively land-line based telephony to mobile telephony has made interpersonal communication more commonplace”. This common character of communication born from mobile phone communication modifies even language in its private nature: we have moved “from one mobile per household, to one per person, to even, in some cases, multiple mobiles per person” (Haddon 2001, 52). The frequency of telephone conversations rises and the accessibility of people is total. These two features engender a pressure on the speaker who is forced to higher and faster output. These phenomena impact interpersonal relationships, personalities and even language itself, which is directly affected by daily stress. A lot of research has already been conducted on adolescents’ use of telephony (cf. Ling 2005; Ling/Yttri 2002; Rautiainen/Kasesniemi 2000; Ling et al. 1999). The accessibility of the other to entail communication also engenders a completely new phenomenon: the death of silence. As Caron and Caronia (2005, 38) put it: “Les gens semblent pris par une certaine incapacité de supporter un moment de répit,

1 Note that the reverse effect is also observable: a voice-to-voice inhibiting the speaker due to the lack of paralinguistic (gestural and facial) information. This discomfort is solved in the case of CMWC where gestural and facial information are reintroduced through smileys and images. Thus, paradoxically, the double privation of face and voice of the interlocutor disinhibits even more the speaker than the simple privation of face in oral telephone communication does. 2 “‘Being present’ or ‘absent’, ‘being here’ or ‘there’ […] are nothing but lexical labels in need of renegotiation” (translation by the authors). 3 “The rights, the obligations, the expectations and even the good manners of face-to-face participants are now to be negotiated according to the rights, obligations and expectations of ‘phantom participants’” (translation by the authors).

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un moment de réflexion, un moment porteur, un moment pour soi… un silence”.4 In this way, messages and calls are decreasingly less carriers of semantic content (dating, planning, daily organization, declarations, etc.), but rather of simple maintenance of interpersonal relationships. The fact that telephone communication does not occur face-to-face entails consequences from a cognitive point of view. Indeed, several studies show that the use of the telephone complicates the interaction, making it more difficult to access for children younger than 5 years and for the elderly (cf. Ballagas et al. 2009; Hashizume/ Kurosu/Kaneko 2008): besides the sole action of oral communication, there are also tasks like the manipulation of the telephone to reach the interlocutor, handle the reference to objects in the immediate context, open and close the dialogue channel beyond any contextual evidence. On the other hand, the telephone user unconsciously creates a mental representation of their physically absent interlocutor, which supposes an additional cognitive load. This phenomenon is particularly important in the case of phone use when driving a car, a context which has attracted the attention of several studies (namely Trbovich/Harbluk 2003). Yet it is known (cf. Scherer 1986) that the cognitive load has a direct impact on the quality of spontaneous oral production: when it is too high, it provokes difficulties in oral production, observable especially in disfluencies. Finally, from a more technical point of view, the reduction of frequency range and its compression can negatively affect sound transmission: the consequence of which is a degradation of information such as intonation, of which we know the importance in communication. Taking these parameters into account is thus important for studies on the specific features of oral interactions via telephone. Furthermore, mobile phones have also introduced another revolution, this time in written communication, the particularities of which we will present in the following sections.

2.2 Text messaging, a Computer-Mediated Communication Type 2.2.1 Some important terminology Over the last few years, Computer-Mediated Written Communication (CMWC) has become a subject of intensive discussion, both with regard to its practice and to the controversies it triggers in the media, the population and the academic world. CMWC is defined in different ways that sometimes seem incomplete or imprecise. Herring (2007) suggests the following succinct definition: “Text-based human-human interac-

4 ‘People seem to be taken by a certain incapacity to bear a moment of respite, a moment of reflection, an auspicious moment, a moment for themselves… a silence’ (translation by the editors).

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tion mediated by networked computers or mobile telephony.” On their part, Véronis/ Guimier De Neef (2006) refuse the designation CMWC in favor of NWCF (“New Written Communication Forms”, in French NFCE or “nouvelles formes de communication écrite”), covering the totality of written communication spread via digital means (websites, emails, message boards, instant messengers, SMS, blogs, etc.); they think that the designation CMWC does not include the domain of telephony (which they do not consider as a computer) and therefore excludes SMS. In addition to this, the designation referring originally to CMC, “mediated” meaning “serve as intermediate” is, as far as they are concerned, a rare use of the participle which competes all too often with the meaning “popularized through the media”. We find their reasoning interesting although our point of view is slightly different. Concerning the exclusion of SMS from the domain of information technology, the SMS-enabled mobile phone is a technology that presents electronic components and offers similar functions as a computer. It is in some way a mini-computer allowing users to write and to send SMS, offering orthographic autocorrection, punctuation signs and even emoticons. We thus believe, following Bieswanger (2007), that the medium is indeed a computer. Yet we refuse the adoption of the acronym NWCF for several reasons: firstly, the adjective new is only appropriate for a limited time; we think it does not fit for a type such as e-mail which was introduced about 40 years ago and popularized 20 years ago. Then, NWCF does not refer to information technology or to electronic means; it does not make any allusion to the medium of communication. Yet, as Höflich/Gebhardt (2005, 14s.) explain, the vehicle always impacts in one way or another the language: it “n’est pas un simple véhicule (neutre) pour la transmission de messages. [Il] montre toujours un sens méta-communicatif qui a un effet sur le contenu de la communication.”5 The notion of language vehicle is essential, in that it can refer as well to a machine (the medium or channel of communication) as to a human; all types of CMWC are mediated by a machine (a computer or mini-computer). In some cases, such as e-mail and SMS, it is merely the actual mediation; in others (chat, message boards, network sites, etc.), there are two consecutive mediations operating: the one by computer and the human one (we think of moderators who modify by selection or censorship the content of messages). We wanted to solve this terminological problem proposing CMWC, which not only preserves the acronym and its definition, but also conserves the relevant elements found in literature: it is indeed a form of communication whose realization is written and whose influencing vehicle is the computer, in its broadest sense.

5 ‘It is no simple (neutral) vehicle for message transmission. It always contains a meta-communicative meaning which impacts the content of communication’ (translation by the authors).

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2.2.2 A little history Research on CMC began in the 1970s with the seminal work of Turoff/Hiltz (1977). CMWC started to be a prolific research area in the 1980s, when e-mail and chat massively entered the workspace (cf. Goodman/Sproull 1990; Rice/Hughes/Love 1989). The approach was mainly sociological, focusing on the working environment and often concluding that CMC had a negative influence on human relationships. From the 1990s on, research – still mainly in sociology – becomes more objective and oriented toward the impact of CMWC on social relationships (familial, intergenerational, loving, etc.) and the construction of identities (children and adolescents) (Rheingold 1993; Devisme/Dussarps 2010; Paragas 2003; Rivière 2002). Some researchers such as Wei/Xiaoming/Pan (2010), Moynihan/Kabadayi/Kaiser (2010) and Bamba/Barnes (2007) analyze human behavior in CMWC situations, e.g., the use of commercial messages via SMS. Toward the end of the 1990s, linguists start to look into the CMWC domain. Authors such as Mondada (1999), Gains (1999) and Herring (1998) engage in defining the linguistic features, mainly stylistic and interactional, associated with these new types of practice. With the rise of the Internet, interpersonal and mass communication intermingle: more heterogeneous forms of CMWC appear, such as message boards, emails and social network chats. The bounds between private and public life (messages addressed to a limited number of persons vs. messages addressed to a community) become blurred. Text messaging appears in this precise heterogeneous environment during the 90’s and is popularized during the 2000’s. Pioneer sociological and linguistic research on SMS starts in the 2000’s in the Nordic countries. The first studies focus on examples of messages without relying on a corpus (Anis 2001; Cortelazzo 2000; 2001; Davis 1991). Since then, research on SMS has attracted the interest of corpus linguistics which converted it into an independent research object (Fairon/Klein/Paumier 2006a; Guimier de Neef/Fessard 2007; Tagg 2009). Text messaging particularities and, mainly, the simplifications of the graphic code have been studied by a wide variety of linguists, such as Fairon/Klein/Paumier (2006b), Frehner (2008) and Panckhurst (2009). Logically, this simplification process tends to alarm media, parents and educators, who worry about the impact of new written practices on the mastery of orthography. The wave of anxiety entails a new drive and new directions for research, which finally overcomes the simple answers to mediatic or pedagogical requirements simply affecting linguistics (David/Goncalves 2007; Volckaert-Legrier/Bert-Erboul/Bernicot 2006; Thurlow 2003). From now on, research is about finding out whether the daily use of electronic communication profoundly modifies orthography and even language. Bouillaud/Chanquoy/Gombert (2007), for instance, studied the impact of CMC on orthography in general and, more specifically, on children’s orthography in school compositions. Their research, based on the results of dictations in three classes at different levels, suggests that there is indeed a correlation between mastering CMC and mastering orthography, but this  

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correlation is positive, as opposed to what is commonly believed. Panckhurst (1998) studies orthography in emails and proves that users can easily mix intentional variation and spelling errors, allowing themselves so-called controlled variations from the norm that could actually hide important knowledge gaps. Cougnon (2010) equally concludes that in the majority of cases, it is impossible to decide whether it is an actual error or a particular strategy of CMC, especially when the strategy abridges forms, which is simply a way to deal with the requirements of the medium. These more recent studies lead us to consider the existence of an additional competence, a kind of multi-skill (Jaffré 2010) that enables each speaker and writer to deliberately juggle with various codes according to situation, interlocutor and communication method. More recently, linguistic studies have diversified and raised heterogeneous subjects such as aspects of dialogue (Rivens Mompean 2007), minority languages (Vold Lexander 2007; 2009; Berruto 2005), code-switching (Cougnon 2011; Atifi 2007), diacritics (Van Compernolle 2011), adverbs (Guimier 2009), etc.

2.2.3 SMS and CMC Concretely, we categorize under the name CMWC communication via SMS, e-mail, instant messaging, chat, message board, Social Network Sites, and other types such as MUD (Multi-User Dungeons) which we will not elaborate upon. These different communicative modes have features in common with SMS. –

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E-mail: E-mail is the oldest type of CMWC and still one of the most used. It is a system of message exchange between users who have an electronic mailbox. Email was initially very close to the style and format of a “traditional” letter and does not present a style similar to that of SMS, which is shorter and refined. Yet SMS shares with e-mail its formulae of politeness, opening and closure of the message, which are (as opposed to what is commonly believed) particularly present in SMS (cf. Cougnon 2015). Instant messaging and chat: Chat is a service of live, collective textual communication via Internet and based on a common subject or interest. Instant messaging is an interpersonal textual communication service created in 1996 allowing each user to entail a dialogue with the persons of choice by request. Most instant messaging and chat messages are limited in characters (normally between 2,000 and 5,000): this particularity is similar to SMS which is limited to 160 characters. As opposed to e-mail, these forms work mainly on the conversational mode of short questions and answers, which is also the case for SMS. Message board: Online discussion forums or message boards appeared in the late 1990s. They are public sites similar to interactive platforms on which the visitors can contribute to discussion subjects linked to fields of interest (ecology, video

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games, etc.) or to specific target groups (young parents, “emo” adolescents, etc.). The spontaneity of conversation brings message board communication close to SMS. Social Network Sites: Social Network(ing) Sites (SNSs) are online services allowing individuals to create a (semi-) public profile and to establish relationships with other individuals signed up in the same system. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ are representative examples of SNSs. The reason why we are particularly interested in the phenomenon of SNSs, which were not initially created as a means of communication, but as a platform for social relationships, is that the services have since evolved: most of them do indeed encourage conversational exchanges similar to chat and SMS.

The use of SMS started to spread significantly only at the end of the 1990s. This communication system linked almost exclusively to the mobile phone allows sending messages in packages of 160 characters (this limit can be exceeded, the provider charging then a 2nd SMS). This type of communication, even though asynchronous, is also defined by the immediacy of exchange, which entails a promptness of reaction and thus a coarse style (i.e., without rereading) and a virtual absence of formal requirements (conventions) which leads to a more familiar register. Its organizational norm is specific in comparison to other CMWC types: it is the only service that requires no previous inscription and that does not filter the messages. It allows for mobility, being the only CMWC type that can be practiced whatever the place and the situation, given that the only requirement is a mobile phone.6 SMS is also to be distinguished by its encoding system which does not pass via a computer keyboard. Character encoding in SMS can be done in two ways: either by the multi-tap technique or by a system of autocompletion (predictive text entry).7

2.2.4 SMS Properties In the following, we will specify the features of the written code of SMS.8 a) Abbreviations: The phenomenon of abbreviation can be explained by the necessity for rapidity imposed by the context of SMS (because of its use amidst daily practices), next to the difficulty of encoding via a keyboard, the constraints of space and costs encouraging a brief style, at least in time, if not also in the

6 This specificity tends to disappear with the massive use of smartphones allowing for mobile consultation of e-mails, social networks etc. 7 Cf. above: the other CMWC types are in the meantime contaminated by the properties of smartphones. 8 Note that these features may in part be attached to other CMWC types.

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number of characters. To categorize these phenomena related to abbreviation, we will base our analysis on the typology developed by Tatossian (2008) and Berruto (2005), which we will complete and adapt to the specific context of SMS: – Graphic abbreviations without phonic incidence: apocope (dim for sp. dime), aphaeresis (lut for fr. salut), syncope (forgt for en. forgot) – Graphic abbreviations with phonic incidence: phonetization, i.e., graphic representation of phonetic values by a character (kb for cat. que bé), by number (6 for it. dove sei), by sign (pl@ for fr. plate) and by a spelling nearest to the actual pronunciation, to a regional accent or to a special style (fr. representation of /ca/, /co/, /cu/, /qu/, /k/ by /k/) – Specialization of characters: creation of acronyms (tvtb for it. ti voglio tanto bene) – Management of white space: tendency to delete white spaces (loveme for love me) and punctuation signs such as the apostrophe and the hyphen (can t for can’t) b) Emoticons: an emoticon or smiley consists in a combination of characters, mostly punctuation signs that represent (head inclined 90° clockwise) facial expressions and emotions like bursts of laughter, winks, pouts, etc. The concept of the little smiling face, initially yellow, was reused lately as a badge representing the music style house. Consequently, when computer scientists wanted to disambiguate the tone of their first messages exchanged on private servers, aiming to “materialize feelings” (Dejond 2006, 28; translation by the authors), they immediately thought of the little face and the most simple way to schematize it by means of a keyboard. c)

Punctuation, uppercase writing, echo characters: The context of SMS, as well as in other CMWC types, shows particular uses of punctuation signs. We already mentioned the possibility of facial expressions by emoticons. They can also hold a more intense expressive function than in traditional written contexts, adding some paralinguistic information like in the case of multiplication of one sole character. Punctuation in its rhythmic function is observed to be underused. The writers focus exclusively on the expressive and prosodic functions (exclamation and question marks, ellipsis, etc.) The extension does not only concern punctuation, but also the Latin characters: following Tatossian (2008), we will name this phenomenon caractères echo (echo characters). It often occurs with interjections (like sp. nooooooo). This multiplication concerns vowels as well as consonants, which leads us to conclude that this phenomenon does not only represent an imitation of orality but also an intensification of transmitted emotion. The use of uppercase characters can represent either alphabetical pronunciation (in the logic of phonetization of each character) or contribute to expressivity; there is actually a certain implicit convention common to all different CMWC types, suggesting

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that uppercase text parts should be understood as being shouted. This convention offers thus crucial paralinguistic information. As Marcoccia (2004, 2s.) explains, it is a verbal-amplification through paralinguistic information.

3 About Orality and Literacy 3.1 A Historical Distinction between Orality and Literacy Following the major theories in the field, researchers working on the new communication media (cf. Collot/Belmore 1996; Yates 1996) soon tried to situate the new written practices in an intermediate space between orality and literacy, considering a continuum whose extremities would be written discourse (and asynchronous types of CMWC) on the one hand and spoken discourse (and synchronous types of CMWC) on the other. Anis (1998) suggests considering electronic communication as a “hybrid” between written and spoken. These conceptions follow the traditional dichotomous model presenting written and spoken as two opposed manifestations of a sole phenomenon: language. In the traditional conception, CMWC is typically a written manifestation of language. Table 1, adapted from Baron (1998, 137), illustrates some fundamental points of the dichotomous model spoken/written. Table 1: Properties of the traditional dichotomy spoken/written (adapted from Baron 1998, 137) Writing (Endophoric)

Speech (Exophoric)

SOCIAL DYNAMICS:

separated in time and space objective monologue

face-to-face interpersonal dialogue

FORMAT:

durable scannable planned highly structured

ephemeral linear access spontaneous loosely structured, including repetitive

GRAMMAR:

complex syntax deals with past and future

simpler syntax deals with present

STYLE:

formal expository argument-oriented decontextualized abstract

informal narrative event-oriented contextualized concrete

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As a reaction to this dichotomous model, another movement tried to reverse radically this tendency, exposing the similarities between CMWC and orality. For the case of French, we mention e.g., Anis (1998), Luzzati (1991), Marcoccia (2004) and Panckhurst (1998; 2007). Some linguists, among them Ko (1996), stated a clearer convergence of CMWC and spoken discourse, based on the fact that both forms of communication take place in real time, as opposed to older written communication forms like letters and postcards. Likewise, other authors sought to approach the new communication media to what we call colloquial language, a solution often used to elude the spoken/written dichotomy. Gadet (1989, 3) defines colloquial language as follows: it is not a formal language, of course, but not an oral language, as it can be written. It is not the “language of the people” either, as it is not socially located. It is more of a familiar language that every speaker can use in his daily life, when he’s not observed: it is the everyday language. Finally, CMWC has also been characterized as being “produced spontaneously” (cf. Cougnon/Fairon 2010). The occasionally high frequency of less formal traits in such writings, associated with other tendencies (the desire to transmit a certain form of expressivity, the dialogic context, the absence of normative authority, the desire to belong to a sociocultural group, etc.) has indeed supported this notion. All these tendencies show a traditional and dichotomous conception of communicative modes. The modern perspective which we prefer, and which we will present in the following, considers these modes on a continuum according to the communicative situation.  

3.2 A Modern Perspective As Höflich and Gebhardt (2005, 23) put it, “un e-mail ou un SMS peut ressembler quelquefois plus à une lettre et d’autres fois plus à un appel téléphonique.”9 Indeed, some characteristics of SMS production seem to stem from orality, showing features of spontaneous or even colloquial communication. It is therefore difficult to define SMS in terms of genre. Following Charaudeau/Maingueneau (2002, 280), we believe that to describe SMS, and CMWC in general, we must take into account “l’ancrage social du discours, […] sa nature communicationnelle, […] les régularités compositionnelles des textes [et] les caractéristiques formelles des textes produits.”10 From a discursive perspective, the functionality of CMWC “à l’implicite, sur présupposés partagés, sous-

9 ‘… an e-mail or SMS can sometimes be more similar to a letter and sometimes more to a phone call’ (translation by the editors). 10 ‘… the social anchoring of discourse, […] its communicative nature, […] the compositional regularities and the formal characteristics of texts’ (translation by the authors).

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entendus et inférences conversationnelles” (Gadet 2004, 36),11 comparable to the functionality of spoken discourse (as opposed to written discourse which tends to decontextualize, imposing explicitness), is manifest and recurrent, but these features are neither regular nor omnipresent; they do not represent a constitutive trait. It is too dichotomous to split communication into “oral” and “written” (cf. Cougnon/Ledegen 2010) since it risks confounding the medium of communication with the properties of language. We follow here Gadet stating that: “Il faut avant tout opposer le médium […] et la conception […]. Le médium relève de la dichotomie, la conception du continuum. Aussi un énoncé d’oral médial peut-il avoir des caractéristiques discursives d’écrit, ou l’inverse” (Gadet 2004, 33).12

We situate ourselves therefore in continuation of Véronis/Guimier De Neef (2006), who base their conclusions on the works of Blanche-Benveniste and refute the argument that these new forms of communication stem from an “oralized written” or from a “written orality”. For them, the question is all about registers and frequencies; they explain: “Lorsque l’oral devient formel, on y retrouve les tournures caractéristiques de l’écrit […], et à l’inverse l’écrit informel utilise les tournures fréquentes à l’oral (double marquage, clivées, etc.)” (Véronis/Guimier De Neef 2006, 239).13

As the studies on e-mails conducted by Panckhurst (1998; 1999) show, we find in these writings informal traits alternating with formal traits, like the negation particle “ne” which can be omitted or maintained. Furthermore, certain specific traits of written discourse are always present; this is the case, for instance, for interruptions of communication, an option that does not require agreement of the interlocutor or previous notification. Moreover, some fundamental traits of orality are absent, for instance hesitations and (non-functional) repetitions; in sum, everything that can be erased in writing. We will not speak either of informal, colloquial or spontaneous communication. The designation “spontaneous” would imply that there is no linguistic or extralinguistic constraint influencing the language and that the SMS user would express themselves completely freely. Yet there are at least the constraints of adaption to the interlocutor: in this sense, there is a clear difference between formal messages

11 ‘… implicitly, based on shared presuppositions, insinuations and conversational inferences’ (translation by the authors). 12 ‘First of all, we have to oppose the medium […] and the conception […]. The medium stems from the dichotomy, the conception from the continuum. Thus, an oral utterance may show discursive features of written, or the other way round’ (translation by the authors). 13 ‘When the oral discourse is formal, we find characteristic phrasing of written discourse […], and on the opposite, informal written discourse uses the phrasing frequent in oral discourse (double marking, cleft sentences, etc.)’ (translation by the authors).

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addressed to elderly persons or with a different status, and the messages addressed to classmates and other individuals of the same status. Likewise, the informal or colloquial character of this communication type depends largely on the communicative situation in which the speaker is engaged. To conclude, we suggest to adopt, as explicated previously, the terminology CMWC. In terms of communicative parameters, these writings are situated mainly toward the pole of linguistic immediacy (cf. Koch/Oesterreicher 2001), as opposed to linguistic distance. This hypothesis is equally corroborated by Weininger/Shield (2004) in their analyses of simultaneous electronic exchanges. We therefore fully support the theory of a conceptional continuum between “communicative distance” and “communicative immediacy”. Nevertheless, we bear in mind that even though some phenomena of CMWC are clearly situated toward the pole of immediacy, a large number of other phenomena are positioned rather toward the pole of distance. Hence our hypothesis: a certain number of linguistic phenomena can be assimilated to distance, others to immediacy, which entails the importance of a continuum to situate intermediate phenomena. This conclusion is also valid for the characterization of telephonic communication. Our hypothesis states the impossibility to categorize CMC and phone conversations as all unified, labeled spontaneous language, oral language or colloquial, immediate or distant, given the amount of existing variations among CMWC that we want to highlight. In the table of parameters characterizing the communicative behavior of interlocutors, elaborated by Koch/Oesterreicher (2001), we note for instance that even if SMS is clearly a private form of communication (1), the interlocutor (2) is not necessarily an intimate and emotionality (3) is not constantly high (informative SMS of the type I’ll be at the train station in 20m). Table 2: Parameters characterizing the communicative behavior of interlocutors related to the situational and contextual determinants (adapted from Koch/Oesterreicher 2001, 586) Immediacy

Distance

1.

Private communication

1.

Public communication

2.

Intimate addressee

2.

Unknown addressee

3.

High degree of emotionality

3.

Weak degree of emotionality

4.

Attachment to situation and action

4.

Non-attachment to situation and action

5.

Inclusion of situational reference

5.

Exclusion of situational reference

6.

Face-to-face interaction

6.

Space-time separation

7.

Dialogicity

7.

Monologicity

8.

Spontaneous communication

8.

Planned communication

etc.

etc.

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Likewise, the communication via telephone is situated mainly toward the pole of immediacy because it is a rather private and dialogic form of communication and the interlocutors are usually familiar with each other; yet, on the other hand, this is not always the case and the communication may be prepared and thematically fixed, which would situate it toward the pole of distance.

3.3 Features of Orality and Literacy: a Faceted-Communication Scheme Instead of forcing the resemblance of CMWC with written or spoken discourse, we prefer to name its concrete features. As we have done above with Koch/Oesterreicher’s (2001) model, we propose to detail these specificities by means of the faceted classification scheme by Herring (2001), which is specifically adapted to CMC. Herring believes that language is necessarily affected by technological variables such as synchrony, granularity (the possible length of a text), etc. This is why the author proposes a faceted classification scheme (cf. Herring 2007) of different CMC types corresponding to the medium and the communicative situation. We will complete this classification system. A first set of parameters comprises technological characteristics, such as the protocols, the servers and the clients of a CMWC service, the material, the software and the interfaces presented to the users. This does not mean that the author admits a strong influence of the medium on the actual communication, quite the contrary, but she insists on the importance to include all the characteristics that may allow defining at the best the specific circumstances entailing a specific communication type. The second set of facets comprises social features such as information about the participants, their relation among each other, the objective and the subject of the communication and the language used. The following table uses Herring’s facets in order to compare (oral) telephony and (written) SMS. The bold lines mark the differences between the two types, showing that they are indeed rather close to each other. Note the 4 “variable” lines highlighting the flexibility of the features of these two communication types corresponding to the communicative situation, the addressee, etc.

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Table 3: Facets of SMS and telephone communication Facet

SMS

Telephony

Anonymacy

Identity revealed

Identity revealed*

Objective

Multiple

Multiple

Communication channels

Text, image

Voice

Characteristics of participants

Variable

Variable

Quoting

No

No

Delay of response

Variable

Immediacy

Filters

Yes: number blocking

Yes: number blocking

Format

Linear order of messages

Linear order of messages

Norms

No group moderation, no charter, but implicit politeness conventions

No group moderation, no charter, but implicit politeness conventions

Private/public

Private

Private

Conversational structure

2 or more**

2 or more**

Subject/theme

Variable

Variable

Permanency of transcription

Persistent by default

Non persistent by default

Synchrony

Asynchronous

Synchronous

Maximal size

160 characters (additional costs in case of exceedance)

No

Tone

Variable

Variable

Message transmission

Message by message

Message by message

* Exceptions are possible. ** Recent systems allow for grouped sending of SMS and for conference calls.

4 Perspectives The field of CMC is in full effervescence in the academic world. Worldwide, a growing number of research groups are collecting data originating mainly from their environment and their students. Corpora of considerable size and collected in an objective way are by now rare, especially for the case of SMS, a particularly private material. The international project sms4science14 coordinated by the UCL (Belgium) offers large

14 For more information: www.sms4science.org (01/17/2017).

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SMS corpora (counting, for instance, more than 1 million messages only in the Francophone corpus) in French, Italian, English and German; these corpora are perpetually extended. The corpora can be consulted as a whole or split by country: Belgium, France, Canada, Switzerland, etc. There is also the corpus of the National University of Singapore comprising 45,000 messages in English and 31,000 in Chinese. Caroline Tagg (2009) from the University of Birmingham elaborated an important SMS corpus in English. The studies we conducted personally led to two major conclusions with respect to this chapter: the convergence of the digital and the mediatic, and the development of a pluricompetence. Firstly, we have to state since the beginning of the 2000s that people have tended to fuse their media of communication: first including the possibility to send SMS from the computer (via special web services) or to make phone calls (via applications such as Skype). Next, the arrival of smartphones allowed for the use of instant messaging, e-mail and social network sites on the small screen. The mix has been effectuated up to the applications, which, as we can see in the case of Facebook, have fused chat messages and mails. As a consequence, it has become difficult to attribute specific features to a particular type of CMC: the constraints of the restrained keyboard are now also found in all smartphone applications, phone conversations can have the quality offered by the mobile WiFi or also be adorned with a high definition video from a mobile cable computer. Thus, we pose ourselves the question whether a classification of different CMC types can in the future still be pertinent. Secondly, we have worked a lot on the potential “bad influence” of new communication media on the orthographic competences of young generations, and on the general decline of linguistic competences. To do so, we analyzed corpora of SMS (cf. Cougnon 2015) and Facebook messages (cf. Maskens et al. 2015). We compared the speakers’ productions in different communicative situations. The results obtained by now show that there is a large graphic variation in the speakers’ productions, especially among younger people, but there is no actual incompetence: in the majority of cases, we observe that the speakers do master orthography and that they play with language with the goal to shorten or to transmit expressivity. Research perspectives in this field are still numerous with regard to the quality and quantity of data collected in the corpora mentioned before. At present, we believe that a totally original research perspective would be to concentrate on diachronic aspects of CMC: How did this communication evolve through time, even in only a few years? It would imply to elaborate a new corpus of data from a previously-studied region in order to apply scrupulously a similar methodology to an identical population. The question is to find out whether such a study is methodologically possible. Another perspective concerns the possible convergence between new means of communication (like WhatsApp and Viber) with the already more traditional ones: Is Twitter a mode whose linguistic practices have evolved on the basis of SMS or Facebook? In which way do WhatsApp messages and Facebook instant messaging resem 

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ble each other, and are they both to be seen in the tradition of telephony or of written letters? The project Thumbs4Science15 tries to answer these questions (among others) concerning discursive traditions.

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Maskens, Lénaïs, et al. (2015), Nouveaux médias et orthographe. Incompétence ou pluri-compétence?, Discours 16, (14.10.2016). Mondada, Lorenza (1999), Formes de séquentialité dans les courriels et les forums de discussion. Une approche conversationnelle de l’interaction sur Internet, ALSIC – Apprentissage des Langues et Systèmes d’Information et de Communication 2:1, 3–25. Moynihan, Brynn/Kabadayi, Sertan/Kaiser, Mark (2010), Consumer acceptance of SMS advertising: a study of American and Turkish consumers, International Journal of Mobile Communications 8:4, 392–410. Nowakowska, Aleksandra (2002), Problématique de la phrase clivée dans une approche plurilingue, (14.10.2016). Panckhurst, Rachel (1998), Analyse linguistique du courrier électronique, in: Nicolas Guégen/ Laurence Tobin (edd.), Communication, société et Internet, Paris, L’Harmattan, 47–60. Panckhurst, Rachel (1999), Analyse linguistique assistée par ordinateur du courriel, in: Jacques Anis (ed.), Internet, communication et langue française, Paris, Hermès, 55–70. Panckhurst, Rachel (2007), Discours électronique médié: quelle évolution depuis une décennie?, in: Jeannine Gerbault (ed.), La langue du cyberspace: de la diversité aux normes, Paris, L’Harmattan, 121–136. Panckhurst, Rachel (2009), Short Message Service (SMS): typologie et problématiques futures, in: Teddy Arnavielle (ed.), Polyphonies, pour Michelle Lanvin, Montpellier, Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3, 33–52. Paragas, Fernando (2003), Dramatextism: Mobile telephony and people power in the Philippines, in: Kristof Nyiri (ed.), Mobile democracy: Essays on society, self, and politics, Vienna, Passagen, 259–283. Rautiainen, Pirjo/Kasesniemi, Eija-Liisa (2000), Mobile communication of children and teenagers: case Finland 1997–2000, in: Rich Ling/Kristin Thrane (edd.), Sosiale konsekvenser av mobiltelefoni: proceedings fra et seminar om samfunn, barn og mobiltelefoni, Kjeller, Telenor FoU, 15–18. Rheingold, Howard (1993), The virtual community: homesteading on the electronic frontier, Boston, Addison Wesley. Rice, Ronald E./Hughes, Douglas/Love, Gail (1989), Usage and outcomes of electronic messaging at an R&D organization: Situational constraints, job level, and media awareness, Office: Technology and People 5:2, 141–161. Rivens Mompean, Annick (2007), Pratiques langagières sur un forum pédagogique en anglais, in: Jeannine Gerbault (éd.), La langue du cyberespace: de la diversité aux normes, Paris, L’Harmattan, 221–238. Rivière, Carole-Anne (2002), La pratique du mini-message. Une double stratégie d’extériorisation et de retrait de l’intimité dans les interactions quotidiennes, Réseaux 112–113, 139–168. Salovaara, Antti, et al. (2011), The phone rings but the user doesn’t answer: unavailability in mobile communication, in: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Human Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services (MobileHCI ’11), Stockholm, Sweden, August 30– September 02, 2011, New York, ACM, 503–512. Scherer, Klaus R. (1986), Voice, stress, and emotion, in: Mortimer H. Appley/Richard A. Trumbull (edd.), Dynamics of stress, New York, Plenum, 159–181. Tagg, Caroline (2009), A corpus analysis of SMS text messaging, PhD Thesis, University of Birmingham. Tatossian, Anaïs (2008), Typologie des procédés scripturaux des salons de clavardage en français chez les adolescents et les adultes, in: Jacques Durand/Benoît Habert/Bernard Laks (edd.), Actes du 1er Congrès Mondial de Linguistique Française, Paris, EDP Sciences, 2337–2352, (14.10.2016). Thomson, Audrey Jean/Martinet, Agnes (1986), A practical English grammar, Oxford, Oxford University Press.

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Anja Overbeck

9 Orality and Literacy of Online Communication Abstract: The ongoing advancement of the technical possibilities makes electronic media increasingly multifunctional. Online communication is therefore no longer a simple transmission of a message from the sender to the receiver, but a new form of interaction with many participants who create and discuss meaning. This leads to new perspectives in different fields of scientific research and requires an interdisciplinary access. Also the distinction and functionalization of orality and literacy has to be revisited, because a major part of online communication is written, although the features of orality cannot be ignored. What is more, the advancing appearance of hybrid communication forms integrating sound and pictures in traditionally written contexts complicates clear allocations. Research will have to rethink the existing models and create a new access that overcomes the old dichotomious structures. The article analytically reviews the leading theories and models on this subject and reflects the current debate, taking into consideration as well terminological as methodological questions.  

Keywords: immediacy-distance continuum, linguistic change, media convergence, online communication, orality and literacy, variation in online communication  

1 Linguistic research framework 1.1 Important questions In times of ongoing technical evolution, the distinction and functionalization of orality and literacy in human communication becomes increasingly complicated. What seemed to be quite clear following the Koch/Oesterreicher model in differentiating oral and literal utterances and texts of non-digital communication (cf. Koch/ Oesterreicher 1985; 2001; 2007a; 2007b; 2008; 22011; 2012), is getting ever more complex and blurred in online communication. Although the medial dichotomy between written (graphic) and spoken (phonic) code still exists in the “New” Media, there is a growing awareness of the difficulty to separate the two levels. Graphically represented messages in online communication often show features characteristic for speech and interactive discourse, but at the same time they differ a lot, stylistically from face-to-face conversation. What is more, the advancing appearance of hybrid communication forms integrating sound and pictures in traditionally written contexts complicates clear allocations. As online communication is furthermore difficult to DOI 10.1515/9783110314755-010

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locate on the immediacy-distance continuum, the analysis of the numerous language varieties in online communication has become an important task in current linguistics. However diverse the various forms of online communication, they are similar in several points: They are – primarily graphically realized (even if this is currently changing) – mediated by networked computers, tablets, cell or smartphones – based on technical devices on both sides of the communicative act (“Tertiärmedien”) – mainly independent of time and place – suitable for subsequent modifications and replies – technically documentable. The first research results in the linguistic analysis of online communication were mainly based on communication forms like e-mail, chat and text messaging and therefore optimistic about the possibility of new, clear and simple models (more on this below in chapter 2.1). For instance, an e-mail is a relatively clearly-defined communication form which has a specific, technically-dictated appearance. It can contain different content and text forms (e.g., an appointment for lunch as well as a letter of application or a report on research results) and so its linguistic conception can differ a lot, but formally and medially it underlies restricted criteria. The same applies to chat and text messaging. The literature about these three forms is therefore abundant (more on this below in chapter 1.3; as a general overview cf. Thurlow/Poff 2013). But in the last decade other communication channels have moved into the focus, namely the Social Networks which are harder to define from a linguistic perspective. They do not represent communication forms, nor do they consist of clearly delimitable text forms. Jucker/Dürscheid (2012, 47s.) call them “multiple-tool platforms” (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Google+, but also Skype and online newspapers) that bundle several communication practices, in contrast to “single-tool platforms” (chat, e-mail, blog, SMS) that can be classified as being either public or non-public (e.g., blogging vs. text messaging; more on this below in chapter 2.2). These new forms – and that is not the final word – demonstrate that the continuous technical evolution implies important changes in the distinction and evaluation of orality and literacy. The present article will analytically review the leading theories and models on this subject and reflect the ongoing discussion beyond individual media. Chapter 1 will provide information about existing definitions and research fields, while chapter 2 will focus on Romance perspectives on online communication. Chapter 3 will give a short resume and future prospects for research on this multifaceted subject.  

 

 

 

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1.2 Key concepts and definitions As communication has always been a central and well discussed phenomenon in both the popular and public discourse, the emergence of new language styles and forms that have arisen under the influence of the New Media are not always considered unambiguously positive. The main concerns attend to the perceived communicative paucity particularly of young people. These have been blamed for inventing a new “teen-talk” or “netlingo” negatively impacting standard communication and hollowing out language in the process (cf., e.g., the site or the hashtag #netlingo on Twitter) and thus produce negative impacts on the standard way of communication (cf. Thurlow 2003, or Anis 2006 who qualified the new features as “unconventional spelling” and called them “neographies”, cf. also Kallweit 2015). Most of the features criticized by academics refer to the strong influence of orality in written discourse, as there are – abbreviations (acronyms, initialisms, phonetizations, shorthands) – non-verbal codes (emoticons, emojis, uppercase, graphic elongations, echo characters) – lexical reduction (in order to save time or place) – syntactical reduction (ellipses, telegram style).  

However, the often-heard concern that the loss of grammatical standards and norms in online communication could induce a certain language decay in the long run, could not be confirmed in scientific studies (cf. Brommer/Dürscheid 2009; Plester/ Wood/Joshi 2009; Dürscheid/Wagner/Brommer 2010; Storrer 2010; Dürscheid/Stark 2013; Overbeck 2015). On the contrary, these studies emphasized that communication in the New Media can extend the functional area of written speech acts, because the younger generation often takes a playful and ironic approach to language use and consequently develops and improves their communication awareness rather than losing any command of the language. Users of online communication tend to adapt their writing style to addressees and contexts, even if often unconsciously. Thus, language use in online communication is strongly influenced by the medium and the context of communication as well as the situation of the participants, and in analyzing this language one should always take into consideration the users’ activities and expectations. The question of terminology accompanies this public and scientific discussion. The difficulty of achieving a consensus definition of terms has been discussed since the beginning of scientific analysis of online communication, but not even the differentiation between the academic discipline and the matter of investigation under discussion is clearly defined: Crystal (2011) and Marx/Weidacher (2014) call it Internet linguistics/Internetlinguistik, but the term is still not standardized. Jucker/Dürscheid (2012) argue that Internet linguistics is too narrow a term (because it excludes text messaging via cell phones) while media linguistics seems too wide (because it includes

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research on TV, radio, newspapers etc.); they suggest the term KSC linguistics (linguistics of keyboard-to-screen communication). The public and the academic world have still not agreed on a common term. Also, the designation of communication in the New Media varies from language to language. The most frequently used term so far is Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC), first mentioned in the 1980s (cf. Baron 1984), and still used in recent publications (cf., e.g., Herring/Stein/Virtanen 2013), but criticized meanwhile since cell phones are usually not considered computers and thus CMC excludes text messaging. To avoid exclusion of the cellular phone, other terms reflecting different concepts have been discussed, such as Electronically Mediated Communication (EMC), Digitally Mediated Communication (DMC), Internet-based Communication (IBC) or Internet-mediated Communication (IMC) (cf. Beißwenger 2007; Crystal 2011; Yus 2010; Jucker/Dürscheid 2012). Nor did the term proposed by Jucker/Dürscheid, keyboard-toscreen communication (KSC), gain wide acceptance. Cougnon/Bouraoui (↗8 Orality and Literacy of Telephony and SMS) propose the term Computer-Mediated Written Communication (CMWC) in order to distinguish the aural use of telephones from text messaging with mobile phones, which seems to be a useful differentiation, but is not suitable for new hybrid forms like mobile and voice-over-IP communication (video blogs, Internet telephony, instant messaging etc.; more on this below). In the Romance languages we also find different terms orientated toward English expressions, such as the Italian comunicazione mediata dal computer (CMC) that is equal with the Latin-American Spanish comunicación mediada por la computadora (CMC). In Spain, comunicación mediada por ordenador (CMO) is the usual term, but in France, the corresponding communication médiée/médiatisée par ordinateur (CMO) is considered unusual and is frequently replaced by the expressions communication virtuelle or cybercommunication. The German term computervermittelte Kommunikation (CVK) is common, but also digitale Kommunikation or virtuelle Kommunikation are sometimes seen (cf. Overbeck 2014 and 2015). Therefore, all terms listed here seem to include a certain inherent vagueness that reflects the complexity of the matter itself. The present article prefers thus the wider term online communication, because it covers all sorts of electronically transmitted communication, including both mobile and computer telephony, Skype or types of voice-chat, as well as video messages on portals like YouTube. Within this broad definition, the analysis of orality and literacy becomes even more interesting as in keyboard-to-screen approaches. According to this, we follow Herring (2007, 1) in defining online communication as “predominantly text-based human-human interaction mediated by networked computers or mobile telephony”, but we will see below that the aspect “predominantly text-based” is about to change, so that the definition will have to be extended in the next decades.  

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1.3 Research fields yesterday and nowadays Constant technical advances create a growing multifunctionality of the electronic media and thus require a multidimensional and interdisciplinary access also in the theoretical discourse about communication. Describing how people establish and maintain interaction in online communication, and how this is technically and linguistically managed, has become a central social and scientific task. Thus are involved from the beginning of research on online communication not only the disciplines of Communications Research, Conversation Analysis and Pragmatics, but also fields like Sociolinguistics, Textual Linguistics, Corpus Analysis etc. In the early linguistic research on online communication (1980s and early 1990s) many attempts have been made to define and to classify the language use in different communication forms (cf. the overview in Herring 2007). The first approaches were mainly sociological, focusing on aspects like social relationships and the construction of different identities (cf., e.g., Rice/Hughes/Love 1989; Rheingold 1993 and 1995; Döring 1997 and 22003 etc.). In Sociolinguistics today, the focus lies mainly on the research of youth language, the young generation being the main user group of online communication (cf. Neuland 2003; 2007; 2008; Boyer 2007; Baron 2008; Auzanneau/ Juillard 2012). In Textual Linguistics, meanwhile, researchers have questioned the validity of the traditional models for the distinction of text types (based on Brinker 1993 and Brinker et al. 2000; Linke/Nussbaumer/Portmann 52004). Soon it became obvious that the appearance of New Media did not necessarily imply the requirement of new text models, but that the existing theories had to be reviewed (cf. Adamzik 2000; Eckkrammer 2001; Jakobs 2003; Rehm 2006; Fix 2011; Overbeck 2014; Marx/ Weidacher 2014). In the last decade, linguistic studies of online communication have diversified and analyze language contact or code-switching among other issues (cf. Cougnon/Ledegen 2010; Cougnon 2011; Androutsopoulos 2013). Also, aspects of politeness and face work play an important role in the actual debate (based on Brown/Levinson 1987; cf., e.g., Held/Helfrich 2011; Maaß 2012; Bedijs/Held/Maaß 2014). Concepts like “turn-taking”, “face-enhancing behavior” or “flaming” play a central role particularly in analyzing communication in Internet forums and other commenting genres. Crystal (2011) and Marx/Weidacher (2014) try to merge these different fields of research and even make up a new academic discipline they call Internet linguistics/Internetlinguistik, but it remains to be seen what the real impact of this term will be. Right from the start of scientific research on online communication, the distinction between orality and literacy was at the center of interest (for the cultural dimension of the distinction between “spoken” and “written” cf. the often quoted study by Ong 1982). The really “new” in the so-called New Media was the phenomenon that a major part of online communication is written, although the features of orality like informality, representations of prosody and the rapidity of exchanging messages cannot be ignored. Furthermore, the physical distance of the communication partners  

 

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does not relate to linguistic distance, because of the high frequency of communicative immediacy features like little planning effort, emotional and spontaneous utterances or the integration of non-linguistic codes. One of the first questions was therefore if language in the New Media was a new type of writing, or sort of “written speech” (e.g., Maynor 1994; cf. Herring 2007). Some researchers even called it an intermediate type between speech and writing (e.g., Murray 1988). Jacques Anis (1998 and 2002), for example, described online communication as a hybrid between orality and literacy and thus blurring the frontiers (cf. also Yates 1996). Naomi Baron (2008, 48) asked, “Is CMC a form of writing or speech?”, and David Crystal (2011, 21) stated that “Internet language is identical to neither speech nor writing”. Characteristics like abbreviations, nonstandard spellings and emoticons were considered global features for this new communication type. These early globalizing efforts culminated in the attempt to construct a homogeneous language or communication genre referred to as Cyberslang or Netspeak (cf. Abel 22000; Crystal 2001). Also in the Romance languages, terms like langage réseau, cyberlangage, ciberlenguaje, linguaggio cyber emerged (cf. Yus 2001; Dejond 2002 and 2006). In the later 1990s, it became apparent that communicating “in the Internet” was much more complex than using some abbreviations and emoticons, thus a synoptic term like netspeak was no longer supportable (cf., e.g., Herring 1996 and 2007; Dürscheid 2004). Also a “modes approach”, trying to identify technologically-defined subtypes, was destined to fail, because online communication is sensitive to situational factors as well. Other researchers tried to differentiate with regard to aspects of time and space (cf. Herring 2001 who tried to assign asynchronous forms like e-mail, blogs or online newspapers a position closer to writing, and synchronous like chat or instant messaging a position closer to speaking; cf. also Dürscheid 2003; Denouël 2010 and Knopp 2013; more on this below, chapter 2.1). The focus of linguistic research thus shifted to the description of individual genres of online communication, trying to define the features of communication in each single form. Even if this approach was more realistic and generated significant results, the overall perspective has been somewhat obscured. Particularly well researched communication forms are chat (cf., e.g., Beißwenger 2001; Anis 2002; Pierozak 2003a and 2003b; Thaler 2003 and 2012; Pistolesi 42010; Luckhardt 2009; Kailuweit 2009; Spelz 2009), e-mail (cf., e.g., Ziegler/Dürscheid 22007; Pistolesi 2004; Frehner 2008; Schnitzer 2012; Dürscheid/Frehner 2013) and text messaging/SMS (cf., e.g., Almela Pérez 2001; Anis 2001; 2002; 2007; Schlobinski et al. 2001; Schlobinski 2003; Pistolesi 2004; Schnitzer 2012; as general overview cf. Thurlow/Poff 2013). In each of these forms, approaches from different research areas can be observed, as, e.g., sociolinguistics (cf., e.g., Androutsopoulos 2006), especially the research of youth language (cf., e.g., Baron 2008) and pragmatics (cf., e.g., Thurlow 2003; Androutsopoulos 2007; Anis 2007; Cougnon 2011). Also a lot of Variational Linguistics research was done (cf., e.g., Anis 2004; Liénard 2005; Bieswanger 2006; Cougnon 2008; Cougnon/Ledegen 2010). Only in the last few years have Social Networks shifted into the public eye (cf.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Millerand/Proulx/Rueff 2010; Storrer 2013; Bedijs/Held/Maaß 2014; Overbeck 2012; 2014; forthcoming). Social Networks, however, have highlighted the problem with “genre” classifications, because they represent rather complex platforms for usergenerated content than clearly definable genres or forms. Like recent analyses show, it is furthermore too narrow a perspective to split communication into “oral” and “literal” (cf. Cougnon/Ledegen 2008); instead, online communication has to be considered on a continuum according to the communicative situation. To this end, the linguistic character of online communication has to be seen as depending largely on the communicative situation of transmitter and receiver.

2 Romance perspectives on online communication 2.1 Established models In the course of the emerging New Media, the widely spread Koch/Oesterreicher model on communicative distance and immediacy (based on Söll 31985 [1974], cf. Koch/Oesterreicher 1985; 2001; 2007a; 2007b; 2008; 22011; 2012) was reviewed in regard to the new communication forms. The differentiation between the dichotomy of written/graphic and spoken/phonic code and the conceptional scale between the two poles of communicative distance and communicative immediacy worked well with traditional text forms, but was it also suitable for e-mail, chat or blog communication? Early analyses dealt mainly with such forms of online communication which provided many examples showing the opposite of the prototypical allocation communicative immediacy/phonic code and communicative distance/graphic code. The chat, for instance, is an example for realization in the graphic code in spite of its informality (cf. Pierozak 2003a; 2003b; Thaler 2003; Kailuweit 2009). Because of its synchronous character, the chat seems to be very typical for communicative immediacy with its features of a high degree of emotionality, spontaneity and thus informality, little planning effort and the lack of thematic fixation. Also SMS are considered to represent communicative immediacy, mainly because of their often private and informal character and their spatial limitation (cf. Thurlow/Poff 2013). The reproach of strong deviations from linguistic standard, however (cf. Dittmann/Siebert/Staiger 2007; Anis 2007), could be disproved meanwhile by corpus analyses (cf., e.g., Dürscheid/Stark 2013 and their corpus of Swiss text messages; cf. also Dürscheid/Stark 2011, and chapter 2.2 and 2.3 below). Other forms of online communication, e.g., email or posts in an Internet forum, were more difficult to locate on the immediacydistance continuum, because their linguistic appearance depends to a large extent on factors like content, topic and motive of writing, and they are thus neither typical for communicative immediacy nor for distance. Thus the Koch/Oesterreicher model works also with online communication forms, but only partially and depending on the character of the respective communication  

 

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context. Therefore, several studies tried to revise the model. Three of them will be represented in the following paragraphs as examples for Romance and German perspectives on the topic (as an overview cf. also Overbeck 2012 and 2014). An early attempt was Kattenbusch’s proposition to replace the phonic code through a so-called “lalischer Code” [‘lalic code’], from the greek lalia ‘small talk’, cf. Kattenbusch 2002). For him, the Koch/Oesterreicher model is not able to respond to specific requirements particularly from forms like chat, e-mail and newsgroup communication, because they include non-linguistic elements that are not classifiable on the conceptional scale. Therefore, online communication functions, according to Kattenbusch, mainly in the graphic medium, wherefore he replaces the phonic code through the lalic code, defined as a hybrid between graphic code and iconographic code (cf. Kattenbusch 2002, 192) and containing elements like emoticons, acronyms and other non-linguistic signs. His proposition of a new model has the same hierarchical structure as the Koch/Oesterreicher model, but with the new conception of the lalic code:

Figure 1: Net communication in conflict between distance and immediacy conception (Kattenbusch 2002, 194)1

This proposition did not gain acceptance, being mainly criticized because of the dichotomy between graphic and lalic code: also the graphic code contains many iconographic elements like arrows, currency symbols etc. (cf., e.g., Kailuweit 2009).  

1 ‘Netzkommunikation im Spannungsfeld zwischen distanz- und nähesprachlicher Konzeption’. In the figure: ‘lalic’ – ‘graphic’ – ‘chat / newsgroup / e-mail / mailing list / newspaper article etc.’ – ‘faceto-face conversation’ – ‘phonic and nonverbal’ – ‘immediacy / distance’ (translation by the editors).

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What is more, the number of iconographic elements is, seen in the context of all online communication, rather small and not typical only for communication in the New Media. In times of ongoing technical evolution, the phonic code is furthermore increasingly important, e.g., in communication forms like videoblog or Internet telephony. In the Koch/Oesterreicher model, Dürscheid mainly regretted the absence of consideration of the influence from time and space on the linguistic features of the different types of online communication (Fig. 2, cf. Dürscheid 2003 and 2004). She underlined the importance of the medium chosen to communicate, with regard to the concrete means of communication following Holly (1997). As far as time and space are concerned, she differentiates between asynchronous forms of communication in different communicative spaces like e-mail, fax message or SMS, and synchronous forms performed in a common communicative space like traditional telephony. In between, she places a so-called quasi-synchronous communication in which the communicative space is common and the communication takes place synchronously, but some features of face-to-face communication are not given, like the possibility to interrupt the communication partner directly. This is the case for forms like chat and instant messaging.  

Figure 2: Synchronous, quasi-synchronous and asynchronous communication forms (Dürscheid 2003, 47)2

Another element of description was added by Berruto (2005) who proposed to take into consideration the degree of interactivity when describing forms of online communication:

2 ‘Synchrone, quasi-synchrone und asynchrone Kommunikationsformen’. In the figure: ‘common communicative space / synchronous communication / phone call – common communicative space / quasi-synchronous communication / chat, instant messaging – no common communicative space / asynchronous communication / fax, e-mail, SMS, message on answering machine / extension of communicative situation’ (translation by the editors).

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Figure 3: Tridimensional scheme of CMC with axis of interactivity (Berruto 2005, 156)

Thus some forms were more interactive than others, above all the chat to which Berruto mainly refers. But he does not consider the growing importance of interaction also in forms characterized so far as less interactive like online newspapers or blogs which offer the opportunity to comment on the content itself, increasingly adopted by users of all types. Meanwhile, there is a lot of interactivity on Social Networks as well, e.g., in Twitter, commenting on a current event like a royal wedding, a thunderstorm or an election. The growing importance of new combined formats like WhatsApp shows the inadequacy of two-dimensional models all failing in the long run due to their dichotomized structure that tries to classify different forms of online communication within one universal scheme and does not leave any place for hybrid types. Thus, former communication models have to be revised in an era of ongoing media convergence. Of course, one can try to distinguish between “more phonic” forms (Internet telephony like Skype, webradio etc.) and “more graphic” forms (chat, e-mail, text messaging, online journals, e-books), but the increasing number of mixed or hybrid forms (video portals like YouTube, MyVideo; photoblogs like Instagram, Flickr; new forms of instant messaging like WhatsApp, Viber; voice-over-IP communication like Skype, FaceTime etc.) blur the traditional dividing lines. In terms of communicative parameters, we will find also in online communication characteristics of communicative immediacy and distance, but the linguistic approach has to be overarching without any attempt to assign particular communication forms to one of the two poles and to fix them there (cf. Overbeck 2014). New models thus have to overcome the unilateral dichotomized reasoning in order to overcome the frontiers of single communication forms.  

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2.2 New research models and methods As a reaction to the problems outlined in the previous chapter, Herring (2007, cf. also 2001 and 2002) provided a faceted classification scheme for online communication forms that is based on traditional discourse analysis (cf., e.g., the communication model for spoken discourse classification of Hymes 1974) and extended to what she calls “computer-mediated discourse analysis (CMDA)”, including key features of online communication into the conventional models with the goal to complement existing mode-based communication models. She starts from the generally accepted assumption that the appearance of online communication is subject to two basic types of influence: the medium as technological aspect and the situation as a social one. Their relationship is considered to be non-hierarchical and dependent on different contexts. Herring thus builds up two open-ended sets of categories, the “medium factors” and the “situation factors”:  

Table 1: Medium factors (Herring 2007) M1

Synchronicity

M2

Message transmission (1-way vs. 2-way)

M3

Persistence of transcript

M4

Size of message buffer

M5

Channels of communication

M6

Anonymous messaging

M7

Private messaging

M8

Filtering

M9

Quoting

M10

Message format

All factors are technically independent of one another, but in practice, they tend to combine and correlate. This faceted classification scheme functions well with what Herring calls “familiar CMC modes”, as, e.g., the Internet Relay Chat. She describes this communication form as being typically many-to-many, having a high degree of anonymity, social in function and non-serious in tone, containing a high incidence of phatic exchanges and utilized particularly by young people between 18 and 25 years. Even with more sophisticated forms like the blog, this classification may help to define communication features, as it is shown in the exemplary sample classification Herring represents in her article. But when applying this model to even more complex forms of online communication, it becomes evident that also the definition of medium and situation factors can only be an approximation that obscures many aspects of  

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Table 2: Situation factors (Herring 2007) S1

Participation structure

– One-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-many – Public/private – Degree of anonymity/pseudonymity – Group size; number of active participants – Amount, rate, and balance of participation

S2

Participant characteristics

– Demographics: gender, age, occupation, etc. – Proficiency: with language/computers/CMC – Experience: with addressee/group/topic – Role/status: in “real life”; of online personae – Pre-existing sociocultural knowledge and interactional norms – Attitudes, beliefs, ideologies, and motivations

S3

Purpose

– Of group, e.g., professional, social, fantasy/role-playing, aesthetic, experimental – Goal of interaction, e.g., get information, negotiate consensus, develop professional/social relationships, impress/entertain others, have fun

S4

Topic or Theme

– Of group, e.g., politics, linguistics, feminism, soap operas, sex, science fiction, South Asian culture, medieval times, pub – Of exchanges, e.g., the war in Iraq, pro-drop languages, the project budget, gay sex, vacation plans, personal information about participants, meta-discourse about CMC  

S5

Tone

– Serious/playful – Formal/casual – Contentious/friendly – Cooperative/sarcastic, etc.

S6

Activity

– E.g., debate, job announcement, information exchange, phatic exchange, problem solving, exchange of insults, joking exchange, game, theatrical performance, flirtation, virtual sex

S7

Norms

– Of organization – Of social appropriateness – Of language

S8

Code

– Language, language variety – Font/writing system

social, psychological and also technical contexts. Taking into account, for example, the complexity of platforms like Twitter, Facebook or Google+, it becomes obvious that even the different facets can only give an idea of the great versatility of modern online communication. What is more, the scheme is based primarily on research findings for textual online communication and excludes again the hybrid forms like mobile and voice-over-IP communication. With this ongoing advancement, new varieties of discourse are created that call out for analysis and further classification.

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This position is supported by Jucker/Dürscheid (2012) who also underline that the traditional analytical categories distinguishing between different forms of communication are no longer sustainable in their entirety. These categories were (cf. Jucker/ Dürscheid 2012, chapter 2): a) asynchronous vs. synchronous b) written vs. spoken c) monologic vs. dialogic d) text vs. utterance e) public vs. private f) mobile vs. stationery g) monomodal vs. multimodal. Not all categories are of equal value, some of them being blurred because of the ongoing media convergence. What is more, some categories influence each other, which is particularly important for the degree of orality: The more synchronous a communication takes place, the more “oral” it might be in conception. The same applies to the degree of publicity, thus the distinction is not supportable in all aspects. With the advent of smartphones, the distinction between mobile vs. stationary has also become outdated. Also the dichotomy between “public” and “private” is no longer sustainable, because there is rather a difference between public and nonpublic that refers to the accessibility of the communication, while private vs. nonprivate rather refers to the nature of the content of a message. Jucker/Dürscheid (2012, 44s.) distinguish between three dimensions: the communicative situation (the scale of public accessibility), the content (the scale of privacy) and the linguistic realization (the scale of communicative immediacy). With regard to the dichotomy between asynchronicity and synchronicity, the authors not only add the already-mentioned third possibility of quasi-synchronicity (cf. Dürscheid 2003, as further explained above), but they suggest a new three-level distinction of co-presence, synchronicity and simultaneity (Jucker/Dürscheid 2012, 43). In this sense, co-presence means the engagement of the communication interactants at the same time, but not necessarily in the same location. The level of synchronicity refers to the timing of production and reception of the message, while simultaneity prevails if two or more messages are produced (and even received) at the same time. The latter is of special interest for the very new forms of online communication like WhatsApp or Viber that combine written and oral message production and are sometimes used in a simultaneous communication context. These three factors can influence the linguistic appearance of the messages, because co-presence and simultaneity increase the velocity of the communication and may produce more features of closeness or immediacy: The spontaneity of the interaction is intensified by the recurrent use of emoticons and emojis representing items like plants, buildings, food or people.

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Together with “written” vs. “spoken”, the distinction between “texts” and “utterances” is no longer useful, following Jucker/Dürscheid, because in online communication, the boundary blurs between graphically-realized texts, tending to be monologic, planned and rather used in asynchronous communication, and phonicallyproduced utterances, occurring rather in dialogic contexts and synchronous communication, tending to be short and spontaneous. The authors propose the more general term “communicative act” (CA) referring to the Relevance Theory of Sperber/Wilson (21995). The term CA is defined as “a more general designation that covers language units irrespective of their monologic or dialogic context, irrespective of their synchronous, quasi-synchronous or asynchronous communication pattern, and ultimately also irrespective of their production in the graphic or phonic code or even in a non-verbal manner” (Jucker/Dürscheid 2012, 46).

The authors replace the dichotomy of monologic vs. dialogic contexts with a scale of uptake expectations, in other words, “communicative acts differ as to the extent to which their producers can expect other communicators to respond”:

Figure 4: Scale of uptake expectations (Jucker/Dürscheid 2012, 47)

In addition, the authors differentiate CAs that occur in relative isolation (e.g., like books, user manuals, church sermons or academic talks) from others that are “generally embedded in a whole string of related units, e.g., chat contributions or tweets” (ibid., 47). The latter are designated as “communicative act sequences” (CAS). With the help of this new term, it is possible not only to cover “traditional” sequences like face-to-face conversations or letters, but also a large part of online communication in context like an e-mail exchange, a text message dialogue, a timeline on Twitter or a thread in an Internet forum. Moreover, Jucker/Dürscheid introduce the useful technical distinction between single-tool platforms such as e-mail, chat, blog or SMS, and multiple-form platforms like most of the Social Networks, but also Skype or online newspapers. In the latter, a range of different types of communication forms is available at the same time (e.g., profile, chat function and “like” button on Facebook, comments or links to weather forecasts in online newspapers etc.), so they provide the basis of the mentioned CAS:  

 

 

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Figure 5: Analytical grid for communicative acts (CAs) and communicative act sequences (CASs) (Jucker/Dürscheid 2012, 48)

That the given definitions work with most of the new and very new forms of online communication is shown in the case studies given in the cited article (mainly on Facebook and Twitter). As the propositions of Herring and Jucker/Dürscheid show, future models will have to overcome the traditional dichotomy between “written” and “oral”. Earlier categories used to analyze different forms of communication are no longer valid, because new forms of online communication transverse the frontiers between the once rather clearly separated text and communication forms. We must accept the impossibility to categorize all forms of online discourse in one clear and durable classification scheme (cf. also Overbeck 2014). Thus, the distinct disciplines have to strengthen their effort to work together in an interdisciplinary way. First attempts are already evolving through several research networks collecting data to build large, publicly-accessible corpora, as is shown in the following section.

2.3 Sources for research To improve the knowledge about language in online communication, the construction of theoretical models has to be based on detailed analyses of computer-mediated data samples and collections. At the present time, the range of large accessible corpora for the analysis of online communication is rather unsatisfactory, even though a growing number of researchers and research groups dedicate themselves to different linguistic and social aspects. Among these, we can differentiate two types of scientific approaches:

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1) Project-related data, e.g., for corpus-based doctoral theses or other more individual scientific works. For the most part, these are not publicly available, but partly accessible via the (sometimes online) published works (cf., e.g., for French chats Pierozak 2003a and 2003b; for German chats Thaler 2003 and Luckhardt 2009; for German-Swedish chats Pankow 2003; for English SMS Tagg 2009; for Twitter Tagg/Mason 2011 (English) and Overbeck 2012 (Italian, French and German); for English computer conferencing cf. the CoSy:50 Corpus from Yates 1996; for mixed German data analyses cf. Bittner 2003 and the related site that offers several little (older) corpora on chat, e-mail and private homepages). 2) “Publicly” collected data for general use from research groups or public institutions that are available online and mostly depend on the cooperation of the general public (e.g., donation of SMS). Some of these corpora are of considerable size and already form the basis of a growing number of analyses. It is surprising that especially the SMS as a rather “private” and difficultly accessible communication form seems to be the best investigated type: At the University of Münster, the Centrum Sprache und Interaktion constructed in 2012 a Datenbank für Alltagskommunikation in SMS3 (database for everyday communication in SMS), but it is dedicated only to the lectures of the German Institute of the university. An early public project was the Belgian initiative Faites don de vos SMS à la science that collected 30,000 SMS, published on CD-ROM in 2006 (cf. Fairon/Klein/Paumier 2006; Cougnon 2008; Cougnon/Bouraoui ↗8 Orality and Literacy of Telephony and SMS). The BelgianSwiss-German project sms4science4 has collected 25,947 SMS (ca. 500,000 tokens) in German, French, Italian and Romansh (41% of all SMS are in Swiss German dialect, 28% in non-dialectal German, 18% in French, 6% in Italian, and 4% in Romansh) which were sent in by the Swiss public in the years 2009/2010 and are now publicly accessible (cf. Dürscheid/Stark 2011 and 2013; Stähli/Dürscheid/Béguelin 2011). The successor project is named What’s up, Switzerland?,5 founded in 2013 at the universities of Bern, Zurich and Neuchâtel and dedicated to WhatsApp. The aim of the project is to describe the linguistic features of WhatsApp communication and to compare it with the SMS collected in sms4science. The key questions are the following: – How are different languages and dialects used in WhatsApp messages? – How do WhatsApp users interact with each other? – How do WhatsApp chats differ from SMS? – Do new technologies bring about linguistic changes? And if so, what kind of changes?  

 

 

 

 

3 . 4 . 5 .

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Thus, the project combines linguistic aspects with technical and social ones and we can be curious what the results will be in this innovative approach. Another remarkable corpus being composed in Italy is the TWITA6 corpus comprising at the moment more than 155 million of Italian tweets collected from February 2012 to June 2013 and offering partial geo-location information as well. Regarding (Italian) chat, also the Eulogos Corpus di conversazioni da chat-line in lingua italiana7 is worth mentioning. It is surprising that for other communication forms like e-mail, blogs, online telephony, online journals, etc. accessible corpora of greater size are rather rare. One can find several little projects offering a selection of data, like, e.g., the Birmingham Blog Corpus,8 the Düsseldorf CMC Corpus (as described in Zitzen 2004), or the Dortmunder Chat-Korpus,9 but within the overall framework, large corpora for general use and interdisciplinary studies are still missing. Also projects and corpora in the Roman context are still quite rare, while the research environment in German and Anglophone contexts seems to be more productive at present, as several academic project networks show, cf., e.g., the interdisciplinary project Analyse von Diskursen in Social Media10 [‘Analysis of Discourse in Social Media’] in which academics from both Communication Sciences and Linguistics are involved. The goal of the project network is to develop and evaluate an automated process in order that different approaches can be applied in answering questions about online communication studies. Michael Beißwenger and Angelika Storrer give a useful overview on available corpora in their article “Corpora of Computer-Mediated Communication” (Beißwenger/Storrer 2008).  

 

3 Conclusions, perspectives and desiderata 3.1 Short resume When exploring online communication at present, one has always to keep in mind that communication in the New Media is in most cases no longer a simple transmission of a message from the sender to the receiver, but a new form of interaction with many participants who create, comment and discuss meaning (cf. Jucker/Dürscheid 2012). In this sense, the traditional categories applied in the past to distinguish between different forms of communication cannot be transferred to the entirety of online communication. Even the attempt to think in categories is doomed to fail in

6 . 7 . 8 . 9 . 10 Universities of Münster, Potsdam and Munich, cf. .

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times of increasing media convergence. Particularly the very new forms of online communication like WhatsApp or Viber, which combine written messages with photo, video or voice messages, refuse any clear categorization. Also, most of the Social Networks are changing into multiple-tool-platforms that bundle several communication practices like chat, status updates, private messages, buttons for sharing, commenting functions, etc. that are no longer separable from one another. In these cases, we will have to talk about communicative act sequences transcending single communication platforms rather than about communication forms. The increasing number of interdisciplinary corpora will be a first step to get an overview about the work to do in the next decades of research about online communication.

3.2 Linguistic change? As the first analyses have shown, the linguistic change caused by the New Media is nothing to worry about concerning aspects like linguistic paucity or the loss of grammatical standards. The technical evolution, of course, has a considerable influence on social relationships, the construction of different identities and not least on language behavior, but the fears of language decline, mainly concerning the younger generation, seem to be exaggerated. Like several scientific studies confirmed, there is no deterioration of the writing skills of pupils detectable (cf. Brommer/Dürscheid 2009; Plester/Wood/Joshi 2009; Dürscheid/Wagner/Brommer 2010; Storrer 2010; Dürscheid/Stark 2013). Young people normally adapt themselves to communication contexts and control the selection of linguistic registers, also in times of SMS, WhatsApp and Facebook. Thus, the language use also in online communication depends to a large part on the medium chosen to communicate and the context of communication. What is more, the analyses could not detect any influence of the informal writing patterns in many forms of online communication on text types requiring linguistic complexity and formality (cf. Storrer 2010). On the contrary, in the long run a diversification of text types and a functional extension of writing styles will most likely result from the high degree of varieties in online discourses. These varieties are, on the other hand, not compressible into one single language like “netspeak”. As the last two decades of the analysis of online communication have clearly demonstrated, the features meant to be typical for online communication, like emoticons, abbreviations, acronyms etc., can be found also in other linguistic fields. What is more, these features are high-frequency only in the communication of the leisure and private sector, being considerably less frequent in more formal contexts of use (e.g., Internet forums in the educational or scientific sector, online counseling chats, political blogs, newsletters etc.). It is thus not possible to designate the diversity of features of online communication with one general term: “online communication” is not a language.  

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3.3 Perspectives Thus, actual research on online communication will have to rethink the existing models and choose a new access that overcomes the old dichotomous structures. In an era of smartphones with growing displays, even the medium chosen for communication is no longer decisive for the linguistic quality of the conversation: Supported by lots of applications, the mobile phone (or tablet) is by now able to offer all sorts of online communication formerly only possible on the desktop PC. Thus, the constraints of the small display and the restrained keyboard are becoming less and less important. A new linguistic framework will thus have to address technical challenges in future classification models respecting that online communication can use multiple channels of communication at the same time. Multimodal forms are on the rise, and users have become accustomed to operate with two or more modes at the same time. Examples for this are not only the Social Networks with their multiple tools, but also video blogs or instant messaging forms combining language, images, music and sounds. Other hybrid modes where participants can speak, write and use audio channels at the same time are, e.g., the multiplayer online games or Multi User Dungeons (MUDs). To integrate all these forms, future research will have to adopt a transdisciplinary perspective and include several scientific disciplines, not only Linguistics, but also Information Science and other technical fields. For this purpose, interdisciplinary projects will have to build corpora for analysis and research. The aim of all corpus-based analyses should be the greatest possible accessibility of the collected data and the cross-linkage of as many projects as possible to offer a basis for interdisciplinary work. At the present time, too much useful data gets lost because of the “privacy” of individual research. Very desirable is also the elaboration of consistent methods for data sampling (many suggestions are given in Herring 2004 and Beißwenger/Storrer 2008). Rather than collect and represent raw data, it would be best to find a standardized annotation scheme and to develop appropriate categories for the description of linguistic, namely grammatical features of the language in online communication (e.g., morphosyntactic taggers). Online communication corpora thus need special devices because of the often-noticed deviations from standard language (typing errors, abbreviations, special use of punctuation etc.) and the multiple variations in lexical and morphological elements. Another characteristic is the presence of system-generated content that does not belong to the linguistic register and thus has to be separated (nicknames, labeled quotations, system messages etc.). Also meta-information about the users of different online communication forms should be registered (if available), because it can be of great importance for sociological or psychological studies as well as for sociolinguistic analyses (correlations between age, gender and level of education of the users and their stylistic and linguistic features). In this sense, data from online communication corpora should also been included into the great national corpora of contemporary language. At present, neither the  

 

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British National Corpus (BNC), nor the German corpora available through the COSMAS11 search tool or the online corpus of the German language of the 20th century compiled within the framework of the online dictionary project DWDS do so (cf. Beißwenger/Storrer 2008). Also, the important Romance corpora like Frantext, Corpus di Italiano Scritto (CORIS), Corpus e Lessico di Frequenza dell’Italiano Scritto (CoLFIS), Corpus del Español Actual (CEA), Corpus de Referencia del Español Actual (CREA), or Corpus de Referência do Português Contemporâneo (CRPC) should offer, in the long run at least, a certain percentage of online communication data. The future prospect for research on online communication is thus the widening of the perspective in all senses, always along the ongoing technical evolution.  

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Methods in Linguistic Media Research

Antonio M. Bañón Hernández

10 Critical Discourse Analysis and New Media Abstract: In this chapter we firstly study the basic concepts related to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and its fundamental lines of research (social-cognitive analysis, discourse-historic analysis, social-ideological analysis and multimodal analysis). Secondly, we reflect upon the influence of CDA on the study of new forms of communication media, paying particular attention to three dimensions thereof: changes in features of speaker and recipient (identity and authorship, wider interlocution and exposed interlocution), timing readjustments, spaces and media (continuity, availability and speed, convergence and multimodality), and the novelties in the manner of structuring the social-cognitive dimension of communication (access and accessibility, fragmentation and accumulation). Thirdly, we underscore, before the conclusions, part of the most relevant research in the Hispanic field about treatment of minorities and migratory processes, health and disease, gender and poverty, in the new media.  

Keywords: critical discourse analysis, gender, health, immigration, Internet, poverty, social networks  

1 Research framework 1.1 Basic concepts of Critical Discourse Analysis Critical Discourse Analysis (hereafter CDA) aims mainly at studying the social or institutional power linked to uses of the language that, in given contexts, entail the promotion, attenuation or elimination of signs of equality or inequality, of compromise or discrimination. This type of analysis mainly focuses on three processes (cf. van Leeuwen 1993, 193; van Dijk 1996): access to communication, discourse control, and, finally, symbolic representation of the different actors participating in the social debate on issues of special interest (poverty, racism, sexism, discrimination due to age, disease or disability, environmental problems, political and economic corruption, and so forth). It therefore pays interest to both the communicative process and its product (cf. O’Halloran 2011, 455) and it implies researchers assuming certain social responsibility (cf. Verschueren 2001, 59). CDA caters for written and oral texts, and of course, multimodal ones also. The former are more frequent because, initially, they are easier to file, label and analyze. CDA is not a particular methodological orientation, but a set of diverse theoretical-methodological approaches (cf. van Dijk 1993). Wodak (2011, 50) proposes to speak of “school” or “program” to refer to the common interests that, despite that DOI 10.1515/9783110314755-011

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diversity, have a group of researchers who identify themselves as critical discourse analysts. Van Dijk (2009) prefers to speak of Critical Discourse Studies. In this sense, it is worth mentioning that CDA has a trans-disciplinary (cf. Fairclough 2005) or a multidisciplinary vocation (cf. van Dijk 2003b). CDA has attracted the attention of psychologists, anthropologists, health professionals, politologists, anthropologists or sociologists, which confirms its value for the transversal study of communication in various contexts of daily and professional interaction. We understand, the same as van Dijk (2003b, 146), that whenever we speak about CDA there must be a solid basis of discourse analysis, regardless of the interdisciplinary projection. Meyer (2003, 56) believes that linguistic training is needed in order to select the relevant aspects for specific objects of research. Fairclough (1995, 4) mentions the type of training required to avoid the analysis becoming a mere succession of commentaries. We find precedents of CDA in proposals of philosophy, of semiotics or of linguistics. We are thinking of Michel Foucault, of the Frankfurt School and Jürgen Habermas, of Pierre Bourdieu and, particularly, Critical Linguistics (CL) with which it has a relation of continuity (cf. Fowler et al. 1979). In fact, some authors make no distinction between the denominations CDA and CL (cf. Wodak 2003a, 17s.). Hidalgo Tenorio (2011, 188s.) summarizes these precedents very well. Context is one of the essential categories in any critical approach to discourse (cf. Verschueren 2001, 61; Mey 2003, 333); it is frequently mentioned and evoked, but not always well analyzed and described (cf. Akman/Bazzanella 2003). Context control (of time, space, frame, participants, etc.) is one of the most evident signs of power (cf. Alba-Juez 2009, 242). Akman (2000), in fact, refers to context as a social construct, an idea to which we shall return later. CDA has used the discourses of the social elites as a corpus for analysis: politicians, education agents, NGOs and media, among others. We should not forget the double function of the media, their dual nature (cf. Schäfer 2011, 149): representing other people’s discourse and offering (implicitly or explicitly) a discourse of their own. Both functions are critical for the social conformation of opinions, prejudices, attitudes and evaluations, basically, for the transmission and consolidation of ideological models (cf. van Dijk 1998). CDS is not only critical, but is (or should be) also constructive (cf. Fairclough 2002, 102), as the identification of discursive malpractice should be accompanied by proposals which facilitate objective information and absence of discrimination, especially of the most disfavored groups. There has also been mention of Critical and Constructive Discourse Analysis (CCDA; cf. Bañón/Fornieles Alcaraz 2011, 38ss.). Constructive discourse is one of the basic social macro-functions we can assign to discourse (cf. Reisigl/Wodak 2000, 40). CDA treats both macrostructural and microstructural matters in a combined and interrelated manner (cf. Schäfer 2011, 148). Hence it is always a complex approach, as social problems are equally complex. In general, it has to take into account what is

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present, but also what is absent, not only due to the relevance of the implicit manifestation of power (cf. Lê/Lê 2009, 12), but also because the election of some issues, arguments, words or syntagmata implies rejecting others, and that has a direct repercussion on the representation of social processes, actors or events (cf. Fairclough 1995, 5). The option of expressing information or leaving it implicit is not neutral, according to van Dijk (2003a, 60). On the other hand, “it is not possible to make a final list of linguistic devices that are relevant for CDA, as their selection depends primarily on the particular research matters” (Meyer 2003, 51). Decades of specialization in this area have “brought to light” hundreds, if not thousands, of relevant levels, dimensions, initiatives, types of speech acts and devices, apart from other discourse structures (cf. van Dijk 2003b, 147). From this “toolbox” as Jäger (2003, 87) would say, critical analysis does not need all the details (cf. Fowler 1996, 8); a selection should be made of the structures that are relevant for studying a social matter (cf. van Dijk 2003b, 148). Philo (2007), from research on media developed in Glasgow and with similar objectives to CDA, suggests starting the analyses by identifying the arguments. That identification is related to the search of legitimacy or illegitimacy formulae (mention of authorities, moral evaluation, rationalization, etc.; cf. van Leeuwen 2007, 93). The critical look at discourse must incorporate intertextuality (cf. Fairclough 1992b), recuperating the tradition from Mikhail Bakhtin and Valentin Voloshinov. It is no coincidence that Menéndez claims the “serie discursiva” as the specific CDA unit (e.g., 2012, 64). Intertextuality, besides, favors a historical approach (cf. Fowler 1996, 9). Research in CDA has a direct projection on society, and hence necessarily also on education (cf. Rodríguez Núñez 2004; Bañón 2008). That is, teaching to analyze discourse critically is also training students and, in general, citizens to be more critical with respect to situations of injustice or manipulation (cf. Breeze 2011, 499; Fowler 1996, 6; Pennycook 2004, 786). The main weaknesses of CDA have initially been associated with the selection and representativeness of the texts. In this respect, it is said that the documents are representative because they have called the attention of the analyst, but not because they can necessarily be considered typical or prototypical (cf. Koller/Mautner 2004, 218). The analysis would, therefore, be biased (cf. Santander Molina 2007, 59). Widdowson (2004, 95ss.) also refers to the high level of subjectivity of CDA, which sometimes leads to forcing the possible interpretation of the audience. Moreover, the social or political involvement of the researchers in the analysis, mentioning their preferences, has been another of the most debated issues. According to van Dijk (1993, 252s.), any critical analysis presupposes an ethos applied to reality (ibid.). For Meyer (2003, 36), CDA studies play an active support role for the groups suffering from any sort of social discrimination. Charaudeau (2014, 20), however, has spoken of the lack of credibility of a researcher who tries to denounce an evil in the name of a personal standing. He adds:  

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“Reivindico, y en voz alta, la posibilidad de que el investigador exprese una palabra de denuncia, de indignación, de combate, es decir, una palabra militante, pero en otros lugares y con otra finalidad” (2014, 20).1

Mention has also been made of the frequency with which CDA researchers are associated with left-wing standings (cf. Hodge 2012, 2). In this line, Fairclough (1995, 15) even referred to the appearance of a very aggressive “new right-wing” as a source of the attacks against CDA and Critical Theory. Meanwhile, some critical analysts are seen as naïve in their positions, their methodology or their interpretation of the relation between context and the audience (cf. Breeze 2011, 494). The diversity of theoretical-methodological orientations and approaches has also been reputed as a sign of weakness (cf. Fowler 1996, 6; Breeze 2011, 502). Besides, the discourse produced by the critical analyst may be as biased and vulnerable as the discourse under analysis (cf. Toolan 1997; Verschueren 2001, 79; Wodak 2003b, 103). Along the same lines, it has been claimed that, on occasion, the capacity of CDA for interpreting discourses has been over-dimensioned, taking into account the complexity of the context; Hammersley (1997, 245) speaks of “overambition”. On the other hand, critical orientation has been primarily associated with identifying negative discourse models and behaviors, leaving aside the analysis of positive discourse (cf. Martin 2004). Nevertheless, the Glasgow University Media Group has claimed that CDA remains “anchored to the text”; the study of content would require a solid reflection on the production process (speaking, for example, with journalists, if analysis is being undertaken on a journal text) and also on the reception process, not as something incidental or parallel, but inherent to the analysis (cf. Philo 2007). Finally, reflection has focused, even from within discourse social analysis, on its usefulness, uselessness and its efficiency or inefficiency in transforming reality, in pursuing social justice or, at least, in solving some of the problems it tackles (cf. Bolívar 1999; Chilton 2005, 21). In reality, analyzing may always be a way of helping to build a different and better world (cf. Castells 1997, 30). Some of these criticisms have been mainly referred to the first publications of CDA. Currently, problems in the selection of texts or in the methodological proposals have softened, for example, by combining CDA with Corpus Linguistics (cf. Mautner 2001; Baker et al. 2008; Bednarek/Caple 2014). Although CDA has had and still has a qualitative orientation, there are more and more voices indicating that the limits between quantitative and qualitative approaches are sometimes unclear and, in any case, may well supplement each other (cf. Baker et al. 2008, 296). The joint work of Corpus Linguistics and CDA developing research projects is a clear proof of the

1 ‘I claim, quite aloud, the possibility for the researcher to express a word of denunciation, of indignation, of combat, that is, a militant word, but in other places and with other purposes’ (translation by the author).

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theoretical and methodological profit derived from this dual view of the research object (cf. Baker et al. 2008, 297). As O’Halloran (2010, 563) reminds us, passing from the use of individual texts or a reduced group of texts to larger corpora is an important advantage for CDA. There are examples of specific analyses showing this profitable link, for instance, with metaphors (cf. Charteris-Black 2004; O’Halloran 2007). In all, it is fair to remember, with van Dijk (2003b, 148), that the complete discourse analysis of a large corpus of texts or conversations is totally inappropriate. And not all the texts are equally relevant. Besides, there are those who believe that for CDA, data recollection is not a phase that should be seen as complete before starting the analysis, but rather may be a permanently operative process (cf. Meyer 2003, 41). In fact, there is no characteristic way of obtaining data from CDA (cf. Meyer 2003, 48). What is unquestionable is that critical research must not only be good, but of the highest quality, if it is to be accepted (cf. van Dijk 2003b, 144).

1.2 CDA Lines of Development 1.2.1 Social-Cognitive Analysis From the beginning, the link between CDA and the social component was clear, but the relevance of the cognitive component was not always mentioned (cf. van Dijk 1993, 251; Chilton 2005, 23; Wodak 2006a, 179). And this relative exclusion occurred and continues to occur despite the generalized conviction that mental processes must always be present in order to adequately relate the production and comprehension of the texts in their context (cf. Wodak 2006a, 180). In the words of van Dijk (1993, 251), cognition is the theoretically and empirically necessary interface between discourse and society, including social domination. The most important social battle is the one taking place in the minds of the people (cf. Castells 2007, 238). The construction of fear is a good example in this sense. Van Dijk starts from a model of three interrelated categories: Discourse, Society and Cognition. He claims that knowledge is the central problem to be tackled by whoever is involved in critical study of linguistic and discursive uses (2011, 29), to such an extent that he suggests speaking about “Critical Epistemic Discourse Analysis”. In this frame, one would study precisely how knowledge is expressed, implied, suppressed, distributed, etc., through discursive structures and strategies present in news and articles, official sources, government statements, parliament debates, textbooks, etc. (2011, 40s.). Knowledge is what builds the mental models that, according to van Dijk, are subjective fundamental representations of an event or a situation, but that maintain a certain level of objectivity, understanding as such the shared knowledge that is partly responsible for success in communicative interactions, and that is expressed in

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schemas that include information which is frequently implicit in interaction. The subjective part of the mental model not only affects facts, but also beliefs, opinions and emotions (cf. van Dijk 2008, 60s.). The mental model is also associated with experiences and memory (short- and long-term memory). We structure these experiences into categories such as time (e.g., periods), places (e.g., towns where we have lived or visited), participants (e.g., people we have worked with), causality (causes, conditions, consequences), levels (macroevents or microevents), and relevance (what is more important or more useful; cf. van Dijk 2008, 66s.). The mental models are dynamic; they can be updated or changed during a particular event. The context models are mental models that organize the ways in which our discourse is strategically structured and adapted to the communicative situation, identifying the most relevant thereof (cf. van Dijk 2008, 71s.). Knowledge is what is taught and learned, rather than something natural. Schools, family and media have a nuclear function in this teaching and learning process. They can transmit knowledge emphasizing some things and hiding others (cf. van Dijk 2011, 34). Thus, we are oriented to prefer some groups instead of others, trying, on one hand, to offer an image of the actual group in which the positive aspects are strengthened and the negative ones are smoothened or hidden, or else transmitting an image of the others emphasizing the negative aspects while playing down or eliminating the positive ones. This is what van Dijk called “ideological square” (1998, 267). This idea has had wide applications, e.g., in the study of peace discourse arising from the cultural approach to CDA (CCDA, Cultural Approach to Critical Discourse Analysis; cf. Gavriely-Nuri 2010). Van Dijk, in one of his books in Spanish, claims: “El discurso dispone de múltiples procedimientos para poner o quitar énfasis de los significados” (van Dijk 2003a, 58).2 He then exemplifies the expression of the ideological square in the following levels and categories: At the level of discourse meaning, he refers to the themes, which represent the most important information (2003a, 59), at the level of description details, and identification of inferences and assumptions (2003a, 60). Another important feature of meaning is local coherence; that is, the meanings of the sentences (and their derived assumptions). These must be adequately related to each other; for instance, through the relation of causality among actions, events or situations appearing in a sequence of clauses (2003a, 62). Other categories mentioned by van Dijk at this level are synonymy, paraphrase, contrast or selection of examples and images, as well as the use of occasionally only apparent negations (2003a, 62ss.). At the level of what he calls “estructuras proposicionales” [‘clause structures’], he refers to the actors mentioned in the text (and their roles: agents, patients or beneficiaries of an action, for  

 

 

 

2 ‘Discourse has manifold procedures to add or reduce emphasis of meanings’ (translation by the author).

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example), and to modality (need, obligation, possibility) and evidence (proofs that must accompany what is claimed or denied), as well as ambiguity and vagueness (2003a, 67). Finally, he speaks of the topoi as “argumentos preparados” [‘prepared arguments’] (2003a, 68). In the formal structures, although in a more indirect and subtle manner, the underlying ideologies may be expressed (2003a, 69). We can speak of the form of phrases and sentences, as well as of questions like the order of presentation of a story or the size of the headlines. Discourse has an infinite number of forms (2003a, 69). We have to be alert to identify the ones that are contextually relevant for analysis. He also mentions sentence syntax, rhetorical-stylistic structures and, very particularly, argumentation and identification of fallacies (2003a, 70s.).

1.2.2 Historical-discursive Analysis The historical-discursive approach, linked to Ruth Wodak, focuses on text contextualization, offering a prominent place to the historic dimension, although also incorporating the cognitive dimension to her analysis. Recontextualization is, for Wodak (2011, 54), one of the most important processes in the analysis of gender, topics and argumentative structures. The context must include the cotext, the intertextual and interdiscursive relations, the specific interaction contexts and the social-political and historical more general context in which the discursive practice is framed (cf. Reisigl/ Wodak 2000, 41). This analysis is an interdisciplinary approach that follows an eclectic methodology; the same can be said about theory. Methods and categories need to be useful to understand and explain the investigated object. Wodak believes that the first question as researchers is not “Do we need a great theory?” but “Which conceptual tools are relevant for this or that problem and for this and that context?” (2003b, 102). It is an abductive approach (there is a constant movement back and forth between theory and empirical data), in which ethnographic and field work must be the prerequisite for analysis, while empathy with the victims of social discrimination and marginalization must combine with the principles of justice and rationality (cf. Reisigl/Wodak 2000, 35). The historical discourse approach includes three types of criticism: 1. Text criticism, discovering insolvencies, contradictions and paradoxes in the internal structures of discourse. 2. Social-diagnosis criticism, beyond the purely internal sphere of the text. Here the analysts use their background and context knowledge of the situation in order to place the predicative structures in a wider frame of social, political and economic relations, etc. 3. Prospective criticism, that contributes to the transformation and improvement of communication, e.g., elaborating proposals and guidelines applied to problems  

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such as linguistic barriers in hospitals, schools, institutions, etc. (cf. Wodak 2003b, 103). The historical-discursive approach develops its analysis starting by identifying fields of action (e.g., the political field – later expressed in the legislative sphere –, shaping of public opinion, internal party meetings, or the field of political activity). These fields materialize in genres (e.g., in the case of formation of public opinion, press notes and press conferences). Finally, genres are projected in discourses about various themes and subthemes (Reisigl/Wodak 2000, 38). From a micro-structural point of view, a historical approach to discourse focuses, according to Wodak (2003b, 114), on the following five discursive strategies: 1. Referential or nomination strategy, in which the linguistic devices of interest are categorization of pertinence, metaphors, metonymies and synecdoches. 2. Predication strategies, which appear in the stereotyped and evaluative attributions of the positive and negative features, as well as in implicit or explicit predicates. 3. Argumentation strategies, that appear in certain topoi used to justify inclusion or exclusion, such as the identification of the conflicts between what is said and what is done (Reisigl/Wodak 2000, 33). 4. Strategies for putting into perspective, framing or representing discourse: media is used to inform, describe, narrate or quote the events and the statements. 5. Intensification and mitigation strategies.  

 

The results of the analyses must be available for the experts related to the studied theme, and must be projected and applied to changing certain social and discursive practices (cf. Wodak 2003b, 109s.).

1.2.3 Social-Ideological Analysis Fairclough (1992a, 73) considers discourse as a form of social practice and, for its analysis, he uses a three-dimensional structure comprising “Text”, “Discursive practice” (requiring the study of the production, distribution and reception phases), and “Social-cultural practice” (especially the one referred to the political sphere and the media). Each one of these dimensions, which of course are interrelated, correspond to general methods of analysis: a) description of the linguistic aspects of the text; b) interpretation of the relations between discursive processes and the text; and c) explanation of the connections between discursive and social-cultural processes (cf. Fairclough 22001, 21s.). CDA must pay special attention to the “opaque” causality relations for determining these three levels (1995, 133). This expression of opacity is not always intentional

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(22001, 33). The analyst must also be sensitive to the mental “resources” of the “members” of communication who facilitate both the text and context production and interpretation. We speak of language knowledge and representation of the social and natural worlds inhabited by people who interact, including assessments, beliefs, assumptions, etc. (Fairclough 22001, 65). These resources arise from “common sense” legitimized by institutions (laws, religions, education systems, media or family; cf. Fairclough 22001, 27). “Common sense” marks the “interaction routines” and the naturalization of situations, of expressions (assumed to be fixed and transparent), and of roles associated to subjects (22001, 81). Fairclough even claims, in this sense, that: “Naturalization, then, is the most formidable weapon in the armory of power, and therefore a significant focus of struggle” (22001, 87). Thus, he claims that it is an ideological power that sometimes imposes “coercion” and other times “consent” (22001, 28). In this point there is a clear connection with the mental models in the proposals of van Dijk. According to Fairclough, CDA has overlooked the historical contextualization of data, so he suggests being aware of what he calls “history of the present” (1995, 19), which leads us to Wodak. The objective is to deconstruct the machinery of power which has been built socially and, therefore, has also been built linguistically (cf. Fairclough 2002, 103). In fact, the work of Halliday and Systemic-Functional Linguistics (SFL), proposing a social approach to language in which social action is to be interrelated with symbolic organization, offers an interesting frame for critical approaches to discourse (cf. Chilton 2005, 21). These spheres materialize, also, in categories like field (the type of social action), which is linked to the experiential component of communication, tenor (distribution of roles), related to the interpersonal component, and mode (symbolic organization), connected to the textual component (cf. Halliday 1982, 187). For the connections between SFL and CDA, we may refer to the book edited by Young/ Harrison (2004). As for the discursive tools and categories, Fairclough suggests remembering that we always choose between different options when using a word, a grammatical unit or a textual structure. And, in this sense, he advises us to be alert to categories like the following, among others: synonymy, hyponymy, antinomy, euphemism, formality or informality of the expressions, metaphors, active/passive or positive/negative sentences, modes (declarative, interrogative, imperative), nominalization and pronominalization, connectors, use of coordinated or subordinated structures (and their types), selected textual structures, or control over the turn-switching if we are analyzing oral discourses (cf. Fairclough 22001, 92s.).

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1.2.4 Social Semiotics and Multimodal Analysis Critical Studies of Multimodal Discourse (CSMD) has been labeled as one of the most promising orientations (cf. Machin 2013). Questions like the representation of women (cf. Chen/Machin 2014) or representation of health and disease have been efficiently tackled with CSMD (cf. Thompson 2012). The origin of this perspective of critical analysis can be identified in the works of Social Semiotics or of Critical Social Semiotics (cf. Caldas-Coulthard/van Leeuwen 2003), with an important basis in the principles of Halliday’s Systemic Theory (cf. O’Halloran 2008) quoted above. Fairclough/Wodak (2000, 375) remind us that some of the most important figures in critical linguistics participated more recently in the development of a “social semiotics”. One of these figures is Kress (1993, 169; 1996, 16), who proposes to revitalize the reader/recipient protagonism in CDA and to look into the role switching between speaker and recipient in a more dynamic manner, as is evidenced, he says, by the rapid exchange of email messages (1996, 20). He also proposes a multimodal approach. In fact, he claims that “all texts have always been multimodal” (Kress 1996, 20). The works of Kress/van Leeuwen (1996; 2001) are considered as referents in multimodal studies. The visual, verbal and auditive modes, among others, are expressed in different categories which must be first analyzed separately and then jointly. In the visual mode, it is important to analyze the gestures or proxemics, as well as the scenes, frames and angles. The semiotic potential of color or music must also be studied. In the verbal mode, for example, one has to observe the lexicon, the keywords and the fixed expressions, as well as the frequency of use (cf. Pardo Abril 2008, 90). Kress and van Leeuwen have since separately or jointly deepened some of these categories; for instance, on color (cf. Kress/van Leeuwen 2002; van Leeuwen 2011) or on music (van Leeuwen 2012). Cope/Kalantzis (2009) have summarized the modes that should be present in Multimodal Grammar and in multiliteracy in the following manner: written language (handwritten, printed, on screen), oral language (live, recorded, listened to), visual representation (static image, moving image), audio representation (music, background sound, noises, alerts, etc.), tactile representation (kinesis, physical contact, skin sensations, etc.), gesture representation (movement of arms and hands, face expression, gaze, etc.) or space representation (proximity, layout, interpersonal distance, etc.) (cf. Cope/Kalantzis 2009, 362). This grammar has to cater for five basic dimensions: – representational (what the meanings refer to), – social (how the meanings connect people), – organizational (how the meanings fit into one another), – contextual (how the meanings fit into the wider world of meanings), and – ideological (who is interested in the meanings seeming biased) (cf. Cope/Kalantzis 2009, 365).

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All the dimensions can have a direct relation with CDA, although the latter shows a more direct link. This can be seen in concrete examples like deception by omission, the use of incongruent images or sounds for the purpose of the discourse, the incorporation of ambiguous visual or sound elements in relation to the principal message, suppression of contextual elements, etc. The incorporation of computer programs has been an important advance for multimodal study of discourse (cf. O’Halloran et al. 2012), as well as a recognition of the role played by digital communication in the evolution of multimodality and of its study (cf. O’Halloran et al. 2013, 666s.). That importance must transcend the education sphere because it has changed the role of schools and increased the need for thinking about the interactive design of contents and processes (cf. Kress/Selander 2012).

2 CDA applied to new media: Basic concepts According to Landow (1995, 97), hypertext embodies many of the ideas and attitudes proposed by Barthes, Derrida, Foucault and others. It is, no doubt, a way of linking, twenty years earlier, the roots of critical thought with the new media. Blommaert et al. (2001, 6) ask what role is to be played by the critical approach at a time when the very nature of discourse and its connections with power and inequality are changing so rapidly. In this process of change, we must assign to the Internet and the new media the leading role they deserve. The above twofold nature of media has also been highlighted for the particular case of the Internet, that must be investigated for its capacity to represent discourses and cultures, but also for its identification as a cultural artifact produced by people who have very particular interests and objectives (cf. Gajjala/Birzescu 2010, 73). Besides, in the case of cybercommunication, that twofold nature projects onto the very fact of being, at the same time, a paradigm of freedom and of control (cf. Rodríguez Guerrero/Becerra/Bañón Hernández 2013). In fact, the Internet, as an object of study, has gradually obtained its own fields of analysis since 1995 (cf. Siles González 2008, 63). Among the denominations proposed for this type of research is Critical Cyberculture Studies (cf. Silver/Massanari 2006). Mautner warned in 2005 that, until then, CDA had hardly paid any attention to the Internet as a source of information and as a specific object of qualitative and also quantitative research. She mentioned that the scarce interest of CDA for the Internet could be due to the difficulty of analyzing the mixture of voices and genders present on the Web (cf. Mautner 2005, 817). In any case, she believed the fact was surprising; even more so considering, on the one hand, that some of the main themes of CDA, like power and inequality, are clearly represented on the Internet, and, on the other hand, the relevance of the Internet in current social life. It is also surprising, indeed, if we consider that it enables us to access more extensive and representative corpora (cf. Mautner 2005, 821–823).

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In her work, Mautner (2005, 811s.) added that it is not possible to be interested in how discourse reflects and constitutes a given community, and, at the same time, to leave aside one of the contemporary keys of this reality. Her opinion was based on the analysis of the articles published in Discourse & Society (1998–2004), Journal of Sociolinguistics (2002–2004), Text (2002–2004), Discourse Studies (2002–2004) and Applied Linguistics (2002–2004). More recently, Herring (2013), in the context of Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis (CMDA), has mentioned CDA as one of the methods of interest for the study of phenomena such as power, social influence, identity or cultural differences and their relation to this type of discourse. Lievrouw (2009), as well as Golumbia (2009), had already quoted the interest of researchers ascribed to Critical and Cultural Studies for the new digital media and the new contexts they generated (cf. Lievrouw 2009, 312). As mentioned above, contextualization is essential in the process of critical analysis applied to a discourse or a set of discourses. The same applies, naturally, to decontextualization (cf. Cardon 2013, 175) or for recontextualization (cf. Wodak 2009, 54). The Internet and the different forms invented to communicate through computers (CTC) have reconfigured the context of interaction. This is what Bazzanella (2010, 21s.) claims, and she particularly refers to changes in objectives of interaction, in spacetime factors, in the identity of participants, in social-emotive samples and in textual dimensions. We summarize that reconfiguration in three main points: a) Changes in features of speaker and recipient; b) Readjustment of time, space and media; and c) Novelties in the manner of structuring the social-cognitive dimension of communication. All these changes entail the need for new categories and new concepts for describing and interpreting the digital discourse (cf. de Aguilera 2014), and this does not mean that, in many cases, it is not possible to find precedents for those new categories and those new concepts (cf. Martínez Fuentes 2011; Herring 2013). Mancera/Pano believe that “el discurso en la Web 2.0 debe abordarse de forma prudente antes de decir que se trata de un fenómeno radicalmente nuevo”3 (2013, 21).

3 ‘Discourse on the Web 2.0 should be approached wisely before saying that it is a radically new phenomenon’ (translation by the author).

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2.1 Changes in features of speaker and recipient 2.1.1 Identity and authorship Identity has always been a topic of great interest for critical discourse studies (cf. Ainsworth/Hardy 2004; Caldas-Coulthard/Iedema 2008). Legitimization and delegitimization of people and social groups are based, in many cases, on the manipulated representation of “self identity” or “identity of others”. Also in the study of computermediated discourse, the identity issue occupies a central place, especially in the case of discursive exchanges through social networks (cf. Seargeant/Tagg 2014). The identity of digital system users can be established by reference to at least the following features: degree of participation in communication, attitude they take towards the digital content (consumers or producers), intermittence (residents or visitors), or when they were born (digital natives and digital immigrants; cf. Hernández y Hernández/Ramírez-Martinell/Cassany 2014). Assessment is the key process in the construction of a “digital identity” and the search for affiliations to the same cause (cf. Zappavigna 2011). It is normal to opt for strategies that improve (at least supposedly) one’s own image, starting with the type of photographs selected to introduce oneself on the Internet; it is a “projected identity”, which can also become an “assigned identity” if we consider, first, the amount of personal information stored and the speed with which it is transferred over the Internet (cf. Himma/Tavani 2008, 139s.) and, second, the sometimes confusing privacy policies of companies offering cloud accounts (cf. Bodle 2011, 155). One author has associated the construction of digital identity with “narcisismo comunicativo” [‘communicative narcissism’] (Caro Castaño 2012, 2), and therefore with greater individualism which can lead, in extreme cases, to “electronic autism” (Castells 2007, 247). The subject is at the same time the object; it is a “sobjeto” [‘sobject’] (Verdú 2007, 103). A “false identity” may be generated, one that does not correspond at all with the real one. On the other hand, mention has also been made of “identidad mosaico” [‘mosaic identity’] (Caro Castaño 2012), and “multiple identities” (Turkle 2011) referring to the fragmented formation of a “public identity” that does not always correspond to one’s “private identity”. Probably, in the field of social networks it is hard to talk about the prototypical presence of the public or the private spheres (cf. Burkell et al. 2014). In any case, it is usual to choose one identity instead of others, as shown by Bouvier (2012) applied to 100 students from the Social Actor Representation in Cardiff. Some denominations seem to express a sort of hybrid identity; apart from the “sobject”, we have “intimidad pública” [‘public privacy’] (Arfuch 2005), “extimidad” [‘extimacy’] (Sibilia 2008) or “prosumers”, a mixture of producers and consumers (O’Halloran 2010, 575s.). Wikipedia is a good example of “prosumer” activity (cf. Bartlett 2012). Besides, the concept of “identidad nómada” [‘nomadic identity’] (Muñiz/Ramos 2012) refers to a process of also great interest for critical studies: the frequent mutability of digital identities (cf. Benwell/Stokoe 2006, 243).

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The impact of the various forms of identity manipulation (anonymity, pseudonyms, depersonalization, etc.) is evidenced in the attempt to manage the discursive and social responsibilities in a biased manner, and also in the concept of “likelihood”. Cardon (2013, 175) refers to hypertext precisely as a depersonalization device. The absence of visual contextual clues sometimes distances the speaker from what has been said, and favors disinhibition, rudeness and even verbal violence, especially in forums (cf. Montecino Soto 2003; Bañón 2010, Mancera/Pano 2013, 26), and also in Facebook (cf. Mak/Chui 2014). On the other hand, the relationship between the new telephone habits and changes in conversation courtesy and civic responsibility is clear (cf. German/Drushel 2011, 3). From another point of view, networks have also served to strengthen (or weaken) “collective identities”. We are thinking, for example, of those related to (bad) eating habits (cf. Wolf/Theis/Kordy 2013), religion (cf. van Zoonen/Vis/Mihelj 2010; Pihlaja 2014) and, especially, to membership of a country or culture. More specifically, we can refer to the exchange of messages among people who emphasize this membership within a country (cf. D’Haenens/Koeman/Saeys 2007), and also among others that do so as immigrants (cf. de Fina 2003; Ndangam 2008; Elias/Lemish 2009; Chen/Kay Choi 2011; Khvorostianov/Elias/Nimrod 2011). Immigrants and immigrant organizations are increasingly involved in extensive communication areas, and this naturally includes their Internet presence (cf. Lamb 2013, 338s.). We cannot forget the use of the Internet for generating discriminatory associations, a fact which can occur even in Google through its autocomplete tool for finding information (cf. Baker/Potts 2013). Sometimes the presence of discriminatory discourse on the Internet is explicit (cf. Thiesmeyer 1999; Atton 2006; Daniels 2009). We can also consider gender identities (cf. Milani 2013; Knapton 2013). Herring (2003, 202) highlighted, for instance, the importance of the Internet for making gender invisible, as a variable of particular importance in interaction, compared to what happens in face-to-face communication, and also in generating groups and communities with the ability to organize themselves socially and politically. However, these advances do not prevent us from seeing the difficulties of access to the Internet or the dominant communication styles of men over women, which are also projected in interactions through computers and mobile devices (cf. Herring 2003, 207). West/Lazar/Kramarae (1997, 138) already spoke about gender inequality in cyberspace and how this inequality is expressed in lower levels of access of women to the Internet, or about the control exercised by men in Internet interactions, as well as harassment towards women in virtual communities. Ebrahimi/Salaverría (2015) have highlighted the value of social networks in the case of Iranian women who use Facebook. They note that in some Muslim countries, women choose how to present themselves on the Internet, especially as regards to the use of dress. This degree of freedom must also be assigned to the manifestations of non-heterosexual gender identity (cf. Potts 2015; Alexander/Losh 2010). In any case, the stereotypes associated with gender (active, dominant and independent men, and attractive and

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dependent women) are appearing for example in the images on Facebook, according to Rose et al. (2012). And speaking of identities and digital discourse, we must also mention the “age” variable. The usual connection between “digital gap” (cf. Pinto Arboleda 2014) and “generation gap” seen, for instance, in school interaction (cf. Bañón 2013) or in the criteria used by the parents of children belonging to Latino families who have immigrated to the United States in allowing their children access to the Internet (cf. Tripp 2010) must also be taken into account. With respect to authorship, there is generally a loss of exclusivity by the one who prepares the message that we can call “original” (cf. Landow 1995, 246). Adami (2014), for example, has analyzed this process in oral and visual reactions in YouTube from a given video. There are different replicas in which there is clear coherence and cohesion with respect to the content of the original video, but there are also various forms of distancing based on parody or inferences from that first audiovisual document. A final degree of distance is seen when reactions that have nothing to do with the content source are identified. That source, according to Adami (2014, 239ss.), is seen as conducive to transformation and recontextualization. Fundamentally, this is a concept close to multi-authorship (cf. Herring/Androutsopoulos 22015, 131) and to multiplicity of voices, with the difficulty that this entails, of course, for identifying authorities (cf. Mancera/Pano 2013, 24) and categorizing sources (cf. Mautner 2005). But it also involves the enrichment derived from the generation of collaborative texts, with an important presence in online discourse, prototypically expressed in Wikipedia (cf. Ferreira 2013). The notion of participation is particularly important in the new claims and new narratives on the Web 2.0 (cf. Fuchs 2011, 257).

2.1.2 Expanded Interlocution and Exposed Interlocution Albaladejo (2012) uses the term polyacroasis to refer to the diversity of actual or potential recipients of a discourse. For digital communication, he proposes to speak of a “polyacroasis enlargement”. Discursive strategies such as retweeting are connected with this expansion of the audience and the establishment of new types of reception, for instance in politics (cf. Crawford 2009; Mancera/Pano 2013, 189). We can speak, for example, of an “active audience” on Twitter, capable of obliging a national newspaper to eliminate an article considered inadequate (cf. Doval Avendaño/Martínez Rodríguez 2012). But access to large audiences also implies undergoing “greater risks of public exposure” and therefore a greater likelihood of being “discredited” (Fairclough/Wodak 2000, 369). Caro Castaño (2012, 3), meanwhile, brings to mind that identity in online social networks involves the coexistence of an intended audience with another unforeseen one (invisible, at times). It is a “multi-directional communication” (Tang/Yang 2011, 675). Sometimes Twitter users use personal interaction labels to transmit the image of closeness, thus supposedly avoiding that group

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receptor image which is impossible to imagine (cf. Pérez Béjar 2014, 495). This is more common with individual users than with group representatives or group users. The fact that many people (increasingly more) can access the Internet and become visible does not mean, contrary to what seems to be assumed, that they will manage to get their voices heard (read or seen), and even less will be able to reach the much desired “viral” standard (cf. de Aguilera 2014). To identify the gap between what is intended and what is achieved, we could evoke the term proposed by Castells (2007, 239): Mass self-communication. In fact, the vast majority of Internet users are unable to actually become visible and their concerns and comments receive very little attention (cf. Tang/Yang 2011, 676). The same can be said of the elaborate cultural products for appearing on the Internet, which claim to have a significant reach (cf. Herring 2013). Those users fail to reach “poder simbólico digital” [‘digital symbolic power’], “ser tenidos en cuenta” [‘to be taken into account’]; Pérez Béjar 2014, 492). The Internet offers people who do not belong to the elite the possibility of reaching that power, and that is a great achievement, but mere presence on the Internet does not imply reaching that power (cf. Tang/Yang 2011, 677). There is a great competition to become visible, as Cardon (2013, 173) reminds us, which sometimes entails more and more spectacular messages, discourses which increasingly incite interactivity, reaching extremely positive or negative assessment (cf. Yus 2014, 410ss.). The “battle for originality” shows preference for exaggeration and intensification (cf. Pérez Béjar 2014, 492). The discursive representation of marginalized groups may suffer from that shift over to spectacularization. In any case, it is not easy to become visible in certain social-political contexts, as happens in China with the control exercised by the authorities over content posted on the Web (cf. Tang/Yang 2011, 678). As two of the objects of study of CDA are free access to public discourse and the ability to freely offer content over the Internet, it seems clear that, as noted by Rolf (2009, 131) using China as an example, control and censorship on the Internet must be a priority for researchers dealing with critical analysis of symbolic power. In relation to more or less formality in the discursive tone, Fairclough (1995, 25), meanwhile, talks about the trend towards “conversationalization” of public discourse, including that of politicians or the media. Discussion forums associated with traditional media clearly show this process (cf. Amossy 2009). Speaking of Spanish political discourse on Twitter, Mancera/Pano (2013, 130ss.) also refer precisely to that conversationalization, which does not prevent the continuous appearance of signs of ambiguity, evasion and double discourse. Choosing a closer or more distant register with citizens in tweets of different political leaders is connected to the different ways of conceiving the conversationalization and with equally diverse political and ideological options (cf. Mancera/Pano 2013, 175). In this sense, we appreciate the communicative accommodation that scientists and scholars have undertaken with respect to society, by using, for example, blogs where people write in a more understandable way (cf. Mewburn/Thomson 2013).

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2.2 Readjustments of time, space and media 2.2.1 Continuity, availability and speed Some theorists believe that perception, experience and time management are new to the electronic discourse (cf. Muñiz/Ramos 2012). Castells (1997, 408) states that the new communication system radically transforms space and time, the fundamental dimensions of human life. Managing these new features, he adds, is not easy and can lead to difficulties in clearly establishing the boundaries between work and leisure, or between family and company (cf. Castells 1997, 394). This mark of space continuity is related to managing permanent availability (‘always on’), a sometimes-difficult challenge to address (cf. Muñiz/Ramos 2012). Nowadays, mobile phones and virtual social networks reinforce the sensation of the communication channel being constantly open and immediacy in the exchange of messages, a fact that not only forces the counterpart to be online, but also to respond immediately (cf. Mancera/Pano 2013, 17). Geolocation through smartphones increases the feeling of being always available, although information is not always accurate (cf. Graham/Hale/Gaffney 2014). Speed, therefore, is also a key factor in communication through social networks. Brevity of messages facilitates an increase in the possible number of communication exchanges and the swift transfer of concerns, claims and information, but can also increase the risk of superficiality, evanescence and thoughtlessness of forms and contents. Sometimes, for example, texts are retweeted without having been read, even though they are no more than 140 characters long. Globalization is inevitably associated with advances in the Internet and communication technologies. For Wodak, “globalization should definitely be considered as a central and most relevant factor in our everyday lives” (2006b, 3). But globalization can be a process built from a neoliberal perspective; at least that is what Fairclough (22001, 207) claims. Spaces have fuzzy boundaries and new concepts appear expressing apparently contradictory features; “Glocal” (mixture of “global” and “local”, cf. Gallardo Camacho/Jorge Alonso 2012) is one of them (cf. Gajjala/Birzescu 2010, 74).

2.2.2 Convergence and multimodality Technological advances have always fascinated human beings. Idolatry often involves lack of criticism and that is what, for instance, Golumbia (2013, 252) refers to. The technological dream of modernity raises technique to the level of myth (cf. Aguado 2007, 67). Computer-mediated discourse has led to a hybridization of communicative modes; in fact, there is extensive literature about the reflection of orality on electronic texts (e.g., López Quero 2004). Apart from that hybridization, we can also speak of a true convergence of ways and means that has consolidated the fascination for technology and for the Internet (cf. Herring 2013, 4ss.) with the invaluable support  

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of mobile phone devices (cf. Benítez Eyzaguirre 2013). As stated by German/Drushel (2011, 3s.), the phone has changed the way people see themselves and also the way they relate to others. But it is necessary to accompany this change with critical questions: Does this technology reflect our values? Does it modify our priorities in any way? (cf. German/Drushel 2011, 4). Castells (1997, 397) defined the fusion of computer mass media as “herramienta de poder y símbolo de hipermodernidad” [‘power tool and symbol of hyper-modernity’]. However, this convergence has also led to the spreading of dissident discourses, as with the implementation of small alternative radio stations that broadcast over the Internet (cf. Coopman 2011). In the opinion of Herring, “Discourse 2.0 offers a rich field of investigation for discourse analysis. Especially urgently needed in future research is integrated multimodal analysis” (2013, 21). O’Halloran and Smith (2012), meanwhile, refer to the analysis of multimodal discourse present on Internet sites and hypermedia as a line of research that may present an additional degree of difficulty. It is thus presented as a challenge; a challenge that we undoubtedly have to face. It would also be worth talking about “hypermodal discourse” (Wodak 2006b, 3). In any case, multimodality or hypermodality have, in their very nature, an enhancing function of the message and of the communication process itself (cf. Tannen 2012, 149). Websites are already a clear example of multimodal discourse and how through it one can build a particular academic identity (cf. Caldas-Coulthard 2005). The same is true of academic weblogs (cf. Luzón 2012). These pages have changed their content and images with the passage of time, adjusting to new ways of approaching key issues, such as health. Thompson (2012), from a multimodal CDA perspective, has observed the transition from biomedical discourse to the discourse focused on disease and people with mental disease, on a particular website, HealthyPlace.com. Now that convergence and multimodality are part of journalistic routines, we must recognize that professionals have increased their workload by becoming “periodistas multimodales” [‘multimodal journalists’], holding interviews, attending press conferences, recording video and taking photos, all at once (cf. Salaverría/García Avilés 2008). This increase has reduced their time available for training and specialization, as well as for maturing what is published, said or written, in sensitive issues such as immigration, health, environment and corruption (cf. Magnoni/Garrido 2015). However, for these same journalists, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube have become essential everyday information sources (cf. Paulussen/Harder 2014) and a way to establish consistent links with political representatives (cf. Verweij 2012).

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2.3 Novelties in the manner of structuring the social-cognitive dimension of communication 2.3.1 Access and accessibility The conception of discourse as a social practice allows for the study of the entire communication process, starting with access (cf. van Dijk 1993, 254). In this sense, there are many who highlight the importance of the Internet to improve access to information on health issues, although there is still significant room for improvement, especially for the most vulnerable groups (cf. Neuhauser/Kreps 2010). Social and citizen movements in general have increased their presence in public debates over the Internet, through websites (cf. Stein 2009), email lists (cf. Wall 2007), Facebook (cf. Harlow 2011), blogs (cf. Tipaldo/Pisciotta 2014) or YouTube (cf. Meek 2011). Mention has been made of “technologization of democracy” or “democratization of technology” (Chouliaraki 2010), of “democratización del hipertexto” [‘democratization of hypertext’] (Landow 1995, 37) and also a “post-bureaucratization of democracy” (Tatarchevskiy 2011). It is clear that social movements were not born with technology and the new media, but it is evident that, in most cases, they have taken good advantage of that technology and the media. The Internet offers them a great platform to act politically (cf. van Laer/van Aelst 2010). It is possible, however, that NGOs ought to pay more attention so that their Internet messages are more concerned with the understanding of their content and citizenship education than with effectiveness in raising resources (cf. Arroyo Almaraz/Martín Nieto 2011, 245). How quickly one reacts to social-political events using mobile phones and the Internet infrastructure challenges the attempts of the elites to hide or manipulate information; this is the opinion of Castells (2007, 249ss.), who adds that it is very likely that women and other oppressed groups in society will express themselves more openly counting on the protection of electronic means. According to Castells (2007, 254), there is a close link between networks and social criticism, and citizens have achieved greater power of political participation through the Internet, a fact which can be considered perhaps the most revolutionary of this new media environment (2007, 256). De Aguilera (2014) refers to “empoderamiento comunicacional de los ciudadanos” [‘communicative empowerment of citizens’]. And Philo (2007) mentions the potential for ordinary citizens to develop their own communication systems thanks to new technologies and the Internet. The higher the level of participation, the greater is the power (cf. Carpentier 2012, 170). In any case, the Internet has changed the very concept of “citizen” associated with the borders of a nation (cf. van Zoonen/ Vis/Mihelj 2010, 259) and the very political debate, which has also transcended these geographical boundaries (cf. Chiluwa 2012, 218). And this is so, among other things, because the “entry barriers” have been smoothened (cf. Castells 1997, 407). Anyway, we should not fall overboard into excessive optimism (cf. Sánchez Carballido 2008, 72); we must “moderate euphoria”

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and investigate the implications of emerging voices in relation to power structures (cf. Gajjala/Birzescu 2010, 74). Perhaps, at least for the moment, it is difficult to speak of computer interaction as a chance to reverse traditional power plays in the communication process (cf. Castells 1997, 393). And Schäfer (2011, 145) refers to her personal experience stating that she got to know the social-political reality of Malaysia thanks to online information (newspapers, magazines and blogs), because traditional print media were clearly determined by censorship. That censorship, on the other hand, obliges people to “read between the lines”, a process of special interest for CDA (cf. Schäfer 2011, 148). According to Schäfer (2011, 151), such censorship leads us to the use of other means, such as the digital ones, and also to the Chinese example. Neither should we forget the power of “hacktivism” and “cyberactivism” to generate counterdiscourses (cf. Rolf 2009, 133; Rovira Sancho 2013; Burgos Pino 2014/2015). Another area of increased use of computer communication is the political field (cf. Castells 1997, 394). The Zapatista movement was a pioneer in using the Internet to transmit its messages and claims (cf. Castells 1997, 395), and was the inspiration for the mobilization in other parts of the world (cf. Rovira Sancho 2014). In times of conflict, the new media and social networks (especially Twitter) have shown great power of diffusion for dissident discourses (cf. Christensen 2011). The economic factor has been essential in the simplest access to social debates and the greater presence on the Web of underprivileged groups. Creating and sharing text and videos is inexpensive (cf. Herring 2013, 16). A very different thing would be to know whether these alleged economic facilities (including gratuity) lead to a convenient valuation of the product, authorship and intellectual property. Increased access leads to greater communication possibilities and, in a sense, we can say that virtual social networks “enfatizan la sociabilidad” [‘emphasize sociability’] (Mancera/Pano 2013, 41). We cannot forget the relationship between access and accessibility; technological progress has improved the “social presence” of the discourses of the disabled, for instance. On the other hand, there are more and more advocates for more adequately managing the design of digital tools and social networks with the intention of facilitating the access of the aged (cf. Huei Chou/Lai/Liu 2013). Indeed, some believe that this is in fact a fictional sociability replacing real social life, particularly in reference to youth communication habits. Possibly, young people use social networks as an extension of their social life and not as a substitute (cf. Martínez Pacheco 2012, 8), while establishing new forms of “joint action” with new models of participation of which political leaders should certainly be vigilant (cf. Loader 2014, 3).

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2.3.2 Fragmentation and accumulation We have seen in previous sections that cognition is a nuclear dimension for almost all approaches in CDA. So is its educational projection. Indeed, Pindado (2010) has spoken of the “mente puzle” [‘puzzle mind’] to refer to the cognitive fragmentation which can be observed in the discursive behavior of our youth, for example. He says that the generations born and raised in the screen culture reproduce its schemes and discursive style in an in a noticeable manner (cf. Pindado 2010, 36). Cognitive fragmentation is one of its consequences. He later mentions that teenagers have taken “corta y pega” [‘cut and paste’] as a tool for learning, working or reworking texts (e.g., with abstracts; cf. Pindado 2010, 37s.). If so, this can lead us to think of the existence of people or groups of people who can, in principle, be less critical for their way of interpreting (and developing) discourses, and therefore easier to manipulate. In the words of Caro Castaño (2012, 6), we could speak of the disappearance of tools that enable individuals to develop complex thought, that is, to be able to identify the labyrinth of biased discourses converging in the symbolic construction of everyday life. We must encourage critical competence and digital literacy (cf. Pindado 2010). Or, as Gutiérrez Martín (2008, 101) says, “alfabetización digital crítica y reflexiva” [‘critical and reflective digital literacy’]. Having “capacidad crítica digital” [‘digital critical capacity’] means appreciating the argumentative orientation of the information and using it unequivocally: To identify social-political interests and ideological trends, using quality scores and reference criteria, etc. (cf. Cassany 2004, 12). Landow (2006, 279) also speaks about the importance of fostering in students, by using hypertext, critical thinking that can enable them to find the various causes that affect a single phenomenon or event, and then assess their relative weight. He further requests teachers not to be afraid of the potential of hypertext for active students who become responsible and express disagreement (cf. Landow 2006, 313). Moreover, it is not possible to question the remarkable progress in the accumulation of discourses and texts thanks to the technological progress resulting from the development of the Internet. According to Aguado (2007, 73s.), we can speak of “tecnologías de la memoria” [‘memory technologies’] in relation to the possibility of accumulation of experience. This technology, coupled with instantaneous technology as seen in modern electronic media, lays the foundation for a new condition of experience. In the words of Albaladejo (2010, 22), the digital technology has enabled new ways of offering the discursive heritage to society; and also to researchers, as part of that society (cf. O’Halloran 2010, 563). YouTube, for example, is an ally for locating political debates originally offered on radio or television (cf. Garcia da Silva/Ramalho 2012, 24). In that regard, mention must be made of the existence of corpora with large amounts of accumulated data. Boyd/Crawford (2012, 662) wonder whether the Big Data will transform the way we study human communication and culture. Accumulation is also valuable in that it enables us to find out more about more things, including those related to the diversity of minority discourses (cf. Aguilar  

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Pinto 2010; Johnson/Callahan 2013; Cru 2015); also those related to areas or cultures with less economic weight in the world (cf. Fürsich/Robins 2002; Tynes 2007; Sheyholislami 2011; Aouragh 2011). But it is equally possible to find more repetitive, echoic information (cf. Bañón/Fornieles/Alcaraz 2011, 20s.). A side consequence of this accumulation may be the discourse and information saturation (cf. Winocur 2012, 82s.). How to make well-targeted searches in so vast and sometimes so saturated an information world, as well as offering advice on the selection of more relevant texts and the swiftness for contrasting points of view, considering ways of excluding some voices and prioritizing others, are certainly essential points for studying the new media (cf. Todd 2006, 115s.). The excess of information and discourses can also lead to a certain level of desensitization, to a “compassion fatigue” (Moeller 1999). Probably the “gamification” (Pérez 2012) of digital communication, especially in virtual social networks, is an element to consider in the process of distancing from socially relevant problems.

3 Socially relevant issues: Research perspectives in the Hispanic world Hispanic field researchers have paid particular attention to CDA proposals. Fowler (1996, 5) mentioned Spain among the European countries that had shown greatest interest for Linguistic Criticism. In fact, CDA in Spanish has grown significantly (cf. Carbó 1999). Clearly, the presence of one of the most important international specialists in Spain, such as van Dijk at the University Pompeu Fabra of Barcelona, and his production in Spanish, has been instrumental in increasing interest for CDA in Spanish-speaking countries. In some curricula for university degrees, CDA in Spanish even appears as a compulsory subject (e.g., in the Degree in Hispanic Studies of the University of Almería). The progress in the (non-critical) discourse analysis of processes and strategies present in the new media and social networks has also been useful for this increased interest; for instance, the study of coherence in polylogues developed in YouTube (cf. Bou-Franch/Lorenzo-Dus/Garcés-Conejos Blitvich 2012). The scarcity of scientific literature framed in critical analysis of discourses present on the Internet to which, as we saw, Mautner (2005) was referring, was also visible in the Hispanic world, of course. Indeed, CDA growth has not been parallel to the growth of the Internet. And this is even truer of discourse analysis on the socalled “Web 2.0”. This has been identified by Mancera/Pano (2013, 22) in relation, for example, to Facebook, Flickr or Twitter. But interest had already appeared in the late 20th century. Between 1999 and 2003, the journal Oralia. Análisis del discurso oral included a permanent section entitled “Direcciones de Internet útiles para el análisis del discurso oral” [‘Useful websites for the analysis of oral discourse’] (Bañón 1999– 2003). Some of these sites were included precisely because of their links with CDA.  

 

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Also in 1999, Bañón published the paper entitled “Hipertexto e Internet. Notas sobre su aprovechamiento en los estudios lingüísticos” [‘Hypertext and the Internet. Notes on its use in linguistic studies’]. Section 5 of that work was entitled “Internet y Análisis crítico del discurso” [‘The Internet and critical discourse analysis’], including the good and bad things about increased accessibility, extension or permissiveness. Following the notion of hypertext, a new one was proposed called hypergenre to refer to the social debate as a framework for critical analysis of the links and relationships among actors, arguments and types of discourse related to socially relevant issues. CDA must accept the challenge of complexity (cf. Hodge 2012, 1) and the “public debate” hypergenre is a way of doing this. Fairclough (2003, 185) states that “el ACD se halla inevitablemente atrapado en la controversia y en el debate social” [‘CDA is inevitably caught up in the controversy and social debate’]. The term “public debate” is therefore naturally linked to CDA but, generally, it is used intuitively, without elaborating on it. In this social debate, the role of new technologies is evident (cf. Bañón 2002, 23ss.); and also that of political discourse. This role can be seen very clearly in the political uses of blogs, e.g., in the Cuban context (cf. Vicari 2014); of Twitter, for instance in the political debate in Spain (cf. Mancera/Pano 2013; Pano/Mancera 2014a) or in Argentina (cf. Flax 2012 and 2013; Navarro 2012); and of web pages designed during elections, such as those developed for the 2008 campaign in Spain (cf. Martín Jiménez/Screti 2009). But ‘political’ must also be understood in a broad sense, incorporating the discourse of citizen and social movements, which has arisen in recent years. This incorporation sometimes occurs with citizens who, individually, join online forums about significant social events, as happened during the arrest of Augusto Pinochet in London on October 16, 1998 (cf. Tanner 2001). Other times they are collective movements: the case of the Chilean student movement (cf. Cárdenas Neira 2014), the resistance groups of African migrants in Argentina (cf. Morales 2014/ 2015), or the 15M movement in Spain (cf. Giraldo Luque/Martínez Cerdá/Paredes Sánchez 2013; García-Jiménez/Zamora-Medina/Martínez-Fernández 2014). Socially, Internet involvement often incorporates a high level of multimodal creativity, based, for example, on the recontextualizing power of metaphor (cf. Romano 2015). Metaphors are certainly part of the very nature of the Internet (cf. Sal Paz 2009). The use of humor on the Web is sometimes a sign of creativity typical of counter-discourses, and protest and resistance discourses (cf. González Goyeneche/Reales Moreno 2011; Sierra Infante 2012). The Internet has also used fake identities with accounts in which they parody, among others, Spanish politicians (@Naniano_Rajoy and @Señor_Rubalcaba; cf. Pano/Mancera 2014b). In fact, the same happens in other movements not associated with the Hispanic world. Consider the use of memes in the context of the Occupy Wall Street Movement (cf. Milner 2013). Memes are images or texts, often with humorous content, that are virally shared in social networks during a short time. Creativity not only affects linguistic items or those with multimodal value (such as Twitter tags referred to 15M; cf. Menna 2012), but also the development of horizontal  

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communication formulas designed to facilitate collaboration and participation (cf. Fernández Toledo/Oliveira Ferreira 2009). Among the most important social debates, we have to include those that speak about minorities, migration processes and racism, health and disease, gender and poverty discrimination. We discuss these issues below in the context of research in Spanish.

3.1 The discourse on minorities, migration processes and racism in the new media The social debate on immigration includes various types of discourse depending on the involvement (or not) of those who speak in the cause of the discriminated group and their belonging (or not) to that group. In this sense, one can speak of eight basic concepts related to eight types of discourse: commitment, protest, discrimination, self-discrimination, condescension, resignation, prevention and segregation. In order to analyze each of these concepts and discursive types, it is necessary to observe the documents that appear on the Internet; Bañón did so for the social debate on immigration, for the protest discourse (2002, 143ss.), for the committed discourse (2002, 206ss.) and for discriminatory discourse (2002, 252s.). The main sources mentioned at that time were from static Internet pages, such as “Africans sans papiers” (). Immigrants have generally found Internet to be an excellent ally for proposing their own media production (cf. Lario Bastida 2008) or for generating platforms that enable them to offer alternative discourses (cf. del-Teso-Craviotto 2008a and 2009). Hernández Flores (2014) has analyzed the image of Colombian women through life stories narrated by an association of Latin American artists and journalists in Madrid. In her work, she manages to provide an alternative discourse to the biased one that associates these women to sexuality as a means of survival. And a different image is offered of development agents instead of patient or passive actors. In any case, it is still a fabricated identity. The Internet has also been a good ally for those who accessed digital versions of traditional media with the intention of analyzing the representation of immigrants. Gómez Sánchez/Guerra Salas (2012, 83), for example, studied immigrant representation in the comments sent in response to information on this subject included in the digital versions of ABC, El País, ADN and 20 Minutos (first fortnight of March 2010), in total, 155 comments. Most participants showed a negative view of immigrants, and those who sent messages of solidarity received immediate replies, which were not always polite. Comments from readers of the digital press are very valuable for Discourse Analysis, and also have a critical projection, as the commenters also present themselves ideologically (cf. Fuentes Rodríguez 2013, 215). Ruiz et al., on the other hand, studied six Catalan online newspapers (Lavanguardia.es, Elperiodico.

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com, Avui.cat, Elpunt.cat, Segre.cat, Diaridegirona.cat and Diaridetarragona.com). The objectives of the study included knowing how comments were handled, whether the writers included the arguments of the others, and also whether other sources were mentioned in the discussion process. The authors state: “Pero a pesar de la prohibición expresa de difundir contenidos antidemocráticos, racistas, xenófobos y contrarios a los derechos humanos, las conversaciones digitales los contienen” (Ruiz et al. 2010, 37).4

The study of López Ireta/González Arias (2013) on comments sent to two Chilean online newspapers (Elmostrador.cl and Elmercurio.com) indicates widespread use of aggressive language. We mentioned above that the identity and migration processes are closely linked elements of interest for CDA. Garcés-Conejos Blitvich/Bou-Franch/Lorenzo-Dus (2013) analyzed the Latino identity in the United States through 500 consecutive messages that appeared on YouTube in response to the “Obama Reggaeton”. Most of these messages were written in Spanish. In a later work, Garcés-Conejos Blitvich/BouFranch re-used messages on YouTube to analyze the racialization of Latinos in the United States (2014). Del-Teso-Craviotto, meanwhile, has studied the identity discourse of Argentinian immigrants in Spain from the concept of “posicionamiento” [‘positioning’] (2008a), and the racist and xenophobic discourse against immigrants, and also the alternative discourse proposed by the immigrants themselves (2009). Both studies used the Internet forum message exchanges as corpus. For del-TesoCraviotto (2008a, 696), the unmediated presence of immigrants on the Internet, for example, ensures not only an existence, a voice, but also the opportunity to build an alternative immigrant identity to identities broadcasted in public discourses. The difficulty of access to public debate, therefore, leads to lack of knowledge (and even ignorance) of what immigrants themselves think about what is said about them or about the migration process itself. Hence, according to this author, there are very few studies that focus on the discursive practices of immigrants themselves (cf. del-TesoCraviotto 2009, 576). She uses for her research a corpus of messages that appear on the Forum page PatriaMadre.com targeting Argentinians who have migrated to Spain or plan to do so. In any case, Spaniards also participate in the exchange of arguments and counterarguments. The Internet forum is also the genre chosen by Montecino Soto to analyze the exclusion of immigrants. It is a forum linked to a 2002 Chilean television program in which the following question was being debated: “Should we restrict foreign workers?” (). Montecino Soto (2005, 274) observes, first, that the Internet is very uneven, and that most people, both in Chile and in Latin America,

4 ‘But the digital conversations used anti-democratic, racist, xenophobic and anti-human rights content, despite the express prohibition of doing so’ (translation by the author).

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are not participating in the “virtual spaces”. From his analysis of the representation of Peruvians in this forum, it follows that a discriminatory image is projected in their description (invaders, ignorant or foreign animals, usurpers of Chilean bread, etc.), and in the use of argumentative fallacies (poverty in Chile is due to the presence of immigrants), where the intensity of the claims, without considering the consequences, could also be related to concealing one’s identity. However, the negative representation of the Other is also sometimes supplemented, in these messages, with the negative representation of Myself or Us (e.g., low self-esteem; cf. Montecino Soto 2005, 286). Arriaga Arango (2013), meanwhile, analyzes the comments that appeared on social networks (Facebook, Twitter and forums) in relation to a photo published by the journal Hola in Colombia. Arriaga Arango believes that digital technologies reproduce models of racist discourse.  

3.2 Health and disease discourse in the new media Much has been said in recent years about a transformation in the doctor-patient relationship. It is said, as noted above, that an interaction based on a biomedical model is (slowly) giving way to a patient-centered interaction. The Internet has been crucial in this transition, offering better training and information, and empowering patients in health issues. The Internet has also been instrumental for the creation of quite a number of virtual specific communities on rare diseases, for implementing initiatives for financing research projects, and for better understanding the stories posted by patients and families about their illnesses and their lives. The formation of identities is one of the essential functions of this type of narrative. The relationship between the Internet and rare diseases has become prominent in recent years for those who are interested in spreading information about health and disease, and in the activity of associations of patients and even individual patients (cf. Aymé/Schmidtke 2007; Akrich/Méadel 2002 and 2009; Legros 2009). The Internet has also helped in the development of platforms with exemplary information in the health field, such as Orphanet. Its value is greater when we consider the problems for accumulation, structuring and dissemination of information on these diseases (cf. Dagiral/Peerbaye 2010). In recent years, critical analysis researchers have been interested in rare or uncommon diseases, including treatment in the digital sphere. We would like to emphasize, in this regard, three research areas associated with three projects. One project, ALCERES (Linguistic and communicative analysis of rare diseases in Spain), funded by the Ministry of Science and Innovation (FFI2008-03938) and developed at the University of Almería, generated numerous research papers. Another one treated the Internet verbal violence in relation to rare diseases. More specifically, it analyzed the exchange of messages in a forum linked to Antena 3 TV about a disease called Hallenvorden-Spatz. Although a solidarity discourse towards those who suffer serious

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illness is presumed, the fact is that, as seen in this forum, anonymity can generate cases of rudeness and lack of solidarity also in these contexts (cf. Bañón 2010; Prestigiacomo 2014). The Center for Biomedical Online Research on Rare Diseases (CIBERER) funded the research project named Desafíos y estrategias comunicativas de las enfermedades raras: La investigación médica como referente (Communication challenges and strategies for rare diseases: Medical research as reference). Under this project, a book was published with the same title studying a two-year corpus of Spanish printed and digital newspapers from a quantitative and also a qualitative perspective (cf. Bañón et al. 2011). The aim of the study was to account for what the press “says” about these diseases, about those affected and their families, about the people who are doing research on them, the institutions that manage the resources devoted to them, etc.; but also to explain the importance of actual journalistic production routines. A body of research consisting of 2,445 news items was built. In this sample, analysis was undertaken, among other things, of news values, topics, themes, framings, information hierarchy, and reader participation. The project addressed, with a perspective closer to CDA, the discursive representation of Rare Diseases and those affected (their designations, functions and concepts), together with the study of political discourse and discursive treatment of research and researchers related to these pathologies. Offering ways to improve the transmission of news was another equally crucial issue in the field of CDA. Finally, the Observatory of Rare Diseases (OBSER) project of the Spanish Federation for Rare Diseases, funded by the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, has included in the last two years 5 reports about the media and rare diseases. Some of these reports have been published and include relevant information on the discourse of rare diseases in the Social Networks (cf. Solves Almela et al. 2014; Armayones et al. 2015). Representation, in the computer-mediated discourse, of other health related issues concerning CDA has led, for example, to the construction of multimodal narrative identities of eating disorders. Figueras (2013) analyzed, from this perspective, the online multimedia project called Skeleton in the Closet, of the American photographer Fritz Liedtke.

3.3 The discourse on gender in the new media Discourse and gender studies have often identified asymmetric communication uses expressing (or intending to express) power, control and dominance of the speech of men over that of women (interruption is a good example). Chats are a suitable type of interaction for the analysis of control and power in discourse, beginning, of course, by observing the activities of the conversation administrators (cf. Noblia 2000, 69); and, in relation to both (control and power), the study of samples of politeness and impoliteness (cf. Noblia 2001). They are equally a very

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interesting frame for studying specific variables, such as gender, because, among other things, the “male” and “female” identities are easily manipulated; also because sex as a subject matter has traditionally had a significant role in these online conversations. Noblia is an expert on the social functions and uses that are transmitted in communicative exchanges through chats and on the discursive construction of sexuality. According to her, anonymity is one of the chat features and has been one of the major interaction constraints. It is a key factor in establishing participant identity (cf. 2006, 182). In this context of lack of information about the participants in the interaction, nicknames are the first element for introducing themselves. Noblia says: “El chat muestra que el discurso acerca del sexo, lejos de haberse silenciado, ha proliferado y se ha multiplicado […]. Sin embargo, como pudo verse a lo largo del trabajo, en esa incitación a hablar del sexo surgen estereotipos que forman parte de un imaginario que en el orden público se encuentra cuestionado y aparentemente superado” (2006, 193).5

Indeed, passive roles linked to women and active roles linked to men often appear. And this happens not only when it is men who write; also it is seen in women’s discourse (cf. Noblia 2006, 189). Del-Teso-Craviotto (2006, 475s.) has also shown interest for the critical gender analysis in the dating-chats discourse. It should be noted that each participant may have different purposes when entering one of these chats: some people just want to chat and joke for a while, and others really expect to find a relationship. These different objectives influence the analysis which can be made of the exchange of messages, of course. Del-Teso-Craviotto (2008b, 253) mentions that it is essential to use different techniques for authenticating the counterpart. This same article points out that computer-mediated communication reproduces behaviors that also appear in face-to-face communication, such as the “symbolic” dominance of men over women, but she also mentions the fact that online environments have offered spaces to promote different gender identities. Martínez-Lirola has analyzed the virtual interaction in Badoo, one of the most popular social networks, with millions of users, whose headquarters are located in London. One of her conclusions is that it is men who take the initiative to interact in Badoo, and in their interaction they exhibit the traditional gender stereotypes (they expect women to be sweet and affectionate, for example; cf. Martínez-Lirola 2012, 121). The blog has also been studied in relation to gender. Sola Morales (2012, 817) has done so, addressing the representation of women in two blogs, Mujeres and En Femenino. One of her aims was to know whether digital media narratives offered a 5 ‘The chat shows that the discourse about sex, far from being silenced, has proliferated and multiplied […]. In that incitement to talk about sex, however, as could be seen throughout the study, stereotypes arise that are part of an imaginary that is questioned and apparently overcome in the public sphere (translation by the author).

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real alternative to the hegemonic discourse. She concludes that both blogs contain a predominant discourse focused on the victimization of women, and she calls for the development of alternative references that do not associate women with conflicting or negative situations (cf. Sola Morales 2012, 841).

3.4 The discourse on poverty in the new media The existence of a Latin American Network of Discourse Analysis of Poverty (Redlad) is an evidence of the great interest that the subject awakens in these countries. This network, comprising researchers from Argentina, Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Venezuela and Uruguay, intends to respond to a social reality and to do so with CDA (cf. Pardo Abril 2010). Although, in this sense, the study of poverty through the discourses of the new media and social networks was not a priority, it is possible to find works of great interest. Among the authors thereof, Pardo Abril played a prominent role, particularly with her exploitation of the audiovisual documents posted on YouTube. In 2008, she analyzed the multimodal representation of poverty in the music video “La rutina” (Lukas Perro). And in 2012, she did the same with the video documentary “Los niños de Hollywood” (Ález Gómez and John J. Álvarez 2001). In the same year, Pardo Abril published a book entitled “Discurso en la Web: Pobreza en YouTube” [‘Discourse on the web: Poverty on YouTube’], which also involved two teachers with extensive experience in CDA and with great interest in the subject of poverty: Laura Pardo and Gabriela D’Angelo.

4 Conclusions and Desiderata After briefly describing the basics of CDA and its main theoretical and methodological proposals, we have highlighted, in these pages, the interest that the new media is arousing among those who offer a critical look at public discourses. This interest is particularly evident in the reconfiguration of speakers and recipients, and space, time and mode, and also in the social-cognitive structuring of communication. This reconfiguration process affects concepts such as “identity” and “authorship”, “expanded interlocution” and “exposed interlocution”, “continuity”, “availability” and “speed”, “convergence” and “multimodality”, “access” and “accessibility”, and “fragmentation” and “accumulation”. Spanish research has made interesting contributions to all of them, as well as to critical research regarding the Internet representation of socially relevant issues, such as migration processes, health, gender and poverty. However, there are still very few contributions of CDA to the study of the new Internet media, especially if compared to other linguistic areas. In the immediate future, we can no doubt expect a significant increase in research in Spanish on digital communications from the CDA parameters and from

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discourse ethical analysis (cf. Orgad 2007). One interesting case, for example, is the reflection of the alleged modern society values crisis on computer-mediated communication (cf. Giroux 2011). The increase can be inferred, for instance, observing the programs of Symposia and International Conferences of Associations closely linked to social discourse studies. Cf., e.g., the program of the II Simposio Internacional de la Asociación EDiSo (Estudios sobre Discurso y Sociedad), held in June 2015 at the University of Coimbra. It included a specific panel entitled “Las nuevas tecnologías como límites para el discurso” [‘New technologies as limits on discourse’], coordinated by Manuel Alcántara and César Rendueles, and a free papers session about the Internet. Domestic violence, discrimination and the discourse of social and political movements are some of the topics that were treated (cf. ). On the other hand, we should remember that critical approaches are constantly enriched from methodological and also theoretical points of view, always with the common idea of scientific-ethical commitment, of interdisciplinary studies, and of the linguistic-discursive basis. In this regard, we believe it is important to address complex research objects with complex and ambitious models. Moreover, on several occasions we have commented that CDA should also add the “action” (CCADA, Critical and Constructive Analysis of Discourse and Action). Naturally, we refer only to observing the adequacy / inadequacy between what is said (or not said) and what is done (or not done). This dimension allows, for instance, to study the degree of (un) fulfillment of the promises made by politicians at all levels.  

5 References Adami, Elisabetta (2014), “Why did dinosaurs evolve from water?”: (in)coherent relatedness in YouTube video interaction, Text & Talk 34:3, 239–259. Aguado, Juan Miguel (2007), La vivencia como objeto técnico: Hipermodernidad y experiencias culturales, in: Jesús Baca Martín (ed.), Comunicación y Simulacro, Sevilla, Arcibel, 63–94. Aguilar Pinto, Alejandra (2010), Práticas informacionais dos povos indígenas no ciberespaço: o caso dos Pankararus e Kariri-xocó no Brasil, in: Viviane de Melo Resende/Fábio Henrique Pereira (edd.), Práticas Socioculturais e Discurso: Debates Transdisciplinares, Covilhã, LabCom, 155– 174. Ainsworth, Susan/Hardy, Cynthia (2004), Critical discourse analysis and identity: why bother?, Critical Discourse Studies 1:2, 225–259. Akman, Varol (2000), Rethinking context as a social construct, Journal of Pragmatics 32, 743–759. Akman, Varol/Bazzanella, Carla (2003), The complexity of context: guest editors’ introduction, Journal of Pragmatics 35, 321–329. Akrich, Madeleine/Méadel, Cécile (2002), Prendre ses médicaments/prendre la parole: les usages des médicaments par les patients dans les listes de discussion électroniques, Sciences Sociales et Santé 20:1, 89–116. Akrich, Madeleine/Méadel, Cécile (2009), Les échanges entre patients sur l’internet, La presse médicale 38:10, 1484–1493.

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Uta Fröhlich

11 Analyzing Multicodal Media Texts Abstract: This paper emphasizes the importance of images as research objects within media texts for the field of linguistics. It provides an overview of different perspectives on multicodal texts that lead to the analysis of multicodal media texts. Alongside a linguistic perspective, approaches from other scientific disciplines such as image science and visual culture are considered. Definitions for the scientific terms mode and code are elaborated. Furthermore, the article outlines differences between multimodal and multicodal, hence stressing the importance of clear definitions as they inevitably lead to different focuses of such linguistic analysis. The author gives a detailed scientific overview on pictures and images from a phenomenological and a semiotic perspective to underline the potential of images as a medium of information within multicodal texts – for which a definition is stated. A multicodal text analysis approach is presented using the example of a multicodal blog entry.  

Keywords: code, image, media texts, mode, multicodality, multicodal analysis  

1 Introduction: where media texts are found Media texts have changed considerably in recent years. Passive information intake is no longer predominant; on the contrary, the media today are all about active participation, whether through interactive TV shows or social media platforms on the Internet. Similar to the behavior of the recipients moving towards participation or even production, media texts have developed further in how and where they appear. They may contain different components: (moving or static) images, verbal language (written or spoken), colors, symbols, emoticons. The list could be extended in many respects. The co-occurrence of images and language can be described as multicodal (cf. 2.4). This form of multicodality will be at the center of my further deliberations. Let us consider, as examples, the online text types online forum and blog and audiovisual media texts in television and cinema. Just as in a blog, the contributions made to an online forum, serving the communication exchanges between users of a platform, consist as a rule of verbal signs (such as text) and nonverbal signs (images and emoticons). The latter can additionally be moving or static, for instance, hopping about or waving to the user. The inclusion of short video sequences is also possible in some forums. Not only nonverbal signs, but also verbal ones offer the user a whole range of design opportunities: the verbal text can be formatted in some forums and can thus be altered according to preferences or to emphasize the content (cf. Fröhlich 2015). In addition to italics, bold type and underlining, this may include the size, font and color of the verbal (graphic) signs. Therefore, blogs and forums are consequently DOI 10.1515/9783110314755-012

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both varied in their appearance and often actively variable in their design on the part of the user. Depending on the content of the forum or blog, the content may consist more of verbal text parts and additionally integrate nonverbal ones, although communication by image alone is also possible. Images or pictures as a means of communication are not a novelty: they have long been used for communication, e.g., in cave painting. One characteristic of the modern “visual era” is the growing number of images and their frequent presence (cf. Lobinger 2012, 20), above all on the Internet. The information intake is carried out by way of the visual sensory channel. We cannot assume that a user has necessarily activated the loudspeakers of their Internet-enabled device (e.g., a laptop, a tablet; cf. Fröhlich 2015). Videos in forums are sometimes included with no sound and run without any user intervention on an endless loop. Thus, above all in online forums, images and videos often have an effect purely through their visual appearance. When focusing on films or TV programs in this respect, we find a whole selection of appropriate material in these media texts. On the other hand, because the latter are usually invariable from the audience point of view, we cannot talk of TV users, but rather of passive viewers – insofar as it is not a question of an interactive TV show. What we see is, on the contrary, usually dominated by moving images, although verbal text can be present, fulfilling in most cases an additional function. The information in film and on television is passed on via the visual and auditive sensory channels. To sum up, media texts in forums and blogs, compared to films and TV programs, are similar concerning their codes, but the dominance of the verbal and nonverbal parts varies, with the result that certain key aspects of research come to the forefront. Images dominate in the cinema and on TV; any further investigation would therefore need an analysis of their visual content. In contrast, verbal language signs may dominate the images in online media texts and relegate them to the background – depending on the aims of the texts. The question is whether important information, although relevant for the aims, might be overlooked in a restrictive analysis of particular codes in media texts. Texts consisting of different signs transport their (whole) meaning through the totality of all the signs. This is the reason why this contribution illustrates the necessity of the holistic multicodal analysis of online media texts. In the following, indications are given of how one may approach multicodal research into online media texts. Initially, I will go into the terms mode and code and explain the possible limitations of the concepts. Secondly, I will examine the image as a scientific concept. This will be followed by a concise presentation of the disciplines which deal with the image in partly differing ways. Subsequently, I will ask what we basically understand as image or picture. Further, I will describe my understanding of a multicodal text concept, in order to demonstrate, with the aid of an example of analysis sequence, why images as a component of a whole text should be considered as an important object of analysis.  

 

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2 Mode and code When working on code in linguistic research, it is impossible to avoid the widespread term mode or modality. Modus (plural: modi) can describe a procedural method. In linguistics, the term refers to the morphological, syntactic verb forms: indicative, subjunctive or imperative. From an information science viewpoint (e.g., Weidenmann 2002), mode and code refer to different fields of knowledge. Taking selected authors, I would like to take a closer look at different definitions of mode and code. The two terms mode and code become blurred in use according to the branch of study and the author, as pointed out by, among others, Weidenmann (2002, 46), Schneider/Stöckl (2011, 25), Klemm/Stöckl (2011, 14s.). That makes a conceptual delineation of mode and code all the more important. Fraas/Meier/Pentzold (2012, 56) thus consider images and language to be differently coded. The authors see the aim of the forms in the paraverbal code, such as bold type or capital letters, as “creating order” (Fraas/Meier/Pentzold 2012, 57). Following the subdivision in Weidenmann (2002), Fraas/Meier/Pentzold (2012, 64s.) initially also go along with the division into code, the type and arrangement of the signs, and mode, with a view to the sensory modalities which are employed for the perception of the signs. In social semiotics, especially through the research work of Kress/van Leeuwen (e.g., 2001), another understanding of mode and code is put forward, in which mainly the term mode is used. In the following, the different characteristics are examined. Approaches which use these concept traditions in a slightly altered form are presented.  

 

2.1 Kress and van Leeuwen In terms of social semiotics, Kress/van Leeuwen (inter al. 2001) are above all concerned with modality. As researchers into semiotics (e.g., Stöckl or Klemm), they see images and language as signs. By mode they understand:  

“[…] a socially shaped and culturally given resource for making meaning. Image, writing, layout, music, gesture, speech, moving image, soundtrack are examples of modes used in representation and communication” (Kress 2009, 54).

The decisive factor is thus the socially and culturally determined conventionalization of a resource, which leads to meaning being ascribed within a communication or presentation (cf. also Fraas/Meier/Pentzold 2012, 65). Furthermore, the connection to the concept of code or to a system of signs becomes clear (cf. Schneider/Stöckl 2011, 26). Modes are linked to a sort of grammar, or a general body of rules (cf. Kress/van Leeuwen 2001). Using these, it is possible to combine the signs of a mode. They thus take on a meaning in certain situations (cf. Stöckl 2004, 11). Colors hold a meaning within culture groups. For example, red means STOP and green GO on the public

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highway. Language corresponds to the most strongly conventionalized mode (cf. Fraas/Meier/Pentzold 2012, 65). As Norris (2011, xvi) emphasizes, modes cannot be considered separately, for they are often dependent on one another (cf. Schneider/Stöckl 2011, 26). Norris (2011) mentions the example of a conversation in a restaurant. Perceivable modes here are the communication round the table or at neighboring tables, the background music and also formalities such as the furniture and décor, etc. Communication will be also influenced by the atmosphere created by the music and the environment, as the music will, for instance, have a calming or stimulating influence on the communication partners. The soundtrack in films has a particular influence on the mood of the cinemagoers and is targeted specifically. As a consequence, Kress/van Leeuwen (2001, 20) define multimodality as “the use of several semiotic modes in the design of a semiotic product or event” (cf. also van Leeuwen 2005). Kress/van Leeuwen (2001) understand by mode any kind of sign whatever in the communication process (cf. Klemm/Stöckl 2011, 15). Mode and code seem to be interchangeable (cf. Klemm/Stöckl 2011, 10s.), even if this is not directly addressed in Kress/van Leeuwen (2001). The term mode is preferentially used (cf. Fraas/Meier/Pentzold 2012, 65).

2.2 Stöckl In the tradition of social semiotics, Stöckl (2006) designates codes as “sign systems […], which regulate the way signs must be put together in order to generate intended meaning”1 (Stöckl 2006, 17). Depending on the degree of conventionalization, he distinguishes furthermore between strong codes (language), because of the “relativ feste Form-Inhalts-Passungen” [‘relatively fixed form-content matches’] (Stöckl 2006, 17) and rather weaker codes (such as images and paraverbal elements), where questions have to be answered regarding the rule conformity of their composition or combination, but also of the segmentability of individual signs (cf. Stöckl 2006, 17). The vagueness of Kress and van Leeuwen – that mode and code seem interchangeable – is met explicitly by Stöckl (2011), who points out that his concept of modality refers to the type of sign (cf. Stöckl 2011, 45). Given this, modality and codality are interchangeable.

1 ‘Zeichensysteme […], die regeln, wie Zeichen zusammengesetzt werden müssen, damit sich intendierte Bedeutungen ergeben’ (translation above by the author).

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2.3 Fricke Based on the work of Kress and van Leeuwen, Fricke (2012) distinguishes between multimodality in the broad and narrow sense in her monography “Grammatik multimodal. Wie Wörter und Gesten zusammenwirken” [‘Grammar seen multimodally. How words and gestures interact’]. By multimodality in the narrow sense, she understands a state “[…] when, on the one hand, language types or tokens belong to two different sensory modalities and two different codification media”2 (Fricke 2012, 47) and, on the other hand, are functionally and/or structurally integrated in one code (ibid.). As an example of multimodality in the narrow sense, she offers an emblem to replace the verbal predicate ‘o.k.’ in the very same syntactically placed slot (ibid.). Then again, multimodality in the narrow sense is present according to Fricke (2012), insofar as a code can be shown that is present in two different codification media and belongs to two different sensory modalities (cf. Fricke 2012, 47). Fricke (ibid.) gives the example of gestures underpinning phonetic utterances. By way of contrast, she describes multimodality in the broad sense exclusively with a view to a code-related media concept. By this, she understands, on the one hand, the use of a sensory channel within two media. She exemplifies this with the dovetailing of script and image in one text. On the other hand, for her there exists language multimodality, i.e., the structural and/or functional integration of “mindestens zwei verschiedene codebezogene Medien” [‘at least two different code-related media’] (Fricke 2012, 48). According to Fricke (2012), this is given when, for example, the deictic word here is made clear with an arrow within a text (cf. Fricke 2012, 48). It is striking that, in her work, the concept of code is used to define mode and modality.

2.4 Weidenmann In his article “Multicodierung und Multimodalität im Lernprozess” [‘Multicoding and multimodality in the learning process’] (2002), Weidenmann undertakes an explicit distinction between mode and code. From an information science viewpoint, he argues that by multimodality we may understand “Angebote, die unterschiedliche Sinnesmodalitäten bei den Nutzern ansprechen” [‘offers which address the users’ distinct sensory modalities’] (Weidenmann 2002, 47). Thus, we can say that he uses a sense-related modality concept. Accordingly, a film or TV program is multimodal, because not only the visual, but also the auditive sensory channel is involved in the information intake. 2 ‘Sprachliche Multimodalität im engeren Sinn liegt erstens dann vor, wenn sprachliche Typen oder Token zum einen zwei verschiedenen Sinnesmodalitäten und zwei verschiedenen Kodierungsmedien angehören, und zum anderen eine strukturelle und/oder funktionale Integration in ein- und denselben Kode vorliegt’ (translation above by the author).

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In comparison, codification may describe “[…] the marking, abbreviation or changing of frequently reoccurring information”3 (Colin 1992, 8; quoted in Weidenmann 2002, 45). Images can be distinguished with regard to the codification of language (cf. Fraas/Meier/Pentzold 2012, 56), because they transport information by means of nonverbal signs. Weidenmann (2002, 47) describes a code as a “Symbolsystem” [‘system of symbols’].4 Multicodal, according to Weidenmann (ibid.), refers to “Angebote, die unterschiedliche Symbolsysteme bzw. Codierungen aufweisen” [‘offers which display distinct symbol systems or codifications’]. He thus supports a clear distinction between multimodal and multicodal, as the former refers to sensory channels and, in consequence, to reception and the latter to the composition of signs. In the research area of technical communication, there is a tendency to link the concept of multimodality according to Weidenmann (2002) to sensory modalities. Allwood/Ahlsén (2012) point to the fact that the term multimodal may have different meanings and so postulate a broad multimodality concept with direct reference to communication: “[…] communication involving more than two of the sensory modalities (sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste). For practical purposes, we will also, besides ‘sensory or perception modalities’, talk about ‘production modalities’, by which we mean human bodily means that normally produce information for the different sensory modalities that is, gestures, speech organs etc.” (Allwood/Ahlsén 2012, 435s.).

Based on the work of Gibbon/Mertens/Moore (2000), Martin/Schultz (2012) define multimodal as a “[…] channel of communication involving more than one human output-input combination, e.g., oral-auditory, gesture-visual […]” (Martin/Schultz 2012, 189). It may be concluded, in the terms of Weidenmann (2002), that multicodality refers to the use of different sign systems. By way of contrast, the use of different sensory channels in multimodality (e.g., in a film) is the key feature. Multicodality is given when dealing with (moving) images and language by the use of different codes (image and language). In the latter case, only one modality – the visual sensory channel – is called upon, so that we cannot really talk of multimodality. Thus, in analyses of online forums or blogs, we are not carrying out a multimodal, but rather multicodal analysis, in which different visual codes are of central importance (cf., for instance, Fröhlich 2015). To sum up, the use of mode and code, or multimodality and multicodality, varies according to the field of research. Taken from a social-semiotic viewpoint (inter al. as  

 

3 ‘[…] die Kennzeichnung, Verkürzung oder Umwandlung häufig wiederkehrender Informationen’ (translation above by the author). 4 This shows that not only the concept of a sign system, but also that of a system of symbols are used in scientific research with reference to the mode and code concepts (for further deliberations on signs and symbols cf. Fröhlich 2015).

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in Kress/van Leeuwen 2001), the two concepts are not separate. Their use is not always clear-cut, whereby a preference for mode, or the concept of modality, can be observed. In contrast, others like Weidenmann (2002) make an explicit distinction from an information science perspective between mode and code. A sensory channelrelated concept of modality is also used in technical communication. The limitation and separation of the two concepts mode and code can thus be considered as more “precise”. An exact definition demands transparency and sheds light on the terminology connected to the two terms. This is the reason why I am following the definitions of Weidenmann (2002) in my deliberations. I will consider images and language in the following sections, thereby focusing on multicodality. I will, however, be specifically referring to a concept of signs and not symbols. From a linguistic perspective, it is not a matter of course that images, even if they represent an important part of a media text, should come under analysis as the object of research. Those disciplines working more intensively on images make a serious case for considering the image as the object of scientific research (cf. Lobinger 2012, 16). In the following section, I will briefly introduce those sciences that deal with images, before taking a closer look at concepts of the image.

3 The image in the world of science Several research institutions work on images as the object of their investigations. Some pertinent disciplines are image science, visual communication research, visual culture and image linguistics. Image science pursues the aim of “giving a general introduction to a basic understanding of pictorial phenomena”5 (Lobinger 2012, 33). It is not confined to particular pictorial media (ibid.). Researchers in this field in part come from the history of art or philosophy. In contrast to image science, research in visual communication deals with specific pictorial media. The research focuses on, for instance, “spezifische(n) Differenzen zwischen einzelnen Bildmedien” [‘specific differences between individual pictorial media’] (Huber 2004, 16). In the Anglo-American world, the reception of images is above all discussed within the research area of visual culture. The central issue is the relationship between the viewer of the image and the image itself. Image linguistics arose in linguistics research that was carried out into the connections and references between language and image (cf. Klemm/Stöckl 2011, 9). For many years, linguistics did not concern itself with the image as an object of research

5 ‘[…] eine allgemeine Einführung in das grundlegende Verständnis von bildhaften Phänomenen zu geben […]’ (translation above by the author).

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(cf. Klemm/Stöckl 2011, 8). Multicodality can be adduced as an argument for the strengthening of this discipline. Images are used to communicate and/or often refer to language utterances, in the same way as language utterances can be supported or distorted by images (cf. Fröhlich 2015).

3.1 Scientific considerations of the image and language The two codes image and language are different in many respects (cf. Nöth 2004). The differences can be classified, for example, using categories developed by Stöckl (2011, 48s.). He distinguishes the two codes with regard to perception, semantics, pragmatics and semiotics. I will single out particular differences as examples to characterize the different codes. Considering the perception of image and language, we may state that images tend to be holistically perceived, whereas language is perceived successively and in a linear way according to the direction of reading or speed of talking (cf. Nöth 2004, 11). The result is a rapid perception of images and a comparatively slow one for language. Images can also be remembered better than language as a whole (cf. Stöckl 2011, 48). While the message may remain in the memory, the individual words in a text will most probably fade away. Seen semantically, images may be vague and poorly determined compared to language (cf. Nöth 2004, 20), whereas language offers more precise possibilities of expression, and meanings are rooted in convention (cf. Stöckl 2011, 48). With regard to their communicative functionality or their pragmatics, images can be distinguished from language through their clarity and vividness, which make it possible to show spatial locations. Language is, on the other hand, more appropriate than images for making logical connections clear (cf. Stöckl 2011, 48). We can thus see that language and images are different from one another in their functionality. Semiotically, language and images can be seen as different codes because of the different nature of their signs. In the case of images, a continuous flow of signs arises, but in verbal language we find distinct and discreet individual signs. What is more, images as texts are perception-friendly or iconic, because they represent what is to be presented according to its appearance (cf. Nöth 2004, 12). Language is often called arbitrary and is fixed in its meaning by convention (cf. Stöckl 2011, 48). While language in the form of texts – although in another way – can also describe what is to be presented, the arbitrary correlation is located at the level of the word (and not at the level of the text). Thus, the prevalent classification of images as iconic and language as arbitrary is superficially correct, but the comparison takes place at different levels: in the case of images, texts are used as a reference, while in the case of language, the level of the word is the point of reference.

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3.2 What are images? There is no single definition of the concept of the image that is accepted over the boundaries of many disciplines (cf. Halawa 2008, 15ss.). While it is clear in the case of language where one sign begins and ends – where letters end and begin, or where one word ends and another begins – this is not so clear in the case of the image. In the case of the (printed) image, the concept of the sign can, for instance, be used for pixels, i.e., the image-constructing signs. Transitions from one to another of these “signs” are smooth and are usually barely recognizable, if at all. Here, too, the (common) reference to one level, in the case in point with reference to the concept of signs, proves to be problematic, because language and images are different kinds of signs. With reference to the whole image, it remains unclear as to what belongs to the image and what does not (or no longer does). One approach to determining this in the sciences of the image is iconic difference (inter al. Boehm 2006). This describes the ability of the viewer to recognize an image as such. This happens when contrasts to the images and their direct environment are perceived (cf. Boehm 2006, 30). Mitchell (1990) answers the question “What is an image?” with five types of image: optic (projections, mirror images), graphic (drawings, paintings etc.), perceptual (visions, forms), mental (memories, mind’s eye images) and language-driven images (descriptions, metaphors) (cf. Mitchell 1990, 20). These fine distinctions are compacted by others (as in Müller 2003, 20) into a division between material and immaterial images. With reference to language and images, a distinction is made in comparison to Mitchell’s classification into material and language images (cf. Stöckl 2011, 61ss.; cf. also Nöth 2004, 8). It is mostly as images in the narrow sense that material images are described (cf. Nöth 2004, 8). According to Sachs-Hombach (2003) and Halawa (2008), definitions of images can be divided into two “Denktraditionen” [‘traditions of thought’] (cf. Halawa 2008, 17) – on the one hand, that of semiotics as a field in linguistics and, on the other, that of phenomenology, a subdiscipline of philosophy: “While one side defines the image as a sign, the other would like to determine the phenomenon of the image beyond all semiotic categories starting from its visibility” (Halawa 2008, 17, emphasis in the original).6

Both semiotics specialists and phenomenologists are concerned with objects which are perceived, but they are of different opinions, however, “about how perception takes place, whether we have to have signs at our disposal in the process of perception

6 ‘Während die eine Seite das Bild als Zeichen definiert, möchte die andere Seite das Phänomen des Bildes jenseits semiotischer Kategorien aus seiner Sichtbarkeit heraus bestimmen’ (translation above by the author).

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or not”7 (Halawa 2008, 17). Many supporters of phenomenological approaches reject the semiotics perspective on images. One of these is Brandt (2004). He sees in the concept of the image a purely everyday concept and neither an aesthetic nor a philosophical one. He justifies this with the human process of learning “to identify things as things, people as people and images as images”8 (Brandt 2004, 45). His phenomenological viewpoint becomes clear when he opposes semiotic approaches, underlining visibility as the key feature and seeing it as the necessary quality of the image: “If visibility is a necessary characteristic of images, then images as such cannot consist of signs or symbols. Characteristic of signs is that they can be transferred to other forms of communication. […] Images cannot be read out aloud nor felt. We can but see them or imagine that we see them. What I see as an image, can, but need not be a sign” (Brandt 2004, 45s.).9

Sachs-Hombach, a researcher in image science, favors a semiotic approach. He also believes that the perception of images is essentially important for their description and/or definition (cf. Sachs-Hombach 2003, 50). He takes the middle ground between semiotics and phenomenology, trying to find common characteristics and not, like Brandt (2004), separating the two. For Sachs-Hombach (2003), an object is an image the moment it appears as an “Element eines Zeichensystems” [‘element in a system of signs’] (Sachs-Hombach 2003, 50). For him, “images [are] in the narrower sense […] artificial, two-dimensional and relatively lasting objects, which serve within a communicative act to illustrate reality, but also fiction” (Sachs-Hombach 2003, 77).10

The concept of perception itself makes the image a special (pictorial) sign for SachsHombach (2003, 73). This distinguishes it from other signs. Sachs-Hombach (ibid.) also talks of an “eigenständige Form des Zeichenhandelns” [‘independent form of a sign act’]. This becomes clear in online media texts, where images etc. are used in addition to verbal signs as a communicative means of expression. The function of images appears to have almost no limits, as Lobinger (2012) explains:

7 ‘[…] darüber, wie wahrgenommen wird, ob man im Vollzug des Wahrnehmens bereits über die Zeichen verfügen muss oder nicht […]’ (translation above by the author). 8 ‘[…] Dinge als Dinge, Menschen als Menschen und Bilder als Bilder zu identifizieren’ (translation above by the author). 9 ‘Wenn Sichtbarkeit eine notwendige Eigenschaft von Bildern ist, dann können Bilder als solche nicht aus Zeichen oder Symbolen bestehen. Zeichen haben die Eigenschaft, dass man sie auch in andere Formen der Übermittlung überführen kann. […] Bilder dagegen lassen sich weder vorlesen noch ertasten. Wir können sie nur sehen oder uns unsichtbar vorstellen. Was ich als Bild sehe, kann, muss aber kein Zeichen sein’ (translation above by the author). 10 ‘Bilder im engeren Sinne sind artifizielle, flächige und relative dauerhafte Gegenstände, die innerhalb eines kommunikativen Aktes zur Veranschaulichung realer oder auch fiktiver Sachverhalte dienen’ (translation above by the author).

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“Visual elements can complement verbal text illustratively, entertain, serve as design elements or decoration, independently transmit information or bring to mind the unspeakable in an illustrative way. A list of possible image functions could be extended at will” (Lobinger 2012, 19).11

4 The multicodal concept of text With the help of culturally shared rules and processes, we can attribute a social and communicative sense to acts. “Human communication of all kinds is symbolic, interactive and social action”12 (Klemm 2011, 187). In terms of linguistic pragmatics, Klemm (2011) comments: “Communicative action can be interpretatively attributed to action patterns or (in the terminology of speech act theory) “illocutions”, e.g., CLAIMING or WARNING. Actions are not, however, objective data” (Klemm 2011, 187; emphasis in the original).13  

Based on Lenk (1978), he speaks of actions as “Interpretationskonstrukte” [‘interpretation constructs’] (Klemm 2011, 187), i.e., an action may lead to several, different interpretations. Additionally, speech acts can be carried out by means of different codes or sign systems (e.g., language and images). If several sign systems are used for the communication, then multicodal communication takes place (cf. Weidenmann 2002). For Klemm (2011, 187), this is the normal case. Similarly, online media texts can also contain multicodal communication. In the following, I shall be examining the question of what characterizes the textuality of these texts. In order to classify online texts, it could be helpful to distinguish them from print texts. The textuality of online texts is, for example, for Pentzold, Fraas and Meier  

“not only indicated and made visible by their linguisticality, but in relation to the updated action and sense horizon and to the implemented, resp. perceived, textual, paratextual and paraverbal aspects they are treated as texts” (Pentzold/Fraas/Meier 2013, 83).14

11 ‘Visuelle Elemente können etwa verbalen Text illustrativ ergänzen, unterhalten, als Design- oder Dekorationselemente dienen, selbstständig Informationen übertragen oder Unaussprechliches anschaulich vergegenwärtigen. Eine Liste möglicher Bildfunktionen ließe sich beliebig verlängern […]’ (translation above by the author). 12 ‘Menschliche Kommunikation jedweder Art ist symbolisches, interaktives und soziales Handeln’ (translation above by the author). 13 ‘Das kommunikative Handeln lässt sich interpretativ Handlungsmustern oder (in der Terminologie der Sprechakttheorie) ‘Illokutionen’ zuordnen, etwa BEHAUPTEN oder WARNEN. Handlungen sind allerdings keine objektiven Daten […]’ (translation above by the author). 14 ‘[…] nicht nur über ihre Sprachlichkeit signalisiert und sichtbar gemacht, sondern in Relation zum aktualisierten Handlungs- und Sinnhorizont und zu den realisierten bzw. wahrgenommenen textuellen, paratextuellen und paraverbalen Aspekten wird mit ihnen als Texte umgegangen’ (translation above by the author).

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The possibility of updating the content is thus decisive for online media texts. It also becomes clear that the text-ness of online contributions or platforms is not exclusively confined to the verbal text (e.g., a posting), but that also the peritext (cf. Maaß 2014, referring to Genette 1987), like, for instance, information on the user and their status or paraverbal aspects (like the font, color and size of the print) plays an important role (cf. Fröhlich 2015). There are, too, depending on the individual contribution, the nonverbal elements such as (moving) images, smileys or emoticons. Compared to print texts that have appeared offline, online media texts can thus provide much information stemming from their “environment” which can be updated. On the basis of the textuality of online media texts that has been described above, the latter may be subsumed in a broad text concept which comprises different codes. I consider not only images and emoticons, on the one hand, but also (verbal) language, on the other, as distinct codes, because they are built on different sign systems (cf. Weidenmann 2002). All information transmitted by different codes may in its entirety be considered as online media text. In consequence, we may speak of multicodal texts consisting of verbal, paraverbal and nonverbal signs and characterize these as a “Komplex aus Zeichen verschiedener Art” [‘aggregate of different kinds of signs’] (Fix 2011, 76; cf. also Weidenmann 2002). Through these different and partly intrareferential codes, it is likewise not possible to explain text comprehension alone with the verbal content. Multicodality has to be ascribed an important role here. Multicodal text comprehension can be described as “the mutual activation and shaping of the meaning potentials of language and images with an aim of reconstructing a relevant, logical and minimal comprehensive message in context”15 (Stöckl 2011, 55). Comprehension is thus the result of cognitive and perceptual processes “which are based on language-image harmonization and a context-sensitive attribution of meaning”16 (Stöckl 2011, 55). We see that the interaction of the codes in use is decisive for multicodal text comprehension. The following example illustrates multicodal text elements. Elodie has been posting on her blog for many years. She lives in Paris and loves the world of fashion. She writes about fashion, beauty and lifestyle in her blog “Elodie in Paris”. She sees fashion as a continually unfolding new beginning:  

“Analyser les tendances, les couleurs, faire attention aux moindres détails, anticiper, même si, en soit, la mode est un éternel recommencement…”17 (Elodie in Paris).

15 ‘[…] wechselseitiges Aktivieren und Formen der Bedeutungspotenziale von Sprache und Bild mit dem Ziel, eine im Kontext relevante und schlüssige minimale Gesamtbotschaft zu rekonstruieren’ (translation above by the author). 16 ‘[…] die auf den Sprache-Bild-Abgleich und eine kontextsensible Sinnzuschreibung gründen’ (translation above by the author). 17 ‘Analyzing tendencies, colors, noticing the smallest details, anticipating, even if, be that as it may, fashion is a continually unfolding new beginning’ (translation by the author).

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Figure 1: “Elodie in Paris”, screenshot of blog posted on December 23, 2014

As may be recognized through the example of this blog, this online media text contains not only verbal signs (script) but also paraverbal (bold type, italics, underlining) and nonverbal signs (image18, a small heart and a star) and is consequently a multicodal (media) text. In the next subsection, I will be taking a closer look at the

18 Elodie, the blogger, is wearing a pink skirt in the picture. The remaining colors in the picture are muted.

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individual codes and making clear, through the interrelationship of the codes to one another, where the strengths of multicodal analysis lie.

5 A multicodal analysis approach For the scientific investigation of the (different) codes, it remains to be clarified not only which image definition is to be used (insofar as images are part of the texts to be analyzed). Also, the assignment to different codes is by no means trivial, but can, on the contrary, depending on the focus of the analysis, turn out quite differently. There may be agreement on assigning oral language to verbal communication, and, accordingly, written language will normally be assigned to a verbal code. This takes into account the fact that many media texts are oriented not only towards written, but also towards oral language use (cf. Koch/Oesterreicher 22011). We might think of an online forum, in which oral colloquial language is to be found in written form (cf. Fröhlich 2015). Vice versa, television programs may often contain rather formal written language in an oral form, e.g., when the content is read out or reported. Images can be assigned to a nonverbal code, because they do not contain any letters or anything similar in their pure form and, in fact, communicate in another way. There are different opinions on emoticons, for example, which are assigned to the nonverbal (cf., e.g., Fröhlich 2015), but also the paraverbal code (cf., e.g., Aldana Rueda 2011). The latter assignment is eminently plausible the moment we see them as oral forms of expression accompanying language. How far this is really the case, with regard to online media texts, is another question, because there they may also be seen as CMCspecific signs and not purely as compensation for the gestures and mimicry of oral face-to-face communication (cf. Döring 2003, 151s.; Fröhlich 2015). Different opinions on paraverbal phenomena are to be found, too. While discourse markers, like “Oh”, can be discussed under the heading of verbal code – emphasizing solely the verbal phenomenon – it is also possible to describe such markers as paraverbal, insofar as their context-dependent semantic meaning is at the center of attention and is intended to be highlighted in contrast to verbal signs with semantic content (cf. Fröhlich 2015). This follows the basics of oral communication. Therefore, in my opinion, the attribution to a certain code cannot be called right or wrong in one sweeping statement. The decisive factor is the reasoning behind the respective attribution with regard to the object under investigation. Using the concrete example of the blog posting on “Elodie in Paris” (Fig. 1), it is possible to explain and illustrate the interrelationship of different codes. The verbal code already directly refers in the headline “Paris, mon amour – Elodie in Paris” to the nonverbal code: in the background, the Eiffel Tower can be clearly seen. Elodie is posing in front of the Paris landmark, thereby expressing her close ties to, or maybe her “love” of, the city. The Eiffel Tower is depicted from top to bottom in the background, while in the foreground only half of Elodie’s face is  

 

 

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visible. The famous landmark gains its importance from the central position in the picture. In her verbal utterances, too, references to the picture are clear. While there is a hint in the French version with her comment “[. . .] malgré son côté tape-à-l’œil” that she is playing on the striking color of her skirt, this supposition is confirmed in the English translation: “[…] even if it’s pink, metallic and not discreet at all [sic]”. The pink skirt is emphasized by the otherwise muted color mix in the nonverbal code and is the eye-catcher in the picture. Elodie uses bold type to highlight the names of brands and designers and even towns and thus uses the paraverbal code to make her references. On the one hand, the brand names refer to the clothes she is wearing, while on the other, she links them in part with their websites. The English version of the preceding French verbal utterance is also printed in italics. The highlighting is not carried over. This may mean that the French version must be considered as the more important, whereas the English version is to be seen as a mere translation of the French or as an “extra”, and not as a verbal component of equal value. The peritext at the end of the posting sets itself apart from the main utterance in the text field by means of the typeface, using capitals, and assumes a framing position at the end of the posting. The example shows that different codes can be harmonized to mutually complement one another.

6 Conclusion As explained in the previous sections, the separation of the definitions of mode and code has the advantage of emphasizing the different research aims and of being able to better profile the latter through careful use of the specialist terms. If the analysis refers to media texts, like films, for example, which are received through different sensory perception, then multimodality is at the center of interest, even if multicodality can play a certain role, for instance, in the analysis of images and spoken language. Therefore, the terms of denomination should be chosen consciously, according to the focus of the research. Especially the investigation of multicodal interconnections, like those of language and images, is seen by Klemm/Stöckl (2011, 9) as an important task for linguistics, which can then contribute to the image sciences and, vice versa, image science findings can enrich linguistics. In the way that image science attaches little importance to language, on the one hand (cf. Klemm/Stöckl 2011, 11), the focus of linguistics, on the other, is too narrowly directed towards language and too little towards images. At the same time, it is images that simply cannot be ignored in present-day media texts. Visual communication researchers like Lobinger (2012) plead for the recognition of the (private) image in public contexts, e.g., in social networks, as a relevant object  

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of research within media and communication sciences. For their proponents, these images belong to the daily life of many people in the digital age (cf. Lobinger 2012, 16). In support of image linguistics (e.g., Klemm/Stöckl 2011), it is even possible to go a step further. To go to the extreme, you could say that it is a distortion of reality to “filter apart” language and images, although they are commonly embedded in a whole text amidst other codes or modes. As is clearly shown in the multicodal research by Fröhlich (2015) with the example of forum communication, images represent an important component for the meaning of the whole text which should not be ignored. Images are used in part through their specific characteristics to communicate in other ways. Images can provide cause for (verbal) communication. They transport a share of the meaning in the whole text that is not to be spurned, and which ought to be investigated especially in the field of media linguistics. The analysis of the (whole) meaning of a multicodal (or multimodal) media text requires research into all the codes it contains and into their interreferentiality.  

7 References Aldana Rueda, Virginia (2011), Verbale Konstruktion von Expertenstatus in asynchroner computervermittelter Kommunikation. Eine Untersuchung am Beispiel von Newsboards und Social-Networking-Plattformen, (17.01.2017). Allwood, Jens/Ahlsén, Elisabeth (2012), Multimodal Communication, in: Alexander Mehler/Laurent Romary/Dafydd Gibbon (edd.), Handbook of technical communication, Berlin et al., de Gruyter, 435–460. Boehm, Gottfried (2006), Die Wiederkehr der Bilder, in: Gottfried Boehm (ed.), Was ist ein Bild?, 4th edition, München, Fink, 11–38. Brandt, Reinhard (2004), Bilderfahrungen – von der Wahrnehmung zum Bild, in: Christa Maar/Hubert Burda (edd.), Iconic turn. Die neue Macht der Bilder, Köln, DuMont, 44–54. Colin, I. (1992), Optische Kodierung, Universität Frankfurt am Main (unpublished habilitation treatise). Döring, Nicola (2003), Sozialpsychologie des Internet: die Bedeutung des Internet für Kommunikationsprozesse, Identitäten, soziale Beziehungen und Gruppen, Göttingen, Hogrefe. Fix, Ulla (2011), Fraktale Narration. Eine semiotisch-textstilistische Analyse, in: Jan Georg Schneider/ Hartmut Stöckl (edd.) (2011), Medientheorien und Multimodalität. Ein TV-Werbespot – Sieben methodische Beschreibungsansätze, Köln, von Halem, 70–87. Fraas, Claudia/Meier, Stefan/Pentzold, Christian (2012), Online-Kommunikation. Grundlagen, Praxisfelder und Methoden, München, Oldenbourg. Fricke, Ellen (2012), Grammatik multimodal. Wie Wörter und Gesten zusammenwirken, Berlin/Boston, de Gruyter. Fröhlich, Uta (2015), Facework in multicodaler spanischer Foren-Kommunikation, Berlin/Boston, de Gruyter. Genette, Gérard (1987), Paratextes, Paris, Seuil. Gibbon, Dafydd/Mertens, Inge/Moore, Roger K. (edd.) (2000), Handbook of multimodal and spoken dialogue systems: Resources, terminology and product evaluation, Dordrecht, Kluwer Academic Publishers.  

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Halawa, Mark Ashraf (2008), Wie sind Bilder möglich? Argumente für eine semiotische Fundierung des Bildbegriffs, Köln, von Halem. Huber, Hans Dieter (2004), Bild Beobachter Milieu. Entwurf einer allgemeinen Bildwissenschaft, Ostfildern, Hatje Cantz. Klemm, Michael (2011), Bilder der Macht. Wie sich Spitzenpolitiker visuell inszenieren (lassen) – eine bildpragmatische Analyse, in: Hajo Diekmannshenke/Michael Klemm/Hartmut Stöckl (edd.), Bildlinguistik. Theorien – Methoden – Fallbeispiele, Berlin, Schmidt, 187–209. Klemm, Michael/Stöckl, Hartmut (2011), Bildlinguistik – Standortbestimmung, Überblick, Forschungsdesiderate, in: Hajo Diekmannshenke/Michael Klemm/Hartmut Stöckl (edd.), Bildlinguistik. Theorien – Methoden – Fallbeispiele, Berlin, Schmidt, 7–18. Koch, Peter/Oesterreicher, Wulf (22011), Gesprochene Sprache in der Romania. Französisch, Italienisch, Spanisch, Berlin/New York, de Gruyter. Kress, Gunther R. (2009), What is mode?, in: Carey Jewitt (ed.), The Routledge handbook of multimodal analysis, London/New York, Routledge, 54–67. Kress, Gunther R./van Leeuwen, Theo (2001), Multimodal Discourse: The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication, London, Arnold. Lenk, Hans (1978), Handlung als Interpretationskonstrukt. Entwurf einer konstituenten- und beschreibungstheoretischen Handlungsphilosophie, in: Hans Lenk (ed.), Handlungstheorien interdisziplinär, vol. 2.1, München, Fink, 279–350. Lobinger, Katharina (2012), Visuelle Kommunikationsforschung. Medienbilder als Herausforderung für die Kommunikations- und Medienwissenschaft, Wiesbaden, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. Maaß, Christiane (2014), On the markedness of communication on online message boards as part of a perception-oriented politeness approach, in: Kristina Bedijs/Gudrun Held/Christiane Maaß (edd.), Face Work and Social Media, Zürich/Münster, LIT, 237–275. Martin, Jean-Claude/Schultz, Tanja (2012), Multimodal and Speech Technology, in: Alexander Mehler/ Laurent Romary/Dafydd Gibbon (edd.), Handbook of technical communication, Berlin et al., de Gruyter, 189–254. Mitchell, W. J. Thomas (1990), Was ist ein Bild?, in: Volker Bohn (ed.), Bildlichkeit, Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp, 17–68. Müller, Marion G. (2003), Grundlagen der visuellen Kommunikation. Theorieansätze und Analysemethoden, Konstanz, UVK. Nöth, Winfried (2004), Zur Komplementarität von Sprache und Bild aus semiotischer Sicht, Mitteilungen des deutschen Germanistenverbandes 51:1, 8–22. Norris, Sigrid (2011), Identity in (Inter)action. Introducing multimodal (inter)action analysis, Berlin/ New York, de Gruyter. Pentzold, Christian/Fraas, Claudia/Meier, Stefan (2013), Online-mediale Texte: Kommunikationsformen, Affordanzen, Interfaces, Zeitschrift für Germanistische Linguistik 41:1, 81–101. Sachs-Hombach, Klaus (2003), Das Bild als kommunikatives Medium. Elemente einer allgemeinen Bildwissenschaft, Köln, von Halem. Schneider, Jan Georg/Stöckl, Hartmut (edd.) (2011), Medientheorien und Multimodalität. Ein TVWerbespot – Sieben methodische Beschreibungsansätze, Köln, von Halem. Stöckl, Hartmut (2004), In between modes. Language and image in printed media, in: Eija Ventola/ Cassily Charles/Martin Kaltenbacher (edd.), Perspectives on multimodality, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, Benjamins, 9–30. Stöckl, Hartmut (2006), Zeichen, Text und Sinn – Theorie und Praxis der multimodalen Textanalyse, in: Eva Martha Eckkrammer/Gudrun Held (edd.), Textsemiotik. Studien zu multimodalen Texten, Frankfurt am Main/New York, Lang, 11–36.

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Stöckl, Hartmut (2011), Sprache-Bild-Texte lesen. Bausteine zur Methodik einer Grundkompetenz, in: Hajo Diekmannshenke/Michael Klemm/Hartmut Stöckl (edd.), Bildlinguistik. Theorien – Methoden – Fallbeispiele, Berlin, Schmidt, 45–70. van Leeuwen, Theo (2005), Introducing social semiotics, London/New York, Routledge. Weidenmann, Bernd (2002), Multicodierung und Multimodalität im Lernprozess, in: Ludwig J. Issing/ Paul Klimsa (edd.), Information und Lernen mit Multimedia und Internet. Lehrbuch für Studium und Praxis, 3rd edition, Weinheim, Beltz, 45–62.

Further sources Elodie in Paris (2015), ABOUT, (17.01.2017). Elodie in Paris (2014), PARIS, MON AMOUR – ELODIE IN PARIS, (17.01.2016).

Daniel Perrin

12 Language in the Media: The Process Perspective Abstract: Drawing on a case study of newswriting at Télévision Suisse Romande, this chapter presents media linguistics as a subdiscipline of applied linguistics (AL), dealing with a distinctive field of language use. Language in the media is characterized by specific environments, functions, and structures. Medialinguistic research, however, tends to overcome disciplinary boundaries and collaborate with neighboring disciplines such as psychology, sociology, politology, and cultural studies. In multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary collaboration, it contributes to the development of empiricallygrounded studies of mediatized language use and solves practical problems. The chapter first outlines such a practical problem. After explaining key concepts of media lingustics, it focuses on the linguistics of newswriting and four related research methods. Finally, it discusses the value media linguistics can add to both theory and practice of language use and the media.  

Keywords: media linguistics, newswriting, progression analysis, public discourse, transdisciplinarity  

1 The LEBA case study: Staging the story by changing one word How do communication professionals get their messages across?1 Why does news production change in increasingly multilingual environments? And, very generally, what is the role of language in a globally connected, multi-semiotic, and mediatized world? Answering such questions on empirical grounds requires medialinguistic approaches. Often, these approaches combine theories and methods from (applied) linguistics on the one hand and media and communication studies on the other. Also, media linguistic research tends to integrate practitioners’ views in transdisciplinary projects. Such endeavors result in systematic reflections of the value that findings can add to both theory and practice – and in empirically based practical measures such as training journalists for improving their writing processes and advising media institutions for improving their policies.

1 This chapter draws on existing publications by the author. Paragraphs and formulations have been reproduced from the following papers without explicit cross-references: Perrin (2013) and Perrin/ Grésillon (2014). DOI 10.1515/9783110314755-013

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In this chapter, I use an example from my research to illustrate key concepts and procedures of media linguistics. The example is outlined in the next paragraphs and further developed throughout the text, when I explain questions of combining disciplines (2), epistemological interests of linguistics of newswriting (3), a set of complementary research methods (4) and outcomes for theory and practice (5). Public service broadcasting companies are among the most important broadcasting companies in Europe. The Swiss public broadcaster, SRG SSR, has the highest ratings in the country. As a public service institution, SRG SSR has to fulfill a federal, societal, cultural, and linguistic mandate: promote social integration by promoting public understanding between social groups such as urban and rural, poor and rich, lay persons and experts, immigrants and citizens. As a media enterprise, though, SRG SSR is subject to market and competitive forces. Losing audience would mean losing public importance and legitimacy for public funding. The Idée Suisse research project, used as an example in this chapter, investigated how those working for the broadcaster deal with these two key expectations they experience as basically contradictory. Epistemologically, the researchers aimed at reconstructing promoting public understanding as the interplay of situated linguistic activity with social structures throughout levels and timescales, from the minutes and hours of writing processes in the newsroom to the years and decades of societal change. The research question and the theoretical approach led to four project modules, focusing on media policy (module A), media management (B), media production (C), and media reflection (D). The result of this procedure was a detailed insight into stakeholders’ conflicting expectations and stances. Media policy expects public media to promote public understanding through their communicational offers, whereas media management considers implementing the mandate as infeasible or irrelevant in the face of market pressures. Grounded in these data, the mid-range theory of promoting public understanding was developed (cf. Perrin 2013, 8). A key inference from this theory is that, for the case of SRG SSR, if solutions of bringing together public and market demands cannot be revealed in the management suites of the organization, they have to be looked for in the newsrooms. This meant a focus on journalistic practices in the second phase of the project. Therefore, module C of the research project (i.e., journalists’ media production), focused on observable text production activity. 120 newswriting processes were analyzed and contextualized with knowledge about: explicit editorial norms of text production; writers’ individual and organizational situations; and writers’ individual and shared language awareness. One example of this linguistic newsroom ethnography is the LEBA case. The LEBA case study investigates the production of a news piece about demonstrations in Lebanon. These demonstrations occurred in a context of ethnic and religious diversity as well as expansion plans of neighboring countries repeatedly threatening national unity in Lebanon. In 2005, the Lebanese Prime Minister, Rafik Hariri, was killed in a bomb attack, and on February 14, 2007, the second anniversary

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of the assassination was commemorated with a national demonstration in Beirut. Télévision Suisse Romande started covering the topic in the noon issue of their daily news program, “Téléjournal”. While European media often report on politically motivated violence in Lebanon, the journalist R.G. highlighted peaceful aspects of the demonstrations in his news piece. The LEBA case illustrates the medialinguistic key concept of recontextualization (Part 1.1). Also, and more importantly, it documents the emergence and implementation of the idea to change one particular word and use it as a leitmotif of a news piece (1.2).

1.1 Focus on recontextualization and intertextual chains A first detail from the LEBA case that matters for the present chapter is the intertextual chain the journalist draws on. In his new item, R.G. integrates quotes, utterances from protesters in Lebanon, which are recorded by a video journalist (VJ) and then selected and modified by, first, a Lebanese television station; second, global newswires; third, Swiss national television SRG SSR; and fourth, the “Téléjournal” (TJ) newsroom (Fig. 1). Step by step, the utterance is recontextualized, shifted from one context to another. In this process, the protesters’ utterances are repeatedly reconstructed and thus nested in textual and communicative environments. These environments are influenced by agents and their stance(s) throughout the media system (cf. Perrin 2012).

Figure 1: The intertextual chain from a protester’s comment to the quote in a “Téléjournal” news piece

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1.2 Focus on routine and emergence At the 9:30 morning conference of the “Téléjournal” newsroom team on February 14, 2007, R.G. received the assignment to prepare an item about demonstrations in Lebanon for the noon edition of the “Téléjournal”. He found the deadline tight, which helped him concentrate on the main topic: tens of thousands of demonstrators from all over Lebanon streaming into Beirut on the second anniversary of the killing of Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. They were protesting against the possibility of renewed civil war that would partition their country among neighboring countries and, above all, Syria’s influence. So far there had been no violence. In an early phase in the writing process, R.G. wrote the voiceover for an introductory scene. The scene shows how people travelled en masse to the demonstration by boat. Finding these boats in the video material surprised him, he says. In his very first sentence, R.G. refers to another fact new to him: as he just learns from the news service, the Lebanese had that day off. So the beginning of the product was shaped by details that were new to the experienced journalist. He then took a closer look at the pictures that were new to him and made a revision of a word that turned out to be the pivot point of the whole writing process. In the first sentence of the second paragraph, R.G. had first talked about an expressway to describe the direct route over the Mediterranean Sea, “la voie express de la méditerranée”. While interweaving the text with the images, R.G. realized that a tranquil path, “la voie tranquille”, would better fit the slow journey of a boat. So he deleted “express” and inserted “tranquille” instead. With “tranquille” R.G. found the leitmotif of his item. In the retrospective verbal protocol recorded after the writing process (cf. below, Part 4.1), R.G. says that he loves the adjective because it corresponds not only to the image of the boats but also to the tranquility of the demonstration. He expects the “tranquil” to resonate in the minds of the audience. Just as consciously, he talks about using the term “drapeau libanais”, the Lebanese flag, as a symbol of the demonstrators’ desire for political independence. Working with these visually attractive leitmotifs, R.G. overcame the critical situation of using brash stereotypes when under time pressure. Instead of catering to the market and resorting to predictable images that could overshadow publicly relevant developments, he absorbed his source material, listened to what was being said, and discerned what was important in the pictures. By doing so, he was able to discover a gentle access to the topic that allowed him to produce a coherent and fresh story and at the same time managed to reflect the political finesse required by his TV station’s mandate of promoting public understanding.

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2 Disciplines and beyond: Outlining media linguistics The problem of promoting public understanding under time pressure illustrates that media constitute a socially important area of activity whose language use can differ from the use in other areas. This language use in media – and in a narrower sense, in journalistic media – is the focus of interest of media linguistics. In such an understanding, media linguistics is the subdiscipline of (applied) linguistics that deals with the relationship between language and media (e.g., Burger 2008; Perrin 2013). As a subdiscipline situated between the theoretical and the applied variants of linguistics, media linguistics is guided by theory and practice. Guided by theory, it uses data from media settings to answer research questions raised by linguistics itself, such as language change in everyday contexts. Guided by practice, it clarifies problems of media practice with linguistic tools – and in doing so also assesses the scope of the theory (e.g., Candlin/Sarangi 2004, 3). The scientific discipline and professional field are therefore related to one another as shown below (Fig. 2).  

 

Figure 2: Media linguistics as a subdiscipline of linguistics, interacting with media practice

Media linguistics, guided by theoretical research interests, can use insights from cases such as LEBA to investigate, for example, how language users deal with other people’s utterances. More generally, theoretically-oriented media linguistics analyses how production conditions of, e.g., journalistic media influence language use within these media, and, in reverse, how language use also influences the use and ultimately the social meaning of media, e.g., in journalism (e.g., Bell/Garrett 1998; Boyd-Barret 1994; Cotter 2010; Fairclough 1995; Fowler 1991; Kress 1986; Montgomery 2007). Guided by practice, it can search for language use that, for example, helps journalists handle quotes or leitmotifs in ways that foster public understanding. From both theoretical and practical perspectives, all media-linguistic research can be situated in an internal (Part 2.1) and an external (2.2) structure of the discipline.  

 

 

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2.1 Internal structure of media linguistics So what is the primary interest of media linguistics? Fig. 3 (below) provides a schematic answer. It shows the field of language use in public discourse. The field is categorized into key issues of medialinguistic research. They specify and connect types of users, activities, and linguistic descriptions of language. Research questions concerning

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Language users: the participants in public communication are the sources, the media producers, the target audiences, and the general public. Sources, media producers, and target audiences are directly involved in journalistic communication. The general public is involved indirectly, for instance when they participate in media blogs or talk to journalists or sources after reading, viewing, or listening (e.g., Lacey 2013) to media items (scope 1). Language activity: journalistic communication often restricts language users to either producer or receiver roles. Media producers, for example, tell stories (e.g., Salmon 2007) in close interaction with their professional enculturation (e.g., Marchetti/Ruellan 2001), and target audiences receive them (scopes 2 and 3). In communicative events such as research interviews or blogs, however, quick switching between producer and receiver roles is common (e.g., Messner/DiStaso 2008). Language description: linguistics considers language synchronically, at one point in time, or diachronically, over the course of time. A synchronic description can explain journalistic genres from a linguistic perspective (e.g., Lüger 1977; scope 4). A diachronic description can reveal language change over centuries (e.g., Studer 2008; Coupland 2014) or show whether and how one language influences another – e.g., how the language of sources can influence the language of journalistic media (scope 5).  

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2.2 External structure of media linguistics Scientific disciplines can be not only too wide for specific research, but also too narrow (e.g., Meyerhoff 2003; Sarangi/Van Leeuwen 2003). Inquiries into suitable methodology or into language use in journalistic media, for example, extend beyond media linguistics in general or the linguistics of newswriting in particular. They call for approaches that reach across several disciplines (e.g., Rampton 2008). – In multidisciplinary research, scientific disciplines cooperate by addressing shared research questions. In the Idée Suisse project for example, writing research and methodology share their interest in methods to capture writing processes at the workplace. Their contributions to a methodological framework complement each other. Methodology brings in knowledge about triangulating methods; writing research contributes knowledge about key logging at computer workplaces, such as at the journalists’ desk and the cutting room in the LEBA case (cf. below, Part 4.2). – In interdisciplinary research, scientific disciplines collaborate by addressing shared research questions and also by developing methods or theories together. The mid-range theory of promoting public understanding (cf. above, Part 1), for example, draws on integrated knowledge from linguistics, sociology and journalism studies. Throughout the Idée Suisse project, scientific disciplines collaborated to explain conditions and consequences of writing practices (writing research) in journalism (journalism studies) as a socially relevant (sociology) field of language use (applied linguistics). – In transdisciplinary research, scientific disciplines collaborate with non-scientific fields in order to create shared knowledge and solve real-world problems, such as how public service media could and actually do promote public understanding. Identifying experienced journalists’ knowledge and making it available (through transformational processes such as generalization, exemplification, etc.) for an entire media organization, such as in the Idée Suisse project, requires the involvement and participation of practitioners throughout the project. Only then can professionals’ everyday theories be accessed and developed, leading to concerted, solution-oriented theory building.  

 

The above three types of pluridisciplinarity are logically connected: multidisciplinary collaboration allows for the interdisciplinary developments which are needed for transdisciplinary solutions to practical problems. Solving problems such as promoting public understanding in a multilingual and multicultural country usually requires the knowledge of more than one scientific discipline.

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3 Epistemological interests: The example of linguistics of newswriting Compared to theoretical or applied linguistics in general, media linguistics is a narrow subdiscipline. However, upon closer view it still addresses a huge variety of research fields. Investigating language change in the context of news media is quite different from analyzing media interviews. The production of news is yet another research field, with specific research questions, methods, and theoretical approaches. It is the application field of the linguistics of newswriting. In other words, the linguistics of newswriting is the area within media linguistics that investigates the linguistically-based practices of professional news production (e.g., Perrin 2003; Van Hout/Jacobs 2008; Perrin 2013), such as in the LEBA case. The social setting that the linguistics of newswriting is interested in is the newsroom. The relevant contextual resources are the global and local newsflows, media organizations, and public discourse (e.g., Machin/Niblock 2006; Van Dijk 2001). The key language users in the linguistics of newswriting are the journalists and editors as individuals and editorial teams or media organizations as collectives. They are in close contact with sources and in permanent indirect contact with their audiences. Social media accelerate and intensify interaction between these agent groups. The linguistic activity highlighted in the linguistics of newswriting is collaborative writing. In a narrow understanding, writing is limited to the production of written language. In a broader sense, it encompasses all linguistically-based editing at the interface of text, sound and pictures. In addition, writing processes include reading phases, e.g., reading source texts. All these processes take time. Therefore, the linguistics of newswriting considers the dynamics of text production. In a large timeframe, workflows in the newsroom are analyzed. In a medium timeframe, writing sessions to produce a particular news piece are investigated. In a narrow timeframe, the focus is on single decisions and their consequences during the writing process, such as the change from “express” to “tranquille” in the LEBA case. Guided by practice, the linguistics of newswriting clarifies and solves problems of media practice with linguistic tools. In doing so, it also assesses the scope of the theories applied. The LEBA case, for example, has shown how an experienced journalist as a “reflective practitioner” (cf. Schön 1983) used a leitmotif to bridge policy and market expectations. He acted according to the mid-range theory of promoting public understanding. Exploiting such findings to solve practical problems requires knowledge transformation. As an object of knowledge generation and transformation in research projects, newswriting is shaped by the epistemological interests of the disciplines involved. Depending on epistemological interests, it has been conceptualized, for example, as language use (Part 3.1), as writing at work (3.2), or as providing media content (3.3).  

 

 

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The gap left by the three disciplines is the analysis of journalistic writing activities in context (4).

3.1 Newswriting as language use Researching language use means first and foremost examining stretches of verbal signs. They are the result of language use and form the basis for new language use. That is how language production, products and comprehension interact as “structured social contexts within which people seek to pursue their interests” (Sealey/ Carter 2004, 18). The processes of language use can be investigated as individual cognitive activity, as social activity, or as socio-cognitive activity (Fig. 4). Research focus Cognitive

Social –

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language use as situated activity giving indirect access to socio-cultural structures: settings and resources

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language use as situated activity giving language use as situated activity giving indirect access to individual structures: indirect access to individually reflected psychobiography socio-cultural structures

Figure 4: Language use as situated activity and an interface to cognitive and social resources

For the leitmotif and the quotes in the LEBA case, this fourfold approach to language (e.g., Brumfit 2001, 55s.; Cicourel 1975; Filliettaz 2002; Leont’ev 1971; Vygotsky 1978) means: – As stretches of language used, the quotes of the leitmotif appear in a news piece and are implicitly or explicitly related to former texts and contexts. Whereas the audience can see and hear where the quotes come from, most of them will not link the tranquil way to express way, which is what the boat connection is called in the region the item reports on. – As cognitively based activity, the use of the leitmotif provides evidence of the journalist’s knowledge about dramaturgy, stereotypes, metaphors, and the region his item covers. – As a socially-based activity, it shows that other journalists reproduce narratives and stereotypes, in this case about the violence in Lebanon. – As an individually reflected socio-cognitive activity, finally, the leitmotif and the approval of it in the subsequent newsroom conference show how individuals can willingly vary or even change the narratives reproduced in newsrooms and societies.  

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3.2 Newswriting as writing at work Writing research conceptualizes writing as the production of texts, as cognitive problem solving (e.g., Cooper/Matsuhashi 1983), and as the collaborative practice of social meaning making (e.g., Burger 2006; Gunnarsson 1997; Lillis 2013; Prior 2006). The present state of research (e.g., Jakobs/Perrin 2014) results from paradigm shifts (e.g., Schultz 2006) including a first one from products to processes and a second one from the lab to the field. – In a first paradigm shift, the focus of interest moved from the product to the process. Researchers started to go beyond final text versions and authors’ subjective reports about their writing experience (e.g., Hay 1993; Hodge 1979; Pitts 1982). Draft versions from different stages in a writing process were compared. Manuscripts were analyzed for traces of revision processes, such as cross-outs and insertions. This approach is still practiced in the field of literary writing, where archival research reveals the genesis of masterpieces (e.g., Bazerman 2008; Grésillon 1997). – A second paradigm shift took research from the laboratory to “real life” (cf. Van der Geest 1996). Researchers moved from testing subjects with experimental tasks (e.g., Rodriguez/Severinson-Eklundh 2006) to workplace ethnography (e.g., Bracewell 2003), for example to describe professionals’ writing expertise (e.g., Beaufort 2005, 210). Later, ethnography was complemented by recordings of writing activities (e.g., Latif 2008), such as keylogging. The first multimethod approach that combined ethnography and keylogging at the workplace was progression analysis (cf. Part 4.1).  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Writing research in the field of journalism sees newswriting as a reproductive process in which professionals contribute to “glocalized” (cf. Khondker 2004) newsflows by transforming source texts into public target texts, such as with the protesters’ posters and spoken utterances in the LEBA case (cf. above, Fig. 1). This happens at collaborative digital workplaces (e.g., Hemmingway 2007), in highly standardized formats and timeframes, and in recursive phases such as goal setting, planning, formulating, revising, and reading. Conflicts between routine and creativity, or speed and accuracy, are to be expected. Based on such knowledge from writing research, writing education develops contextualized models of good writing practice, evaluates writing competence according to these models, and designs writing courses (e.g., Jakobs/Perrin 2008; Jones/ Stubbe 2004; Olson 1987; Surma 2000).  

 

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3.3 Newswriting as providing content for journalistic media Communication and media studies foreground the media aspect of newswriting and reflect on the nature of the media concept in general. In a very broad view, many things can serve as a medium in communication: a sound wave carrier such as the air, a status symbol such as a car, or a system of signs such as the English language. In a stricter sense, a medium is a technical means or instrument to produce, store, reproduce, and transmit signs. However, this definition is still very broad. Media could mean all technical communication media such as postcards, the intranet, and even a public address system. Every form of communication except face-to-face conversations uses such technical tools. – Media in the sense used here means news media. A news medium is a technical means used to produce and publish communication offers of public importance under economic conditions (e.g., Luhmann 21996). With this focused media concept, media linguistics refers to an independent and socially relevant field of language application, similar to forensic, clinical, or organizational linguistics. News medium is socially, economically, and communicatively more strictly defined than medium. – Communication offers of public importance contribute to the production of public knowledge and understanding in societies whose “institutions of opinion” (cf. Myers 2005) reach far. Abandoning the stereotype of violent people in Lebanon, and realizing that demonstrations there can be tranquil and peaceful, such as in the LEBA case, fosters social understanding in a regionally (e.g., Androutsopoulos 2010) and globally (e.g., Blommaert 2010) connected world. – Economic conditions means the obligation to create value as a “constrained author” (cf. Reich 2010) in work-sharing, technology-based (e.g., Pavlik 2000; Plesner 2009), and routinized (e.g., Berkowitz 1992) production processes (e.g., Baisnée/Marchetti 2006). The protesters’ quotes go through an intertextual chain of economic value production. At each station, journalists select source materials, revise them, and sell them to new addressees (Fig. 1). – To publish means the professional activity of disseminating “content” (e.g., Carpentier/De Cleen 2008) outside of the production situation, to audiences unknown as individuals. The “Téléjournal” newsroom addresses an audience that can only be described statistically, using sampling techniques and projections.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

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4 Methods: Combining perspectives on language use When focusing on newswriting, media linguistics needs research methods to generate data about writing activities in complex contexts. The next sections present the four research methods applied in the Idée Suisse and related research projects, using them as examples of how to investigate newswriting practices as windows onto cognitive and societal structures and processes. These methods are: version analysis (Part 4.1), progression analysis (4.2), variation analysis (4.3), and metadiscourse analysis (4.4). In the Idée Suisse and similar projects, such methods are often triangulated in a multimethod approach (4.5).

4.1 Tracking intertextual chains with version analysis Linguistics investigates first and foremost stretches of language, linguistic products (e.g., McCarthy 2001, 115). From this product perspective (cf. above, Part 3.1), a media linguistics that focuses on what is special in newswriting will emphasize the intertextual chains within news flows: new texts are quickly and constantly created from earlier ones. What happens to the linguistic products in this process can be determined with version analysis. Version analysis is the method of collecting and analyzing data in order to reconstruct the changes that linguistic features undergo in intertextual chains. The basis for comparing versions is text analysis. Version analyses trace linguistic products and elaborate on the changes in text features from version to version throughout intertextual chains. The quotes from the protesters in the LEBA item, for example, have been serially processed by at least five stations of intertextual reporting and, at the same time, of economic value production (Part 1.1). Some prominent medialinguistic studies draw on version analyses to reveal how news changes throughout the intertextual chains (e.g., Van Dijk 1988; Bell 1991, 56ss.; Luginbühl et al. 2002; Robinson 2009; Lams 2011). A frequent variant of version analysis compares text versions before and after revision processes. Newswriting analyses can contrast, for example, text versions at four production states: after drafting, after the journalist’s office sessions, after video editing, and after speaking the news in the booth. A minimal, non-comparative variant of version analysis is the text analysis of a single version, with implicit or explicit reference to other versions that were not explicitly analyzed (e.g., Ekström 2001). This variant of version analysis is widespread in the framework of critical discourse analysis (Van Dijk 2001; cf. also critiques by Stubbs 1997 or Widdowson 2000). Comparing various versions of finished texts is sufficient to gain knowledge about how texts are adapted from version to version. However, version analysis fails to  

 

 

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provide any information about whether the journalists were conscious of their actions when re-contextualizing or engaging in other practices of text production; whether the practices are typical of certain media with certain target audiences; or whether the issues associated with those practices are discussed and negotiated in the editorial offices. To generate such knowledge, additional methodological approaches are required.

4.2 Tracing writing processes with progression analysis Linguistics can treat language as an interface between situated activity and cognitive structures and processes. From this cognitive perspective (Part 3.1), a media linguistics interested in the particularities of newswriting will emphasize individuals’ language-related decisions inside and outside the newsrooms. What exactly do individual journalists do when they create customized items at the quick pace of media production? What are they trying to do, and why do they do it the way they do? This is what progression analysis captures. Progression analysis is the multimethod approach of collecting and analyzing data in natural contexts in order to reconstruct text production processes as a cognitively controlled and socially anchored activity. It combines ethnographic observation, interviews, computer logging, and cue-based retrospective verbalizations to gather linguistic and contextual data. The approach was developed to investigate newswriting (e.g., Perrin 2003; Sleurs/Jacobs/Van Waes 2003; Van Hout/Jacobs 2008) and later transferred to other application fields of writing research, such as children’s writing processes (e.g., Gnach et al. 2007) and translation (e.g., Ehrensberger-Dow/ Perrin 2009). With progression analysis, data are obtained and related on three levels. Before writing begins, progression analysis determines through interviews and observations what the writing situation is (e.g., Quandt 2008) and what experience writers draw on to guide their actions. Important factors include the writing task, professional socialization, and economic, institutional, and technological influences on the work situation. In the Idée Suisse project, data on the self-perception of the journalists investigated were obtained in semi-standardized interviews about their psychobiography, primarily in terms of their writing and professional experience, and their workplace. In addition, participatory and video observations were made about the various kinds of collaboration at the workplace. During writing, progression analysis records every keystroke and writing movement in the emerging text with keylogging (e.g., Flinn 1987; Lindgren/Sullivan 2006; Spelman Miller 2006) and screenshot recording programs (e.g., Degenhardt 2006; Silva 2012) that run in the background of the text editing programs the journalists usually use, for instance behind the user interfaces of the news editing system in the “Téléjournal” newsroom. The recording can follow the writing process over several workstations and does not influence the performance of the editing system or the  

 

 

 

 

 

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journalist. It reveals changes made throughout a text production process, such as replacing “express” by “tranquille”. When the writing is done, progression analysis records what the writers say about their activities. Preferably immediately after completing the writing process, writers view on the screen how their texts came into being. While doing so, they continuously comment on what they did when writing and why they did it. An audio recording is made of these cue-based retrospective verbal protocols (RVP). This level of progression analysis opens a window onto the mind of the writer. The question is what can be recognized through this window: certainly not the all of the decisions and only the decisions that the author actually made, but rather the decisions that an author could have made in principle (e.g., Camps 2003; Ericsson/Simon 1993; Hansen 2006; Levy/ Marek/Lea 1996; Smagorinsky 2001). The RVP is transcribed and then encoded as the author’s verbalization of aspects of his or her language awareness: writing strategies, and conscious writing practices, such as using leitmotifs in a news item. The data of these three stages complement each other to provide a multiperspective, vivid picture of the object of study. In sum, progression analysis allows researchers to consider all the revisions to the text as well as all the electronic resources accessed during the production process; to trace the development of the emerging media item; and, finally, to reconstruct collaboration at media workplaces from different perspectives. The main focus of progression analysis, however, is the individual’s cognitive and manifest processes of writing. Social structures such as public mandates, organizational routines, and editorial policies are reconstructed through the perspectives of the individual agents involved: the writers under investigation. If editorial offices or even media organizations are to be investigated with respect to how they produce their texts as a social activity, then progression analysis has to be supplemented by two other methods: variation analysis and metadiscourse analysis.  

4.3 Revealing audience design with variation analysis Linguistics can treat language as an interface between situated activity and social structures and processes. From this social perspective (Part 3.1), a media linguistics interested in the particularities of newswriting will focus on how social groups such as editorial teams customize their linguistic products for their target audiences. Which linguistic means, e.g., which gradient of formality, does an editorial office choose for which addressees? This is what variation analysis captures. Variation analysis is the method of collecting and analyzing text data to reconstruct the special features of the language of a certain discourse community. The basis for comparing versions is discourse analysis. Variation analyses investigate the type and frequency of typical features of certain language users’ productions in certain kinds of communication situations, such as newswriting for a specific audience. What  

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variation analysis discerns is the differences between the language used in different situations by the same users (e.g., Koller 2004) or by various users in similar situations (e.g., Fang 1991; Werlen 2000). In the Idée Suisse project, variation analyses show systematic differences between the three news programs investigated. The relation of item length and cuts, for example, document a higher pace of pictures in the French “Téléjournal” (4.5 sec. on average between visible cuts) than in the German “Tagesschau” (8.5 sec.) and “10 VOR 10” (7 sec.). Similarly, variation analyses can reveal whether language properties of the newscast “Tagesschau” and the newsmagazine “10 VOR 10”, competing in the same German television program of the Swiss public broadcaster, differ according to their program profiles. Such broadly-based variation analysis is able to show the special features of the language used in certain communities or media. However, what the method gains in width compared with a method such as progression analysis, it loses in depth. Why a community prefers to formulate its texts in a certain way and not another cannot be captured by variation analysis. It would be possible to regain some of that depth by using a procedure that examines not only the text products, but also the institutionalized discourses connected with them – the comments of the community about its joint efforts.  

 

4.4 Investigating language policy making with metadiscourse analysis Linguistics can treat language as an interface between situated activity and cognitive and social structures and processes. From this socio-cognitive perspective (Part 3.1), a media linguistics interested in the particularities of newswriting will focus on editorial metadiscourse such as quality control discourse at editorial conferences or negotiations between journalists, anchors, and cutters. What do the various stakeholders think about their communicational offers? How do they evaluate their activity in relation to policies – and how do they reconstruct and alter those policies? Metadiscourse analysis is the method of collecting and analyzing data in order to reconstruct the socially- and individually-anchored (language) awareness in a discourse community. The basis for analyzing the metadiscourse of text production is conversation and discourse analysis. Metadiscourse analyses investigate spoken and written communication about language and language use. This includes metaphors used when talking about writing (e.g., Gravengaard 2012; Levin/Wagner 2006), explicit planning or criticism of communication measures (e.g., Peterson 2001), the clarification of misunderstandings and conversational repair (e.g., Häusermann 2007), and follow-up communication by audiences (e.g., Klemm 2000). In all these cases, the participants’ utterances show how their own or others’ communicational efforts and offers have been perceived,  

 

 

 

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received, understood, and evaluated. The analysis demonstrates how rules of language use are explicitly negotiated and applied in a community. In the LEBA case, due to a computer crash, the journalist lacks the time to discuss his item with the cutter. In other case stories from the Idée Suisse project, however, cutters challenge the journalists’ ethics and aesthetics or appear as critical audience representatives. On a macro-level of the project, interviews and document analyses reveal policy makers’ and media managers’ contradictory evaluation of and expectations towards the broadcasters’ – and the journalists’ – ability to promote public understanding. The focus of metadiscourse analysis, thus, scales up from negotiations about emerging texts at writers’ workplaces to organizational quality control discourse and related discussions in society at large. Integrating metadiscourse analyses extends the reach of progression analysis from a single writer’s micro activity to societal macrostructures.

4.5 Combining perspectives with multimethod approaches The four above approaches each capture overlapping facets of newswriting from their own perspectives, e.g., the source material, the work context, the thought patterns, the sequences of revisions in the writing process, the text products, the news programs, the editorial mission statement and policy, and the internal and external evaluation and development of norms. Within these facets, each approach has its own focus (Fig. 5).  

Language as →

Product

Method → Object facets ↓

Version analysis

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text chain

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Social

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Progression analysis

Variation analysis

Metadiscourse analysis

Work context

workplace, …

Thought patterns

writing strategy

Revisions

writing activity

End products

final version

News program

program profile

Policy

mission, …

Evaluation Figure 5: Medialinguistic methods as complementary approaches

norm discourse

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Fig. 6 illustrates the interplay of the four methods by using the leitmotif example from the LEBA case where the journalist changes “voie express” to “voie tranquille” (cf. above, Part 1.2). Language as →

Product

Method → Object ↓

Version analysis

Phenomenon: voie express > voie tranquille

reframes! consciously?

Activity Individual

Social

Socio-cognitive

Progression analysis

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consciously!

 

systematically?

systematically! approved?

approved!

Statics

Result

activity

standards

approval

Dynamics

Revision

emergence

contrast

dissemination

Figure 6: The emergent leitmotif of the LEBA case, as captured with the four complementary methods

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A micro version analysis comparing the first and the last version of the corresponding sentence shows the difference: one word has changed. The researcher interprets this revision as a reframing of the boat’s speed and, in a wider context, of the activities the media item reports. However, only progression analysis provides evidence that the journalist consciously changed the word to use it as a leitmotif. Moreover, progression analysis indicates that this idea emerged when the experienced journalist was surprised by details from the source materials he carefully read and watched. A variation analysis contrasting processes and products by experienced and less experienced journalists then can reveal experience to be a strong predictor for success in handling critical situations and for results with a high potential to promote public understanding. A metadiscourse analysis, finally, can show whether the journalist’s emergent solution is approved in the following editorial conference, and whether it corresponds, on a macro-level, to the expectations of both media managers and policy makers. Such successful emergent solutions deserve to be disseminated through knowledge transformation measures.

The methodological discussion has shown that newswriting is accessible from four perspectives and that each perspective calls for suitable methods. Questions about cognitive practices, for instance, can only be addressed using insights into cognitive relationships; the same is true for social practices and their interactions. Investigating

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stretches of language in a “one size fits all approach” (Richardson 2007, 76) is not enough – it cannot explain what is special about journalistic news production (e.g., Philo 2007) and fails to reveal structures that “cannot be directly observed” (Ó Riain 2009, 294).  

5 Outcome: Adding value through knowledge transformation Doing media linguistics in order to identify good practices, as in the LEBA case, only makes sense if stakeholders are interested in the resulting knowledge – and share their knowledge successfully (Part 5.1). Transforming and sharing knowledge between a scientific discipline, such as applied linguistics, and a professional discipline, such as journalism, requires different understandings of knowledge to be clarified. Theorists condense systematic knowledge into theories that allow for systematic contextualization and reflection (5.2). Professional knowledge, in contrast, is oriented towards practical solutions, but tends to suffer from a lack of overall perspective (5.3). Media linguistics aims at mapping the two approaches (5.4).

5.1 Making tacit knowledge explicit If applied linguistics wants to contribute to solving practical problems (e.g., AILA 2011), such as promoting public understanding in a context of contradictory expectations, it has to generalize empirical findings and formulate suggestions. Generalizing consists of, for example, translating experienced practitioners’ tacit knowledge into mid-range theories about what works under which conditions (cf. Pawson/Tilley 1997). Formulating suggestions, in reverse, consists of finding ways to help practitioners learn from others and from theory. This is what is termed knowledge transformation in applied research (e.g., Gibbons 1994; Wiesmann et al. 2008). For such knowledge transformation, technical terms and practical formulations have been developed. The transformation terminology symbolizes, on a small scale, the value a change of perspective adds to both theory and practice: developing tools to ground the theoretically conceivable in empirical experience – and to open practice to the unfamiliar, unexpected, but basically conceivable. Practical solutions emerge when experienced journalists tackle complex and unexpected problems in critical situations within their daily routines. In an organization such as the broadcaster in the Idée Suisse project, SRG SSR, such solutions are not part of explicit organizational knowledge that management and staff can draw on, but have to be developed based on tacit knowledge (e.g., Agar 2010; Polanyi 1966). Locating and transforming this knowledge for the whole of SRG SSR would augment  

 

 

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the potential of organizational success in terms of both economic interests and public demands. However, before micro findings from writing research at the workplace can be related to social findings, the organizational understandings have to be clarified (e.g., Kelly-Holmes 2010, 28ss.). This is what the Idée Suisse project did at the interface of its micro- and macro-analyses. Four approaches of framing the discrepancy between policy expectations and management positions were evaluated. The one considered most appropriate, the tacit knowledge frame, calls for organizational knowledge transformation. Such transformation draws on knowledge derived from the bottom of the organization.  

5.2 Framing divergence In the Idée Suisse project, a contradiction that was identified served as a trigger for further research and knowledge transformation. The approach was based on assumptions developed in the framework of Transdisciplinary Action Research (e.g., Hirsch Hadorn et al. 2008; Jantsch 1972; Lewin 1951). A basic assumption in this framework is systemic congruence: an organization succeeds if it wants and is able to do what it has to do. In other words: An organization’s situated activity can only be internally functional (i.e., contribute to the organization’s survival and growth), if it also is externally functional (i.e., it meets environmental needs). This notion can be explained by contrasting the chosen tacit knowledge frame with its opposites: the hypocrisy frame, the consonance/dissonance frame, and the functional dysfunction frame (Fig. 7).  

Interpretation of the findings as …

Externally functional –

+

Internally functional

+

hypocrisy frame “two-faced but adequate”

tacit knowledge frame “promising”

–

consonance/dissonance frame “failure”

functional dysfunction frame: “irritating but adequate”

Figure 7: Matrix of approaches framing divergences in an organization’s structures and activities

In the hypocrisy frame, organizations such as SRG SSR only survive due to their inner “hypocrisy” (cf. Brunsson 22002): these organizations are exposed to contradictory expectations from their environments. To survive, they have to respond to all of these contradictory expectations – with integrative talk but contradictory outputs, and with actions far removed from talk, provided by different, incongruently acting organizational units and roles. From an internal point of view, nothing needs to be changed,

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as long as no external stakeholder really commits the organization to doing what it is expected to do. However, public service media are being increasingly scrutinized by external stakeholders – conditions are less than ideal for SRG SSR to survive in the hypocrisy frame. In the consonance/dissonance frame, all of the units and levels of an organization should focus on and reach the same target. In this frame, the frustration of the management in the face of the perceived gap between public mandate and market demands would be taken as failure: In its decisions and actions, the SRG SSR management more or less fails to do what it claims in its public relations statements and what it is expected to do. By being externally dysfunctional, it is also internally dysfunctional. The global interpretation of the divergent project findings from modules A and B would be failure – difficult, if not impossible to change. In this frame, the end of public service media and all other institutions experiencing similar tensions would simply be a matter of time. The fact that such institutions survive shows that the consonance/dissonance frame is too simplistic. In the functional dysfunction frame, disappointing communication is seen as an excellent trigger for meta-communicative follow-up communication – and communication is what communities are built on. The apparent paradox, in other words, is that even by violating public expectations, the media in general and public media in particular contribute to public discourse and integration. From an external point of view, nothing would have to be changed, even though it may be less than motivating to work for a media organization whose output quality does not matter. In a wider context of “deliberative” democracies (cf. Habermas 1992), media are considered to offer reasonable communicational contributions to public discourse (e.g., Schudson 2008). By such a rationale, quality matters – and is enabled and ensured by public funding. Limiting public media’s role to functional dysfunction would fall short. In the tacit knowledge frame, at least single exponents succeed in doing what the organization has to do. Through situated activity in seemingly contradictory social settings, they develop emergent solutions bridging internal with external expectations. For the case of SRG SSR, this could mean that exponents such as experienced journalists develop and apply sophisticated strategies, practices, and routines of language use that meet both organizational and public needs at the same time. In doing so, they fill the gap left by the management. Sharing their knowledge would benefit the whole organization in bridging market pressure and policy expectations.  

5.3 Macro-level recommendations In a tacit knowledge frame, management can foster workplace conditions that facilitate knowledge transformation instead of constraining it. From the Idée Suisse findings, the project team drew the following five macro-level recommendations for policy makers and media managers.

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Plan dynamically. Not surprisingly, a naïve view of language planning as topdown implementation of policies falls short. Setting language policy – language “policing” – is better understood as the interplay of policy and practice (cf. Blommaert et al. 2009, 203; Kelly-Holmes/Moriarty/Pietikäinen 2009, 228). Preferred language use is oriented to shared goals and grounded in shared attitudes, knowledge, and methods. More surprisingly, neither media policy-makers nor media management seem to be aware of these problems related to attempts at top-down policy making. Frustration on both sides – mandate is unrealistic vs. SRG SSR is lazy – could be overcome by a more integrative, dynamic view of policy making. Integrate practitioners. Practicing language policy making dynamically and comprehensively means integrating those involved, as stakeholders of both the problems and the solutions. As could be shown in the Idée Suisse project, experienced journalists contribute to promoting public understanding by emergent solutions based on their tacit knowledge. Locally, they prove that public mandate and market demands can be bridged with appropriate attitudes, knowledge, and methods. Knowing more about their approaches could help on three levels: first, it enables other practitioners to learn from their experience in the organization; second, it allows the management to develop and radiate a positive, non-hypocritical view of the mandate; third, it shows the organization acting a public service provider; and finally, it helps media policy to legitimize public funding in the public interest. Foster emergent solutions. Media policy-makers and media management need not know in detail how the mandate can be fulfilled. As one of the expert interviewees said, promoting public understanding starts in the newsrooms. However, there is no justification for media policy-makers and management not to know how to foster this creative approach to demanding challenges in the organization and particularly in the newsrooms. This is where research can make a contribution. Transform knowledge. If existing knowledge has not yet been released, then knowledge experts can help to identify and transform it. Researchers at the interface of applied linguistics and research frameworks such as ethnography and Transdisciplinary Action Research are experienced at revealing “what works for whom in what circumstances” (e.g., Sealey/Carter 2004, 197, drawing on Pawson/ Tilley 1997), on reflecting on the “transferability” of such situated knowledge (cf. Denzin/Lincoln 22000, 21s.), and at returning the knowledge to the organization in understandable and sustainable generalized forms, for example as ethnographically-based narratives and typologies of critical situations and good practices. Scale up. If a knowledge transformation approach is promising on the level of internal multilingualism (i.e., promoting public understanding between societal groups such as the politically informed vs. uninformed), it is even more necessary on the level of external multilingualism (i.e., communication and understanding across linguistic regions). The interviews from the Idée Suisse project’s macro 

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level modules A and B show that the SRG SSR management has been disappointed by practically all organizational measures taken at this level. For many media managers, practicing (external) multilingualism means wasting economic resources and frightening the audience away. Again, more subtle, case-sensitive solutions from the ground floor are in high demand – even more so in the face of media convergence and increasing multilingualism in glocalized and translocal newsflows (e.g., Perrin 2011) as well as local diversity (e.g., Kelly-Holmes/Moriarty/Pietikäinen 2009, 240).  

 

Thus, the conditions for emergent solutions in newsteams need to be systematically improved top-down by media policy and media management, and the tacit knowledge involved must be systematically identified bottom-up at the workplaces and then made available to the whole organization. Based on these recommendations, the Idée Suisse stakeholders working in media policy, media management, media practice, and media research have established follow-up measures for knowledge transformation, such as systematic organizational development, consulting, coaching, and training.

5.4 Conclusion: Providing evidence that the process perspective matters In this chapter, the mandate of promoting public understanding has illustrated the social relevance of newswriting as a driver of public discourse and societal integration. News that reaches diverse audiences simultaneously can foster discourse across social and linguistic boundaries. How to do this was the research question of the Idée Suisse project used as an example throughout the chapter – and is a key question for media linguistics. It is merely by facing such language-related problems that we can add social value and provide evidence that research in general and laborious approaches such as process analyses matter.

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Kelly-Holmes, Helen (2010), Rethinking the macro-micro relationship. Some insights from the marketing domain, International Journal of the Sociology of Language 202, 25–39. Kelly-Holmes, Helen/Moriarty, Máiréad/Pietikäinen, Sari (2009), Convergence and divergence in Basque, Irish and Sámi media language policing, Language Policy 8:3, 227–242. Khondker, Habibul Haque (2004), Glocalization as Globalization. Evolution of a sociological concept, Bangladesh e-Journal of Sociology 1:2, 12–20. Klemm, Michael (2000), Zuschauerkommunikation. Formen und Funktionen der alltäglichen kommunikativen Fernsehaneignung, Frankfurt am Main et al., Lang. Koller, Veronika (2004), Businesswomen and war metaphors: “Possessive, jealous and pugnacious”?, Journal of Sociolinguistics 4:1, 3–22. Kress, Gunther (1986), Language in the media. The construction of the domains of public and private, Media, Culture & Society 8:4, 395–419. Lacey, Kate (2013), Listening publics. The politics and experience of audiences in the media age, Cambridge, Polity Press. Lams, Lutgard (2011), Newspapers’ narratives based on wire stories. Facsimiles of input?, Journal of Pragmatics 43:7, 1853–1864. Latif, Muhammed M. (2008), A state-of-the-art review of the real-time computer-aided study of the writing process, International Journal of English Studies 8:1, 29–50. Leont’ev, Aleksej A. (1971), Sprache, Sprechen, Sprechtätigkeit, Stuttgart et al., Kohlhammer. Levin, Tamar/Wagner, Till (2006), In their own words: Understanding student conceptions of writing through their spontaneous metaphors in the science classroom, Instructional Science 34:3, 227–278. Levy, C. Michael/Marek, J. Pamela/Lea, Joseph (1996), Concurrent and retrospective protocols in writing research, in: Gert Rijlaarsdam/Huub Van den Bergh/Michael Couzijn (edd.), Theories, models and methodology in writing research, Amsterdam, Amsterdam University Press, 542–556. Lewin, Kurt (1951), Field theory in social science, New York, Harper Row. Lillis, Theresa (2013), The sociolinguistics of writing, Edinburg, Edinburgh University Press. Lindgren, Eva/Sullivan, Kirk (2006), Analysing online revision, in: Kirk Sullivan/Eva Lindgren (edd.), Computer keystroke logging and writing. Methods and applications, Amsterdam, Elsevier, 157– 188. Lüger, Heinz-Helmut (1977), Journalistische Darstellungsformen aus linguistischer Sicht. Untersuchungen zur Sprache der französischen Presse mit besonderer Berücksichtigung des “Parisien libéré”, Dissertation, Freiburg im Breisgau. Luginbühl, Martin, et al. (2002), Medientexte zwischen Autor und Publikum. Intertextualität in Presse, Radio und Fernsehen, Zürich, Seismo. Luhmann, Niklas (21996), Die Realität der Massenmedien, Opladen, Westdeutscher Verlag. Machin, David/Niblock, Sarah (2006), News production. Theory and practice, London, Routledge. Marchetti, Dominique/Ruellan, Denis (2001), Devenir journalistes. Sociologie de l’entrée dans le marché du travail, Paris, Documentation française. McCarthy, Michael (2001), Issues in applied linguistics, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Messner, Marcus/DiStaso, Marcia W. (2008), The source cycle. How traditional media and weblogs use each other as sources, Journalism Studies 9:3, 447–463. Meyerhoff, Miriam (2003), “But is it linguistics?” Breaking down boundaries, Journal of Sociolinguistics 7:1, 65–77. Montgomery, Martin (2007), The discourse of broadcast news: A linguistic approach, London, Routledge. Myers, Greg (2005), Applied linguists and institutions of opinion, Applied Linguistics 26:4, 527–544. Ó Riain, Sean (2009), Extending the ethnographic case study, in: David Byrne/Charles C. Ragin (edd.), The SAGE handbook of case-based methods, London, Sage, 289–306.

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Martina Schrader-Kniffki, Carme Colominas, Kristina Bedijs, Paula Bouzas, Stefan Schneider and Daniel Kallweit

13 Tertiary Media Corpora of the Romance Languages Abstract: This collective article assembles information about tertiary media corpora in the Romance languages. The authors present published and unpublished corpora, seminal works in Romance corpus linguistics and lacunae with regard to tertiary media. Whereas there already exist many corpus projects for the “big” Romance languages, there is still much work to do for the “smaller” ones. Recent developments in language processing technology promises to facilitate research in corpus linguistics in the next years.  

Keywords: cinema, corpus, corpus linguistics, internet, methodology, quantitative linguistics, radio, spoken language, television, tertiary media, written language  

1 Tertiary Media Corpora of (Brazilian) Portuguese (Martina Schrader-Kniffki) 1.1 Introduction The following presentation of Portuguese language media corpora is based on a rather small assortment of accessible corpora and therefore comprises corpora of different sizes, quantitative and/or qualitative representativeness, different degrees of detail of annotation and electronic accessibility. It includes smaller corpora which can be consulted or even taken as a starting point for possible extension. These corpora are project-related corpora of raw data (cf. Beißwenger 2008) and are mostly individually built and accessible only directly from the respective author of the project. A main distinction regarding the here presented corpora refers to (1) media corpora besides Internet corpora such as telephone calls, radio and TV corpora and (2) media corpora based on computer-mediated communication.

1.2 Portuguese media corpora: telephone calls, radio, and TV Within the field of study of spoken Portuguese, SPEECHDAT is a corpus which contains 5,000 telephone calls in Portuguese language (cf. INESC-ID n.d.a). Besides its web access version, it figures in a CD enclosed in Bacelar do Nascimento et al. (2005, 207) DOI 10.1515/9783110314755-014

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as part of a general corpus of contemporary Portuguese (Corpus de Referência do Português Contemporâneo, CRPC). Originally, the corpus was designed in the context of information technology and communication by INESC (Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores) in cooperation with Portugal Telecom as part of research into spoken Portuguese. While its original aim was to provide a database for voice driven teleservices, in the context of Portuguese corpus linguistics it is part of a database mainly for phonetic research. The linguistic data were gathered with the help of a prompt list (cf. INESC-ID n.d.b) containing requests for reading a selection of words, phrases, numbers, and spellings of words. The speakers were selected from among employees of Portugal Telecom, their friends and relatives according to standard demands of representativeness. Thus the selection of speakers fulfills the requisites of broad geographical and age coverage and gender distribution. The corpus is annotated and contains information about calling session, recording conditions, speaker sex, age and accent, signal file, recording date and time and phonemic transcriptions. Due to the aim to design a speech recognition program able to recognize particular information in multimedia news in order to match them with customer-area-ofinterest-profiles, a TV broadcast news corpus of European Portuguese was built within the ALERT project at the University of Duisburg (cf. Rigoll 2002). Rádio Televisão Portuguesa cooperated in this project, which is based on 300 hours of multimedia text selected out of 133 news programs. The corpus is processed by a segmentation and a Thesaurus of 22 top domains. Descriptions are found in online publications, however no direct access is possible. Like Speechdata, it is not a corpus designed for linguistic purposes, although it is certainly of interest for linguistic studies. A radio as well as a TV corpus are generated in the context of the REDIP project (ILTEC n.d., cf. Ramilo/Freitas 2002), an ILTEC (Instituto de Linguística Teórica e Computacional) / CLUL (Centro de Linguística da Universidade de Lisboa) project on spoken European Portuguese. The corpus consists of 216,000 words taken from audio as well as video recordings from the areas of news, science, culture, sports, economy, and opinion with an orthographic transcription and information on date, duration, and name of the radio or TV program. Further information, including dates of genre, text type, speaker dates, etc. is supplied. The corpus is processed by electronic programs such as Corlex, CONCOR and CONCOR.CB. TV corpora designed directly for linguistic research are found in Barme (2002). Two TV corpora, one of them in European Portuguese (EP) and one in Brazilian Portuguese (BP), are published in the form of a book. The transcribed texts are based on so called “Intimate Talk Shows” in Portuguese and Brazilian TV. They are characterized by the usage of language of proximity, as also indicated in the title of the book, and consist of 23,000 (EP) and 19,000 (BP) words respectively. A simple orthographic transcription system was used, no phonetic or prosodic indications and – besides the transcription head – no annotations are found. The corpus is accessible only in book form. TV corpora are also the basis of Bachmann (2010; 2011a; 2011b)

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within a research project on the usage of Portuguese language in Brazilian Television and its implications for language ideology. The author does not provide access, but provides a small description of the corpus Bachmann (2011a, 53s.). Given the social importance and influences of TV in Brazilian Portuguese, multimedia TV corpora for linguistic research on language use in news, talk shows and telenovelas are still a desideratum. As sociological and cultural studies about the Brazilian telenovela show (cf. Motter/Jakubaszko 2005; Martins 2008), multimedia data of this kind are lacking in order to analyze the fictitious presentation of social meaning of linguistic variation in Brazil and its impact on real language use and language attitudes.

1.3 Portuguese media corpora based on computer-mediated communication The largest (virtual) corpus for Portuguese media linguistics is built out of all possible texts in Portuguese language that can be found on the World Wide Web (cf. Lemnitzer/Zinsmeister 2006, 41). Portuguese language is everywhere on the Web (cf. Branco et al. 2011), which permits the constitution of subcorpora on any kind of topic; though contexts for the metadata are largely absent. Corpus annotation will be possible only in a very reduced way, such as by providing data about language and speech community, date of text production, date of text finding, and possibly some information from the text producer. As in many languages, social media are used with growing frequency also in Portuguese. There are smaller corpora on blog communication such as studied in Sieberg (2005) as part of an international project on language use in Internet blogs (cf. Schlobinski/Siever 2005). The database for the study of linguistic features in Portuguese blogs is based on a corpus of 30 blogs found in Blogger.com.pt (blogspot.com), Weblog.com.pt, SAPO, and one individual blog which even didn’t exist when the article was published (2005). The corpus is added at the end of the article and consists of a list of Internet directions organized according to the blog topics (cf. Sieberg 2005, 222ss.). A small Internet corpus for a specific research project is found in Gutierrez Gonzalez (2007). With the aim to 1) analyze Internet-specific changes in Portuguese orthography and 2) analyze the specific frequency of certain lexical items in order to come to findings concerning an “Internet language”, a corpus consisting of 98 blogs, 135,000 tokens and 15,000 types was generated. A discussion about theoretical matters of corpus building is provided. Access to the corpus is provided by a list of links which constitute the corpus. Generally, well-organized and annotated Portuguese corpora of, e.g., blogs, forum discussions or Twitter of any topic are a desideratum.  

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2 Tertiary Media Corpora of Catalan (Carme Colominas) 2.1 Description of published corpora The corpora in this section are classified into two different subsections: one for spoken language and one for written language. Although a presentation according to the type of tertiary media would certainly be less idiosyncratic, it would have the disadvantage that some corpora have to appear in two or more types. The corpora presented in this section are quite different in many aspects: sources, extension, annotation, etc. But they are also quite different in their representation of the Catalan media language: some of them span different media, and some of them comprise basically traditional written texts.

2.2 Spoken Language All the corpora described in this section contain spoken language (spontaneous and non spontaneous). Some of them consist strictly of audio files, and others contain audio files aligned with orthographical transcriptions, and finally there are some corpora comprising orthographic, phonetic and morphological information, as well as linguistic and extralinguistic encoding. The Corpus del Català Contemporani (CCCUB) is a large corpus linguistic project started by the Department of Catalan Philology of Barcelona University in the early 1990s. The CCCUB project includes a total of seven subcorpora focusing on spoken language and ranging from a general corpus of dialect samples in different Catalan varieties to rather specific corpora documenting, e.g., news broadcasting speech (Corpus d’Informatius Orals, CIO) or radio advertisements (Corpus Oral de Publicitat, COP). Three of these seven subcorpora document primarily the Central Catalan variety spoken in the Barcelona metropolitan area and they focus on spontaneous or near spontaneous speech. This subgroup is made up of the Corpus Oral de Conversa Coŀloquial (COC), the Corpus de Varietats Socials (COS), an interview corpus based on a balanced sample of 78 informants selected according to basic linguistic variables; and the Corpus Oral de Registres (COR), a corpus of spoken interaction in a large variety of situational contexts and social domains. Although no definite figures are given, each of these spontaneous spoken language corpora seems to contain about 350,000 words, thus yielding a mid-size corpus of about more than a million tokens (cf. Alturo/Boix/Perea 2002). The Repertori Electrònic de Textos Orals Catalans (‘Electronic Repertoire of Catalan Oral Texts’, RETOC) is an initiative from the Language Engineering Research Group at the Institute for Applied Linguistics (Universitat Pompeu Fabra). It aims at providing  

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several types of users with oral material and contains more than 14 processing hours (already digitalized) from radio news (cf. De Yzaguirre/Farriols/Martí 2007). The Clinical Interview Corpus (ClInt) is a bilingual Spanish-Catalan spoken corpus that contains 15 hours of recordings divided into 40 clinical interviews. It consists of audio files aligned with multiple-level transcriptions comprising orthographic, phonetic and morphological information, as well as linguistic and extralinguistic encoding. For further information on transcription and encoding guidelines cf. Vila Rigat et al. (2010). The Arxiu audiovisual dels dialectes catalans de les Illes Balears, at the University of the Balearic Islands (cf. Corbera Pou 2004), which features conversations between adult speakers in the Balearic Islands and which in the future can be consulted, subject to certain restrictions, by interested researchers (cf. Càtedra Alcover-MollVillangómez 2003). The corpus LipTV: Llengua i Publicitat a la Televisió (cf. Pons i Griera et al. n.d.) consists of 1,000 television advertisements in Catalan (broadcast between 1991 and 2000), from which connections between language and non-linguistic information elements – both visual and auditory – present in advertising can be investigated. The Corpus Glissando (cf. Garrido et al. 2013, cf. also Kallweit below) is a prosodic corpus which includes more than 20 hours of speech in Spanish and Catalan, recorded under optimal acoustic conditions, orthographically transcribed, phonetically aligned and annotated with prosodic information at both the phonetic and phonological levels. Glissando is actually made of two subcorpora: a corpus of read news and a corpus of dialogue material which is further subdivided into a subcorpus of informal conversations, and a set of three task-oriented dialogues, covering three different interaction situations. This corpus has been recorded in Catalan and Spanish by 28 speakers of each language, a collection of professionals and non-professionals.

2.3 Written language The Catalan part of the corpora created within the scope of the Web-as-corpus has resulted in two initiatives: Corpus d’Ús del Català a la Web (CUCWeb, cf. Boleda et al. 2006) and the caWaC (cf. Ljubešić/Toral 2014). CUCWeb is a 166-million-word corpus automatically compiled from the Web by the GLiCom Group of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra. This corpus has been automatically processed so that additional linguistic information is available (apart from the word forms). It is currently not accessible for the public. The caWaC corpus is a web corpus of Catalan from documents published on the .cat top-level domain. caWaC has been built with the Brno pipeline (cf. Suchomel/ Pomikálek 2012) and it is the largest existing corpus of Catalan containing 780 million tokens. caWac is not annotated and cannot be accessed through an interface, but it is freely available for download (cf. Ljubešić/Toral 2014).

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The Wikicorpus is a trilingual corpus (Catalan, Spanish, English) that contains large portions of the Wikipedia (based on a 2006 dump) and has been automatically enriched with linguistic information. In its present version, it contains over 750 million words (for further details cf. Reese et al. 2010; download of raw text and tagged version via Reese et al. n.d.). The Corpus Textual Informatitzat de la Llengua Catalana (CTILC) is the oldest written corpus for Catalan. The process of its compilation at the Institut d’Estudis Catalans began in 1985 and was completed in 1997. It contains 3,399 literary and nonliterary written texts, produced between 1832 and 1988 (cf. Rafel 1994). While this corpus was created with exclusively lexicographic aims, it constitutes an essential source of data for the study of written Catalan genres during the 19th and 20th centuries. The corpus contains 52 million words, 44% of which correspond to literary text and 56% to non-literary text. These two groups are divided into several subgroups; the literary one is divided into genres and the non-literary one into thematic domains like philosophy, religion, social sciences, the press, pure and nature sciences, art, etc. Access and search queries are possible through the CTILC web interface (cf. IEC n.d.). With respect to specialized language, the most relevant corpus for Catalan is the Corpus Textual Especialitzat Plurilingüe (IULACT) at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (cf. Cabré/Bach 2004) which contains written texts in five different languages (Catalan, Spanish, English, French and German). The areas of interest include: economics, law, computer science, medicine, environmental science, and linguistic sciences. Texts are selected and classified according to topics proposed by specialists in each area (Law, Economics, Environmental science, Medicine, Computer Science and Linguistics). The texts are tagged according to the standard SGML, following the guidelines proposed by the “Corpus Encoding Standard (CES)”. IULACT can be accessed online (cf. IULA n.d.b). AnCora consists of a Catalan corpus (AnCora-CA) and a Spanish corpus (AnCoraES), each of them of 500,000 words. The AnCora corpus is mainly based on journalistic texts. The corpora are annotated at different levels: Lemma and Part of Speech, syntactic constituents and functions, argument structure and thematic roles, semantic classes of the verb, etc. AnCora can be queried online (cf. CLiC n.d.a).  

2.4 Desiderata and concluding remarks The corpora of Catalan currently available cover an ample portion of the tertiary media spectrum, but especially the traditional ones, like telephone, radio and television. Internet-based media like blogs, chats, newsgroups, SMS and e-mails are scarcely represented in the overview above. The biggest corpora recently created in the wake of the web as corpus tendency (corpora CUCWeb and caWac) include ample portions of traditional written texts. However, in the academic community there are

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many internal projects, master theses and other initiatives which aim to study the characteristics of the Catalan media language. This fact lets us presuppose that the Catalan corpus linguistics community will soon be able to fill parts of the gap.

3 Tertiary Media Corpora of French (Kristina Bedijs) 3.1 Preliminary remarks Research on French language in tertiary media is complicated due to the fact that there are many collections of audiovisual material available in libraries and other funds, but most of them are not yet processed in any way for linguistic analyses. There are only a few transcriptions or annotated corpora, and many projects seem to have been abandoned over time. The corpus Français parlé des médias, built by the homonymous Swedish research group (cf. Forsgren et al. n.d.), is such an example: The initial goal was to create a corpus from about 50–70 hours of French television broadcasts, containing the digitized audiovisual data and basic orthographic transcriptions. Intended to serve as a database for various linguistic studies (of which several have indeed been carried out and published), the corpus could not be finalized and made publicly available since the work on transcriptions turned out to be too time- and resource-intensive.

3.2 Telephone and messaging Via the CLAPI corpus database, TalkBank offers a 30-minute phone conversation between friends in Canadian French, recorded in 2004, and completely transcribed following the conventions of the corpus research group ICOR (Interactions CORpus), with free access to the audio file, CLAN and TEI files (cf. Laboratoire ICAR 2004). Also available on the CLAPI platform are 8 online video phone calls (split into 13 files) recorded in 2007–2008, featuring conversations between two persons via MSN on a determined subject. The totality of the conversations lasts nearly 5 hours; each audiovisual file can be downloaded separately. There is only one transcription for a 14-minute conversation available, though (cf. Laboratoire ICAR 2007/2008). ASILA offers two corpora of telephone conversations, one between students and advisors in an academic Centre d’Information et Orientation (corpus CIO) and one between clients and consultants of the railway company (corpus SNCF). There is no further information available on these corpora, and the website is currently out of order (cf. Universiteit Gent n.d.). Within the corpora of the project Traitement de Corpus Oraux en Français (TCOF), two private phone conversations – one of five minutes, the other of ten minutes – are available as audio file and transcription (cf. André 2007; André n.d.).

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The international project sms4science collected short messages sent via an online interface. The Belgian subcorpus is available on CD-ROM and contains 30,000 SMS in French language (cf. Klein/Paumier/Fairon 2006). Another subcorpus, 88milSMS (cf. Panckhurst et al. 2014), has been established in Southern France, comprises 88,000 SMS and is accessible online (on registration), the documentation can be found in Panckhurst et al. (2013). The subcorpora covering La Réunion – smslareunion, Ledegen (2014), comprising over 12,000 SMS – and the Alp departments – smsalpes, Antoniadis (2014), comprising about 22,000 SMS – can be downloaded with documentation from the CoMeRe repository. The Swiss subcorpus comprises 4,619 SMS written in Standard French and 30 in “French Patois”; it can be used for research on registration (cf. Stark/Ueberwasser/Ruef 2009–2014). The subcorpus from Québec is in the process of normalization and has not yet been published. Cougnon/Fairon (2012) assemble papers dealing with the building process of SMS corpora, methods and project outcomes. A new approach to the language of short messages is the Swiss project What’s up, Switzerland?, in which a collection of WhatsApp messages is by now in the process of corpus building (cf. Stark/Dürscheid/Meisner 2014).  

3.3 Radio, television, cinema The Institut National de l’Audiovisuel (INA) is a public entity in charge of the collection of audiovisual publications of French radio and television, providing the complete dépôt légal and more resources. By 2017, INA’s stock was of 14.7 million hours of image and sound. Researchers can consult them classified by type of media (TV, radio, cinema, Internet, theatre, and opera) in the eight INAthèque centers; many resources are also available online. The department for audiovisuals of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France provides a collection of all movies available on video tape since 1975. The official stock for French cinema is the Paris-based Cinémathèque Française, an archive for French movies and everything related to them from posters to media coverage. The European Language Resources Association (ELRA) provides several French media corpora, all of them available on license acquisition. The ESTER corpus (cf. ELRA 2014b), produced in 2007 by a speech recognition research group, contains about 100 hours of orthographically transcribed radio broadcast news, partly annotated, mainly taken from France Inter, France Info, Radio France Internationale and Radio Télévision Marocaine. Further 1,700 hours of news are available within the EPAC corpus (2010, cf. ELRA 2014a), 100 hours of which manually transcribed. ESTER 2 (2012, cf. ELRA 2014c), based on ESTER, additionally contains transcriptions of African radios of about 6 hours. As a follow-up to the ESTER projects, the ETAPE corpus is a mix of 13.5 hours of radio data and 29 hours of TV data. It includes mostly non-planned speech and multiple speaker settings recorded from news, debates and entertainment shows (cf. Gravier et al. 2012). It will be made available on license by  

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the Evaluations and Language resources Distribution Agency (ELDA) after the completion of annotations. Within the project TCOF (Traitement de Corpus Oraux en Français) there is a radio interview between a radio presenter and an actor. The recording is about 27 minutes long, the audio file and transcription are available online (cf. André 2006). Another corpus containing radio recordings is C-PROM, elaborated by a research group from four universities (cf. Avanzi et al. 2010; Simon et al. 2010). The totality of this corpus is about 70 minutes of oral speech, of which about 20 minutes comes from radio news and interviews. The aligned and annotated corpus can be downloaded with the corresponding material after previous inscription from the project website. Even though the radiophonic parts of this corpus are not enormous, the possibility to directly compare with other spoken genres within the same corpus is a great advantage. One of the very rare corpora of audiovisual French is the Corpus transcrit de quelques journaux télévisés français (cf. Lindqvist 2001), who provides the transcription of 19 news broadcasts from the channels TF1, France 2, France 3 and TV5, all from 1993. The book is accompanied by an MP3 disk with the sound files. Lindqvist was originally concerned with phonetic norm, the use of schwa, and the realization of liaison and the negation particle ‘ne’. The transcription follows in general the rules established by the GARS (Groupe Aixois de Recherches en Syntaxe), allowing thus for rather detailed analyses – all to be conducted manually, since the transcripts are not available digitally. A project focused on person recognition technologies, but nevertheless usable for linguistic analyses, is the REPERE corpus, which is supposed to contain 60 hours of videos with multimodal annotations (speech transcription and video annotation, cf. Giraudel et al. 2012). REPERE will be distributed on license by ELDA.

3.4 Internet In spite of the apparent simplicity to build corpora from online data, there are only very few available in French so far. As Falaise (2005) explains, collecting online data entails ethical questions of privacy and authorship which are more difficult to resolve than in the case of other speech data. The special challenges in the field of web corpus building are also the subject of several papers assembled in Calabrese (2011). The WaCky (Web as Corpus) project has built a corpus of around 1.6 billion words obtained by crawling and post-processing Web data from .fr domains (frWaC). The annotated version contains POS and lemma information. The online interface provides a number of options for linguistic search queries. Falaise’s Corpus de français tchaté, collected in 2004, comprises 23 million words in 4 million turns. No thematic restrictions were made, the corpus contains conversations on all kinds of topics and pragmatic behavior. The complete corpus is available online (cf. Falaise 2014).

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The research group Humanités numériques et data journalisme: le cas du lexique politique elaborated a corpus of political Twitter status updates, Polititweets. The corpus comprises more than 34,000 tweets from 205 politicians, most of them sent during the municipal elections 2014 in France. The corpus is divided into seven TEI folders (one for each political group), available for download (cf. Longhi et al. 2014).

3.5 Desiderata Many corpora of French media have been established for linguistic research but never published, such as Labeau’s corpus of French television news (2007), the TV debates used by Sullet-Nylander/Roitman (2010) and those used by Sandré (2010), Bedijs’s corpus of 24 French youth movies (2012), Abecassis’s corpus of five 1930s French movies (2005), Isosävi’s corpus of 34 recent French movies (2010), Wenz’s corpus of weblogs (2017), Atifi’s corpus of 200 Moroccan message board entries (2007), the message board corpus analyzed by Marcoccia/Gauducheau (2007), the chat and message board corpus used by van Compernolle/Williams (2007), the chat and weblog corpora analyzed by Lorenz/Michot (2012; 2014). This seems to be the case for most individual work for doctoral theses and projects of smaller extent. Several reasons come into play: establishing a corpus from tertiary media requires great effort and time, both factors increasing when the corpus is destined to be published. It must then be coded along a standard that is not necessarily used by the original researcher and stored in a format which makes it available to other users. This work is hardly expectable from a single researcher whose focus and competence is linguistics and not computer science or computational speech processing. Furthermore, researchers often use copyrighted material for their analyses. It would be problematic to make them accessible publicly. This also holds for data involving privacy matters, such as data extracted from phone calls, chats, social media, etc. Anonymization ex post is virtually impossible for online data which can be tracked back for years. This is probably the reason why we still lack corpus studies on massively used devices such as Skype, WhatsApp (now in process) and Facebook, where the individuals would be identified too easily. Yet semi-anonymous platforms like Twitter and open online message boards have neither been the object of systematic corpus building so far. Besides the fact that there are very few reference corpora, and (almost) each study is carried out on a newly established data set, we can locate further lacunae in the field of media corpora. At present, there are no corpora touching on videogames, a subject that would be highly interesting in terms of human-computer-interaction. There are nowadays some videogames available requiring (spoken or typed) speech activities from the player. So far, no such interactive gaming session has been recorded for linguistic analysis. Another gap to fill is the representation of Francophonie in media corpora. So far, only the “big” and wealthy Francophone countries have actively taken part in

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research projects on media linguistics, i.e., France, Switzerland, Belgium and Frenchspeaking Canada. Most other countries and regions are far underrepresented, there are almost no published corpora (apart from smslareunion), and only some corpus studies on selective topics have been carried out. Yet it would be of great interest to compare data between the different regions in order to learn about variational differences in the use of media.

4 Tertiary Media Corpora of Galician (Paula Bouzas) 4.1 Introduction The aim of this contribution is to describe and value the existing tertiary media corpora available for the research in Galician. So far, only a corpus is available for this field – the VEIGA corpus (cf. Sotelo Dios n.d.), which was created, strictly speaking, as a tertiary media corpus. In addition to this, another corpus can be accessed, CORGA (cf. Rojo et al. n.d.), which is the most representative corpus of present Galician. It contains press texts in their original digital format. Parallel to these corpora there are numerous audiovisual archives in Galician, although they do not offer the possibility of selecting and saving linguistic forms. Nevertheless, they are in fact a solid foundation to construct a complete audiovisual media corpus in the future.

4.2 VEIGA – subtitling of films from English into Galician The VEIGA corpus is a kind of subcorpus belonging to the Corpus Lingüístico da Universidade de Vigo or CLUVI (cf. SLI 2003). CLUVI is a collection of parallel text corpora open to the public. Its goal is to help analyze the relationship between Galician and other languages (e.g., English, Spanish etc.) in different fields and to reach both academics and translation practitioners (cf. Gómez Guinovart/Sacau Fontenla 2007, 855). In the field of tertiary media corpora, the VEIGA project for subtitling is of special relevance. This corpus consists of English-language films subtitled into both English (intralingual subtitling) and Galician (interlingual subtitling). Words and expressions can be looked up both in Galician as well as in English. The outcome of this search is shown together with the corresponding Galician translation (if the search is done in English, cf. Tab. 1) or with the corresponding form in the original language (if the search is done in Galician, cf. Tab. 2). The film’s code and the unit for the corresponding translation are shown on the left. More precise information (about the film, the whole unit number for the translation or the person who is responsible for alignment) may be obtained by clicking on the corresponding cell. An arrow on the right makes it possible to save the linguistic context in which the said form appears.  

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Table 1: Search results for the English word “husband” 1-AFT (203)

[[s n="129" d="00:15:42,903" a="00:15:46,020"]]I want to make love with you right[[l/]]now because you’re my husband...

[[s n="149" d="00:15:42,703" a="00:15:44,614"]]Quero face-lo amor contigo[[l/]]agora mesmo [[s n="150" d="00:15:44,783" a="00:15:48,492"]] porque e-lo meu marido

2-AFT (736)

[[s n="483" d="00:54:27,823" a="00:54:30,257"]]My husband won’t have sex with me,[[l/]]either.

[[s n="544" d="00:54:27,183" a="00:54:30,493"]]O meu marido tampouco quere[[l/]]manter relacións comigo.

3-AFT (799)

[[s n="528" d="01:00:04,743" a="01:00:08,622"]]What is your husband doing right now?

[[s n="600" d="01:00:06,623" a="01:00:08,978"]]¿E que anda a facer agora[[l/]]seu marido?

Table 2: Search results for the Galician word “abofé” 1-PUN (340)

[[s n="314" d="00:19:23,390" a="00:19:26,507"]]I think he’s in[[l/]]for some real bad stuff.

[[s n="309" d="00:19:23,129" a="00:19:26,228"]]Abofé que algo[[l/]]fixo mao.

2-PUN (422)

[[s n="384" d="00:22:53,750" [[s n="380" d="00:22:53,470" a="00:22:55,502"]]- Certainly. [[l/]]- You do. a="00:22:55,069"]]- Abofé.

3-PUN (791)

[[l/]]You’re a traitor.

[[l/]]É un traidor. Abofé.

4.3 CORGA CORGA (Corpus de Referencia do Galego Actual, cf. Rojo et al. n.d.) is a documented corpus including texts from the digital press. In January 2013 it gathered 25.8 million forms. The corpus includes different text types (newspapers, magazines, essays and literary fiction like novels and theatre) from 1975 until the present. Its codification is based on XML. Searches of words and expressions are possible according to text type, period and topical area or even combining any of these parameters. CORGA’s new version enables search for a work or an author, how many words and documents concern the search or how many words the CORGA contains in each category. Texts originally on digital format are specifically O Correo Galego (from 1999 to 2002), Galicia Hoxe (from 2005 to 2009), De Luns a Venres (from 2007 to 2009), O Xornal de Galicia (2010), A Nosa Terra (from 2002 to 2010) and the magazines Díxitos, Consumer, Código Cero and Revista Galega de Economía. One recent work which specifically describes this corpus is Domínguez Noya (2008).

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4.4 Audiovisual archives The creation and modification of audiovisual archives is in a constant process of development. In the following paragraphs, some of the most important current archives are described so as to offer a formally and topically wide spectrum. Using the large multimedia archive produced by the Consello da Cultura Galega1 (cf. Consello da Cultura Galega n.d.b), the public can access an important number of audiovisual and sound documents such as lectures, discussions or interviews. Search may be by topic, time or authorship. CanleTV is an online platform of the Axencia Galega das Industrias Culturais (Agadic), an institution belonging to the Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria and responsible for supporting and spreading Galician culture and its audiovisual products. Although it has mainly cultural and dissemination tasks, this platform also allows for free access to a huge collection of films. The videos are classified in six categories (fiction, animation, documentation, experimental, videoclips and trailers). Subsections and tags are found for each of them according to genre or topic. The AVG Soportal Audiovisual Galego (cf. Consello da Cultura Galega n.d.a) is an additional support platform for cultural audiovisual products in Galician. It does not only offer information and the possibility to broadcast works, but the possibility for the public to access these products. This section of extras currently includes 1,642 documents (inter alia 825 productions and 11 interviews). Finally, the project Gzvideos is based on a collection of more than 1,000 videos addressing Galician social issues. The videos are selected according to topic categories. In a nutshell, these audiovisual archives contain a wide linguistic spectrum ranging from oral to written sources, to different registers and different communicative situations. All in all, they are a valuable source for the study of the Galician language. However, at this moment, there is no single corpus that allows for the selection, characterization and registration of the different linguistic forms from these materials for research.  

1 The Consello da Cultura Galega is an institution created by Galicia’s regional authorities and the legal framework supporting them. It is an advisory body with capacity to take its own initiatives, foster research and organize its own activities. Its general objective is to advocate for and support the cultural values of Galicia.

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5 Tertiary Media Corpora of Italian (Stefan Schneider) 5.1 Description of published corpora The corpora in this section are listed and described in alphabetical order. Although a presentation according to the type of tertiary media would certainly be less idiosyncratic, it would have the disadvantage that some corpora have to appear in two or more types. Several of the corpora described in this section span different media, primary, secondary and tertiary, and across different kinds of tertiary media. This is true especially for some of the widely-known reference corpora of spoken Italian that include, besides various kinds of face-to-face speech, recordings of telephone conversations and of radio and television programs (cf. Barbera 2013b and 2013c; Cresti/Panunzi 2013). The Corpora e lessici dell’italiano parlato e scritto (CLIPS) contain approximately 100 hours of spoken Italian. The corpus was collected between 2000 and 2004 in 15 major Italian cities and from national radio and television stations. Besides texts read aloud and dialogue elicited by map tasks, it comprises 16 hours from radio and television interaction of various types and 16 hours of telephone speech (collected in a Wizard-of-Oz-setting or from answering machines). Approximately 30% of the recordings have been transcribed. The recordings and transcripts are available at online (cf. Albano Leoni n.d.). The 58,300-word Corpus di italiano parlato was collected in the period from 1973 to 1998 and includes a few texts (covering about 50 minutes) deriving from telephone conversations and television programs. The orthographic and prosodically annotated transcripts are published in printed form and on a CD comprising the audio files (cf. Cresti 2000). The Corpus di parlato cinematografico comprises audio recordings and orthographic transcriptions from the first Italian sound film (“La canzone dell’amore”, 1930) and from three newer films (“Quattro passi fra le nuvole”, 1942; “Era di venerdì 17”, 1957; “Il profumo del mosto selvatico” [original title “A walk in the clouds”], 1995). The last two are remakes of “Quattro passi fra le nuvole”. The film “La canzone dell’amore” has been transcribed entirely. Concerning the other three films, the transcripts are limited to four sequences with the same settings, persons, places and discourse subjects. The audio files and transcripts can be downloaded online (cf. Giannini/Pettorino/Vitagliano n.d.a). The Corpus di parlato telegiornalistico. Anni Sessanta vs. 2005 (CPT) contains approximately 116 minutes of RAI newscasts: four newscasts recorded between 1966 and 1969 and a fictitious newscast recorded in 2005. The recordings and the transcripts are available for download (cf. Giannini/Pettorino/Vitagliano n.d.b). The Integrated reference corpora for spoken romance languages (C-ORAL-ROM) are a collection of four subcorpora, French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish, that are compar 

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able in structure and size (300,000 words for each language). Like the other subcorpora, the Italian part contains, besides different types of face-to-face speech, recordings from telephone (25,000 words, mainly from Florence and Tuscany) and from broadcast speech (60,000 words, radio and television). Most of the texts were recorded between 2000 and 2002. A compressed and encrypted version of the collection is published on a DVD attached to the volume presenting the corpus (cf. Cresti/Moneglia 2005). It contains the audio files aligned with the transcripts as well as software for the acoustic and linguistic analysis of the corpus. The whole corpus is part-of-speech-tagged and lemmatized. A non-compressed and non-encrypted version of the corpus can be purchased at the Evaluations and Language resources Distribution Agency (ELDA). The Italian part of the corpora created within the scope of the Web-As-Corpus Kool Yinitiative, the itWaC corpus, is the largest publicly-documented language resource of Italian. The 1.5 billion word-collection was constructed from the web limiting the crawl to the IT domain and using medium-frequency words from the Repubblica corpus and basic Italian vocabulary lists as seeds. From the description in Baroni et al. (2009) it is not clear, however, during which time frame the web crawl took place. The part-of-speech-tagged and lemmatized corpus can be queried and downloaded (cf. Baroni et al. n.d.a). The 490,000-word corpus of the Lessico di frequenza dell’italiano parlato (LIP), the oldest reference corpus of spoken Italian, was collected in 1990–1992 in four cities: Milan, Florence, Rome and Naples. It contains amongst others 10 hours from various national and local radio and television programs and 10 hours of spontaneous telephone conversations. Its 469 texts have been transcribed completely and published together with the frequency dictionary (cf. De Mauro et al. 1993). A revised, part-of-speech-tagged and lemmatized version of the transcripts is accessible online (cf. Bellini/Schneider 2006; Schneider/Bellini n.d.); a newly revised, part-of-speechtagged and lemmatized version, called VoLIP, can be queried together with the audio files online (cf. Voghera et al. n.d.). The corpus of the Lessico dell’italiano radiofonico (LIR) consists of two subcorpora, LIR1, collected in 1995, and LIR2, collected in 2003. LIR1 comprises 64 hours of transcribed recordings from 9 national radio programs, LIR2 contains 36 hours of transcribed recordings from the three national RAI programs. The recordings and transcripts of the two corpora are available on DVD (cf. Maraschio/Stefanelli 2003) and also online (cf. MICC n.d.b). The corpus of the Lessico italiano televisivo (LIT or LIT 2006) is a collection of 168 hours of television, recorded casually according to a predetermined timetable during the year 2006 from RAI and Mediaset evening programs. The transcripts and aligned recordings of the entire collection can be queried online (cf. Il portale dell’italiano televisivo 2013 or MICC n.d.c). The 25-million-word Perugia corpus (PEC), assembled by Spina, has a television section, a film section and a web section. The part-of-speech-tagged and lemmatized corpus can be queried online on registration (cf. Spina 2015).

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Although newsgroups operate within a distinct system (Usenet system), they are functionally similar to discussion forums on the web. The Newsgroup UseNet Corpora (NUNC) are a suite of corpora of several languages collected by Barbera starting from 2002 (cf. Algozino 2011; Allora 2011; Cignetti 2011; Barbera 2013a). At present, the Italian part (NUNC-IT) contains 280 million words on general issues as well as on the subjects of cooking, motoring, photography and cinema. The part-of-speech-tagged and lemmatized corpus can be queried online (cf. Barbera n.d.). The most significant achievement of the Piattaforma per l’apprendimento dell’italiano su corpora annotati (PAISÀ) was the creation of a corpus for pedagogical purposes. The 250-million-word corpus was constructed entirely from the web in September and October 2010 (cf. Borghetti/Castagnoli/Brunello 2011). The majority of its texts stem from sites of the Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia, Wikinews, Wikisource, Wikibooks, Wikiversity, Wikivoyage). The part-of-speech-tagged and lemmatized corpus can either be downloaded or directly queried online (cf. Baroni et al. n.d.b). A number of telephone text messages (SMS) can be queried at the SMS Monitor Studies site (cf. Allora n.d.). At present, the corpus contains only 686 messages in Italian (which means it is rather unrepresentative), but according to its editor, Adriano Allora, it is growing with the help of volunteers entering messages. Compagnone (2011), a comparative analysis of Italian and French SMS communication, is based on the corpus. Twitter is an online service enabling subscribers to post short messages called tweets of up to 140 characters about any kind of subject. The TWITA collection contains 155 million tweets in Italian, assembled via an automatic procedure between February 2012 and June 2013 (cf. Basile/Nissim 2013). The collection can be downloaded (cf. Basile n.d.). These lists are sufficient to recreate the collection (except the tweets that have been deleted).

5.2 Unpublished corpora and ongoing projects Undoubtedly, a lot of data concerning tertiary media language remains unpublished, mostly due to copyright issues. The LABLITA Laboratory at the University of Florence hosts a considerable amount of data documenting spoken language, including Italian spoken on telephone, radio and television. Some of it has been published and is mentioned above, e.g., the Corpus di italiano parlato and the C-ORAL-ROM corpus, but a large part of its materials can be accessed only after signing a license agreement. Sciubba (2010) bases her research on an unpublished corpus of 421 e-mails between university students and tutors collected between November 2002 and May 2005. A part-of-speech-tagged corpus of Italian tweets collected by Spina between November 2012 and May 2013 is not publicly available. Regarding the ongoing corpus projects, there are two that concern Italian spoken on television and one regarding social media. The Corpus di interpretazione televisiva  

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(CorIT) currently comprises approx. 2,700 recordings of simultaneously or consecutively interpreted programs such as talk shows and US and French presidential debates (cf. Falbo 2012). The corpus of the Lessico dell’italiano televisivo (DIA-LIT) aims at extending and completing the data of the LIT corpus, by taking into account the entire history of Italian television starting from 1954. About 40 hours of recordings can already be queried online (cf. MICC n.d.a). The SentiTUT corpus (cf. Patti et al. 2013) currently comprises around 4,400 tweets specifically collected for the analysis of irony in 2011 and 2012 (cf. Bosco/Patti/Bolioli 2013). It will be made available for download in the form allowed by Twitter policies.

5.3 Desiderata and concluding remarks The corpora of Italian currently available cover an ample portion of the tertiary media spectrum, from traditional ones, like telephone, radio and television, to most types of Internet-based media, like blogs, chats, newsgroups, and others. However, there are two channels that play a key role in contemporary media interaction, but that are scarcely represented in the overview above: telephone text messages (SMS) and emails. In the first case, there is an individual initiative going on, without satisfactory results as yet; in the second case, we are aware of only one unpublished corpus. In both cases, there are presently no plans or projects in the Italian corpus linguistics community aimed at filling the gap. From a purely quantitative viewpoint, it might even be true that the Italian media language is better represented than any other kind of its diamesic varieties. We should bear in mind, however, that the huge corpora recently created in the wake of the web as corpus tendency (corpora PAISÀ and itWac) comprise ample portions of traditional written texts. This fact casts doubt on the notion of tertiary media and calls for a distinction between the Internet as mere support of traditional communication on the one hand and as device promoting new forms of linguistic interaction (for a typology cf. Allora 2009) on the other.

6 Tertiary Media Corpora of Spanish (Daniel Kallweit) 6.1 Introduction Since Spanish is spoken in more than 20 countries distributed on five continents, this section is not meant to be an exhaustive presentation of all the corpora of the Spanish language in the tertiary media. We rather intend to give an overview of the most important corpora of Spanish as a media language compiled as well in Spain as in

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several Latin-American countries. Those corpora will be described in the following order: First, the published corpora will be listed and analyzed; we will distinguish between corpora that include texts from several tertiary media, corpora of texts from radio and/or television, corpora of transcribed telephone conversations and corpora of web texts. In the remainder of this section, unpublished corpora and corpora that are still in the stage of compilation will be described. In every subsection, the corpora will be listed in alphabetical order. As we will show, most of the described corpora include a variety of different media types and in only very few cases is it possible to separately access the subcorpora that originate from tertiary media.

6.2 Description of published corpora The Institut Universitari de Lingüística Aplicada of the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona is managing a data bank of neologisms, which is called BOBNEO, Banco de Neologismos. Two of the subcorpora have to be mentioned in the context of the present paper, namely the oral one as well as the subcorpus of spontaneously-written texts. The former comprises the transcriptions of radio broadcast shows, whereas the texts of Internet pages are included in the latter. The aim of the BOBNEO project is to trace neologisms that are coined in the Media and by the Media, i.e., the project is primarily a lexicographical one. Besides the language of the Spanish media, it contains language materials from nine Latin-American countries as well as Catalan data. The texts have been collected since 1988, but it is only since 2000 and 2010 that the data concerning the spontaneously-written texts and the radio have been added. As the study of neologisms is a highly dynamic field, the exact size of neither the entire corpus nor the several subcorpora is indicated. Accessing the databank via a guest-log-in (cf. IULA n.d.a) brings some smaller restrictions, but becoming a registered member – which is free – gives full access to the entire data, which is annotated regarding POS as well as word formation and typographical information. The data from 2004 to 2010 can be searched alternatively via the homepage of the Centro Virtual Cervantes (cf. CVC n.d.). The Corpus de Referencia del Español Actual (CREA), compiled by the Real Academia Española, has to be considered one of the reference corpora of the Spanish language, comprising 160 million words. It can be queried online (cf. Real Academia Española n.d.). The varieties of the Spanish-speaking countries are represented in a quite unequal measure (the relationship of the European and the Latin-American varieties is 50:50) and the main part of the corpus’ material (ca. 90%) stems from written sources, including the secondary media. The category “Oral” combines texts from primary media with texts from tertiary media and does not represent appropriately the text types arising in the context of the New Media. The core of the oral subcorpus comes from the “classical” tertiary media radio and television; the data

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was contributed in large part by other projects, like, e.g., the CORLEC or the DIES-RTV project (cf. below). The exact composition of this subcorpus is still to be published, but there is a list of the used corpora of spoken Spanish at Real Academia Española (2017). CREA also incorporates transcripts of telephone conversations. The subcorpus of the 20th century of the Corpus del Español compiled by Mark Davies – which can be consulted online (cf. Davies 2016) – contains a considerable portion of texts from the tertiary media. One reason for this is that Davies used parts of CORLEC, which consists to a great extent of texts taken from radio and TV, as we shall describe below. Besides that, Davies integrates many interviews with Mexican politicians, which had been published as audio files with the respective orthographic transcriptions on the websites of the political parties PRI (Partido Revolucionario Institucional) and PAN (Partido Acción Nacional). The user benefits primarily from the search interface of the corpus, but not so much from the representation of new corpus material. Within the project Corpus del Habla en Almería, driven by the ILSE research group at the Universidad de Almería, the oral discourse of this Spanish city is analyzed. Since the researchers want to give a representation of their object that is as exhaustive as possible, they also included recordings of TV and radio shows as well as of telephone conversations. At the moment, only the transcriptions of the 108 semi-directed interviews and the respective metadata are available online (cf. ILSE 2005), but it is planned to make the rest of the corpus available and searchable in a foreseeable future. In contrast to this, the Corpus Oral de Referencia de la Lengua Española Contemporánea (CORLEC) is available as a whole online (cf. Laboratorio de Lingüística Informática n.d.). This macro-corpus of the spoken variety of European, i.e., peninsular Spanish, consists of 1,100,000 words that were recorded between 1990 and 1992 and which were transcribed orthographically and got a prosodic annotation. Almost half of the texts (46.4%) stem from tertiary media (journalistic subcorpus), but all the other subcorpora also include texts from radio and/or television; furthermore, the category “conversations” includes telephone conversations. The corpus and the transcriptions can be downloaded from the website of the Laboratorio Lingüístico Informático at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid mentioned above. The Spanish subcorpus of the Integrated reference corpora for spoken romance languages (C-ORAL-ROM) counts about 300,000 words and was compiled from 2001 to 2004 at the same Laboratorio Lingüístico Informático in Madrid. As the subcorpora of French, Italian and Portuguese, it does not only consist of recordings of face-to-face conversations, but also includes recordings of (informal) telephone conversations and of several text types from the tertiary media radio and TV, like news, reports, interviews, talk shows etc. The audio files aligned with the transcriptions, which were lemmatized and annotated prosodically and morphologically, are available through the publication of the book and the DVD by Cresti/Moneglia (2005). In contrast to the corpora described before, the Corpus Glissando (cf. also Colominas above) contains only texts from tertiary media, namely, more precisely, the radio.  

 

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This bilingual (parallel) corpus (Spanish and Catalan) was compiled in a cooperation of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (also Barcelona) and the Universidad de Valladolid. It consists of three subcorpora: the radio news corpus, which includes real news texts of Cadena SER that were recorded with professional newsreaders, one corpus of task-oriented dialogues, and one corpus of free, spontaneous conversations. The language material counts more than 20 hours of speech that were aligned with the orthographic transcription and provided with prosodic and phonetic information. After a registration, the corpus can be accessed online (cf. Aguilar/Garrido Almiñana n.d.). The CoMIT (Corpus Multimodal de Informativos Televisados) was created at the Centre de Llenguatge i Computació at the Universitat de Barcelona and contains the transcriptions of about 6 hours of Spanish newscasts (almost 100,000 words). Although it is a relatively small corpus, it contains the language material of nine national news broadcasts transmitted in 2002 by Televisión Española (TVE 1 and La 2) and Antena 3. It cannot only be used for linguistic problems, but also for media theoretical analysis of the interaction between image, sound and speech within the genre of newscast. To use the corpus a registration is necessary (cf. CLiC n.d.b). A corpus which contains only Latin American Spanish is El Grial, a project of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso in Chile under the aegis of Giovanni Parodi. It combines an interface for annotating texts with an interface for consulting several corpora compiled in the frame of the project. Thanks to the possibility of selecting certain subcorpora, one is able to access only the language material from the tertiary media, like the subcorpus NOTICENTV. Originally collected in 2000, but constantly expanded until 2011, it contains the transcription of the newscasts from four Chilean TV stations that are lemmatized and multi-level annotated, i.e., tagged morphologically, syntactically and functionally. The subcorpus for the year 2000 contains about 85,000 words. El Grial can be consulted freely online (cf. Parodi n.d.). The 1997 Spanish Broadcast News Transcripts were collected in the frame of the Hub4 project as part of a training set for a speech recognition software. The corpus contains the speech data of 30 hours of broadcast news as well as the aligned transcriptions that have further annotations, most of which are not relevant for “normal” linguistic purposes. Since the data was collected from one Mexican TV station (Televisa) and two US-American stations (Univisión and Voice of America), it represents the North American variety of the Spanish language. The corpus is available as web download (cf. Munoz/Alabiso/Graff 1998), but has to be paid. Another small corpus of tertiary media texts compiled by Santillán (2009) contains 150 text messages (SMS), 30 e-mails and two transcripts of chats, not only in Spanish, but also in Italian and German. The SMS as well as the e-mails were classified corresponding to the age of the respective writers. Although the main intention of Santillán’s study was the comparison of the Spanish, Italian and German youth languages, her corpus is of great interest since it is published entirely both in the printed version of her dissertation and in the digital one, which can be retrieved online (cf. Santillán 2009).  

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An even smaller corpus of Spanish text messages was compiled by Paredes (2008) and consists of 70 SMS, which can be accessed freely via Internet. Concerning corpora of transcribed telephone conversations, the Corpus del español conversacional de Barcelona y su área metropolitana, compiled by the group GRIESBA (Grupo de Investigación del Español de Barcelona) at the Universitat de Barcelona, includes – besides informal face-to-face conversations – transcribed discourses by telephone. A first part of the corpus was published by Vila Pujol (2001) and it seems that the digital processing of the data is also intended. Similar to the 1997 Spanish Broadcast News Transcripts, the Spanish-SpeechDat (M) was compiled to gather phonetic and prosodic data for the development of several natural language processing applications. It is a corpus of language data collected via telephone, which – in contrast to the other corpora described in this section – do not represent natural, i.e., spontaneous speech, but consist of queries (the interlocutors were, for example, asked several numbers or to spell certain words). The corpus – which is purchasable on CD-ROM (cf. ELRA 1999) – consists of 1,002 recordings and the corresponding transcriptions. Regarding corpora of web texts, we have to make the distinction between “web for corpus” and “web as corpus”. An example for the former are the esTenTen and the esAmTenTen corpus, which include more than 8 billion words from 19 Spanish-speaking countries (although there is no proportional relation between the included words from one country and the number of speakers residing in this country). Both corpora comprise the textual material from websites that were classified by their URL corresponding to a country whose official language is Spanish (this is the reason why the US-American variety of Spanish is not represented in the esAmTenTen corpus). Those texts are lemmatized, POS-tagged and provided with information about their geographical origin. Like most web corpora, esTenTen and esAmTenTen inevitably include texts from traditional secondary media, like newspapers that have an Internet presence; private CMC genres, as e-mails or chat, are most likely not represented in these corpora, which can be queried after paid registration (cf. Sketch Engine 2015a and 2015b). Since both corpora belong to the TenTen family, they are designed as monitoring corpora, i.e., they are enhanced and actualized every year or every second year. The Wikicorpus is a trilingual corpus (English, Spanish, and Catalan; cf. also Colominas above) that comprises over 750 million words from the 2006 version of Wikipedia, 120 million of which are in Spanish. The texts were lemmatized, POStagged and enriched with a semantic annotation by a group of researchers at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Barcelona, and the Universidad del País Vasco, Donostia. All three subcorpora can be downloaded freely (cf. Reese et al. n.d.). Coming to “web as corpus”, one certainly has to mention the WebCorp developed at the Birmingham City University, which has as its motto “Concordance the web in real-time”. On the website (cf. RDUES 2016), one can enter any lexical item and gets a KWIC-concordance for the queried word, sorted according to the individual sites on which they appear. Since it is possible to select the language and/or the country code,

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the results can be filtered beforehand. The full texts are usually accessible by clicking on the keyword in question.

6.3 Description of unpublished corpora Since the corpora described in the following section of this paper are not published (yet), this overview is not meant to be exhaustive either. There are certainly many more corpora of Spanish in the tertiary media, but it is virtually impossible to find and name them all. The Corpus Cumbre was compiled at the Universidad de Murcia in the 1990s and conceived as a monitoring corpus of the Spanish language. As the corpus was financed privately by the publishing house SGEL, it is not accessible. It represents European as well as American Spanish, although not in a balanced way: 65% of the texts come from Europe, while the remaining 35% are from Latin America. The subcorpus of the tertiary media is integrated completely in the corpus of oral speech and comprises, besides different text types of primary medial nature, transcriptions of telephone conversations and TV and radio broadcasts, all of which had to fulfill the precondition of spontaneity. The three dimensions of the diasystem were also taken into account during the compilation of the Corpus Cumbre, so that it can be used even for detailed diatopic studies: both Spain and Latin America are subdivided into – linguistically quite comprehensible – zones. For further information concerning Cumbre cf. Sánchez (1995). The Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (ASALE) decided in 2007 the compilation of the Corpus del español del siglo XXI – CORPES XXI, which is meant to be continuation of the CORDE and CREA corpora described above. Based on 300 million words from the years 2000 to 2011, it is designated to become a panhispanic monitoring reference corpus, which will be expanded by 25 million words per year. While in the other corpora of the Real Academia Española, the focus lay clearly on the European variety of the Spanish language, the CORPES XXI will include more texts from Latin America: the ratio will be 70:30. Although the provisional beta version of the corpus, which can be consulted online (cf. Real Academia Española 2016), does not include any oral texts, it is foreseeable that a good portion of the oral subcorpus will stem from the tertiary media: the typology includes the categories entrevista, reportaje and noticia (de radio o televisión), and 7.5% of the corpus of written texts will come from the Internet, though it is not clear if these texts will be predominantly texts from secondary media published on the Internet. Another project that continues an already existing corpus is the Corpus del Español Mexicano Contemporáneo II (CEMC II) currently under construction at the Colegio de México. The first CEMC comprises the years 1921–1974; its continuation will represent the Mexican variety of the Spanish language between 1975 and 2012. While the former did not take into account any texts from the tertiary media, the latter will

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also include texts from the Internet, like blogs, e-mails, etc. According to the official website of the corpus (cf. Lara n.d.), it should have been presented in 2014, but nothing has been published yet. The Corpus Difusión Internacional del Español por Radio y Televisión (DIES-RTV) is an internationally compiled corpus started in 1993 under the aegis of Raúl Ávila from the Colegio de México, who later changed the name of the corpus to DIES-M (Difusión del Español por los Medios de Comunicación Masiva) taking into account print media and the Internet. Most of the transcribed texts stem from radio and TV broadcasts and were collected in 20 Spanish-speaking countries. Initially, it was intended to include a minimum of 50,000 words from each country, but according to Vera (1997), Spain contributed about 75,000 words to the corpus. Unfortunately, it was not possible to find any information about the subcorpora of DIES corpus. Besides these big corpus projects that have not been published (yet), there are several studies which are obviously based on smaller corpora of tertiary media texts. The remainder of this section will be dedicated to them, following the alphabetical order of the authors’ last names. Alcántara Plá (2014) analyzes a corpus of 176,000 graphical words, sent via the popular messenger application WhatsApp, with regard to the differences that this form of communication displays in comparison to both written and spoken texts. A quite big corpus of Spanish on the Internet was compiled by Ávila in 2007, who examines the official websites of the national governments of every Spanish-speaking country – as well as of Puerto Rico and the USA –, comparing them to personal blogs from these 21 countries. Each subcorpus (i.e., the official website-corpus and the blogcorpus) contains more than 21,000 graphic words, which were edited by marking only proper names, orthographic variants, abbreviations and other graphic variants, in order to prepare the texts for the computerized analysis, which aimed at sentence length, text density and lexical characteristics of both corpora compared. In the frame of a short article, Blas Arroyo (2010) investigates the persona of one of the judges in the Spanish casting show “Operación Triunfo”, Risto Mejide, using a pragmalinguistic approach. Unfortunately, the author does not describe his corpus in detail, but only mentions that all the interventions of Mejide in the shows broadcast between 2006 and 2008 entered the analysis, which had the aim to determine how the (im)polite image of this person was constructed via television. An apparently not published corpus of Spanish text messages (SMS) is used by Boudrique/Catapano/Pollet (2008). Unfortunately, no further information about this corpus is available, except for the mention of the corresponding Master’s assignment at the Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3 in the frame of Panckhurst’s article (2010). Kallweit (2015) analyzes the log files of several chat sessions – recorded on four days in 2009 and one day in 2010 – with specific reference to alternative spelling strategies. His corpus comprises 160,329 graphic words, which represent the spontaneous chat messages of the recorded users on the platform .

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In his PhD-thesis, López Martín (2011) examines impoliteness in the radio shows of one Spanish presenter, Federico Jiménez Losantos. For that purpose, 83 audio archives from 52 different shows were transcribed and analyzed; the radio shows were broadcast between 2007 and 2009 on the Spanish national station Cadena COPE, and between 2009 and February 2011 on esRadio. The vast majority of the analyzed audio files dealt with political commentaries, while a smaller part of them cover other topics, like sports, yellow press contents, or informal talks. López Martín selected the radio shows in an aleatory way, following no pattern. Perelló-Oliver/Muela-Molina (2013) study radio advertisement from four Spanish national radio stations (Cadena Ser, Onda Cero, Cadena COPE and Punto Radio), recorded in June 2009, regarding their (linguistic) content. The corpus comprises 430 spots, fully transcribed. Perona Páez (2007) also analyzes radio advertisement, using a corpus of 469 spots, which were broadcast in April and October 2005 during what the author considers the prime time of radio, i.e., between 9:00 and 11:00. The recorded radio stations are the same as in Perelló-Oliver/Muela-Molina’s study, but Perona Páez does not only concentrate on the linguistic content of the spots, but examines them regarding their potential for innovation. In his publication with Barbeito Veloso, Perona Páez (2008) uses the same corpus as for his article from 2007. Both authors also consider the music, sound effects and silences during their analysis.

6.4 Concluding remarks As has been shown on the preceding pages, there are as yet no representative corpora of the Spanish language in the tertiary media. Most of the described corpora are subsections of larger corpora, which contain several modes of communication, i.e., are not limited to the tertiary media. The existing possibilities to search the corpora described above are still insufficient due to the mostly imprecise labeling of the subcorpora used by the respective authors. Some use a technically-materially defined concept of the term medium, e.g., “the medium Internet”, while others base their labeling on the criterion of the distribution of the respective medium/text, i.e., the concept of mass media, including originally printed texts that are published online afterwards. Accessing and consequently analyzing the described corpora regarding only tertiary media texts hence poses difficulties to any linguist, since the results of several combined queries – in several subcorpora – have to be filtered manually, which is not only time-consuming, but also laborious. We hope that the yet unpublished corpora will be of easier access and will start to fill the gap identified in this overview; furthermore, it is a clear desideratum to have access also to more of the smaller corpora described in section 6.3 of this article. It is desirable that more researchers share the basis of their studies with a more general public and do not keep these corpora under lock and key.  

 

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(INESC-ID) (n.d.b) = Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computadores – Investigação e Desenvolvimento, SPEECHDAT Example Prompt Sheet, (11.01.2017). Institut National de l’Audiovisuel (n.d.), (11.01.2017). Isosävi, Johanna (2010), Les formes d’adresse dans un corpus de films français et leur traduction en finnois, Mémoires de la Société Néophilologique de Helsinki, Helsinki, Société Néophilologique, (11.01.2017). (IULA) (n.d.a) = Institut Universitari de Lingüística Aplicada, BOBNEO – Banc de dades de l’Observatori de Neologia, (11.01.2017). (IULA) (n.d.b) = Institut Universitari de Lingüística Aplicada, Bwananet. Programa de explotació del Corpus Tècnic de l’IULA, (11.01.2017). Kallweit, Daniel (2015), Neografie in der computervermittelten Kommunikation des Spanischen. Zu alternativen Schreibweisen im Chatnetzwerk www.irc-hispano.es, Tübingen, Narr. Klein, Jean René/Paumier, Sébastien/Fairon, Cédrick (2006), SMS pour la science. Corpus de 30.000 SMS et logiciel de consultation, Louvain-la-Neuve, Presses universitaires de Louvain. Labeau, Emmanuelle (2007), De l’objectif au subjectif: le rapport du discours à la television, in: Mathias Broth et al. (edd.), Le français parlé des médias, Stockholm, Acta Universitatis Stockholmiensis, 365–382. Laboratoire ICAR (2004), CLAPI – Corpus de langues parlées en interaction. Conversations téléphoniques – conversations entre amis – call friends – Français quebec – appel 5136, (11.01.2017). Laboratoire ICAR (2007/2008), CLAPI – Corpus de langues parlées en interaction. Conversations en ligne, 8_Samira-Isabelle 2, (11.01.2017). Laboratorio de Lingüística Informática (n.d.),CORLEC – Corpus Oral de Referencia de la Lengua Española Contemporánea, (11.01.2017). Lara, Luis Fernando (n.d.), CEMC – Corpus del Español Mexicano Contemporáneo, (11.01.2017). Ledegen, Gudrun (2014), Grand corpus de sms smslareunion, in: Thierry Chanier (ed.), Banque de corpus CoMeRe, Nancy, Ortolang, (11.01.2017). Lemnitzer, Lothar/Zinsmeister, Heike (2006), Korpuslinguistik. Eine Einführung, Tübingen, Narr. Lindqvist, Christina (2001), Corpus transcrit de quelques journaux télévisés français, Uppsala, Uppsala Universitet. Ljubešić, Nikola/Toral, Antonio (2014), caWaC – A web corpus of Catalan and its application to language modeling and machine translation, in: Nicoletta Calzolari et al. (edd.), Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC'14), Paris, European Language Resources Association (ELRA), 1728–1732. Longhi, Julien, et al. (2014), Polititweets: corpus de tweets provenant de comptes politiques influents 1, in: Thierry Chanier (ed.), Banque de corpus CoMeRe, Nancy, Ortolang, (11.01.2017). López Martín, José M. (2011), La descortesía en el lenguaje radiofónico. El discurso de Federico Jiménez Losantos, PhD thesis, Universidad de Sevilla, (11.01.2017). Lorenz, Paulina/Michot, Nicolas (2012), Le lexique du chat sur Internet: étude comparative français– espagnol–polonais, SHS Web of Conferences 1, 939–954. Lorenz, Paulina/Michot, Nicolas (2014), Les lexiques des jeunes dans les discours écrits des blogs: pour une approche descriptive, SHS Web of Conferences 8, 801–811.  

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Maraschio, Nicoletta/Stefanelli, Stefania (edd.) (2003), LIR – Lessico italiano radiofonico (1995– 2003), Firenze, Accademia della Crusca. Marcoccia, Michel/Gauducheau, Nadia (2007), L’analyse du rôle des smileys en production et en réception: un retour sur la question de l’oralité des écrits numériques, Glottopol 10, 39–55. Martins, Simone (2008), A Construção da Identidade das Telenovelas Brasileiras: O Processo de Identificação dos Telespectadores com a Narrativa Ficcional Televisiva, (11.01.2017). Meinedo, Hugo/Souto, Nuno/Neto, João P. (2001), Speech Recognition of Broadcast News for the European Portuguese Language, (11.01.2017). (MICC) (n.d.a) = Media Integration and Communication Center, DIA-LIT – Lessico dell’italiano televisivo, (11.01.2017). (MICC) (n.d.b) = Media Integration and Communication Center, LIR – Lessico dell’italiano radiofonico, (11.01.2017). (MICC) (n.d.c) = Media Integration and Communication Center, LIT – Lessico dell’italiano televisivo, (11.01.2017). Motter, Maria Lourdes/Jakubaszko, Daniela (2005), Telenovela e realidade social: algumas possibilidades dialógicas, (11.01.2017). Mourlhon-Dallies, Florence (2007), Communication électronique et genres du discours, Glottopol 10, 11–23. Munoz, Elisa/Alabiso, Jennifer/Graff, David (1998), 1997 Spanish Broadcast News Transcripts (HUB4NE) LDC98T29, (11.01.2017). Panckhurst, Rachel (2010), Texting in three European languages: does the linguistic typology differ?, in: Proceedings of the First International Conference on Meaning in Interaction, University of the West of England, Bristol, 23–25 April 2009, (11.01.2017). Panckhurst, Rachel, et al. (2013), Sud4science, de l’acquisition d’un grand corpus de SMS en français à l’analyse de l’écriture SMS, Épistémè – revue internationale de sciences sociales appliquées 9, 107–138. Panckhurst, Rachel, et al. (2014), 88milSMS. A corpus of authentic text messages in French, (11.01.2017). Paredes, Coralie (2008), La escritura SMS: una forma “rebelde” de adaptación a las [sic] nuevos medios de comunicación, (11.01.2017). Parodi, Giovanni (n.d.), El Grial – Interfaz de etiquetaje e interrogación de corpus textuales, (11.01.2017). Patti, Viviana, et al. (2013), Corpus SentiTUT, (11.01.2017). Perelló-Oliver, Salvador/Muela-Molina, Clara (2013), Análisis de contenido de la publicidad radiofónica en España, methaodos.revista de ciencias sociales 1, 33–52. Perona Páez, Juan José (2007), Formatos y estilos publicitarios en el prime-time radiofónico español: infrautilización y sequía de ideas, ZER – Revista de estudios de comunicación 23, 219–242. Perona Páez, Juan José/Barbeito Veloso, Mariluz (2008), El lenguaje radiofónico en la publicidad del prime time generalista. Los anuncios en la “radio de las estrellas”, Telos 77, 115–124. Pons i Griera, Lídia, et al. (n.d.), LipTV: Llengua i Publicitat a la Televisió. Presentació, (11.01.2017). Rafel, Joaquim (1994), Un corpus general de referència de la llengua catalana, Caplletra 17, 219–250.

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Ramilo, Maria Celeste/Freitas, Tiago (2002), A linguística e a linguagem dos média em Portugal: descrição do projeto REDIP, (11.01.2017). (RDUES) (2016) = Research and Development Unit for English Studies, WebCorp Live – Concordance the web in real-time, (11.01.2017). Real Academia Española (2016), CORPES – Corpus del Español del Siglo XXI, versión provisional 0.83 (1 de junio de 2016), (11.01.2017). Real Academia Española (2017), Corpus orales incorporados a CREA, (11.01.2017). Real Academia Española (n.d.), CREA – Corpus de Referencia del Español Actual, (11.01.2017) Reese, Samuel, et al. (2010), Wikicorpus: A word-sense disambiguated multilingual Wikipedia corpus, in: Proceedings of LREC'2010, Valletta (Malta), 1418–1421. Reese, Samuel, et al. (n.d.), Wikicorpus, v. 1.0: Catalan, Spanish and English portions of the Wikipedia, (11.01.2017). Rigoll, Gerhard (2002), Content filtering and retrieval in multimedia documents with the ALERT system, in: Hans-Jörg Bullinger/Anette Weisbecker (edd.), Content Management – digitale Inhalte als Bausteine einer vernetzten Welt, Stuttgart, Fraunhofer Gesellschaft, 61–66. Rojo, Guillermo, et al. (n.d.), CORGA – Corpus de Referencia do Galego Actual, (11.01.2017). Sánchez, Aquilino (1995), Cumbre – Corpus Lingüístico del Español Contemporáneo. Fundamentos, Metodología y Aplicaciones, Madrid, SGEL. Sandré, Marion (2010), Débat politique télévisé et stratégies discursives: la visée polémique des ratés du système des tours, in: Marcel Burger/Jérôme Jacquin/Raphaël Micheli (edd.), Les médias et le politique. Actes du colloque “Le français parlé dans les médias”, Lausanne, 1–4 septembre 2009, Lausanne, Centre de linguistique et des sciences du langage, (11.01.2017). Santillán, Elena (2009), Digitale Jugendkommunikation in der Informationsgesellschaft. Spanisch, Italienisch und Deutsch im Vergleich, Wien, Praesens. Online version: (11.01.2017). Schlobinski, Peter/Siever, Torsten (edd.) (2005), Sprachliche und textuelle Merkmale in Weblogs. Ein internationales Projekt. Networx 46, (11.01.2017). Schneider, Stefan/Bellini, Daniele (n.d.), BADIP – BAnca Dati dell’Italiano Parlato, (11.01.2017). Sciubba, Maria Eleonora (2010), Salutations, openings and closings in today academic emails, Studi Italiani di Linguistica Teorica e Applicata 39:2, 243–264. Sieberg, Bernd (2005), Sprachliche und textuelle Aspekte in portugiesischen Weblogs, in: Peter Schlobinski/Torsten Siever (edd.), Sprachliche und textuelle Merkmale in Weblogs. Ein internationales Projekt. Networx 46, (11.01.2017), 198–224. Simon, Anne Catherine, et al. (2010), C-PROM corpus libre de parole multigenre, (11.01.2017). Sketch Engine (2015a), Corpus esAmTenTen, (11.01.2017). Sketch Engine (2015b), Corpus esTenTen, (11.01.2017). (SLI) (2003) = Seminario de Lingüística Informática da Universidade de Vigo CLUVI: Corpus Lingüístico da Universidade de Vigo, (11.01.2017).

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Sotelo Dios, Patricia (2011), Corpus multimedia VEIGA inglés-galego de subtitulación cinematográfica, Linguamática 3:2, 99–106. Sotelo Dios, Patricia (n.d.), Corpus VEIGA, (11.01.2017). Sotelo Dios, Patricia/Gómez Guinovart, Xavier (2012), A Multimedia Parallel Corpus of EnglishGalician Film Subtitling, in: Alberto Simões/Ricardo Queirós/Daniela da Cruz (edd.), 1st Symposium on Languages, Applications and Technologies, OASIcs: Open Access Series in Informatics 21, Saarbrücken, Dagstuhl Publishing, 255–266. Spina, Stefania (2015), Perugia Corpus, (11.01.2017). Stark, Elisabeth/Dürscheid, Christa/Meisner, Charlotte (2014), Linguists Research WhatsApp Communication: First Results, (11.01.2017). Stark, Elisabeth/Ueberwasser, Simone/Ruef, Beni (2009–2014), Swiss SMS Corpus, (11.01.2017). Suchomel, Vít/Pomikálek, Jan (2012), Efficient web crawling for large text corpora, in: Serge Sharoff/ Adam Kilgarriff (edd.), Proceedings of the seventh Web as Corpus Workshop (WAC7), 39–43, (19.03.2017). Sullet-Nylander, Françoise/Roitman, Malin (2010), De la confrontation politico-journalistique dans les grands duels politiques télévisés: questions et préconstruits, in: Marcel Burger/Jérôme Jacquin/ Raphaël Micheli (edd.), Les médias et le politique. Actes du colloque “Le français parlé dans les médias”, Lausanne, 1–4 septembre 2009, Lausanne, Centre de linguistique et des sciences du langage, (11.01.2017). Taulé, Mariona/Martí, M. Antònia/Recasens, Marta (2008), Ancora: Multilevel Annotated Corpora for Catalan and Spanish, in: Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC'2008), Marrakesh (Morocco), Valletta, 96–101, (19.03.2017). Universiteit Gent (n.d.), Corpus Finder: ASILA, (11.01.2017). Van Compernolle, Remi Adam/Williams, Lawrence (2007), De l’oral à l’électronique: la variation orthographique comme ressource sociostylistique et pragmatique dans le français électronique, Glottopol 10, 56–69. Vera, Agustín (1997), Proyecto Fénix: los medios de comunicación como recurso lingüístico, (19.03.2017). Vila Pujol, María Rosa (2001), Corpus del español conversacional de Barcelona y su área metropolitana, Barcelona, Edicions Universitat de Barcelona. Vila Rigat, Marta, et al. (2010), ClInt: a Bilingual Spanish-Catalan Spoken Corpus of Clinical Interviews, Procesamiento del Lengujae Natural 45, 105–111. Voghera, Miriam, et al. (n.d.), Corpus VoLIP: Voce del LIP, (11.01.2017). Wenz, Kathrin (2017), Bloguer sa vie – Französische Weblogs im Spannungsfeld zwischen Individualität und Gruppenzugehörigkeit, Frankfurt am Main et al., Lang. Xunta de Galicia (n.d.), Institucións – Consello da Cultura Galega, (11.01.2017).

Romance Matters

Maren Huberty

14 The Role of Small Languages in the Media I: Presence of Romanian in Medial Communication Abstract: Civil society has undergone important changes in the Romanian-speaking area in the last few decades, greatly influencing both media communication and language usage in general. The aim of the present article is to illustrate in detail tendencies of linguistic change to be observed in this domain. First, it will provide a survey of the Romanian-speaking media scene, then it will focus on the changes of language usage within the media and by the media. Special attention will be paid to the issue of Anglicisms, to the influence of orality and to the relationship between prescriptive and descriptive norms.  

Keywords: Anglicism, descriptive norm, influence, language change, mass media, orality, prescriptive norm, spoken language  

1 Introduction “The heated battles over the media, through the media, with the media, and by the media affected and were affected by the judicial system, the professional and general culture, the political system and its players, the quasi-free market economy and the rush by individuals to enrich themselves” (Coman/Gross 2006, 33).

In this quotation, Coman and Gross describe the immense significance which factors of the civil society, the general culture, and the economy had for the development of the media scene in Romania. As this article intends to show, these developments are reflected in linguistic changes. Here it must be remembered that Romanian is spoken in more than one country. It is the official language and the mother tongue of the majority population not only in Romania (ca. 90%), but also in the Republic of Moldova (ca. 78%), whereby, in this context, the glottonym Moldovian has also established itself (cf. Bochmann 2012; Erfurt 2012; Lozovanu 2012; Ciscel 2007). In addition, there are autochthonous Romanian-speaking populations in the neighboring countries (Ukraine, Hungary, Bulgaria, Serbia) that form compact and stable communities (cf. ELR 22005, 563). Finally, recent migration waves have resulted in a large Romanian diaspora which is spread around the world, whereby the largest groups of speakers can be observed in Italy, Spain and France as well as in the USA and Canada (cf. Lozovanu 2012, 570). The following presentation, however, will be confined to the two main countries, Romania and the Republic of Moldova. Both countries show impressively how medial DOI 10.1515/9783110314755-015

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and social changes are closely interwoven. In 1989, the so-called “Tele-Revolution” in Romania triggered the downfall of the communist regime (cf. Amelunxen/Ujica 1990) and in 2009, twenty years later, the so-called “Twitter Revolution” in the Republic of Moldova speedily gathered protesters who demonstrated against the results of the parliamentary elections – which ultimately led to new elections (cf. Mungiu-Pippidi/ Munteanu 2009). First, the article will provide an overview of the Romanian-speaking media scene, before it will focus on the changes of language usage within the media and by the media. Special attention will be paid to the issue of Anglicisms, to the influence of orality and to the relationship between prescriptive norm and descriptive norms.

2 Mass Media and New Media In the wake of the political upheaval in Romania, the unrestricted freedom of opinion and the abolition of any form of censorship – which used to be dominant and omnipresent during the totalitarian system – led to a mushrooming of press products. Thus, during the first post-communist decade, the number of daily newspapers tripled from 39 (1989) to 118 (1999), and by 1990, the big transregional daily papers Adevărul and România liberă had a circulation of 2 million copies (cf. Vasilescu 2008, 543). Along with the success of the tabloid newspaper Evenimentul Zilei (established in 1992), the yellow press entailed not only new formats, genres and text types, “the tabloid manner of press making [. . .] became a sort of amorphous plasma ubiquitous in all types of media and all manners of journalistic discourse” and has entered the stage “through amalgamating styles, genres, and formats” (Coman/Gross 2006, 52).1 The domestic media concentration, triggered by privatization, and the assertion of market-based interests of western media conglomerates (Ringier, WAZ, Burda, Hachette, Russmedia2) led to a homogenization and a lack of profile of the print media – quite apart from a reduction of the political and, especially, the government-critical coverage. Thanks to their high commitment, the weeklies Revista 22 (journal for the social dialogue), Dilema (veche) and the central cultural journals Observatorul cultural and România Literară have been able to hold their ground on the market. For many years, the latter journal has regularly featured the column “Păcatale limbii” (‘linguistic sins’) written by the linguist Rodica Zafiu, where she has commented on current phenomena with regard to language usage.

1 The newspapers with a high circulation include the tabloid papers Click!, Can-Can and Libertatea. The latter has a print run of ca. 300,000 in comparison with the most successful quality papers Jurnalul Naţional and România Liberă with a circulation of 76,000 and 67,000 copies, respectively. 2 The Austrian media conglomerate Russmedia, for example, owns six (mostly) regional daily newspapers, such as Jurnal Bihorean, whose print and online format looks like a copy of the conglomerate’s core product, Vorarlberger Nachrichten.

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The differentiation of the media scene has led to a cutthroat competition in Romania, too. Whereas, before the upheaval, two TV stations existed with a program that was limited to a few hours, Romania has since developed into a TV community with the hesitant introduction of private broadcasting stations which gained momentum after 1993. Apart from the five TV stations with a nationwide coverage (TVR 1, TVR 2, TVR 3, TVR Internaţional, TVR Cultural) and five regional TV stations under public law, there were, as early as 2004, more than 100 private broadcasting stations out of which Pro TV and Antena 1 have continued to dominate the market with movies, sitcoms, music and entertainment shows (cf. Coman/Gross 2006, 90). In 1999, the TV station Acasă TV was launched, which mainly revolves around domestic soap operas, South American telenovelas and US-American entertainment serials. High audience ratings are also achieved by the private station OTV, a tabloid TV station whose most successful program is a one-hour talk show which mainly focuses on scandals. Stations specializing in news coverage include the niche station Realitatea TV as well as Antena 3 and Naţional 24 (cf. Stegherr/Liesem 2010, 183). Owing to the country’s political situation and its more differentiated multiethnic composition, the media scene in the Republic of Moldova offers a slightly different picture. The total of ca. 240 newspapers and journals which have a different share in the Romanian, Russian, Ukrainian, Gagauz and Bulgarian languages, are partially subsidized by the state and/or financed by political parties, NGOs and private enterprises (cf. Dumbrava 2012, 537). Out of the 35 central newspapers, 20 are published in Romanian and 15 in Russian – a fact which is also reflected by the choice of subjects covered. Whereas, during the 1990s, the choice of subjects focused either on pro-Romanian or pro-Russian issues, since the 2000s the Russian-speaking and Romanian-speaking newspapers have distinguished themselves more obviously in their political relationship to the government and to the opposition (cf. Stegherr/Liesem 2010, 189; Dumbrava 2012, 538s.). The most important Romanian-speaking newspapers include the daily papers Timpul and Jurnal de Chişinău as well as the weekly journals Săptămâna and Flux. According to Dumbrava (2012, 539), the most widely read newspaper in Moldova is the Russian Komsomol’skaja Pravda with a local supplement; this is due to the fact that the traditional readership of the urban population is Russian-speaking. With regard to the broadcast media (44 radio stations and ca. 200 TV stations), the market is largely dominated by Russian stations (67%), whereas the shares of the Romanian and state-owned stations amount to 10% or 9%, respectively. Apart from the four radio and TV stations under public law (Radio Moldova 1, Radio Gagauzia, Moldova 1 and TV Gagauzia), private providers began to establish themselves up from 2005. They include the TV station NIT which broadcasts 30% of the programs in Romanian, and Pro TV Chişinău, a national branch of the Romanian station Pro TV which, however, also produces local news coverage and talk shows in and for Moldova (cf. Dumbrava 2012, 530s.).  

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The number of Internet users3 in both countries has increased steadily. Whereas, in 2001, only 5% of the Romanian population had access to the Internet (cf. Mocan/ Badescu/Cosmin 2003, 171), their number increased to 51.4% in 2014 (48.8% in the Republic of Moldova).4 In 2010, 500,000 websites were registered under the domain .ro (cf. Trandabăţ et al. 2012, 55), with Trafic.ro as the most important provider (cf. Holotescu et al. 2011, 38). In addition, two analogous developments can be observed. On the one hand, the democratization of the media through the Internet has enabled journalists, who are not dependent on politics or economics, to articulate themselves, so that, in 2000, the Internet journal hotnews.ro was established. On the other hand, in the wake of the economic crisis of 2009, many print media had to stop publication or to shift it to the online sector. Thus, the transregional daily newspapers Gardianul, Cotidianul, Ziua only appear in digital form now. Around 19% of Internet users inform themselves regularly via the websites of the national dailies, and the favorite topics of online discussions and searches are entertainment, sports, shopping, health, education and jobs (cf. Petcu 2014, 9; Holotescu et al. 2011, 38). In 2009, the most frequented social network was Hi5 with 36% followed by Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. In the meantime, Facebook registers 5.3 million Romanian users (as per 2014 Internet World Stats).

3 The Language in the Media Along with the number of press products, there has also been an increase of journalists in Romania. Whereas in 1989, 2,060 journalists were accredited, their estimated number for the year 2000 was about 20,000 (cf. Coman/Gross 2006, 110). Apart from the journalists from the old days, a large group of new journalists began to establish themselves very quickly who could not have been more different in terms of their social background, education, profession and political conviction. Many of them were amateurs considering themselves not so much as impartial reporters with a commitment to detailed investigation, but seeing themselves in a double role as observers and actors who could influence and change events. What stood out most was the large percentage of young people who, despite the lack of journalistic training and experience, quickly occupied important positions in the media scene (cf. Coman/Gross 2006, 52). Consequently, the newly achieved freedom of opinion, combined with a

3 A survey of the profile of the Internet users for Romania can be found in Petcu (2014). 4 Although the figures of both countries resemble each other, they have to be differentiated with regard to the language users. Even though Romania, owing to the number of Internet users, comes 8th place among the Top Ten of the European Union (cf. Mocanu/Aldea/Rawal 2013, 95; Trandabăţ et al. 2012, 55), the country would probably occupy a place at the rear end if one regarded the number of Internet visitors per capita (cf. Internet World Stats n.d.). In addition, the statistics for the Republic of Moldova do not show how many Romanophones have access to the Internet.  

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lack of journalistic professionalism, has frequently erupted in subjective and polemical comments with a minimum of informational substance. The transformation of the political discourse is reflected in the diversification of the types of media discourse. During the communist system, the political discourse in the press, on the radio and on TV was dominated by the monotony of a “wooden language”, which was characterized by a neutral and impersonal style in the form of passive structures (se vor face ‘it will be done’, se vor lua măsuri ‘measures will be taken’), nominalizations (urgentarea implementării hotărârii de reabilitare a infrastructurii ‘the acceleration of the implementation of the decision to redevelop the infrastructure’) and lexical stereotypes.5 Such a dry officialese is now confronted with a stylistic diversity; the formation of lexical clichés is replaced by lexical creativity, e.g., in the form of metaphors, like cosmetizarea realităţii ‘the whitewashing of reality’, metastaza corupţiei ‘the metastasis of corruption’, carnaval parlamentar ‘the parliamentary carnival’ (Stoichiţoiu-Ichim 2001, 53ss.), loanwords from English and French, like a agrea (< en. to agree), injecţie (< fr. injection ‘apport massif de capitaux’), linie (< fr. ligne ‘série de produits’) and new word formation patterns, like derivations with the names of politicians, e.g., the adjectivization or even verbalization of Băsescu (produs băsesc, modelul băsescian, cuvântul care băseschivează) or the formation of compounds like iliescosfera (< Iliescu) (Milică 2011, 154). In addition, there is a massive invasion of structures of the oral language, of popular and argot elements as well as of foreign words (cf. Zafiu 2001). Whereas the adoption of numerous elements of the oral language may contribute to establishing identities, its excessive use (especially when disconnected from any text types) has provoked highly critical reactions in the Romanian printed and audiovisual media which find fault with “coarse language”, “unlettered expressions” (Mitu 2009, 186) and a violation of norms. The democratization of the media has resulted in the appearance of usage norms which do not always correspond with the prescriptive norm.6 In comparison with other Romance languages, the standardization of the Romanian language began relatively late (19th century). Most of the Romanian linguists identify the Standard Language with the limba literară, whereby some emphasize the element of uniformity, others the element of “trimness” (cultural refinement, cf. Gheţie 2006, 1945). At the time of the totalitarian system and its doctrine of a homogeneous society, a uniform standardized system became the dominant criterion. Under the primacy of the written language, the prescriptive norm, installed by the Academy, oriented itself by the language of politics and administration as well as by the language of science as the  

 

 

 

5 For examples, cf. Gruiţă (2006, 12), also Semeniuc (2011b). Further investigations on the formation of clichés in the language of politics on a lexicological, syntagmatic, and pragmatic level prove a tendency towards a new “wooden language”. (cf. Creţu 2010; Semeniuc 2011a; Dascălu Jinga 2009). 6 As regards the relationship between prescriptive norm and descriptive norms, cf. Sinner (2014, 107s.).

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most prestigious expression.7 With the help of language cultivation measures, the socalled cultivarea limbii, the cultivated and correct usage of the Romanian language was publicly propagated with great zeal (cf. Munteanu/Şuteu 2006, 1440). In the process of spreading the prescriptive norm, the printed and audiovisual media played a significant role since their language usage was regularly commented upon by wellknown linguists, e.g., in a series of articles called “Limba noastră la radio” [‘Our language on the radio’] (cf. Frisch 1988, 178). Censorship and full control of public communication proved to guarantee the presence of a norm based on the written language, thus conveying to the speakers the impression of a unified and perfect language (cf. Zafiu 2010, 57). After 1989, the media continued to be associated with their educational role for a correct language usage. “Românii cred, în general, în autoritatea cuvântului scris/auzit la radio/TV, în ziar”8 (Gruiţă 2006, 9). Under the impression of a norm, fixed once and for all, the changing language usage in the press, on the radio, and on TV, particularly the frequent appearance of oral elements within domains hitherto reserved for the standard variety limba literară/limba cultă, was considered something negative by many Romanian speakers. Summing up the Romanian speakers’ awareness with regard to norms, Zafiu, in her column, makes the following assessment: “Mentalitatea culturală românească este încă obsedată de monumental şi etern”9 (Zafiu 2005). The impact of orality on the evolution of the Romanian language cannot be separated from the influence of new communication technologies and – considering the effect of globalization – the influence of English. The massive presence of English words can be assigned to certain domains: politics, economics and technology, the world of fashion, design and entertainment. Words like job, cash, look, cool, shopping, trend, brand, funny, which are widely spread through radio and TV, have been adopted by a growing number of Romanians in their everyday speech (cf. Pioariu 2011, 41). However, the greatest impact on the general vocabulary originates from the language of IT (cf. Zafiu 2001). An extensive set of English loanwords very rapidly undergoes a process of morphological adaptation. Verbs follow the cultivated conjugation pattern with the infinitive ending in -a and the inflected suffix -ez (ro. a  

7 The diastratic varieties were marginalized, the familiar colloquial language was tolerated in nearlanguage communication only. This led to an opposition between limba cultă ‘cultivated/educated language’ vs. limba incultă ‘uncultivated/uneducated language’ (Zafiu 2008, 2323). Linguistic studies on diastratic and diaphasic variation were mostly characterized by a normative tenor in terms of a “grammar of errors” (cf. Bochmann/Stiehler 2010, 131). Non-normative studies on Argot did not appear until after 1989 (cf. Stoichiţoiu-Ichim 2001; Zafiu 2011). 8 ‘Romanians, generally, believe in the authority of the written/spoken word on the radio/on TV/in the newspapers’ (translation by the author). 9 ‘The cultural Romanian mentality is still obsessed by the ‘Monumental’ and the ‘Eternal’’ (translation by the author).

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formata – formatez < en. to format, ro. a posta, a downloada, a scana, a seta) as well as the informal-colloquial one with the infinitive ending in -(u)i and the inflected suffix -esc (ro. a cetui – cetuiesc < en. to chat), or both variants are used (like a bloga, a blogui < en. to blog). The very recent word to google circulates in different graphical and morphological variants such as gugăli/gugali, googla and gugla, where the users show a preference for the standard morphemic structure (infinitive ending in -a) a gugla, but adapted to the Romanian orthography (cf. Pacea 2009, 95). Likewise, nouns are integrated into the typical paradigm (with the plural endings -i for masculine nouns and -e or -uri for neuter nouns): sg. hacker – pl. hackeri, sg. internaut – pl. internauţi, sg. server – pl. servere, sg. laptop – pl. laptopuri. But here, too, different variants circulate at the beginning of the integration process, most of all in the case of the graphic realization – with or without hyphen – to mark the plural and to enclize the definite article: for en. site evidence can be found with a hyphen (site-uri and siteul), as well as without a hyphen (pl. siteuri ‘sites’ and sg. + definite article siteul ‘the site’) also the (possibly playful) variant in phonemic orthography sait, with and without a hyphen saituri, sait-ul and the adaptation to the Romanian word sit [sit] (< fr./en. site ‘landscape’) with both forms situri, sit-uri. Given the tendency to retain the English pronunciation and the original graph, the “Dicţionarul ortografic, ortoepic şi morfologic” standardizes the forms site [sajt], site-uri [sajturj] site-ul [sajtul], based on the rule that, in the case of loanwords whose original graph does not end with a consonant or with a vowel typical of the Romanian graph, the plural and the enclitic article are added with a hyphen. A special case of graphical and morphological variation, but also (owing to its extensive word formation productivity) evidence of the quick integration of Anglicisms is the English noun blog > ro. blog with the plural marker in -uri > bloguri and -e (with an ironical note) > bloage and its English derivate blogger > ro. blogăr (also without a diacritical mark: blogar), bloger, blogher, blogger (also the pleonasm bloggerist, linking the agent noun suffix -ist to the existing suffix -er) and the feminine variants bloggeriţă, blogheriţă, blogeriţă, blogăriţă as well as blogist/blogistă, bloghist/bloghistă. Further derivations of blog are nouns with the agent noun suffix -angiu (with a pejorative connotation) > blogangiu, the suffix -ism > bloghism, blogism, bloggerism, the popular Romanian suffixes -ime, -eală, -ărie > blogărime, blogăreală, blogărie, the diminutive suffixes > bloguţ, bloguşor, blogărel (diminutives are richly represented in colloquial Romanian with affectionate or ironic-depreciative connotations) and the adjectives > blogist, blogistic, bloggeristic, blogheristic as well as the verbs a bloga, a blogui, a blogări with their long infinitive form blogare, bloguire and the supine blogat and bloguit (cf. Zafiu 2007a; Zafiu 2007b; Pacea 2009, 92s.). Such a variant can be found in the spreading of loan translations like cyber cetăţean, cetăţean virtual, cetăţean al Web-ului (< en. cybercitizen); cyber-ucigaşi, cyber-infractori, ciber-criminali, ciber-spaţiu, ciber-iubit(ă), ciber haiduc (cf. Pacea 2009, 97s.). Features of language of proximity, such as spontaneity, but also the colloquial style which exists in the numerous formats of Internet communication,

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result, on the one hand, in the replacement of Anglicisms by Romanian words by means of semantic loans:10 a downloada – a descărca, a uploada – a încărca, both, however, in strong competition with expressions from colloquial language a da jos and a urca (pe net) (cf. Zafiu 2012). On the other hand, Pacea (2009, 100) states “a refreshing approach to traditional word formation processes” owing to the widespread tendency towards language ludism. There are different reactions to the influence of the English language. The literary critic George Pruteanu whose series on correct language usage gained certain popularity during the 1990s warned against a mixed language “romgleză” (cf. Munteanu/ Şuteu 2006, 1444). Analogous to the Loi Bas-Lauriol and the Loi Toubon, which were decreed by the French government, he initiated a bill for the protection of the Romanian language which was adopted by the Romanian parliament in 2004 with strong modifications (without the sanctions envisaged by Pruteanu). According to Niculescu-Gorpin (2014), two tendencies can be observed in the Romanian Academy with regard to the influence of English. On the one hand, there are the purists and, on the other hand, there are those scientists who are facing the alleged “Anglicization” of the Romanian language without much anxiety, such as Mioara Avram who stated as early as 1997: “The influence of the English language is not a negative phenomenon in itself and is no more dangerous than other foreign influences that have had an impact on our language […]. Considering the great hospitality of Romanian, doubled by its ability to assimilate and integrate borrowings […] it is logical to assume that Romanian will be able to get over Anglicisation […] as it has got over Slavonification, Hellenisation, Russification, Italianisation and Frenchification, to only mention a few of the linguistic influences that have affected Romanian over time” (quoted acc. to Niculescu-Gorpin 2014, 92, translation and italics in N.-G.).

The interest of these scientists is rather to investigate the appearance of Anglicisms in terms of a descriptive and a normative approach, to observe whether they are necessary or whether they merely follow a fashion, and possibly to suggest any solutions for their integration into the Romanian language. Such tendencies, both with regard to Anglicisms and with regard to the influence of oral language, were taken into account in the new edition of “Dicţionarul ortografic, ortoepic şi morfologic” (DOOM[2] 22005) which caused a great deal of public controversy. Strong criticism (cf. Boerescu 2005) was directed against the introduction of morphological forms of words which were regarded as incorrect and not belonging to the limba literară (e.g., pl. Conclavuri or cireşi ‘cherries’ and nivele in addition to cireşe and niveluri) as well as the return to former graphs and morphological forms of words (e.g., filosof, pl. foarfeci ‘scissors’), which the first edition of DOOM[1] of 1982 had not accepted. The latter also applies, in large numbers, to the graphical, phonetical, and morphological adaptation of loan words, particularly the Anglicisms. Ac 

 

10 Term acc. to Winter (2005, 46s.)

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cording to the authors of DOOM[2], empirical studies on language usage show that, with regard to the graph, the etymological principle has priority over the phonetical principle (cf. Vintilă-Rădulescu 2005, 95). Obviously, speakers judge the graphical “Romanization” as a sign of “incultură” (cf. Zafiu 2005). According to these tendencies in the language development, the adaptation of Anglicisms to the Romanian graph (as recommended originally in DOOM[1]) has now been replaced by the original graph: looping, knockdown, knockout, motto, parking, skating instead of luping, cnocdaun, cnocaut, moto, parching, scheting. If, in the case of some particular words, a statistical tendency is not yet visible, two alternative graphs are listed: derby/derbi (with a graphically different realization of the plural marker and the enclisis of the definite article: derby-uri/derbiuri and derby-ul/derbiul), clearing/cliring, penalty/penalti, pocher/poker, ghem/game. Some inconsistencies remain with regard to the morphological adaptation like superman – pl. supermeni, yesman – pl. yesmeni with a redundant plural marker (en. men plus ro. -i) in contrast to sg. self-made-man – pl. self-made-men – inconsistencies that the authors are well aware of. Ultimately, criticism is particularly directed against the intention of DOOM[2] to register usage norms and to show, in some cases at least, a parallel of prescriptive norm and descriptive norms (cf. Vintilă-Rădulescu 2005, 87). Beginning in 2007, the Institutul de Lingvistică “Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” of the Romanian Academy has carried out regular monitorings of public-law and private TV and radio stations (ca. 300 hours). The stations were selected according to viewing figures, national range and their share of information programs and debates; the programs recorded were news and debates at peak viewing times. The survey intends to analyze the (speech) contributions as well as the running texts (crawls) under the responsibility of the editors and staff of the relevant broadcasting stations. In the Republic of Moldova, too, the Academia de Ştiinţe a Moldovei monitored Romanianspeaking TV stations in 2011 and 2012 (140 hours) as well as radio stations in 2013 (120 hours), where news programs and talk shows, early morning entertainment programs as well as synchronized and subtitled films were also included. On the one hand, the studies pursue a didactic objective in that, with reference to the normative reference works of the Academy, the deviations from the norm (orthography, orthoepy, morphology as well as syntax, lexicology, semantics, stylistics and pragmatics) are registered. The results were published on the website of the Consiliu Naţional al Audiovizualului () under the link “Limba română la TV/Radio” and in Moldova on the website of the Consiliu coordinator al audiovizualului (). In addition, individual documentation with regard to individual stations has been compiled which show a grade between the individual stations (Romania) and between the news and entertainment programs (Moldova). On the other hand, the material serves to assess and describe trends of development in the Romanian language (cf. Pană Dindelegan 2009). Not all the deviations from the norm are regarded as coequal; some are unanimously regarded as severe, others are discussed controversially in Romanian linguistics. Furthermore, linguistic phenomena are regis-

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tered which indicate a divergent development between norm and usage. Here, we talk about the conservation of older or popular forms which have eliminated the norm (in some cases only recently) or, vice versa, about cases where the linguistic change has been completed, but the norm has remained conservative, or about fluctuations where the norm does not express itself clearly (cf. Croitor et al. 2009, 494). Here are some examples from the above-mentioned reports (2007–2012 for Romania and 2011– 2013 for Moldova):

3.1 Orthography and Orthoepy –

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In the case of titles, subtitles and crawls, the diacritical marks , like “ramane in arest” (rămâne în arest ‘remain in arrest’)11 are frequently missing. Whereas the Romanian TV stations show a swiftly declining tendency, there are still some TV stations in the Republic of Moldova whose crawls are completely without any diacritical marks. There are inconsistencies with regard to the spelling of or for [ɨ]. The obligatory graph of for [ɨ] in the wording (când ‘when’, mâine ‘tomorrow’) was introduced in Romania in 1993. This is not obligatory in the Republic of Moldova, as the stations themselves usually decide in favor of either graph, although the preferred graph is not implemented consistently. Problems are created by the correct spelling of , , to mark the plural in inflected endings of the adjective and noun and to mark the definite article (sg. pantof – pl. pantofi – pantofii ‘shoe/shoes/the shoes’; copil – copii – copiii ‘child/ children/the children’), which are regarded as basic errors: “suntem mândrii de” (mândri) ‘we are proud’, “5 arbitrii” (arbitri ‘5 referees’), “prin diverse ceremoni” (ceremonii ‘through several ceremonies’), “Românii s-au bătut cu Portocalii” (Portocaliii ‘the Romanians fought against the oranges’, soccer: “Oranje” for the Dutch team). Uncertainties occur with regard to the use of hyphens. On the one hand, this concerns compounds like “prim ministru” (prim-ministru), “redactor şef” (redactor-şef), “proces verbal” (proces-verbal ‘report’), “cuvintele cheie” (cuvintele-cheie ‘the keywords’) and prefixions like “anti-terrorism” (antiterorism), “anti-criză” (anticriză). On the other hand, it concerns the adding of the plural ending or of the definite article in the case of neologisms like “laptop-uri” (laptopuri), “supermarket-uri” (supermarketuri), “derbyul” (derby-ul), “sprayul” (spray-ul), “weekend-ul”, “weekend-ul” (weekendul). As far as the orthoepical norm is concerned, uncertainties are registered with regard to pronunciation and stress of neologisms and (foreign) proper names.

11 The form in italics (put in brackets) corresponds with the norm.

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A widespread phenomenon is the shift of stress in the case of verbs of the third conjugation (a spune ‘to say’, a ţine ‘to hold’, a crede ‘to think’). In the second person plural imperative, accompanied by a clitic, these verbs frequently carry the stress on the inflected suffix: “spuneţi-mi”, “ţineţi-vă bine”, “credeţi-mă”, in contrast to the norm which prescribes the stress on the radical (spuneţi-mi, ţineţivă bine, credeţi-mă). The shift of stress can be ascribed to the influence of the verbs of the second conjugation (a plăcea ‘to please’, a vedea ‘to see’) which carry the stress on the inflected suffix in the imperative, but also in the present indicative (plăceţi, vedeţi). The incorrect forms of the imperative would correspond to the infinitive forms *a spunea, *a ţinea, *a credea which are not accepted by the norm.

3.2 Morphology This is a list of basic violations of the norm which have stubbornly persisted: – The retention of hybrid forms consisting of the verbs a vrea/a voi in the imperfect indicative: “vroiam, vroia” etc. instead of voiam, voia, e.g., “Tocmai asta vroiam să vă întreb” (tocmai asta voiam să vă întreb ‘that’s exactly what I wanted to ask you’); “vroia să se căsătorească” (voia să se căsătorească ‘he wanted to get married’). Despite the strong frequency of these forms which were tolerated in older grammars (e.g., Tiktin, I.-A. Candrea) as variants (cf. Zafiu 2006) and which also appear in the texts of established authors (cf. Guţu Romalo 32008, 105),12 they are not accepted by the norm. – The wrong subjunctive of să aibă: “să aibe grijă” (să aibă grijă ‘to take care’); “cine merită s-o aibe” (cine merită s-o aibă ‘who deserves it shall have it’). – The incorrect use of the verb a trebui in the third person singular and in the third person plural, respectively. In the present indicative, the paradigm of the verb is invariable with the only form trebuie: “vă trebuiesc vouă” (vă trebuie vouă ‘you need it’), “pentru aceasta trebuieşte să iniţiem un program” (pentru aceasta trebuie să iniţiem un program ‘we must initiate a program for this’). – The replacement of the case marker in the genitive-dative of feminine proper names by analytical constructions with an article like “la vila lui Ioana” (la vila Ioanei ‘Joan’s villa’), “în memoria lui Doina” (în memoria Doinei ‘in memory of Doina’). – The replacement of the adverbial forms maximum and minimum by their adjectival counterparts maxim and minim: “minim patru mese pe zi” (minimum patru mese pe zi ‘at least four meals a day’), “o discuţie de maxim o oră” (o discuţie de  

 

12 In their Romanian grammar, Iliescu/Popovici admit both forms vroiam/vream to the conjugation paradigm of the verb a vrea (2013, 271).

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maximum o oră ‘a maximum one hour discussion’), “pentru cei care nu sunt proşti la maxim” (pentru cei care nu sunt proşti la maximum ‘for those who are not complete fools’). Contrary to the norm, their massive appearance in the mass media seems to enforce a tendency of generalization. In the Republic of Moldova, “RM” and “R. Moldova” as abbreviations of the country’s name are not tolerated; only “Moldova” is accepted.

The linguistic material of monitoring confirms the existence of unstable zones in the limba cultă vorbită (cultivated oral language): – The old tendency of adaptation between the inflection paradigms of the verbs of the second and smallest class (ca. 20) with the infinitive ending in -ea and the verbs of the third class (ca. 200) with the infinitive ending in -e is quite strong, because the differences between the two classes are very few (cf. Guţu Romalo 32008, 98s.). In the spoken language, the shift of verbs ending in -ea to the class of verbs ending in -e occurs in the 1st and 2nd person present plural indicative and subjunctive and in analytical forms with the infinitive, accompanied by the shift of stress from the inflected suffix to the stem and the change of the infinitive suffix: vor apărea > vor *apare, v-ar displăcea > v-ar *displace. The opposite case, the shift of verbs ending in -e to the class of verbs ending in -ea, occurs in the 2nd person plural imperative, especially when followed by pronominal clitics, and accompanied by the shift of stress from the stem to the inflected suffix (cf. above): spuneţi-mi (a spune) > spuneţi-mi (*a spunea) (cf. Croitor et al. 2009, 495). – There are also fluctuations in the subclasses of verbs ending in -a (with or without inflected suffix -ez) and the verbs ending in -i (with or without inflected suffix -esc), which confirm that the paradigm of certain verbs is not yet fixed (cf. Croitor et al. 2009, 495; Guţu Romalo 32008, 100). Contrary to the norm (DOOM[2]), verbs appear (mostly neologisms) without suffix -ez (a copia: “a început s-o copie” for a început s-o copieze) or suffix -esc (a bănui: “se bănuie” for se bănuieşte). Simultaneously, deviations from the norm appear by adding the suffixes -ez and -esc: “perturbează” (a perturba: perturbă), “se absolvesc” (a absolvi: se absolvă).13 – The fluctuations in the inflection of nouns with regard to the competing feminine plural markers -e (pl. case < sg. casă) and -i (porţi < sg. poartă) are connected to the linguistic registers. Whereas, in popular language, the plural ending -i is preferred, the limba cultă tends to use the plural ending -e, a fact which also leads to hypercorrections. The enforced implementation of the plural marker -i at the expense of the forms in -e is reflected in the new edition of DOOM[2]. The plural forms (recommended in the previous edition) foarfece ‘scissors’, duşte ‘gulp’, gogoaşe/gogoşi ‘doughnuts’) have been modified to foarfeci, duşti, gogoşi (cf.

13 Some uncertainties can be ascribed to changes in the norm (DOOM[1] and DOOM[2] (a absolvi, a perturba).

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Pană Dindelegan 2009, 12ss.). Likewise, variants have been admitted, e.g., căpşuni/căpşune ‘strawberry’; coperţi/coperte ‘cover’. Uncertainties with regard to the correct plural form especially occur in the case of forms with the enclitic article: “victimile” (victimele ‘the victims’), “inimele” (inimile ‘the hearts’) (cf. Croitor et al. 2009, 498). Further consequences of these uncertainties appear in the case markers of feminine nouns. Thus, it is a frequent phenomenon to mark the genitive-dative of feminine nouns before the definite article with -i instead of -e (“liderul pieţii” for liderul pieţei ‘the market leader’, “istoria medicinii” for istoria medicinei ‘the history of medicine’). Any effort to resist this tendency, which is marked as “popular”, leads to hypercorrections: “anii bătrâneţei” (anii bătrâneţii ‘the years of age’), “finalul săptămânei” (finalul săptămânii ‘the weekend’) (cf. Croitor et al. 2009, 498). A well-known fact is the competition of plural markers of neuter nouns in -uri and -e, which manifests itself by means of fluctuations in both directions (cf. Croitor et al. 2009, 499): the assertion of -uri with nouns ending in -e, like “produsuri naturale” (produse ‘natural products’), “aceste semnuri” (semne ‘these signs’), “suveniruri” (suvenire ‘souvenirs’) and, vice versa, like “chibrite” (chibrituri ‘matches’), “a diverselor subansamble ale organismului” (subansambluri ‘subset’); “dulapele” (dulapurile ‘the cupboards’). With regard to the integration of neologisms, there is a clear preference for the plural ending in -uri: bypassuri, hituri, love-story-uri, talk-show-uri, upgrade-uri. The plural of acronyms which frequently appear in contemporary Romanian, usually ends in -uri: CD-uri, CVuri, IQ-uri, SMS-uri (cf. Pană Dindelegan 2009, 21s.).  

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3.3 Syntax –

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A large number of syntactical errors are ascribed to the missing accord between subject and predicate like “apa şi fumul le-a afectat casa” (apa şi fumul le-au afectat casa ‘water and smoke have seriously affected the house’), “femeile care nu le dor nimic” (femeile pe care nu le doare nimic ‘women who do not feel any pain’), the dissent between feminine adjectives and nouns with regard to case inflection like “starea tinerei lovită” (starea tinerei lovite ‘the state of the injured girl’) as well as the use of invariable forms of the composite numerals with unu/ una, doi/două: “Doisprezece persoane au fost arestate” (douăsprezece persoane ‘twelve persons were arrested’), “douăzeci şi unu de universităţi” (douăzeci şi una de universităţi ‘twenty-one universities’). An old phenomenon which, despite normative interventions, has been on the increase, is the use of the relative pronoun care functioning as the direct object not preceded by pe: “Bătălia care a dus-o patru ani cu Băsescu” (Bătălia pe care a dus-o patru ani cu Băsescu ‘the battle which he fought with Băsescu four years ago’); “cea mai mare chestie care am văzut-o” (cea mai mare chestie pe care am

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văzut-o ‘the biggest thing I have ever seen’) (cf. Croitor et al. 2009, 507). In older texts and descriptive grammars, the variant (ascribed to the oral language) ‘the watch I had’ was admissible, as the doubling clitic to distinguish between the position of subject and object was regarded as sufficient. It was only with the publication of the grammar by the Academy in 1966 that the obligatory use of the preposition pe was clearly defined and any constructions without pe were perceived as marked “diastratic” (cf. Zafiu 2007c). The following phenomena are widespread in the media showing tendencies for a generalization in the standard language (cf. Croitor et al. 2009, 509), but they act against the prescriptive norm and are perceived as marked “diastratic” (cf. RusuPăsărin 2010, 361): – The changed topics of the semi-adverb mai, which of late stands before the clitic or before the auxiliary verb and not before the full verb: “Mai mi-aduci un rinichi” (Îmi mai aduci un rinichi ‘can you bring me a kidney’), “Mai ne-au rămas nişte bani” (Ne-au mai rămas nişte bani ‘we have a little money left’); – The use of the sequence ca şi instead of the preposition of ‘quality’ ca: “ca şi director al …” (ca director al … ‘as director of the …’), “Dumneavoastră, ca şi lider al organizaţiei de tineret” (Dumneavoastră ca lider ‘you as leader of the youth organization’). This phenomenon is partially explained by the speakers’ intention to prevent possible cacophonies (“ca şi comentator sportiv” ‘as sports commentator’, “ca şi concluzie” ‘as a conclusion’), but in most cases their appearance is unmotivated. – The invariable use of the prepositional construction din punct de vedere instead of din punctul de vedere with a subsequent noun in the genitive: “din punct de vedere al temperaturilor” (din punctul de vedere al temperaturilor ‘concerning the temperatures’).

3.4 Lexicology and phraseology –

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The frequent appearance of pleonasms: “cu final happy-end”, “câteva noi inovații” ‘some new innovations’, “veşti noi” ‘new news’, “mijloacele mass-media” ‘the media mass-media’. Interferences from English: “a aplicat pentru un job internaţional” < en. ‘to apply for an international job’ (ro.: a candidat pentru un job internaţional), “oricine poate aplica?” (ro.: oricine poate candida? ‘can anyone apply?’), “cei doi l-au sunat înapoi în aceeaşi ordine ierarhică” (cei doi l-au sunat după aceea în aceeaşi ordine ierarhică ‘the two called it afterwards in the same hierarchical order’), “locaţie secretă” (loc secret ‘secret place’); For the Moldovan stations, interferences from the Russian can be added: e.g., the missing verb a fi in sentence constructions such as “Cum weekendul?” (Cum a fost  

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weekendul? ‘How was your weekend?’), “Cum dispozitia acolo la Sud?” (Cum este dispoziţia acolo la Sud? ‘How it is available there in the South?’); “culeg numărul” (formez numărul ‘I dial the number’) < ru. набрáть нóмер ‘to collect numbers’; “aşteptam sunetul tău” (aşteptăm apelul/telefonul tău ‘I was waiting for your call’) < ru. звонóк ‘bell (signal)’, “Ieri am dat câteva sunete la Tokyo” (Ieri am dat câteva telefoane la Tokyo ‘yesterday I made some calls to Tokyo’) < ru. позвони́ ть ‘to ring someone’; “include radioul” (deschide radioul ‘switch on the radio’) < ru. включи́ ть рáдио ‘to switch on’; “programul nu lucrează” (programul nu functioneaza/nu merge ‘the program doesn’t work’) < ru. рабóтать ‘to work, to function’; “sunt foarte bravo internauţii noştri” (sunt extraordinari internauţii noştri ‘our Internet users are amazing’), “e foarte bravo fata asta” (e tare/grozavă fata asta ‘this girl is great’) < ru. брáвый ‘brave’; “chiar îmi este interesant” (mă interesează ‘I am interested’) < ru. быть интерéсным ‘to be interesting’; “să dau o ultimă întrebare” (să pun o ultimă întrebare ‘to ask one last question’) < ru. задáть вопрóс ‘to ask a question’.

4 Conclusions As illustrated by the individual examples given above, the language usage in the Romanian media, especially in the broadcast media, represents a conflictual field where prescriptive and descriptive norms compete with each other. This article has made a particular attempt to focus on the general impact of orality and anglicisms on the Romanian language. As future developments can be expected to spread via the social networks, an exciting field of linguistic research awaits further examination. What remains to be investigated, for example, is the kind of effect that language usage will have on the Romanian language outside the media.

5 References Amelunxen, Hubertus von/Ujica, Andrei (edd.) (1990), Television/Revolution. Das Ultimatum des Bildes, Marburg, Jonas Verlag. Avram, Mioara (1997), Anglicismele în limba română actuală, Bucureşti, Editura Academiei. Bochmann, Klaus (2012), Die Staatssprache – “Moldauisch” oder “Rumänisch”?, in: Klaus Bochmann et al. (edd.), Die Republik Moldau/Republica Moldova. Ein Handbuch, Leipzig, Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 609–616. Bochmann, Klaus/Stiehler, Heinrich (2010), Einführung in die rumänische Sprach- und Literaturgeschichte, Bonn, Romanistischer Verlag. Boerescu, Pârvu (2005), Cum scriem: O nouă (mini)reformă ortografică, România Literară 29, (28.11.2016). Boţan, Mădălina (2009), Blogosfera ca discurs de vizibilitate publică, Sfera Politicii 135, 13–18. Ciscel, Matthew H. (2007), The language of the Moldovans. Romania, Russia, and Identity in an exSoviet Republic, Lanham, Lexington Books.

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Coman, Mihai/Gross, Peter (2006), Media and Journalism in Romania, Berlin, Vistas. Creţu, Cristina (2010), Noua “limbă de lemn” a discursului politic, Philologia Jassyensia 1:11, 27–35. Croitor, Blanca, et al. (2009), Tendinţe morfosintactice ale limbii române actuale manifestate în massmedia audiovizuală, in: Gabriela Pană Dindelegan (coord.), Dinamica limbii române actuale. Aspecte gramaticale şi discursive, Bucureşti, Editura Academiei Române, 493–512. Dascălu Jinga, Laurenţia (2009), Structuri clişeizate în româna actuală, in: Gabriela Pană Dindelegan (coord.), Dinamica limbii române actuale. Aspecte gramaticale şi discursive, Bucureşti, Editura Academiei Române, 431–458. DOOM[1] (1982) = Avram, Mioara, Dicţionarul ortografic, ortoepic şi morfologic al limbii române, Bucureşti, Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România. DOOM[2] (22005) = Academia Română, Dicţionarul ortografic, ortoepic şi morfologic al limbii române, Bucureşti, Univers Enciclopedic. Dumbrava, Marina (2012), Medienlandschaft, in: Klaus Bochmann et al. (edd.), Die Republik Moldau/ Republica Moldova. Ein Handbuch, Leipzig, Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 530–539. ELR (22005) = Sala, Marius (coord.), Enciclopedia limbii române, Bucureşti, Univers Enciclopedic. Erfurt, Jürgen (2012), Sprachen und Sprachpolitik, in: Klaus Bochmann et al. (edd.), Die Republik Moldau/Republica Moldova. Ein Handbuch, Leipzig, Leipziger Universitätsverlag, 617–628. Frisch, Helmut (1988), Rumänisch: Sprache und Massenmedien, in: Günter Holtus/Michael Metzeltin/ Christian Schmitt (edd.), Lexikon der Romanistischen Linguistik, vol. III: Rumänisch, Dalmatisch/ Istroromanisch, Friaulisch, Ladinisch, Bündnerromanisch, Tübingen, Niemeyer, 176–184. Gheţie, Ion (2006), Histoire de la langue littéraire standard: roumain, in: Gerhard Ernst et al. (edd.), Romanische Sprachgeschichte/Histoire linguistique de la Romania, vol. II, Berlin/New York, de Gruyter, 1944–1957. Gruiţă, Gligor (2006), Moda lingvistică 2007. Norma, uzul şi abuzul, Piteşti, Paralela 45. Guţu Romalo, Valeria (32008), Corectitudine şi greşeală. Limba română de azi, Bucureşti, Humanitas. Heller, Wilfried (22008), Demographie, Migration und räumliche Entwicklung, in: Thede Kahl/Michael Metzeltin/Mihai-Răzvan Ungureanu (edd.), Rumänien: Raum und Bevölkerung, Geschichte und Geschichtsbilder, Kultur, Gesellschaft und Politik heute, Wirtschaft, Recht und Verfassung, historische Regionen, Wien/Berlin, LIT, 40–62. Holotescu, Carmen/Manafu, Cristian (2007), O analiza a blogosferei romanesti bazata pe RoBloggersSurvey2007, (28.11.2016). Holotescu, Carmen, et al. (2011), Microblogging meets politics. The influence of communication in 140 characters on Romanian presidential elections in 2009, Romanian Journal of Communication and Public Relations 13:1, 37–47. Iliescu, Maria/Popovici, Victoria (2013), Rumänische Grammatik, Hamburg, Buske. Internet World Stats (n.d.), Internet Usage in Europe, (28.11.2016). Lozovanu, Dorin (2012), Romanian-Speaking Communities Outside Romania: Linguistic Identities, International Journal of Science and Humanity 2:6, 569–572. Milică, Adriana (2011), Inovaţii lingvistice în discursul publicistic actual, Annales Universitatis Apulensis, Series Philologica 12, 151–160. Mitu, Bianca (2009), Limba română în mass-media, Analele Universităţii Spiru Haret, Seria Jurnalism 10, 186–191. Mocan, Rodica/Badescu, Gabriel/Cosmin, Marian (2003), The democratising potential of the Internet and political parties in Romania, in: Rachel Gibson/Paul Nixon/Stephen Ward (edd.), Political Parties and the Internet. Net gain?, London/New York, Routledge, 161–174. Mocanu, Maria/Aldea, Adina/Rawal, Rajash (2013), “Why fix it when it’s not broken?” Continuity and adaptation in Romanian presidential e-campaigning, in: Paul Nixon/Rajash Rawal/Dan Mercea (edd.), Politics and the Internet in Comparative Context, London/New York, Routledge, 95–117.  

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Mungiu-Pippidi, Alina/Munteanu, Igor (2009), Moldova’s “Twitter-Revolution”, Journal of Democracy 20:3, 136–142. Munteanu, Eugen/Şuteu, Flora (2006), Sprachplanung und -pflege: Rumänisch, in: Gerhard Ernst et al. (edd.), Romanische Sprachgeschichte/Histoire linguistique de la Romania, vol. II, Berlin/New York, de Gruyter, 1429–1445. Niculescu-Gorpin, Anabella-Gloria (2014), Use and abuse of borrowings in the Romanian print media, Revue roumaine de linguistique 59:1, 91–102. Pacea, Otilia (2009), New Worlds, New Words: On Language Change and Word Formation in Internet English and Romanian, Analele Universităţii Ovidius din Constanţa, Seria Filologie 20, 87–102. Pană Dindelegan, Gabriela (2004) (coord.), Tradiţie şi inovaţie în Studiul limbii române, Bucureşti, Editura Universităţii. Pană Dindelegan, Gabriela (2009) (coord.), Dinamica limbii române actuale. Aspecte gramaticale şi discursive, Bucureşti, Editura Academiei Române. Petcu, Marian (2014), Mass Media and the Internet Challenges – Romanian Experience, Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences 163, 7–11. Pioariu, Rodica (2011), The Romanian language under the impact of globalization, Journal of Humanistics and Social Studies 2:2, 39–47. Rusu-Păsărin, Valeria (2010), Limbajul audiovizual şi tentaţia hipertextului, Analele Universităţii din Craiova, Seria Ştiinţe Filologice, Lingvistică 1–2, 358–363. Semeniuc, Sorin-Cristean (2011a), Particularităţi ale clişeului în politica şi presa românească de după 1989, Sfera Politicii 155, 41–47. Semeniuc, Sorin-Cristean (2011b), Violenţa de limbaj în discursul totalitar din România (1945–1989), Sfera Politicii 164, 70–76. Sinner, Carsten (2014), Varietätenlinguistik. Eine Einführung, Tübingen, Narr. Stegherr, Marc/Liesem, Kerstin (2010), Die Medien in Osteuropa. Mediensysteme im Transformationsprozess, Wiesbaden, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. Stoichiţoiu-Ichim, Adriana (2001), Vocabularul limbii române actuale. Dinamică, influenţe, creativitate, Bucureşti, all Educational. Trandabăţ, Diana, et al. (edd.) (2012), The Romanian language in the digital age. Limbă română în era digitală, Berlin/Heidelberg, Springer. Vasilescu, Mircea (22008), Massenmedien und Demokratisierung, in: Thede Kahl/Michael Metzeltin/ Mihai-Răzvan Ungureanu (edd.), Rumänien: Raum und Bevölkerung, Geschichte und Geschichtsbilder, Kultur, Gesellschaft und Politik heute, Wirtschaft, Recht und Verfassung, historische Regionen, Wien/Berlin, LIT, 543–551. Vintilă-Rădulescu, Ioana (2005), Normă şi norme în tradiţia filologică românească, Philologica Jassyensia 1–2, 87–98. Winter, Esme (2005), Zum Verhältnis sprachkontaktinduzierter Innovationen lexikalischer Entlehnungen und fremder Wörter – zugleich ein Beitrag zu “Lehnschöpfung” und “Scheinentlehnung”, Romanistisches Jahrbuch 56, 31–63. Zafiu, Rodica (2001), Diversitate stilistică în româna actuală, (28.11.2016). Zafiu, Rodica (2005), Păcatele Limbii: Împrumuturile în DOOM-2, România Literară 24, (28.11.2016). Zafiu, Rodica (2006), Păcatele Limbii: Vroiam..., România Literară 43, (28.11.2016). Zafiu, Rodica (2007a), Păcatele Limbii: Blog, România Literară 9, (28.11.2016). Zafiu, Rodica (2007b), Păcatele Limbii: Bloguire, România Literară 10, (28.11.2016).

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Zafiu, Rodica (2007c), Păcatele Limbii: “care” şi “pe care”, România Literară 31, (28.11.2016). Zafiu, Rodica (2008), Les variétés diastratiques et diaphasiques du point de vue historique: roumain, in: Gerhard Ernst et al. (edd.), Romanische Sprachgeschichte/Histoire linguistique de la Romania, vol. III, Berlin/New York, de Gruyter, 2319–2334. Zafiu, Rodica (2010), Present-Day Tendencies in the Romanian Language, Journal of Humanistic and Social Studies 2:2, 55–66. Zafiu, Rodica (2011), 101 cuvinte argotice, Bucureşti, Humanitas. Zafiu, Rodica (2012), Păcatele Limbii: Urcatul pe net, România Literară 17, (28.11.2016).

Judith Visser

15 The Role of Small Languages in the Media II: Presence of Picard in Medial Communication  

Abstract: The introduction of mass media had a negative impact on the chances of survival of small languages. Changes in the media landscape in the 20th and 21st century seem to change this situation. The expansion of the Internet makes it possible to publish texts in regional idioms or to discuss language issues. At the same time, globalization and new tendencies in language policy enlarge public awareness of the importance of language plurality. The group of actors comprises linguists as well as laymen. The following study will discuss the perspectives of changes in the media landscape for the evolution of endangered languages. The northern group of French regional varieties subsumed under the designation Picard will serve as an example. A comparison between traditional and new media, focusing on the types of media, texts, actors and target groups, is supposed to show perspectives of modern media for small languages and the importance of access to media for the identity of their speakers.  

 

Keywords: folk linguistics, minority language, new media, Picard, traditional media  

1 Introduction Thanks to the changes in the media landscape in the last decades, minority groups have growing access to (new) media. Consequently, a handbook treating Romance Languages in the Media should include contributions discussing the presence of minority languages in the media of the 21st century. As there are a lot of regional languages in France, only one of these will serve as an example of the evolutions that can be observed. Whereas the introduction of mass media favored the extension and standardization of national languages, it was at the same time one important factor leading to the extinction of small languages (not only) in France: For economic, political and ideological reasons, these languages never had real access to media like printed press, radio or television. The expansion of the Internet seems to have changed this situation, because it offers a large and democratic platform (cf. Gerhards/Schäfer 2007, 211)1 of publication  

1 “Alongside the often criticized ‘old’ media such as newspapers, radio and television, the Internet has become a ‘new’, significant medium. It is becoming ever more accessible to more people, is used more DOI 10.1515/9783110314755-016

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for these small languages. But the consequences of these new possibilities have to be clarified. At the same time, the impulses of European language policy, as well as social changes due to globalization, have led to a new language awareness. This language awareness gives rise to a growing interest in language matters not only of linguists, but also of laymen. A typology of media, texts, actors and target groups, contrasting traditional and new media, is supposed to permit an analysis of the perspectives of modern media for small languages. This typology also allows an insight into the symbolic value of media access for their speakers. The northern group of French regional varieties subsumed under the designation Picard will serve as example for this analysis, because these regional varieties very soon showed a large presence in the media and are rather well-known thanks to a particular film. The overview of the presence of Picard on the Internet will be the most important part of the analysis. With regard to the Internet, television and radio, the results are more or less representative for all kinds of small languages, whereas the movie is remarkable and rather unusual.

2 Small languages in the media: typical conditions 2.1 Media change and the evolution of small languages The invention of letterpress printing in the 15th century favored the use, standardization and extension of national languages such as French, while they tended to force back regional idioms (cf. Lebsanft 2006, 1297). Therefore, these regional languages, henceforth reduced to private communication and without access to written domains, usually didn’t pass the processes of language planning pointed out by Haugen (1987, selection, codification, implementation, elaboration). The introduction of the mass-media in the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as factors like industrialization, school attendance, rural exodus, world wars or military service increased their decline (cf. Androutsopoulos 2010, 741; Lebsanft 2001, 293; 2002a, 67; Osthus 2006a, 1284). Particularly in France, they were for the most part excluded from the media. Their lack of functional value (cf. Eichinger 2006, 2483) leads to the danger of their extinction.  

 

often, increasingly considered as a legitimate information source and is, in part, superseding the old mass media in these respects […]. One expectation is that Internet communication might include multiple actors, especially those from civil society who, with comparatively few resources, may not have had (as much) access to the old media” (Gerhards/Schäfer 2009, 3).

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2.2 The Internet as a platform for small languages At the turn of the century (20th/21st), this situation seems to be changing. Globalization tendencies in all social areas are followed by a recollection of local values, traditions and symbols, something the sociologist Robertson called glocalization, using an economic term for a cultural phenomenon (cf. Robertson 1998, 197s.). At the same time, the introduction of the Internet and its social triumph change(d) the media landscape. Communication on the World Wide Web (WWW) is very different from communication in traditional media (cf. Hickethier 22010; Hörisch 1998; Hunziker 21996; Lebsanft 2001; Ludes/Schütte 1998; Schmitz 2005). One of the most striking media properties of the WWW is its participative and democratic character (cf. Lüsebrink et al. 2004, 250). Communication in traditional (mass-)media is usually asymmetric. The public has few possibilities to react and interfere. The communicators are a reduced group of experts who usually form part of institutions, like publishing houses, radio or television stations. Depending on the country and decade, these institutions can be controlled by the government. These particularities are important factors in the process of norm implementation and of regional language decline: local languages normally didn’t have access to these media, because the target group was far too little and because governments, and particularly the French one, felt no real need to promote them. On the other hand, the Internet can be considered as a publication platform open for everyone, and as such, it seems to be of great importance for speakers of regional languages and persons interested in them. As will be shown later, the WWW attracts quite a lot of so-called “newspeakers/néolocuteurs” (Frias-Conde 2006) who initially can’t speak the regional language at all and try to learn it. Therefore, since the end of the 20th century, an increasing number of digital publications have focused on local languages, that is to say, private webpages, discussion forums, blogs, Wiki projects, Facebook presentations etc. They inform about regional languages and/or are written in these. This evolution can be attributed to the participative character of the medium and the trend to glocalization outlined above. But, although the Internet as publication platform makes possible different types of mass communication, in many contexts the number of addressees is rather low.  

2.3 Characteristics of traditional and new media in contrast The language use in traditional media can differ from the one on the Internet in various aspects: In the press, but also in the audiovisual media, authors, newsreaders etc. always use(d) formal language (language of distance/Distanzsprache following Koch/Oesterreicher 22011 [etc.]; Lebsanft 2001, 298). The texts and productions are normally submitted to correction procedures (cf. Haugen 1987, 632; Lebsanft 2002b,

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297). Many digital texts do not share these characteristics: Prototypic texts of the WWW are dynamic; they can easily be changed and removed. The most illustrative examples of these particularities are Wiki projects, e.g., Wikipedia: Every person interested can collaborate. A contribution is never finished and can always be altered – with regard to the content or to the language, which of course has consequences for the normative impact of these kinds of texts (cf. Jucker 2004). The properties of the WWW lead to the use of informal language (language of immediacy/ Nähesprache, Koch/Oesterreicher 22011 [etc.]). This can be favorable for the use of regional languages, because these were traditionally reduced to informal communication domains and can now rather easily be adapted to the demands of these media.  

 

2.4 Experts vs. Laymen as text producer As shown above, contributions in traditional media are usually created by experts, while the Internet offers access to everybody. In the case of small languages, it figures as a publication platform not only for linguists, but particularly for different types of laymen and language enthusiasts. In Germany, Antos introduced the term Laien-Linguistik in 1996 to refer to all kinds of contributions made for or by laymen. In the English WWW, it is possible to find some examples of layman’s/laymen’s linguistic(s), but folk linguistics (e.g., Niedzielski/Preston 2000; Wilton/Stegu 2011; Stegu 2012) is a more common term for the phenomenon. In French, the technical term is linguistique populaire (e.g., Preston 2008). It is very difficult to distinguish clearly between experts and laymen. Every delineation should be considered as a discursive construction (“construction discursive”, Stegu 2012, 33). Stegu pleads for assuming a “continuum” (ibid.). Nevertheless, it is possible to list some characteristics useful to distinguish between layman and expert positions. The prototypical experts participating in the debate about regional languages have a special knowledge, a methodological base for their statements, argue coherently, are objective and discuss on a theoretical level. Often, they are not native speakers of the regional language. They want to preserve it from extinction and have a linguistic and professional interest in it. Usually, they favor standardization, because it seems to be the only possibility for language survival. As a result, they often do not agree with the needs of the native or potential/prospective speakers. Laypeople, however, tend to represent these needs, because they are speakers of the regional language, usually persons with this regional background, perhaps with parents or grandparents speaking dialect, who want to learn the regional idiom, or – and this is very typical of the debate on the WWW – speakers of another regional language. As shown above, regional languages are of little “economic use”; usually, the main reason for their preservation is their value as an identity marker (cf. Haar 

 

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mann 1996, 219 and 225). Obviously, native speakers only identify with their specific regional subvariety, therefore, there is a conflict between their needs and the idea of standardization favored by linguists. Laymen often show a high emotional involvement, their arguments are not free from ideologic and religious elements (cf. Osthus 2006b, 1536) and they tend to use scientific commonplaces (cf. Demel 2006, 1523). This distinction between expert and layman suggests a dichotomy that does not correspond to reality. Some linguists actually are native speakers, and many laymen indeed passed some sort of philological training, so the outlined characteristics are only points of reference to place the players on the continuum expert – layman. Meanwhile, if somebody tries to publish an oral variety in a written medium/form, he is directly confronted with the problem of graphization. Access to media thus immediately brings along reflections on norms (cf. Osthus 2006b, 1536) – which of course are not limited to problems of graphization, but orthography and lexicon are very typical areas of laymen language planning and discussion (cf. Kailuweit/Jaeckel 2006, 1547). Already at the turn of the present century, the appearance of small languages on the WWW could be observed. The presence of some diatopic varieties of northern France, subsumed under the glottonym Picard, was rather striking in comparison with other northern dialects, as can be seen in Johnen (2008) and Visser (2008). Nowadays, this kind of “pioneer role” is no longer really visible.

3 Romance small languages in Radio, Television and on the Internet: The example of Picard 3.1 Picard as a “small language” Before talking about the presence of Picard in the media, a discussion about terminology is necessary. As mentioned above, linguists usually use the glottonym Picard to refer to the whole group of dialects. The editors of the present manual chose small language to classify this group, a categorization that already points out important difficulties related to the research topic: In the French région Hauts-de-France (Nord– Pas-de-Calais–Picardie) as well as in the Belgian province Hainaut, part of the population (can) speak regional varieties that typologically form part of a language group called Picard, a glottonym one can already find in the Middle Ages (cf. Dawson 2005, 2). Still, the categorization as language can be discussed. The diatopic varieties in question lack some important characteristics that are typical of such a classification, e.g., standardization. If we take as a basis the already mentioned four parts of language planning outlined by Haugen (1987, 627), here in an adaption from Omdal (2006, 2386), it should be emphasized that even the selection procedures have only recently been undertaken in Picard.  

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Table 1: Four parts of language planning (Omdal 2006, 2386; adaption of Haugen 1987, 627) Form (policy planning)

Function (cultivation)

Society (Status planning)

(1) Selection (Decision procedures) (a) Identification of problem (b) Allocation of norms

(3) Implementation (Educational spread) (a) Correction procedures (b) Feedback and evaluation

Language (Corpus planning)

(2) Codificacion (Standardization procedures) (a) Graphization (b) Grammatication (c) Lexication

(4) Elaboration (Functional development) (a) Terminological modernization (b) Stylistic development

The Picard varieties often are subdivided into at least three groups, a categorization that is linguistically questionable (cf. Carton 1990, 607) but shared by many speakers, particularly those without linguistic background: The northern dialects of the Hainaut are frequently called Rouchi (ibid.). In the département Nord-Pas de Calais, the speakers tend to use the glottonyms Chti or Chtimi (cf. Dawson 2005, 2) and close their dialects off from those of the former région Picardie (départements Aisne, Oise, Somme) which actually are called Picard. This, partly quite subjective, classification has consequences for the presence of the regional varieties in the media, as will be explained further on, and it obviously complicates the selection procedures. There are some attempts of codification, particularly of step (a) graphization (e.g., the système Feller-Carton, cf. Carton 2001, or the Graphie FIPQ, cf. Braillon 1991), but, due to the coexistence of several writing traditions (classifiable as phonetical, analogical, archaical, supradialectal; cf. Dawson 2002), Dawson, one of the most important researchers in this domain, characterizes the language as polygraphique (ibid.). Speakers of regional idioms often prefer to call them languages, because alternative terms such as patois, parler or dialect usually have a very negative connotation in the context of the French language policy (cf. Éloy 2004, 6). In order to have a base for the debate about the signature of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, the government ordered a report, known as Rapport Cerquiglini (Cerquiglini 1999). In this report, Picard indeed was classified as a langue d’oïl, thus in a certain way officially accepted, but this recognition had no substantial advantages for its process of language planning. In spite of the problems outlined above, we will follow this official report and the categorization in the present manual, using language(s) to refer to Picard varieties, completing the designation with the adjectives small, regional or local to emphasize their restricted area of communication – although, thanks to the Internet, this restricted area of communication is no longer restricted in a virtual way. It is very difficult to calculate the number of speakers of Picard: Public bodies in France are known for their general “lack of real interest […] for the regional languages” (Gadet 2006, 1788), thus there are few statistics regarding their speakers.  

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Besides, the regional varieties show a very wide range of diatopic markedness. As elsewhere in France, the Picard speaking region has to be considered as a dialect continuum between primary dialect(s) (cf. Coseriu 1988, 51), different kinds of regional French (français régionaux) and regional accents. The degree of interference between Standard French and Picard is particularly high, because the northern dialects are typologically very similar to Standard French, reason for Éloy to call them collateral languages (langues collatérales; 2004, 10). The number of speakers of the primary dialects is rather low, whereas there are many people who use some regional elements in their speech. Obviously, this diatopic continuum is another reason for problems in the language planning process and also a reason to avoid talking about one Picard language. Finally, the passive knowledge of the dialects is much greater than the active one, so statistics depend substantially on the type of questions. In the recently published Histoire sociale des langues de France (Kremnitz 2013), Éloy/ Jagueneau talk about 500,000 to 1,000,000 speakers based on an investigation by the INED (Institut National d’Études Démographiques) (2013, 538). The use of Picard varieties is typical of private communication (cf. Koch/Oesterreicher 22011). In the north, the regional language is not only present in rural areas, but also in big cities like Lille (cf. Dawson 2004, 5; cf. Pooley 1996; 2004a; 2004b). Although Picard can look back on a scriptae tradition (cf. Éloy/Jagueneau 2013, 538), the use of the regional varieties in written form got more or less lost when the dialect of the Île-de-France started to be used for supraregional communication. After 1945, radio and television controlled by French state institutions (cf. Lüsebrink et al. 2004, 159) denied access to regional languages, even if this situation has been changing gradually since the end of the 20th century (cf. Helfrich 2006, 2263ss.):  

“Depuis 2004, le bénéfice du système d’aide à la presse hebdomadaire régionale, jusque-là réservé aux publications en langue française, a été étendu aux ‘langues régionales en usage en France’. Quant à la loi du 5 mars 2009 relative à la communication audiovisuelle et au nouveau service public de la télévision, elle précise (article 3) que la société nationale de programme France Télévision conçoit et diffuse en région des programmes qui contribuent à la connaissance et au rayonnement des territoires et, le cas échéant, à l’expression des langues régionales. Même si cette obligation est inégalement mise en œuvre, et si la présence à l’antenne des langues régionales peut aller de quelques minutes à plusieurs heures par jour, selon les langues, selon les chaînes ou stations, ou selon qu’il s’agit de la radio ou de la télévision, chaque jour, en particulier outre-mer, plusieurs centaines de programmes sont diffusés sur le territoire français dans une dizaine de langues régionales […]” (North 2011, 32s.).2

2 ‘Since 2004, the benefits of an aid system for weekly regional journals, which until then had been reserved to publications in French, has been extended to ‘regional languages used in France’. The law of 5th March 2009 on audiovisual communication and the new public TV service defines (art. 3) that the national broadcasting company France Télévision creates and broadcasts in the regions programs which contribute to their knowledge and radiation, and, if applicable, to the expression of the regional languages. Even if this obligation is operated unequally and the presence of regional languages can vary from some minutes to several hours a day depending on the channel and on the medium radio or

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Access to the book market was very difficult for economic reasons. Even to publish in dialect journals, authors had to overcome some obstacles. The magazine “Ch’Lanchron”, for example (Ch’Lanchron n.d.-a), publishing in Picard since 1980, always applied very rigid internal linguistic norms (cf. Auger 2003, 18) and accepted no contribution without intensive previous correction procedures. This might not be surprising for persons used to publishing in (scientific) journals, but considering the plurality of Picard varieties and the lack of standardization, this stops many people without the same regional background – the magazine is situated in the Vimeu (Picard) – from publishing in this type of journal, particularly if they have no formal language training.

3.2 Picard in the Media: 20th/21st Century 3.2.1 Internet The digital turn has been identified as a crucial point for the presence of small languages in the media. An overview of the communication forms that are used to publish something in or about small languages always runs the risk to be out-of-date when it is finally published in a scientific article. The use of these communication forms on the Internet changes so quickly that every overview can only give an idea of the trends. Therefore, the following introduction into the presence of Picard in the (new) media – representative also for the majority of other small languages all over the world – obviously cannot be seen as conclusive. On the one hand, already existing institutions use the Internet to draw attention to their activities. These can be dialect journals as the already mentioned Ch’Lanchron (“the dandelion”), local theatres (e.g., Théâtre Louis Richard), dialect associations (e.g., “Union Tertous”, “Chés Diseux d’Achteure”, “Veillées Patoisantes de Tourcoing”) and language associations like the “Université picarde libre de Thiérache”, connected to Jean-Marie Braillon, creator of the Graphie FIPQ (cf. above) and founder of the Picard journal Urchon Pico (numbers online). Even though it might seem strange to make a distinction between dialect and language associations, this decision can be justified in view of the fact that dialect associations focus on the promotion of local texts, customs etc., whereas language associations explicitly want to save the Picard language. Obviously, there is again no clearly defined border between these two categories. It is also possible to find webpages organized by single people who were active in traditional media, publishing books or writing articles for newspapers. The webpage  

 

television, every day, especially overseas, several hundreds of programs are broadcast on the French territory in a dozen regional languages’ (translation by the editors).

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Chtimipicard for example can be attributed to Alain Dawson, a linguist known for two introductions in Picard and Chtimi (2004; 2005). Chtimipicard offers articles in Picard, descriptions of books that have a connection with the Picard region, it collects Internet links about Picard, but also figures as a platform of a language course with references to phonetics, grammar, and orthography of the dialect group. This kind of language course, also mentioned by Johnen (2008), is rather typical of webpages related to small and local languages on the WWW. Whereas Dawson can be considered as an expert in language issues, many texts on the WWW seem to be made by language enthusiasts and laymen. At the beginning, there were quite a lot of private homepages that informed about the existence of Picard, Rouchi and Chti(mi) (cf. Visser 2008, 154). Now, it seems that these private homepages tend to be replaced by blogs (e.g., “Club ed’patos ed’Lyche Lonno”), an evolution that might soon be changed by other more innovative communication forms. Some of these blogs gather collective knowledge such as proverbs or anecdotes: “Une phrase par jour, pour faire vivre notre langage dans la bonne humeur, vos commentaires, anecdotes en patois ou en français sont les bienvenus”3 (Chblog.com). As can be seen in this and other examples, the texts usually are not or not only written in Picard, maybe because this would considerably reduce the number of possible readers, maybe also because not all the authors are able to write whole texts in Picard. Particularly the private initiatives tend to treat only one local variety of Picard. Whereas Dawson tries to integrate Picard and Chti(mi), many others focus on Picard or Chti(mi) or Rouchi. The communication forms mentioned so far can be classified as one-way-communication, although most of the webpages offer interactive tools (cf. Lüsebrink et al. 2004, 245), e.g., the possibility to submit a comment or to become a “member” of the site (cf. Chtimi-picard n.d.). As shown above, it is also one important characteristic for the WWW to offer possibilities for interaction: Since its beginnings, people interested in Picard talked about it in newsgroups and forums. In 2008, Johnen proposed a distinction between newsgroups and forums with regional reference and those without. In the Chti region, one of these forums with regional reference is Ch’ti.org (Ch’ti.org n.d.-a). In this important and long-living forum, the contributions are subdivided into the categories Forum général (tout sujet), Discussions de comptoir, Café littéraire, Le patois Ch’ti, Le Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Les mineurs et la mine, Légendes et contes, Recettes de cuisine, Histoires drôles, Demandes de traductions, Webmaster à votre écoute. These categories show that there is an important link between the regional language and traditional genres such as legends, recipes, songs or funny little stories. Many, but far from all, contributions are written in Chti.  

 

3 ‘One sentence per day, to make our language live in a good mood, your comments, anecdotes in Patois or in French are welcome’ (translation by the editors).

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As a discussion platform focused entirely on language questions, we should mention the forum langue d’oïl that forms part of the “Projet Babel”. As already pointed out by Born (2007), the online encyclopedia Wikipedia nowadays exists in many small languages and also in Picard. In November 2013, Wikipédia – el libe inciclopédie (Wikipédia in langue picarte n.d.) comprised some 2,500 articles, in November 2016 some 3,200. This number of articles certainly has a symbolic value for the speakers, but is rather misleading. Many articles are only fragments (e.g., Djazz ‘Jazz’: “Ech djazz est un ginre éd musique né aux États-Unis ach début dech XX° sièke. Ch’est un mélinge éd blues, éd ragtime pi del musique uropéène”). There are other Wikipedia versions from minority languages which are much more active (e.g., Walloon, more than 14,000 articles in November 2016, Wikipedia e Walon n.d.). Wiki projects are also rather typical of linguistic activity of laymen in the 21st century. The same can be said about glossaries. Wikipedia in Picard offers a link to some of these in Picard (or its dialects). Often, dialect glossaries in the WWW are a “reprint” of some written publication (e.g., Dauby 2008; Lexilogos n.d.), but sometimes they are created for the WWW (cf. Ch’ti.org n.d.-b) by a single person or by a group. As mentioned by Éloy/Jagueneau (2013, 540), the database PICARTEXT is now accessible for analysis of Picard literature created by the Université de Picardie Jules Verne (cf. Université de Picardie Jules Verne n.d.). It is very difficult to compile corpora of text productions on the WWW. The Internet is a problematic resource for corpus research (cf. Mukherjee 2009, 60). Due to its characteristics, compilations of digital texts normally are not representative or exhaustive, nor can they be replicated exactly (ibid.). Search functions offered by commercial systems like Google do not fulfill linguistic demands. In the case of the analysis of dialects that lack standardization, it is nearly impossible to determine all keywords necessary for the research: As shown above, particularly the laymen tend to work with different local designations for their dialect (such as Rouchi, Chti). The glottonym Picard functions badly as identification in the WWW, among other things because it exists also as company name ( is the website of a French producer of frozen food, Picard). Working with keywords such as langue picarde already leads towards certain types of websites (from persons for whom Picard is a language and not a dialect). Enthusiasts of the Picard varieties tend to compensate for this fact using the dialect word for “maintenant”, which is achteure (cf. Dawson 2004, 168) and which seems to have a symbolic value for their identity as speaker of dialect. But, as we could see, there are different pronunciations and orthographic variants (e.g., àc’t’heure; Visser 2008, 153), consequently, the results of research with this key word are very unreliable, too. Quantitative research is therefore complicated, perhaps even impossible, and if conceived as an overview over the activities of dialect speakers on the Internet, very soon out of date. This refers not only to the number of webpages, but also to the communication forms.  

 

 

 

 

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3.2.2 Cinema Picard not only “appeared” in the so-called “new media”: Thanks to the cinema, it has been discovered by an international public with the 2008 film “Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis”. Paradoxically, this fame is limited to the northern varieties subsumed under the glottonym Chti. The discussion about the film in social networks shows its symbolic value for the linguistic community (the following examples are taken from Projet Babel 2008; the orthography of the original has been maintained; bold type highlighting by the author): “Le film de Dany Boon est tout de même une vitrine extraordinaire pour un dialecte d’oïl et même plus généralement pour une langue de France […].”4 “Le succès de ce film peut-il avoir un impact quant à l’étude du picard, peut-il créer un engouement d’ensemble pour une étude de nos langues de France (aucun film avec une telle présence d’un dialecte n’ayant connu un tel succès, imaginez que cela ait marché par exemple pour le provençal ou même le francitan (quand on voit la désolante absence du marseillais parlé dans le Marseille de ‘Plus Belle la Vie’)? Ce film mêle avec bonheur le français et le picard qui sous sa forme chti’ mi ne se résume plus à la seule berceuse du ‘Gros Quinquin’.”5 “Quant à l’impact du film, je pense qu’il sera positif pour les langues régionales. D’abord pour le picard que ce soit en France ou en Belgique, mais aussi pour les autres langues régionales. . . Le succès du film hors de la zone linguistique picarde ne s’explique pas seulement par la forte émigration ch’tie mais, je pense, plutôt grâce au rapport qu’il souligne entre le français officiel et les langues des terroirs.”6

But it is also rather interesting to see that there is a discussion about the linguistic authenticity of the film, because the regional variety really used in Bergues (setting of “Bienvenue chez les Chtis”) is Flemish: “Desormais la ville de bergues sera vue dans la france entiere comme la capitale du chtiland. L’an dernier nos elus avaient obtenu aprés bien des refus l ouverture à titre d’essai de l ‘ouverture de cours de flamand dans quelques villages autour de Bergues. C’est triste à dire mais ce film est peut être le coup de poignard final à notre langue régionale. Avoir les commentaires des

4 ‘Dany Boon’s movie is nevertheless an extraordinary showcase for a dialecte d’oïl and even more generally for a language of France’ (translation by the editors). 5 ‘Can the success of this movie have an impact on the study of Picard, can it create general enthusiasm for the study of one of our languages of France (since no movie with such a presence of a dialect has ever been this successful, imagine this to work for Provençal or even Francitan (as you see the sad absence of spoken Marseillais in the Marseille of ‘Plus belle la vie’)? This movie mixes successfully French and Picard which under its chti’mi variety is no longer limited to the lullaby of ‘Gros Quinquin’’ (translation by the editors). 6 ‘Concerning the impact of the movie, I think it will be positive for the regional languages. Mostly for Picard in France and Belgium, but also for the other regional languages… The success of the movie beyond the linguistic area of Picard cannot only be explained by the important emigration of Picards but rather, I think, by the relation it shows between official French and the regional languages’ (translation by the editors).

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internautes je vois que notre notoriété est completement inexistante Nous avons pourtant des associations qui s’efforcent de nous faire survivre ANVT.ORG ou l ’alliance flandre artois hainaut par exemple Je pense que tout le mal vient du nom de notre région NORD PAS CALAIS Cette région comme les autres lorraine ,bretagne ou auvergne porte un nom depuis plus de mille ans FLANDRE ARTOIS HAINAUT il faudrait d’ abord retrouver notre nom pour retrouver notre fierté!”7 (ibid.).

The example shows that the WWW serves not only as a platform of information but also for all kinds of discussions about small languages. Apart from representing a possible distortion of the linguistic landscape at Bergues, “Bienvenue chez les Chtis” can be situated in a tradition of texts that evoke laughter (cf., e.g., Schmitt 2000) thanks to the introduction of more or less stereotypical “characteristics” of local languages: When the protagonist, a post office official from the South, transferred for disciplinary reasons to the North, arrives in Bergues, he hits one member of his future staff with his car. In their first conversation, he misinterprets the local accent (represented in the glottonym by ) as a fracture of the jaw that prevents the victim of the accident from speaking intelligibly. Later on, during a dinner with colleagues, the whole group exchanges local expressions, mostly talking about swear words and vulgarisms, which is also rather typical of a first and superficial contact with small languages. The film entailed publications in traditional media, such as “Le Chti pour les Nuls” (Gryson/Poulet 2009), but also a debate in translation sciences (e.g., Reutner 2011a, 2011b).  

 

3.2.3 Television and radio Despite this success, the presence of Picard (or Chti) in other media such as television or radio is still rather insignificant. Some chronicles from Alain Dawson are broadcast by Radio France Bleu (“Les mots de chez nous”, “Le kokinkache”, “Kmint qu’in dit? (la leçon de chti)”, “Si t’es d’ichi, parle comme ichi” (avec José Ambre), “L’agenda chti”, cf. Dawson n.d.). José Ambre offers “L’HOROCHTI”, l’horoscope en Chti, also on Radio France Bleu Nord (France Bleu n.d., available as podcast). As shown above, there are some dialect journals such as Ch’Lanchron and Urchon Pico (Fédération INSANNE n.d.), nowadays partly accessible in a digital version.

7 ‘From now on, the town of Bergues will be seen in all of France as the capital of Chtiland. Last year, our deputies had obtained after many refusals the opening of a Flemish course in some villages around Bergues. It is sad to say, but this movie might be the final stab to our regional language. Having read the comments of Internet users, I see that our notoriety is completely inexistent. Yet we do have associations struggling for our survival, ANVT.ORG or the Alliance Flandre Artois Hainaut for example. I think all the bad comes from the name of our region NORD PAS DE CALAIS. This region, like the others, Lorraine, Bretagne or Auvergne, has had a name for more than a thousand years: FLANDRE ARTOIS HAINAUT. We should first regain our name to regain our pride!’ (translation by the editors).

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The presence on television seems to be reduced to a few isolated, rather popular and simplistic programs such as the following, announced by the dialect journal Ch’Lanchron: “‘La Cinquième’ (chaîne de télévision française) a choisi de tourner un sujet sur les langues régionales présentes dans l’Internet. C’est le picard qui a été sélectionné, et tout particulièrement le site de Ch’Lanchron! Lionel Boisseau journaliste du magazine ‘Net plus ultra’ s’entretient donc avec Jean-Luc Vigneux et d’autres animateurs dans une émission qui sera diffusée le samedi 25 octobre 1997 à 9 h 55 et rediffusée le mardi 28 octobre (à 10 h 15). Durée du sujet: 4mn (sur 26mn d’émission). Ne le manquez donc pas!” (Ch’Lanchron n.d.-b).8

Besides, it is possible to find some private “broadcasting” outlets: On the website “Chespicards”, Jean-Pierre Semblat, who also wrote chronicles for the newspaper A ISNE N OUVELLE , offers some videos, chansons and fables in Chti (Chespicards 2012; Chespicards n.d.).

3.2.4 Comics Although the objective of the present manual is to focus on tertiary communication, it seems well worth it to cast an eye on a genre published in traditional written form, the comic, because nowadays, some of these projects have quite a lot of echo on the WWW. In France, the comic (bande dessinée) is so important that it is considered as the 9e art. This importance leads to the fact that there are translations of important comics – such as Asterix or Tintin – into local languages. These translations also exist in Picard (cf. Astérix, le site officiel n.d.). In view of the division of the Picard linguistic landscape in three parts, one of the most interesting projects is the volume “Ch’village copè in II (Le grand fossé)”, because its aim is to reconcile the linguistic division of the Picard landscape in a story that talks about a reconciliation of a village: “Après le succès en 2004 du premier album d’Astérix en picard (plus de 100000 exemplaires vendus!), nous avons donc demandé à notre équipe de traducteurs, haute en couleurs, de se remettre au travail en mettant la barre encore plus haut: concilier la langue du nord avec celle du sud!” (Goscinny/Uderzo 2007, Preface).9

8 ‘‘La Cinquième’ (French TV station) decided to produce a piece on the regional languages present on the Internet. Picard has been chosen, and more particularly the site of Ch’Lanchron! Lionel Boisseau, journalist at the magazine ‘Net plus ultra’, will therefore have a conversation with Jean-Luc Vigneux and other hosts in a show which will be broadcast on Saturday, October 25, 1997, at 9:55, and again on Tuesday, October 28, at 10:15. Running time of the piece: 4 minutes (of 26 minutes in total). Don’t miss it!’ (translation by the editors). 9 ‘After the success in 2004 of the first Asterix album in Picard (more than 100,000 copies sold!), we have thus asked our very original team of translators to restart work raising the bar even higher: reconciling the language of the North with the language of the South!’ (translation by the editors).

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3.3 Consequences for the evolution of Picard Despite the success of comics translated in Picard, it is obvious that the most important text production takes place on the Internet. Now, what could be the consequences for the evolution of Picard? At the beginning, linguists and laymen saw a possible stimulus for the evolution and implementation of norms in this (or other) local languages: “For this group [scil. speakers of Picard living in the world] the Internet is a medium to counteract language death. Besides, as can be seen particularly in Internet forums with regional background, speakers of different regional varieties communicate with each other or comment suggested translations in discussion threads about translation. For a language with dialectal fragmentation, to a great extend forced back to privacy, this contact is very important for the development of a koiné” (Johnen 2008, 140).10

Johnen, for example, thinks – or thought in 2008 – that the Internet could contribute to a formation of a koiné. This assumption can be put down to everything we know about the importance of (traditional) media for the standardization of languages. But, as we have seen, new media are very different from traditional ones. Due to their characteristics, the conditions for status and corpus planning are not the same. The fact that text production on the WWW is not followed conclusively by standardization tendencies can be easily exemplified by means of the use of terminology in the Picard Wikipedia. As Picard equivalent for “external links”, for exemple, in December 2013 it was possible to find: Chés adréches à savoér, Loéyins iperteskes (por chés glincheus [‘for web surfer’, J.V.]), Loïens intarnètes, Loyens éstérnes, loyens intarnètes, Loyens iperteskes, Loyens ipérteskes, Loÿins hiperteskes, Loÿins intarnètes, Loÿins internètes (cf. Wikipedia in Picard). So there is a great orthographic and terminological irregularity which could already be observed in 2011. There seems to be no real evolution towards standardization. Picard language enthusiasts who dedicate themselves to corpus planning tend to follow the French Anglicism policy. The Picard Wikipedia article informatike () includes suggestions to replace the English words hardware and software. For hardware, the alternatives proposed are Ard’wère, but also manicrake and acrinkillache informatike. For software, it suggests sof’wère, but also businkillaches, which seems to be a creation based on the verb busier (réfléchir; Dawson 2004, 172). Further in the text, there appears also an adapta-

10 ‘Das Internet ist für diese Gruppe [scil. speakers of Picard living in the world] ein Medium, dem Sprachverlust entgegenzuwirken. Zum anderen zeigt sich besonders in den Internetforen mit Regionalbezug, dass Sprecher verschiedener diatopischer Varianten miteinander auf Pikardisch kommunizieren oder wie bei der Diskussion um Übersetzungen ins Pikardische über die Übersetzungsvorschläge metakommunizieren. Für eine dialektal fragmentierte Sprache, die weitgehend auf den Nähebereich zurückgedrängt wurde, ist dieser Kontakt zur Ausbildung einer Koinévarietät von großer Wichtigkeit’ (translation above by the author).

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tion of the French logiciel, microlodjichièl, and also without d- in logichiel. Here again, there is no real coherence in the suggestions, which can be considered as a sort of corpus planning before there had been a real status planning. The suggestions that are supposed to replace the Anglicism are very difficult to understand and, as could be seen in the example businkillaches – microlodjichièl, it is very difficult to use the creations for the formation of compound words or derivations. This can be explained in view of the importance of a linguistic identity – the use of Anglicism could dilute this identity – but from a terminological point of view, the creations are far too isolated (linguistically) to be successful in real communication. Now, do new media offer perspectives for the evolution or protection of local languages? And what are the linguistic and methodological approaches that could be interesting for the research? It is very obvious that new media allow a transnational communication in and about local languages. This could be important for language communities suffering from migration and globalization phenomena. The Internet serves as a space for solidarity and exchange between speakers of different local languages. The analysis of these spatial implications of new media is an approach for investigation projects with the focus on Language and Space (Auer/Schmidt 2010; with an explicit focus on France, e.g., Bastian/Burr 2008; Gerstenberg/Polzin-Haumann/ Osthus 2012). In some studies, the Internet is considered as a kind of ecological niche for endangered languages. This ecolinguistic (cf. Fill 1993; Calvet 1999) perspective could be found in the symposium “Multilingualism (re-)framed: Ecological perspectives on language use, representation and identity”, at the 15th World Congress of Applied Linguistics, organized by Döring/Fill/Trampe (not yet published) in 2008. As discussed above, the Internet is used by many laymen to talk about and to communicate in local languages. The laymen’s perspective is very important in every language planning process, because no measure can be successful without the collaboration of the speakers:  

“Si la linguistique appliquée veut contribuer à résoudre des problèmes de langue(s) et de communication, elle devrait savoir ce que les non-linguistes pensent de ces domaines parce qu’on ne peut influencer le comportement de personnes que si l’on trouve un accès plus ou moins direct à leur manière de penser”11 (Stegu 2012, 33).

Of course, it is also possible to investigate this perspective with traditional methods such as questionnaires, but the dynamics are much more obvious on the Internet (cf., e.g., Hardy/Herling/Patzelt 2015).  

11 ‘If Applied Linguistics wants to contribute to resolve problems of language(s) and communication, it should be aware of what non-linguists think about these areas, because one can only influence on people’s behavior when finding a more or less direct access to their way of thinking’ (translation by the editors).

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As in the case of national languages, the analysis of minority languages on the WWW can also focus on problems of the transfer from orality to literacy (e.g., Visser 2008).  

4 Conclusions and desiderata Media were always very important for the evolution and standardization of languages. Whereas traditional media favored the implementation of national languages and contributed to the decline of small and regional ones, the Internet serves as a communication platform for all kinds of languages. It is often used by laypeople. The perspective of these laymen is very essential for language planning in the context of minority languages. With regard to the importance of the Internet for standardization and survival of endangered languages, early studies tend to transfer insights from the analysis of traditional media to these new forms of communication. This transfer ignores the different conditions of communication. Substantial ideas about the effects of the Internet on the evolution of small languages are supposed to come from studies of folk linguistics and the analysis of the Internet as a virtual space. In any case, all kinds of analyses require interdisciplinary approaches that take into account the importance of media for communication.

5 References Androutsopoulos, Jannis (2010), The study of language and space in media discourse, in: Peter Auer/ Jürgen Erich Schmidt (edd.), Language and Space. An International Handbook of Linguistic Variation, vol. 1, Berlin/New York, de Gruyter, 740–759. Antos, Gerd (1996), Laien-Linguistik. Studien zu Sprach- und Kommunikationsproblemen im Alltag. Am Beispiel von Sprachratgebern und Kommunikationstraining, Tübingen, Niemeyer. Astérix, le site officiel (n.d.), Astérix en Picard, (09.11.2016). Auer, Peter/Schmidt, Jürgen Erich (edd.) (2010), Language and Space. An International Handbook of Linguistic Variation, vol. 1, Berlin/New York, de Gruyter. Auger, Julie (2003), Picard parlé, picard écrit: comment s’influencent-ils l’un l’autre?, in: Jacques Landrecies/Aimé Petit (edd.), Picard d’hier et aujourd’hui. Actes du colloque de Centre d’Études Médiévales et Dialectales de Lille 3, 4–6 octobre 2001, (Bien dire et bien aprandre – Revue de médiévistique, numéro spécial), Lille, Université Charles-de-Gaulle, 17–32. Bastian, Sabine/Burr, Elisabeth (edd.) (2008), Mehrsprachigkeit in frankophonen Räumen, München, Meidenbauer. Boon, Dany (2008), Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis (film). Born, Joachim (2007), Wikipedia. Darstellung und Chancen minoritärer romanischer Varietäten in einer virtuellen Enzyklopädie, in: Martin Döring/Dietmar Osthus/Claudia Polzin-Haumann (edd.), Sprachliche Diversität: Praktiken – Repräsentationen – Identitäten, Bonn, Romanistischer Verlag, 173–189. Braillon, Jean-Marie (1991), La graphie FIPQ du picard, Lemé, Sudoc.

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Calvet, Louis-Jean (1999), Pour une écologie des langues du monde, Paris, Plon. Carton, Fernand (1990), Französisch: Areallinguistik I. Nördliche Dialekte b) Pikardie, in: Günter Holtus/Michael Metzeltin/Christian Schmitt (edd.), Lexikon der Romanistischen Linguistik, vol. V,1: Französisch, Tübingen, Niemeyer, 605–615. Carton, Fernand (2001), Règles de transcription Feller-Carton, Linguistique Picarde 41, Fascicule 160:2. Cerquiglini, Bernard (1999), Les langues de la France. Rapport au Ministre de l’Éducation Nationale, de la Recherche et de la Technologie et à la Ministre de la Culture et de la Communication,

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Gabriele Knauer

16 Audiovisual Latino Media in the US: The Emergence of Bilingual Media Text Genres in the Interface between Language Contact, Language Policy and Translation Abstract: The purpose of Latino media research is to identify, describe and classify the contact-related media text genres production of the Spanish-language broadcast television network Univisión since 2004 combining Luhmann’s Systems Theory approach (1988; 42009) with text linguistics (Gansel 2011), translation studies and sociolinguistic concepts like bilingualism and language ideologies (Androutsopoulos 2007; del Valle 2007). It could be argued that the Spanish-language mass media in the US form an important social system (Luhmann 42009) in which bilingual actors (producers and consumers) carry out linguistic actions by using specific normative concepts and ideologies. As an entity of language policy, they have created the Manuales de estilo, a text genre which proposes the basic conditions for the standardization of Spanish (cf. NAHJ 2003; AP 2014) as an important prerequisite of a monolingual medial communication practice and, furthermore, the establishment of this minority language in the US. Against the background of their experiences in bilingual everyday communication, however, they create diverse bilingual practices of media communication, which are addressed to a growing bilingual audience in the US (audience design) and gain more and more acceptance (even among journalists and linguists). An explicit indication of this development is the apparent bilingual disposition of some media text genres broadcast at Univisión, which is mainly due to audiovisual translation and, in contrast to literature and film, to the ideological language background of monolingüismo. As the bilingual Latino addressees of those media set trends, which lead to the quantitative increase of English and bilingual Latino media, they have to be regarded as actors of language policy, as well. In this way, they are enabled to participate in different social systems, in this case, the English- and Spanish-language mass media in the US.  

Keywords: bilingualism, language policy, Latino media, Spanish-language media in the US, systems theory, television, text linguistics, translation studies, United States  

DOI 10.1515/9783110314755-017

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1 Introduction The use of English in television programs for Latinos1 in the US is a phenomenon that has paved its way into Spanish-language mass media in the last few years. A possible explanation for this are the results of the 2010 Census: 50.5 million Hispanics live in the United States (16.3% of the total population), 60% of them were born in the US and thus speak English as their mother tongue, 82% of them speak both English and Spanish.2 This stands in contrast with the idea of a homogeneous Latin community (pan-latinidad) in which all members speak Spanish and a majority share the same cultural values (Catholic, familiar, traditional, conservative, emotional, passionate about music and dance), which the Spanish-language mass media has transmitted until now. However, this ethnic community is not at all socially and linguistically homogenous, but completely heterogeneous.3 One of the main reflections of this situation is the present Latino media landscape, which is becoming more and more complex: In addition to English, Spanish and bilingual print media, Spanish-language audiovisual media4 are developing new strategies oriented towards bilingual and bicultural persons, programs and channels dismissing the idea that Spanish language is the single symbol for latinidad which doesn’t mean necessarily that Spanish is no longer a symbol of ethnic identity. This is undoubtedly a business model in which economic criteria, or more precisely the media struggle for audience ratings, determine the use of languages and the representation of hybrid, transnational and multi-ethnic identities, which in fact are a reality in Latin America and the Caribbean. It is the economic power of Hispanics and the Hispanic market, which has significantly increased the “value” of the Spanish language for commercial marketing directed to Latinos.5 The growing intergenera-

1 With reference to media, there exist various terms like Latino media, Hispanic media, Ethnic media, Spanish-language media and Latino-oriented media. In this study, the terms Hispanic and Latino will be used as synonyms. However, their use differs in accordance with the context. The term Hispanic, for instance, is preferred in government documents or public institutions. 2 “Which language is more dominant is a function of immigrant generation. Among immigrant Hispanics, the majority (61%) are Spanish dominant, one-third (33%) are bilingual and just 6% are English dominant. By contrast, among second-generation Hispanics, Spanish dominance falls to 8%, but the share who are bilingual rises to 53% and the share English dominant increases to 40%. By the third generation, almost all Hispanics are either bilingual (29%) or English dominant (69%)” (Taylor et al. 2012). 3 López/González-Barrera (2013) observe that more and more Latinos prefer English as well as English news. 4 Due to the use of English and the Americanization of the television programs, Spanish media have made efforts to reach out to bilingual Latinos since the 1990s. Yet, print media were the first in being commercially successful with this strategy, e.g., the first bilingual magazine Latina Magazine and English magazines such as Hispanic, Hispanic Business, Latino Leaders, Urban Latin, etc. 5 More than 100 advertising agencies devote themselves to this market segment in Spanish (cf. Colombi 2012).  

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tional bilingualism of Latinos born in the US established by the 2010 Census, leads to the increasing use of bilingual marketing strategies (cf. Colombi 2012 regarding print media). The data collected in this project during the period from 2004 to 2012 shows that even political marketing and reporting in audiovisual media follow this trend, closely connected to the growth of the political power of Latinos. Androutsopoulos (2007, 226) argues that it is a sort of “marketing appeal of hybridity”, which results from a close relation between commercialization and bilingualism, celebrated first of all in comedy, mainstream cinema and literature. It might be reasonably assumed that the tendency for bilingual media production and consumption is due to the fact that it takes place in a context of increasing social and individual bilingualism, which can be considered as an alternative to assimilation and diglossia and shows that the US is becoming a bilingual and bicultural society. A basic precondition for this phenomenon is the existence of Latino media as a channel of public communication (cf. Castañeda 2008). First of all, it is a significant fact that Latino journalists, even if they are bilingual, can mostly be characterized by a monolingual and standard-oriented use of Spanish, which is based on their self-conception as an institution for the construction of the US-American Latino community (cf. Knauer 2005). This does not automatically exclude bilingual language practices from public communication, but they are mostly represented as individual practices without institutional significance (cf. Androutsopoulos 2007, 207ss.) as is the case with Latino media in the US, although since their emergence in the 19th century, there exist, apart from English- and Spanish-language mass media, so-called bilingual media (cf. Cervantes 2005). Sociocultural transformation processes such as 1) transnational movements of people and information, 2) the changing conditions for media production and reception in which media become accessible to marginalized groups as well and, therefore, 3) the growing integration and participation of these groups in social processes, have fundamentally changed this historical image within the US by establishing the use of multiple languages in public spaces, as in the urban linguistic landscapes of American cities such as Los Angeles, Miami or Washington (cf. Franco-Rodríguez 2008; Yanguas 2009), but also in the bilingual presentation of the government’s webpages, translation services in public administration, etc. However, mass media play a comparatively small role in the (socio) linguistic research on Spanish (and English) in the US, which in relation to bilingualism focuses on the everyday use of language(s).6 In the case of the book  

6 Cf. López Morales (2009); Otheguy/Zentella (2012); Silva-Corvalán (1994) and Zentella (1997). The interfaces between everyday language use and media communication can be found above all in diachronic studies; e.g., studies on the press by and for Hispanics in New Mexico (Cervantes 2005; Fernández-Gibert 2001; 2005; 2009), in language and variety contact including interferences (Knauer 2007), Spanglish (Betti 2008), codeswitching in the press (Mahootian 2005), advertisement for Latinos (Colombi 2012), the question of the español internacional (Knauer 2005; Patzelt 2013) and in studies of discourse linguistics on central identificatory labels like hispano and latino (Knauer 2008a, c).  

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as a medium or literature, Callahan (2004) argues that bilingual practices tend to be considered imitative, artificial or unauthentic, because they are not characterized by spontaneity as in everyday language, but have a high degree of planning and control, thus not being authentic enough for sociolinguistic research. In principle, this is also true in the case of screenplays in which so-called fictitious orality is constructed by inventing protagonists that show intentionally-created linguistic peculiarities like codeswitching as an element of content design (cf. Blum 2013). Recent findings also show that – an audiovisual medium like television always has a higher degree of authenticity, because its specific conditions of production do not permit the complete elimination of spontaneity, as in the case of live broadcasts; – further sociolinguistic concepts are needed in order to establish links to other disciplines like media studies and media linguistics, as the approach proposed here is transdisciplinary; i.e., it results from the complex definition of the concept of media itself (cf. Stöckl 2012). The resulting fundamental question is how the integration of English in political communication, which has been practiced in the last years at the Spanish-language broadcast network Univisión, influenced the emergence of audiovisual media text genres. The study’s aim is to detect the text patterns used in this process as well as the external factors that determine them.

2 Analysis of Latino mass media in the US In terms of transdisciplinarity, the approach includes multiple dimensions that correlate with the sociological, cultural and code-based definitions of the term “medium” (cf. Stöckl 2012, 16) and that take into consideration the social actors operating in the domain of the mass media as well as the level of text and language. This kind of transdisciplinarity is related to qualitative analysis that combines an external contextualization and an internal description of linguistic and textual manifestations of bilingualism in the Latino media, which suggest the emergence of bilingual media text genres7 and their institutionalization in public communication by bilingual actors (journalists, spectators). It can be expected that two basic strategies are operating in this context: the separation and/or synthesis of two

7 Wahl (2007) applies this idea to movies: He employs the adjective “polyglot” for films, in which the use of several languages is an element of design not only formally, but also in terms of content like, for example, the ongoing conflict between mother and daughter in the film “Real Women have Curves” (cf. Knauer 2008b).

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languages or varieties (US-American Spanish and English) on the macro- and microstructural level of media text genres.8

2.1 Latino Media as a Social System Starting from a linguistic point of view oriented to cultural studies, Stöckl (2012) considers media to be a social institution for the production of texts/messages and thus focuses on text production without specifying further the question of their external context. This is a theoretical question, which until now has been discussed in text linguistics by assigning text genres to so-called areas of communication. Yet, the results do not even approximately reflect the complexity of social communication processes. A possible way is to look for synergies between text linguistics and Luhmann’s Systems Theory approach (1988; 42009), according to which areas of communication like the mass media can be conceptualized as social systems with specific 1) functions (self-reference) such as information, education, entertainment; 2) consumers; 3) integration/participation and topics (reference to external factors). For text linguistics, this approach is fruitful, because social systems generate meaning and operate or communicate on multiple levels. According to Gansel (2011, 30), this kind of exploration of text genres is possible if communication is seen as a triple selection of information, message and understanding, which not only leads to the development and reproduction of new text genres, but also favors system-specific text patterns. At the same time, the question arises of how those text genres can be functionally classified in the communication of a social system. The concrete synergies between text linguistics and the Systems Theory consist in the possibility to combine the different dimensions of communication and the concomitant generation of meaning of a social system in the analysis (cf. 2.3). For example, the subject dimension can be combined with the content structure and the linguistic structure or the social dimension can be combined with function and situation (cf. Gansel 2011, 39). However, Luhmann (1988, 16) does not consider only social systems to be systems of meaning that have their own way of operating, but also psychic systems, which, being systems of consciousness, think, perceive and feel. Here, they will be regarded as moving forces of meaning production within a social system and as observers of the other social systems. Latino media as such can be regarded as a social system, which emerged and developed in a stable situation of language contact. Its characteristics are linked to the mono- and/or bilingual communication of social actors (psychic systems), who

8 Androutsopoulos (2007, 210) argues that “minority media offer monolingual output in the minority language (or dedicated slots for minority language content), but languages apparently remain separated”.

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produce and consume media text genres that correspond to specific language ideologies. In terms of the business model mentioned above, there exists a relationship of interdependency between media producers and consumers as two groups of social actors that demand a high degree of planning and control of text production with regard to audience design.9 Nevertheless, it makes the results appear authentic within the observed social system, since producers (and consumers) are usually bilingual (cf. López Morales 2009 regarding the individual national groups). For that reason, the outcome of this process – the audiovisual media products in the form of monolingual and/or bilingual media text genres – represents both the social and the individual bilingualism of the actors.

2.2 Media Actors as Social Actors Despite the American language policy regarding the so-called heritage languages like Spanish, which has been intolerant from the beginning (cf. de la Cuesta 2009; del Valle/García 2013), Latino journalists reveal a high level of (bilingual) linguistic professionalism and education. They form a group that substantially shapes the relieve social of Latinos, something that Moreno Fernández (2004) considers to be a crucial precondition for the development of the US towards a bilingual and bicultural country, namely bilingual speakers who are able to separate languages and to avoid language mixing as required by the Manuales de estilo. This specific kind of linguistically-professional behavior makes them important actors of language policy regarding Spanish in the United States “con poder de prescripción” [‘with prescriptive power’] (Moreno Fernández 2004, 3). They move within two domains of language policy: language planning and the handling of multilingualism, i.e., the establishment of a written and spoken standard of Spanish in the United States and its preservation in a diglossic situation with English as the dominant language.

2.2.1 Language Ideologies of the Media Actors The analysis of the professional linguistic behavior of the media actors in the corpus reveals that its particularity results from the reproduction of existing language ideolo-

9 This term can be considered as a bridging term to media studies. It reflects the media’s dilemma to reach a wider target audience with habitual strategies in terms of media product design, but differentiating themselves at the same time from the competition with other mainstream media (cf. Gnach 2011, 264). Apart from the use of conceptional orality, the utilization of several languages or bilingual strategies can be seen as a means to attract attention, as well.

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gies10 regarding the non-mediatized everyday language, but also in the creation of new language ideologies. Thus, above all the already mentioned Manuales de estilo, but also some descriptive studies on Spanish media language in the US discuss the avoidance of: 1) transfer from English (always using the concept of Spanglish with its negative connotations), and 2) regionalisms along with 3) the promotion of an español internacional (cf. AP 2014; Betti 2008; NAHJ 2003; Patzelt 2013; Velásquez 2007). This is a discussion led and influenced by Spain against the background of the language ideologies of monolingüismo and panhispanismo, which is being conducted in an institutional network formed by the Real Academia Española (del Valle 2011), the Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española, the Instituto Cervantes, Fundación del Español Urgente as well as the Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the Observatorio de la lengua española y de las culturas hispánicas en los EEUU. The special contribution of Spanish-language mass media in the USA consists in creating and promoting a neutral and generally accepted Spanish with some US-American peculiarities as a basis for both a regional and an international standard (cf. Knauer 2005; Moreno Fernández 2004). In view of the fact that this standard remains to be described, the question arises, what kind of relationship exists between non-mediatized everyday language and media language as an indicator for the above-mentioned authenticity of the studied media. While from a sociolinguistic perspective the everyday language of the Latinos is understood as “para referirse al español que hablamos todos en Norteamérica, pero en sus vertientes más informales y populares, al habla del hogar, la tienda, la iglesia, el pasillo y la calle, sobre todo cuando es usada por hispanohablantes que normalmente leen y escriben en español con poca frecuencia, pero que lo utilizan con regularidad y fluidez en sus formas orales” (Otheguy 2009, 222).11

Francisco Moreno Fernández defines its future relationship to media language in the following way:

10 Del Valle (2007, 19s.) defines language ideologies as “sistemas de ideas que articulan nociones del lenguaje, las lenguas, el habla y/o la comunicación con formaciones culturales, políticas y/o sociales específicas. Aunque pertenecen al ámbito de las ideas […], también hay que señalar que se producen y reproducen en el ámbito material de las prácticas lingüísticas y metalingüísticas, de entre las cuales presentan para nosotros interés especial las que exhiben un alto grado de institucionalización” [‘systems of ideas which articulate concepts of language use, of languages, of speech and/or of communication with specific cultural, political and/or social shapes. Even though they belong to the area of ideas, it has to be mentioned that they originate and are reproduced in the material field of linguistic and metalinguistic practices, of which those presenting a high degree of institutionalization are of particular interest for us’] (translation by the editors). 11 “to refer to Spanish as we all speak it in Northern America, but to its most informal and popular varieties, to the language used at home, at the shops, at church, in corridors and on the streets, mostly when it is used by Hispanophones who rarely read and write in Spanish, but use it regularly and fluently in its oral forms” (translation by the editors).

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“Con el paso del tiempo, lo natural sería que se fraguara y estabilizara una variedad de español característica de los EEUU en la que, sobre la base de un español americano, se reunieran elementos de diversas áreas hispánicas, así como componentes derivados del contacto con el inglés, los más difundidos y aceptados por todas las comunidades hispanas de la Unión. Esta variedad recibiría actitudes positivas que permitirían a los hablantes concebir una equiparación del español con el inglés, como instrumento cualificado para la comunicación social. Asimismo, esa variedad del español estadounidense sería la utilizada mayoritariamente en los medios de comunicación social. En cierto modo, tal realidad ya está ocurriendo en las cadenas CNN y Univisión, que buscan soluciones neutras o aceptadas de forma general, incluyendo algunos usos que se van haciendo habituales en los EEUU” (Moreno Fernández 2004, 5s.).12

It is apparently right to say that there exists a close correlation between the linguistic practices of Latinos in everyday communication and the mediatized communication addressed to them, since the usually bilingual Latino journalists know these practices from their personal communication experience in other social systems like everyday life and apply or avoid them competently in their professional social system or communicative domain. This applies especially to linguistic (syntactic) variables of everyday language that are partly caused by contact (e.g., the frequent use of subject pronouns, estar + gerund, tenses, pragmatic markers, etc.), which would speed up grammaticalization processes and would evoke a growing acceptance of these linguistic forms because of their use in public communication. In contrast to everyday language, in the case of the journalists, translations (from English news) reinforce this tendency as well. The language use of Univisión has shown parallels to the previously mentioned characteristics of everyday Latino language, since it was clearly based on the traditions of Spanish as a historical individual language in which transfer from English was (supposed to be) systematically eliminated. The background was the above-mentioned transnational and homogenizing conceptualization of Spanish-dominant target groups (in the United States and Hispanic America) who were to be reached using a Mexican Spanish oriented standard. The latter was also constructed as the most important symbol of ethnic identity and a requirement for belonging to Hispanic elites. Given economic and political constraints, and in particular the struggle for ratings between the English- and Spanish-language mainstream media, Univisión maintains its transnational orientation, but shifting in the perception of the national target group of Latinos: Univisión gives up its homogenizing view in favor of a stronger localization  

12 ‘With time passing, it would be natural that a characteristic variety of Spanish of the US would establish and stabilize itself which, on the basis of an American Spanish, would unite elements from diverse Hispanophone areas as well as components derived from contact with English, those most widespread and accepted by all Hispanic communities of the Union. This variety would receive positive attitudes which would allow the speakers to conceive an equalization of Spanish and English, as a qualified instrument for social communication. Likewise, this variety of US Spanish would be the one used by the majority of social communication media. In a way, this reality is already happening in the channels CNN and Univisión which are searching for neutral or generally accepted solutions, including some usages that are becoming common in the US’ (translation by the editors).

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with particular focus on the social variable of “immigrant generation” and also starts to see Latinos as consumers and citizens in the US. As a result, it becomes functionally more differentiated as a social system concerning information, education and enabling the Spanish-speaking Latinos to participate in the social system of the US. Thus, Univisión has become more and more oriented towards English-speaking and bilingual Latinos by integrating English in its programs. Its strategy consists in combining the bilingualism of the actors (journalists, addressees) and media products (media text genre) with a strict separation of languages13. As indicated above, this process is subject to economic criteria and thus takes place against the background of another language ideology that perceives language and bilingualism as a recurso económico [‘economic resource’] and is regarded not only as specifically US-American (cf. del Valle/Villa 2007).

2.3 The Relatedness of Latino Media to Code Now, these findings of language policy and ideology will be related to the diversity of the bilingual practice of medial communication, which is obviously gaining more and more acceptance amongst media actors. Thus, the characterization of the external conditions under which these media texts are produced and consumed is followed by the analysis of their concrete code-related disposition, starting from the contemplation of the medium as a system of signs and rules of its use (cf. Stöckl 2012). The corpus consists of journalistic texts (“Debate presidencial televisado”, “Gran Encuentro”) and advertising texts (anuncios electorales) of Univisión.14 They are part of the totality of text types that were produced in relation to the subject of the presidential elections in the United States from 2004 to 2012.15 In order to describe them, the concept of what is a text must be understood in a broader way including the interdependency of linguistic signs with other semiotic systems used in the audiovisual media (cf. Burger/Luginbühl 42014, 407), because television transmits its texts visually and acoustically and also written verbal text elements are becoming increasingly important in this context.

13 In contrast, the also Spanish-language broadcast network Telemundo has been celebrating for years the public acceptance of hybridization processes in terms of Spanglish and audiovisual translation (subtitling of telenovelas), which Narvaja de Arnoux (2008) identifies as nuestra lengua es mestiza, also with regard to the Spanish spoken in the United States. 14 Instead of text types or classes, Burger/Luginbühl (42014, 93) define so-called text areas at a general level, including the journalistic and advertising genres listed here. 15 The corpus consists of 5 “Debates presidenciales televisados” of the presidential election campaigns (2004, 2012), 2 “Grandes Encuentros” of the presidential election campaign (2012), 1 “Gran Encuentro” of the gubernatorial election campaign in Colorado (2014), 99 anuncios electorales of the presidential election campaigns (2004, 2008, 2012).

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The study focuses on the analysis of the verbal level in spoken and written modality, i.e., the language use and the design of text genres in the continuum of mono- and bilingual practices of speaking and writing, linguistic variables of Spanish in the United States as well as audiovisual translation practices in the media; the visual level with regard to the manifestations of written language that appear there (subtitles, text in the picture) and speakers as media actors.

For recurring themes such as presidential elections, and concomitant intentions like the struggle for votes, dramaturgical patterns or production patterns are created, representing habitual process and product structures (cf. Gnach 2011). Their code-related character will be described in the following. The method applied here consists in the combination of the Systems Theory and text linguistics (cf. 2.1) as well as the distinction between a macro- and a microstructural level of text analysis, which is important regarding textuality, i.e., the coherence and the cohesion of the examined text genres.

2.3.1 “Debate presidencial televisado” (Televised Presidential Debate) Social dimension/situation/function: Since 2004, this text genre of the English language media has been broadcast at Univisión with a simultaneous translation into Spanish. Media interpreting is a special form of simultaneous interpreting in live television broadcasts. Its basic conditions include specific expectations of the target audience such as a quick and perfect interpretation as well as a high pressure to perform for the interpreter in view of the virtual and numerically large audience (cf. Snell-Hornby 21999, 311ss.). Thus, the interpreter can be regarded as an important new actor in Latino media. Both candidates answer questions from the presenter and the audience about which they were informed in advance. Therefore, the answers can be considered prepared statements, which are supposed to inform and educate the recipients as potential voters in the field of politics. Subject dimension/macro structure: The contributions of the two presidential candidates as well as the comments and questions of the moderator are simultaneously interpreted into Spanish. There is one individual interpreter assigned to each active participant of the debate. It is, however, a bilingual audiovisual media text genre that can be considered a parallel text,16 meaning that it consists of a combination of the

16 In this context, a parallel text is not seen as an original text that was produced independently, but as a translation into the other language or rather a text that is more or less equivalent as far as the translation is concerned (cf. Snell-Hornby 21999, 184ss.).

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oral source and target texts, the latter being perceptible only at the acoustic level but equivalent at the level of the content. As of now, the phenomenon of parallel texts has only been studied on the basis of written texts in translation studies. On the visual level, the contributions are related to specific speakers in the case of the source text. The voices of the interpreters, in contrast, are brought in from offstage. Subject dimension/microstructure: The comparative analysis of both text parts also reveals a range of grammatical interferences and lexical uncertainties that are typical of simultaneous interpretations, but which partly also reflect the developments of Spanish in the US and which belong to the characteristics of bilingual text genres as far as the textual micro-level is concerned. One of the findings is the frequent use of subject pronouns in analogy to the English source text: Kerry: I respect their views. I completely respect their views. I am a Catholic. And I grew up learning how to respect those views. Interpreter: Yo respeto el punto de vista totalmente. Yo soy católico. Yo crecí aprendiendo a respetar estos puntos de vista. (3rd Televised Presidential Debate 2004)

Concerning the lexis, especially the political terminology, a number of variants for the English source term appear in the target text, e.g., en. “Americans” > sp. americanos, norteamericanos and estadounidenses; en. “college loans” > sp. becas and préstamos, en. “Pell Grants” > sp. concesiones, préstamos educacionales; en. “No Child Left Behind Act” > sp. Ley de que no se va a quedar rezagado ningún niño, Ley que quede rezagado ningún niño (3rd Televised Presidential Debate 2004). The Spanish translation, which correlates with the English source text, shows significant traces of terminological uncertainty that the interpreters have regarding political communication. In general terms, this raises the question of the terminological authorities for Spanish in the US, e.g., the Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española.  

2.3.2 “Gran Encuentro” in Spanish and English Social dimension/situation/function: This text genre is equivalent to the “Debate” of the English-language media. It was produced first in 2012 by Univisión and was awarded the Premio de Periodismo Rey de España in the category of television. As the name “Encuentro” expresses, the Latino journalists are not dealing with debates between the presidential candidates, but rather with conversations or interviews that are conducted by the Mexican-American journalists María Elena Salinas and Jorge Ramos as well as individual people from the audience with each presidential candidate. This newly created text genre especially targets bilingual Latinos with the aim to provide information and participation from their own perspective. This becomes evident at the visual level, as the interpreters’ voices come from offstage.

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Subject dimension/macro structure: In contrast to Auer (1998), we are dealing here with bilingual conversations17 based on the pattern “one person – one language”, in which the questions are asked in Spanish and simultaneously interpreted into English for the candidate.18 The candidate’s English answers are simultaneously interpreted into Spanish for the Spanish-speaking audience of Univisión. This text genre was published on Facebook under the title “Meet the candidates with Mitt Romney/Barack Obama” and provides a simultaneous translation of the Spanish parts into English. Subject dimension/microstructure: The Latino journalists use a neutral Spanish, which corresponds to a Hispano-American standard based on Mexican Spanish. The people from the audience who ask questions have different competences in Spanish with regional characteristics. The candidates speak American English. Image: Judging from certain non-verbal reactions of the audience, it becomes clear that the participants excluding the candidate are bilingual (e.g., nodding or cheering as a reaction to the candidates’ English answers although the question was asked in Spanish).  

2.3.3 “Gran Encuentro” in Spanish Social dimension/situation/function: It was first in the gubernatorial elections of Colorado in 2014, when a debate between Anglo-American candidates was broadcast live in Spanish and without any translation by Univisión. This fact reveals the increasing willingness of Anglo-American politicians to speak Spanish themselves if required (for the election campaign). It has been proved by different studies that what counts for the addressees is the symbolic value, not the linguistic quality. On the visual level appear the Latino journalists and the candidates. Subject dimension/macro structure: The Latino Journalists ask the candidates questions in Spanish, which are answered in Spanish, as well. Anglophone politicians become new actors in the social system of Latino media addressing Spanish-speaking Latinos during the election campaign. Subject dimension/microstructure: The two politicians showed different linguistic competence with the usual characteristics or interferences of second language learner varieties.

17 Auer (1998) proposes a model of bilingual conversations based on codeswitching. 18 Jorge Ramos switches only once to English and comments this as follows: “Yo ahora voy a cambiar al inglés porque esto es muy importante y no quiero que se pierda en la traducción” (Gran encuentro with Obama 2012) [‘I will now switch to English because this is very important and I don’t want it to be lost in the translation’] (translation by the editors).

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2.3.4 Anuncios electorales digitales y de television (Digital and television campaign commercials) The electoral ads, which have been produced by campaigns and broadcast at Univisión since 2004, have become clearly differentiated in terms of their linguistic design. The following classification is based on forms of bilingual advertising in the Spanishlanguage press proposed by Colombi (2012): – Audiovisual Translation (dubbing) As a general rule, this strategy concerns English commercials for Anglo-Americans that are translated into Spanish, so that parallel texts are produced. However, those parallel texts are not copresent in the process of their creation like in the case of the “Debate presidencial televisado”, but copresent as products. They contain numerous language transfers and borrowings from English (cf. Knauer 2007). As the visual level remains unchanged, there appear written manifestations of English. Univisión only broadcast the Spanish version of the dubbed commercials. – Audiovisual translation (subtitling) These are subtitled ads with protagonists who speak either Spanish or English. The personal statements of personalities that support a candidate are often combined with the visual reproduction of concrete communication situations: The commercial “Honoring” from the electoral campaign of Barack Obama for example, shows the appointment of the Puerto Rican justice Sonia Sotomayor as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States by Barack Obama in 2009 concerning public and private domains of the use of English at the visual level. The family is constructed as a domain of Spanish. However, representation of Spanish in public (political) communication is done at the metacommunicational level of the corpus. – (Re-)interpretation or recreation This advertising strategy consists in presenting or “translating” the political culture of Anglo-Americans to Latinos in Spanish, e.g., by portraying personal conversations in Spanish between Latino election assistants and Latino voters or personal statements. The protagonists of the audiovisual texts are the candidates or persons that support their election campaign (relatives, politicians, artists, election assistants of the Latino community). They provide a comprehensive picture of the different competences that Latinos and Anglo-Americans have in Spanish.  

All these text genre patterns reproduced or emerged in the context of audiovisual translation are based on the criteria of co-presence of the source and the target text. They differ from the point of view of reception and linguistic-textual design in the following ways:

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Dubbed and simultaneous translated texts or part of texts are isosemiotic texts (Gottlieb 2002, 189), meaning that they cannot be received at the same time, but the source text is replaced by the target text whose characteristics are transfer phenomena like “false friends”. In contrast, subtitled texts are diasemiotic (Gottlieb 2002, 189), in other words they make possible the parallel reception of the source and target text. Subtitling extends the source text by an additional meaningful element or channel that increases the degree of informative explicitness for the bilingual addressee. This argues in favor of a new, bilingual type of audiovisual media genre in the political communication.

At the same time, a type of communication is emerging that can be called a “minority language-English bilingualism” in the Spanish-language television and Internet. One of its special aspects is its functional character, which is not separated from the everyday communication of Latinos. But it has other formal preferences like avoiding hybridization (codeswitching) as far as possible.19 In this context, English is more frequently the second language of Latino actors, while Spanish is always the second language of the Anglo-Americans. The text patterns presented here reflect the model of a social bilingualism in the US, which is undergoing a change, since Spanish is increasingly used in political communication by Latinos and Anglo-Americans.

3 Conclusions Applying a transdisciplinary approach in the analysis of the audiovisual Latino media genres in the U.S., clearly demonstrates that as a social system, they have their own peculiarities regarding communication or their meaning production, namely the bilingualism of texts and their producers and recipients. This fact corresponds to the definition of bilingualism in the media proposed by Androutsopoulos (2007). “as a set of processes by which institutional and vernacular media actors draw on linguistic resources from their own inheritance, their social environment and the wider semiotic flows they have access to in order to construct textures and voices that mediate and balance between immediate communicative exigencies, market expectations and loyalties to local and imagined communities” (Androutsopoulos 2007, 225).

The emergence of bilingual media text genres shows processes of overlapping between social and personal bilingualism, which can be described as follows:

19 The corpus only contains one commercial in Obama’s electoral campaign, in which one person uses codeswitchings between Spanish and English (cf. also footnote 17).

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1.

Bilingualism in the Latino media is no longer a marginal phenomenon of the contemporary media landscape. 2. There are close correlations between bilingualism and commercialization, which in the meantime also include political marketing. Bilingualism is marketed, but at the same time, it has to be understood as a symbol of resistance against the dominant Anglo-American language and culture. 3. The metacommunication of the analyzed audiovisual text genres indicates that both Latinos and Anglo-Americans introduce symbolic values like appreciation and respect for other cultures and languages or into the media discourse. This also means the appreciation of bilingualism, even if the results of this project show the dominance of English in domains of public communication. 4. The public visibility of bilingualism is increasing also in audiovisual media. In this way, the latter differ significantly from other media like radio, books, theater and film, in which: 1) multilingual protagonists are provided with linguistic peculiarities such as accents or codeswitching, and 2) the texts or part of texts which result from the audiovisual translation aren’t considered to be an constitutive element of the multimodal text of “film”. This is due to the fact that the presented (bilingual) text genres are functionally a part of the social system of Spanish-language mass media. With the objective to secure the processes of understanding, it combines political information and education for mono- and bilingual Latinos with the criterion of language separation instead of hybridization.

4 References Androutsopoulos, Jannis (2007), Bilingualism in the mass media and on the Internet, in: Monica Heller (ed.), Bilingualism: a social approach, Basingstoke et al., Palgrave Macmillan, 207–230. AP (2014), Manual de estilo, (30.11.2016). Auer, Peter (1998), Introduction. Bilingual Conversation revisited, in: Peter Auer (ed.), Codeswitching in Conversation. Language, interaction and identity, London/New York, Routledge, 1–24. Ávila, Raúl (22009), De la imprenta a la internet: la lengua española y los medios de comunicación masiva, México, D.F., El Colegio de México. Ávila, Raúl (2011), El español neutro (?) en los medios de difusión internacional, in: Raúl Ávila (ed.), Variación del español en los medios, México, D.F., El Colegio de México, 17–30. Betti, Silvia (2008), El Spanglish ¿medio eficaz de comunicación?, Bologna, Pitagora. Blum, Andreas (2013), Sprachliche Individualität. Der Idiolekt, seine Erscheinungsweise im Film und seine Behandlung bei der Synchronisation, Tübingen, Stauffenburg. Burger, Harald/Luginbühl, Martin (42014), Mediensprache, Berlin/Boston, de Gruyter. Callahan, Laura (2004), Spanish/English codeswitching in a written corpus, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, Benjamins. Castañeda, Mari (2008), The Importance of Spanish-Language and Latino Media, in: Angharad N. Valdivia (ed.), Latino/a Comunication Studies today, New York et al., Lang, 51–66.  

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sel/Juan Cuartero Otal (edd.), Brücken. Übersetzen und interkulturelle Kommunikation, vol. 2, Frankfurt am Main et al., Lang, 219–232. Knauer, Gabriele (2008a), Discurso político e intercultural: Algunas propuestas teóricas y metodológicas para el análisis de anuncios étnicos, in: Francisco Manuel Carriscondo Esquivel/Carsten Sinner (edd.), Lingüística española contemporánea: enfoques y soluciones, München, Peniope, 9–37. Knauer, Gabriele (2008b), El cambio de código como señal de contextualización pragmática y sociocultural en el cine bilingüe de Estados Unidos, in: Ol’ga Lisyová (ed.), I Seminario Internacional de Hispanística, 7–9 septiembre 2006. Actas de contribuciones, Prešov, Filozofická fakulta Prešovskej univerzity v Prešove, 58–76. Knauer, Gabriele (2008c), Somos diferentes pero indiscutiblemente americanos: Marketing político y la creación de espacios culturales y políticos para hispanos en las elecciones de 2004 en los Estados Unidos, in: Sabine Hofmann (ed.), Más allá de la nación. Medios, espacios comunicativos y nuevas comunidades imaginadas, Berlin, edition tranvía, 41–68. Lara, Luis Fernando (2007), Por una reconstrucción de la idea de la lengua española, in: José Del Valle (ed.), La lengua ¿patria común? Ideas e ideologías del español, Madrid/Frankfurt am Main, Iberoamericana/Vervuert, 163–181. López, Mark Hugo/González-Barrera, Ana (2013), A growing share of Latinos get their news in English, (30.11.2016). López Morales, Humberto (coord.) (2009), Enciclopedia del español en los Estados Unidos, Madrid, Santillana. Luhmann, Niklas (1988), Soziale Systeme. Grundriß einer Theorie, Frankfurt am Main, Suhrkamp. Luhmann, Niklas (42009), Die Realität der Massenmedien, Wiesbaden, VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften. Mahootian, Shahrzad (2005), Linguistic change and social meaning: Codeswitching in the media, International Journal of Bilingualism 9: 3–4, 361–375. Moreno Fernández, Francisco (2004), El futuro de la lengua española en los EEUU, (19.03.2017). Motel, Seth (2012), Statistical Portrait of the Hispanics in the United States, 2010, (30.11.2016). Narvaja de Arnoux, Elvira (2008), “La lengua es la patria”, “nuestra lengua es mestiza” y “el español es americano”: desplazamientos significativos en el III Congreso de la Lengua Española, in: Sabine Hofmann (ed.), Medios, espacios y nuevas comunidades imaginadas, Berlin, Tranvía, 17–39. National Association of Hispanic Journalists (NAHJ) (2003), Manual de estilo, Ann Arbor, Malloy Printing. Otheguy, Ricardo (2009), El llamado espanglish, in: Humberto López Morales (coord.) (2009), Enciclopedia del español en los Estados Unidos, Madrid, Santillana, 222–243. Otheguy, Ricardo/Zentella, Ana Celia (2012), Spanish in New York. Language Contact, Dialect Leveling, and Structural Continuity, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Patzelt, Carolin (2013), El español de los diarios de habla hispana en Estados Unidos: ¿regionalizado o panhispánico?, in: Franz Lebsanft/Wiltrud Mihatsch/Claudia Polzin-Haumann (edd.), El español, ¿desde las variedades a la lengua prluricéntrica?, Madrid/Frankfurt am Main, Iberoamericana/Vervuert, 185–206. Rodríguez, América (1999), Making Latino News. Race, Language, Class, Thousand Oaks/London/New Delhi, Sahr Publications. Silva-Corvalán, Carmen (2002 [1994]), Language contact and change: Spanish in Los Angeles, Oxford, Clarendon Press.

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Snell-Hornby, Mary (ed.) (21999), Handbuch Translation, Tübingen, Stauffenburg. Stöckl, Hartmut (2012), Medienlinguistik. Zu Status und Methodik eines (noch) emergenten Forschungsfeldes, in: Christian Grösslinger/Gudrun Held/Hartmut Stöckl (edd.), Pressetextsorten jenseits der “News”: Medienlinguistische Perspektiven auf journalistische Kreativität, Frankfurt am Main et al., Lang, 13–34. Subervi-Vélez, Federico/Ríos, Diana (2005), Latino Identity and situational Latinidad, in: Elena del Valle (ed.), Hispanic marketing and public relations: Understanding and targeting America’s largest minority, Boca Raton, Poyeen Publishing, 29–46. Taylor, Paul, et al. (2012), When Labels Don’t Fit: Hispanics and Their Views of Identity. IV. Language Use among Latinos, (30.11.2016). Velásquez, Hilda (2007), Normas del español y la publicidad hispana en San Antonio Texas, Interlingüística 17, 1048–1057. Velásquez, Hilda (2011), Cultural, Iconic and Linguistics Determinants used in the Discourse of Advertising in Spanish in the US. Implications and Consequences of Learning Spanish as a Second Language, in: Siu-Lun Lee/Victoria Tuzlukova (edd.), Language, Learning and Teaching, Athens, Athens Institute for Education and Research, 93–108. Wahl, Christoph (2007), “Du Deutscher, toi Français, you English: beautiful!” – The polyglot film as a genre, in: Miyase Christensen/Nezih Erdoğan (edd.), Shifting Landscapes. Film and Media in European Context, Newcastle, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 334–350. Yanguas, Íñigo (2009), The linguistic landscape of two hispanic neighborhoods in Washington D.C., RLA – Revista de Lingüística Aplicada 8, 30–44. Zentella, Ana Celia (1997), Growing up bilingual: Puerto Rican children in New York, Malden, Blackwell.

Carsten Sinner

17 Language Change through Medial Communication Abstract: The contribution provides an overview about the role of mass media – both print media and audiovisual media such as radio, television and new media on the Internet – in language change, diversification and standardization. Special focus is given to the analysis of the impact of language planning activities and the role of media in language planning, particularly concerning implementation and diffusion. The article includes a general view on pertinent research and publications. The examples given in order to illustrate differences and parallels mainly come from Romance languages.  

Keywords: diffusion, language change, language diversification, language planning, language standardization, mass media, Romance languages  

1 Introduction If, as Seargeant/Tagg (2014a, 2) point out, “globalization changes our social and cultural relations; and communications technologies are a major driver behind such change”, it is no wonder scientists are endeavoring to find out the extent to which this also holds true for language change. There are few doubts about the impact media can cause on and in a language and its potential role in language change, in language diversification and, via language planning measures, in the implementation and diffusion of certain traits of language and, particularly, the diffusion of language rules formulated to standardize a language or solutions considered as prestige forms. Yet, there is skepticism and reservations regarding the magnitude of these changes and regarding the question of how to measure and hence prove this impact and how to rule out other possible agents and variables. This contribution provides an overview about the role of mass media – both print media and audiovisual media such as radio, television and new media on the Internet – in language change, language diversification and standardization. Special focus is given to the analysis of the impact of language planning activities and the role of media in language planning, particularly concerning implementation and diffusion. With the concepts of mass media and social media being fully addressed in section 1, section 2 focuses on the way scholars have seen the role mass media play in language change. In section 3, we will look at mass media, language planning, and standardization.  

 

 

DOI 10.1515/9783110314755-018

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2 Mass media and language change 2.1 Mass media and social media The term mass media will be understood here as referring mainly to the so-called tertiary and quaternary media (↗0 Preface),1 that is, additional to print media in its different forms and to ‘traditional’ media such as television, radio, cinema and film, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, including electronic media, media often referred to as new, that is, digital media, basically made available through computers or other electronic devices and/or using the Internet (the latter being seen merely as the channel).2 This approach therefore includes social network sites (such as Facebook) and microblogging sites (such as Twitter), communication devices as chat functions and messaging services, other forms of social media, such as YouTube and TripAdvisor, which “also increasingly feature social network capabilities, and thus also give rise to important issues concerning communication and language use” (Seargeant/ Tagg 2014a, 3), and other communication media characterized by the usage of electronic devices such as computers or smartphones. According to scholars such as Leppänen et al. (2014), social media can be understood, in a broad definition, as including any digital environment that involves interaction between participants.3 Some functions and media overlap, complicating an analysis according to the medium of communication and devices used: short messages and e-mails can be sent from computers, mobile phones and tablets, for example, and are devices which have distinct medial conditions (key pad characteristics, size of keys, average typing speed, etc.) that can lead to specific usage of written language (cf. Stähli/Dürscheid/Béguelin 2011). Furthermore, as print media content today is often channeled in parallel through tertiary and quaternary media, it seems especially important to differentiate between

1 For the differentiation between primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary media, cf. Faßler (1997). 2 The different academic traditions vary regarding the classification of media, channels, and communication types. While many European scholars make a cut between computer-mediated communication and mobile phone communication, in the Anglo-American tradition, text messaging, for example, is included in computer-mediated communication due to the fact even messages sent from one smartphone to another pass through the computers run by the mobile phone companies (cf. Thurlow/Poff 2013). 3 As Seargeant/Tagg (2014a, 3) point out, terms used instead of Web 2.0 – i.e., participatory media, user-generated content, peer production, convergence culture, the people formerly known as the audience – in order to highlight different elements of the changes that have taken place on the web in the new millennium have in common “an acknowledgment of the social nature of practices that constitute modern online activity”, or, in other words, “the users of the services and sites which make up the modem web are themselves central to its nature – the audience or consumer is actively engaged in production (and not solely passively engaged in consumption) – and thus previous dichotomies such as author/audience and amateur/professional are becoming porous”.

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medium or mode (essentially for the differentiation between written and spoken language, but which should also include sign language) and channel (via e-mail, by post, etc.) that is often not made in an adequate manner (cf. Sinner 2014, 223).4 Due to the difficulty in clearly distinguishing medium and channel, some authors prefer to speak of communication form as a certain combination of medium, semiotic system, types of signs, and mode of interaction (cf. Bittner 2003, 24), unifying, for instance, all computer-mediated communication forms (cf. Marterer 2006, 9).

2.2 Mass media as cause and motor for language change, standardization and diversification: positions The term language change is usually used with reference to at least four different processes or levels: (a) changes in the system (and norms) of a language (lexicon, morphology, syntax, phonetics); a distinction is to be made here between the introduction of new features and the change of frequency of existing features; (b) the dissemination and spread of varieties or prestige forms of certain (often: prestige) varieties, overlapping to varying degrees with the phenomena stated in (a); (c) changes of discourse and text traditions, genre and text type conventions (which often entail changes according to (a) or creation of new genres and text types that develop their own traditions); or, rather less frequently, (d) the change of status of a language due to its use and presence in the media and/ or the media consumption (which in turn can involve changes according to (a), (b) and (c)). Media communication, traditionally, was understood as (and differentiated into) unidirectional communication (one sender and multiple receivers), and bi- or multidirectional media with communication in which participants are, or potentially can be, both senders and receivers (and that allow for more or less feedback of receivers) (cf. Sandbothe 1996; Huberty 2013). This delimitation is constantly becoming fuzzier as channels are becoming more and more intertwined, such as television that allows not only for feedback through other channels, but also for live participation, e.g., via  

4 Depending on the author, there is a distinction made between primary and secondary media, channels and signals, material, immaterial, and permanent channels, direct and indirect media, tools or means of production, storage device and storage media, means of carriage or transportation and means of reception, etc.; to give an example, there are different positions on whether paper is a tool, or means of production, storage medium or channel or whether an e-mail is a tool, medium, storage medium, means of transportation, channel, etc. (cf. Grimm 2005).

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SMS or e-mails, and new media basically based on user participation. Some uses of the newest media devices or services confuse the boundary between interpersonal and broadcast messaging, e.g., the use of short messaging services with interactive television shows (cf. Thurlow/Poff 2013, 164). Since the beginning of the new century, social network sites on the Internet have become an integral part of modern life worldwide and are considered to be paradigmatic examples of a growing social orientation of online activity; the shift which occurred in the nature of the Internet with the move to the so-called Web 2.0 and its rise of social media has been characterized by growing Internet activity and rapidly increasing user participation (cf. Huberty 2013, 152; Seargeant/Tagg 2014a, 2). Yet, while it is widely accepted that the different online social media are having a profound impact on communication practices, it is disputed whether they actually have an impact on language itself. Astonishingly, many publications, manuals and textbooks dedicated to media language or on media linguistics, such as Burger (32005), Perrin (2006), Möhn/Roß/ Tjarks-Sobhani (2001), Bucher/Straßner (1991), do not even mention the possible influence of mass media on language change. The very contrary can be detected in other publications, e.g., on the new media, where the opinion prevails that the language of the media, for instance, of text messaging, can change, corrupt, and even destroy the language. A search on the Internet for articles concerning language of the new media in any current search machine and in any language results in hundreds of texts with formulations such as “¿Cómo mata la tecnología moderna la escritura y la ortografía?” (‘How does modern technology kill writing and spelling’?), “txt [=text messaging] wrecks the language”, “text messaging ruins the language”, “are text messages destroying our language?”, “sms and IS ruining the language”, “kill the English language”, etc.5 Extreme positions even assert that there is a media language on its own, such as Hjarvard who speaks of medialects: varieties “that arise out of specific media” (2004, 75), or the much disputed, sometimes severely-ridiculed opinion of Crystal (2001) who believes there is a language of the Internet, Netspeak, with different dialects (!) such as e-mail language, chat language, etc., that constitutes a fourth medium to be added to written language, spoken language, and sign language (cf. Sinner 2014, 230). An important aspect is that media is seen as being increasingly present in the language as an infrastructure through which we communicate, and given the fact that since the last century almost all media has been developed in an Anglo-American context, the English language dominates the language specific to certain media (cf. Hjarvard 2004, 92s.).  

 

5 Cf., e.g., , , , , .  

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Although the possibility of a fundamental “multiplying” power of the language used in the media is generally not disputed, there are different positions regarding the extent of influence, i.e., whether there is direct influence, making people actually use certain features of language, or only secondary influence, in the sense that media language consumption only familiarizes the audience with certain uses without actually making it adopt the language it hears or reads. A third, somehow intermediate position only admits the possibility of a restricted impact consisting in the reproduction of single features and catchphrases rather than of more complex features. Furthermore, it is usually admitted by representatives of all positions that it is almost impossible to prove these influences empirically or without leaving certain doubts regarding the impact of other variables. Some cases mentioned in linguistic studies shall illustrate the position that certain uses are, effectively, propagated through the mass media: –

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The fact that many children in Southern Ontario (Canada) use zee ([zi:]), the name of the last letter of the English alphabet generally seen as American, instead of zed ([zed]), generally employed in the rest of the English-speaking world, was seen as a result of the transmission of the TV program Sesame Street produced in the USA (cf. Chambers 1995, 188ss.). The expansion of use of certain previously little-known dialectal features in the Galician spoken in the Spanish Autonomous Region of Galicia was repeatedly related to their use in the media; xabarín (‘boar’) instead of forms such as xabaril recommended by the Galician Academy, or other dialectal forms such as porco bravo (‘wild hog’) gained extensive use in the language of children and adolescents due to the huge success of a TV program called Xabarín Club (cf. Sinner 2002). The mass media are supposed to have had an important role in the variation of the use of the agreement of subject and verb in the third person plural in Brazilian Portuguese (cf. Naro 1981); Brazilian Portuguese is said to have an impact on European Portuguese through the mass media, e.g., concerning the forms of address (cf. Naro/Pereira Scherre 1996; Scotti-Rosin 1984, 263). The Spanish subjunctive ending in -se has been acquiring social prestige in the capital and largest city of Venezuela, Caracas, as a result of its use in talk shows, news reports, etc. with this prestige said to favor the extension of the -se subjunctive at the expense of the subjunctive formed with the allomorph -ra (cf. Chumaceiro 1995).  

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The phrase vivir/estar en un mundo de Bilz y Pap (‘to live/be in a world of Bilz and Pap’, meaning ‘to live in a fantasy world’, ‘to live in a happy world’), resulting from a catch phrase from combined TV ads from the 1980ies for Bilz y Pap, two very popular domestically-produced soft drinks in Chile, even entered Spanish dictionaries (cf. Rivano Fischer 2010, s.v.).

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Many cases show that it is often almost impossible to make the assessment that mass media play a role in specific linguistic evolutions without leaving certain reasonable doubts, and that the assumption of a media influence seems to be more a matter of probability. Chilean school children, for example, are reported to use the noun emparedado instead of pan con queso/carne, etc. (‘bread with cheese/meat, etc.’) or the Anglicisms san(d)wich or sanguchito and alternate torta (‘cake’) with pastel, a word that used to mean only ‘piece of cake’ (cf. Castro et al. 2012). It looks like both features are due to the Spanish used in imported movies dubbed in other Spanish-speaking countries, mostly in Mexican Spanish, because nowhere else are Chilean children constantly exposed to Mexican Spanish than in movies and TV series. As a matter of fact, the described usage can also be observed in children who do not actually watch television or movies and must have acquired these features otherwise. While it is probable that they learn them from their peers who do consume mass media, we have to admit to the impossibility of “blaming” only TV and cinema for having an impact on the children’s language without further studies on individual language acquisition, something much more difficult to do than checking lexical availability. Another similar example is the alleged extension in the use of the gerund (such as fazendo, ‘to be doing’) in European Portuguese instead of the periphrasis estar a + infinitive due to the consumption of Brazilian Portuguese used in imported Brazilian telenovelas (‘serial dramas, soap operas’) screened on Portuguese TV. Both forms exist in the Portuguese language and the shift to gerund could be seen as a “natural” tendency of the language. Basic problems for determining media impact are, on the one hand, the distinction between media language use as a trigger for certain language uses in other spheres and language acquisition from peers, and on the other, the possibility of the language used in the media being nothing but a reflection of linguistic features or habits already existing in the language. It is impossible to be sure that the increase in the usage of gerund forms in Portugal is not merely reflecting these tendencies, and it could be argued on the basis of simple convergence of European Portuguese with the Brazilian variety; it is equally questionable to exclude the possibility the shift might be caused by the presence of Brazilian immigrants. Thus, mere probability makes the media hypothesis more likely to be true: most Chilean children have access to television, and literally anyone in Portugal has access to TV, while not all the Portuguese people have contact to speakers of Brazilian Portuguese. The probability approach is widespread in the analysis of mass media impact on language. Many cases of reported media influence on language are the result of mere judgment based on the authors’ intuition and personal perception, recognized by the authors of the studies to differing degrees. Generally, even authors who defend the impact of media on language still qualify their statements, talking of the “strong possibility” or “high probability” of such an influence, and admitting to a great need for further studies. Schneller (2009, 35), who analyzes the language used in German

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school magazines and student newspapers in print and online format (concentrating on abbreviations, emoticons, reductions, Anglicisms), states that the new media could, at least potentially, have a great impact on the change in adolescents’ written language and that these mass media, due to their technical possibilities, have the ability to spread the typical language of adolescents worldwide and very quickly. Maegaard et al. (2013, 28), in a study on the diffusion of language change in Danish, argue that it is worthwhile to consider the possibility of media being involved in processes of language change. Such prudent, if not vague, formulations are typical for publications on media influence on language. The difficulty lies in determining cause and effect, because interpreting the appearance as a result of the media impact excludes the possibility that the features are actually to be found in the media due to their presence and availability in the system. According to Gómez-Pablos (1999, 154), the use of chepibe or che pibe in Argentina, a compound of the vocative che (‘hey’, ‘buddy’) and pibe (‘kid’, ‘boy’), came from a TV advertisement from Banco de Galicia in the 1960s; however, how can we be sure the producers of this advert did not use it because they heard it in someone else’s Spanish? Cases where the authors manage to prove that a linguistic trait is clearly traceable to one certain originator without leaving space for doubts are infrequent; one such example is the use of the Catalanism chafardero in European Spanish: While Catalans use it in accordance with the meaning of Catalan xafarder (‘person who spies on someone and/or searches through someone’s things, and who gossips about what s/he found out’), as derived from the Catalan verb xafardejar, speakers in Madrid are only familiar with chafardero as having vague meanings such as ‘incompetent, underachiever, lame duck’, meanings they deduced from the context in which they have read this word, a comic produced in Catalonia and sold all over Spain since the 1940s: El Repórter Tribulete que en todas partes se mete whose main character works in a newspaper called Chafardero indomable (cf. Sinner 2004a). Isolated words found in the language are often – mistakenly or exaggeratingly – seen as proof of the “mixing” of languages (although the term language mixing itself is seldom explained more than very vaguely). Some authors and sometimes even the mass media themselves simply claim that mass media contribute to the diffusion and even mixing of different varieties, like Schmitz (2004, 31), who asserts that “modern media” contribute to the diffusion and mixing of sociolects, idiolects and other varieties, mentioning examples such as the allegedly German-Turkish “mixed language” called, by some authors, Kanaksprak. It is supposed to be a variety of German influenced by immigrant languages such as Turkish and Arab spoken by some (young) immigrants, and it is said to have influenced, via the media, the language of young Germans (cf. Androutsopoulos 2001; Sinner 2014, 251s.; cf. Fiévet/PodhornáPolická 2010 and 2011 on the circulation of néologismes identitaires pour les jeunes on the media and the role of the media in the construction of such a generationally claimed argot). The media gladly attend to the alleged “mixing” of languages due to media impact and produce texts on the danger of Anglicisms, “barbarisms”, etc., and

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in many languages we find puristic columns on language and grammar or heavily sensationalistic stories on “new languages” resulting from media, as, for the example, the varieties used in dubbing or on the Internet (cf. Bagno 532013 on linguistic myths spread by the mass media and Sinner 2007 and 2010 on the coverage of debates on español neutro, ‘neutral Spanish’, or on Spanglish). In most cases, the reported changes due to mass media only affect single items such as particular words, slogans or catchphrases. This is illustrated by the reported effects of the Brazilian telenovela “Terra Nostra” (‘Our Land’), a serial consisting of 150 episodes about the ups and downs of Italian immigrants in Brazil at the end of the 19th century. The show premiered on Brazilian television at the end of 1999 and had such an impact on the audience that it allegedly sprinkled the language of Brazilians with Italian words (cf. Rivas 2001). No studies have been carried out though on their persistence in Brazilian Portuguese. As a matter of fact, single words, expressions or constructions are easier to detect than syntactical or morphological changes, especially for non-linguists, and single words or catchphrases can be traced back more easily to a certain radio program, commercial, television personality, movie or songwriter, etc. A good example is the use of the first name Bráulio in Brazil to refer to the male sexual organ as a result of radio and television advertisements broadcast from 1994 onwards featuring a man talking to “his Bráulio” to promote the use of condoms, and, as a consequence, in 1997 Bráulio was said to irritate the unhappy bearers of the name while the advertisement “character” was said to have entered the repertoire of the masses (cf. Sinner 2004a, 98). But a long-lasting presence of “media-born” elements in the language to such an extent seems to be an exception rather than the rule. Chambers (1998) lists examples of different linguistic phenomena reported in US English which originated in TV programs or movies, were used extensively by young people, were picked up by the media who “passed them on” to the public in general, only to decay in frequency after a short while because of being over-used and becoming a fading relic. Critical positions towards the possible influence of mass media on language consider the dissemination of catchphrases as an exception to the rule, while other elements, especially grammatical features, reportedly do not change as quickly (or even at all) as a result of media influence. Chambers (1998, 125s.) singles out the popularization of words, expressions and catchphrases and denies evidence for media influence on language in other spheres of language:  

“If the mass media can popularize words and expressions, the reasoning goes, then presumably they can also spread other kinds of linguistic changes. It comes as a great surprise, then, to discover that there is no evidence for television or the other popular media disseminating or influencing sound changes or grammatical innovations. The evidence against it, to be sure, is indirect. Mostly it consists of a lack of evidence where we would expect to find strong positive effects” (Chambers 1998, 126).

Chambers (1998, 126ss.) gives three main arguments as proof that language change is unlikely to be due to mass media:

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Regional dialects continue to diverge from standard dialects despite the exposure of speakers of those dialects to television, radio, movies and other media. There is abundant evidence that mass media cannot provide the stimulus for language acquisition. Hearing children of deaf parents cannot acquire language from exposure to radio or television. The fact that global language changes (such as the spread of the intonation pattern called uptalk or high rising terminals, in which declarative statements occur with yes/no question intonation in English) are spreading at the same historical moment as the globalization of mass media should not be construed as cause and effect.

Obviously, also in the case of Romance languages such as Spanish and Catalan, local or regional dialects continue to exist despite the exposure of speakers to television, movies and other media. The assumption that the use of dove instead of the previous standard past tense dived, typical for the northern U.S. and in Canadian English as a result of American influence through the mass media, for example, an observation often repeated in media and literature, has been proven wrong by the author. He especially points out the fact that “[t]he past tense of the verb dive is not a frequently used word, and so the possibility of Canadians hearing it once in American broadcasts is very slim, let alone hearing it so frequently as to become habituated to it. More important, there is evidence that dove is replacing dived in many other places besides Canada” (Chambers 1998, 128s.).

Yet, in a way, it is precisely the lack of evidence mentioned by Chambers and other authors that also supports the opposite position (i.e., positions that believe in mass media as a motor for change), as many studies do not examine whether the observed changes can actually be seen as such. Only very rarely do authors comment on the duration of the influence and on the durability of the alleged linguistic innovation or change, but only a few cases mentioned in the literature seem to actually last in the respective language. Other authors seem to have no doubts about the power of the media and strongly believe they have accelerating potential. According to Schmitz (2004, 28s.), mass media accelerate and diversify linguistic changes, even making the pace of changes faster than the succession of generations; any media consumer is subjected to a lifelong language acquisition process (in the case of lexicon, even on a daily basis). The author states that adolescents immediately recognize the linguistic behavior of a twenty or possibly only ten-year-old TV program as outdated. Furthermore, the media are said to contribute to the internationalization or globalization of certain aspects through mass media, as discourse traditions (cf. Cameron 2003, 28), the dissemination of terminology and language for special purposes (cf. Burger 21990, 261ss.), the spread of neologisms (cf. Elsen 2004) and Anglicisms (cf. Kupper 2003), and to the differen-

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tiation and rise of koiné phenomena in spelling, phonetics, morphology and other tendencies of language development (cf. Brandt 22000; Zimmermann 1988; Schmitz 2004, 29ss.). The new media in particular are supposed to multiply variants and varieties and at the same time strengthen the effectiveness and scope of norms (cf. Schmitz 2004, 30). In this sense, the dissemination of standard language (or standard language features) can be promoted by the evolution of printing technology, electronic and digital media. Especially electronic media are said to foster the dialect-standard dynamics through vertical attraction or pressure, even if convergent or divergent evolutions between geographically contiguous dialects (through horizontal dialect leveling) remain significant (cf. Pusch/Kabatek 2009, 1). According to Schmitz (2004, 31), as a result of mass media production and consumption, the use of any dialect, sociolect, language for specific purposes and group-specific variety can potentially be reinforced in its original usage domain and disseminated beyond this domain, making boundaries between varieties vanish. By doing so, they can contribute to changes of attitude towards a variety (cf. above). There are examples of structural changes that clearly surpass the lexicon level, seen by authors such as Chambers as the only level where language change can be caused by media use. An example is the innovative function of the suffix -bar in German, due to the success and diffusion of the German word unkaputtbar (literally ‘un+broken+able’, instead of unzerstörbar, ‘indestructible’) as the result of a TV advertising campaign. The word was created for advertising purposes and seems to be particularly memorable because of the (at least initially) strange and remarkable use of the suffix -bar. -bar usually only transforms transitive verbs into adjectives but cannot be added to adjectives (as in unkaputtbar) in order to form adjectives. As a consequence of the “introduction” of the formerly ungrammatical use of the suffix, analogous forms now appear here and there in informal German language, marked by a function of -bar that equals the one it has in unkaputtbar, such as in unplattbar (‘un +flat+ible’), used in an advertisement to promote a bike tire that cannot run flat. While this use is seen, at least by some speakers, to be fresh, innovative and creative, other innovative uses or uses not considered in the standard language are seen as “typical” for the language of mass media, often criticized as corruption, poor language and a threat to the vitality of the language. In many European languages, e.g., the use of Anglicisms, allegedly a phenomenon that the mass media are solely responsible for, is seen as particularly threatening and as a clear motor for the impoverishment of the language. As Hjarvard (2004, 95) points out, it looks like media, under the influence of globalization, contribute in some ways to the standardization of languages – in his study, Danish – and to linguistic variety and creativity in others. The media spread English (and Anglicisms), often at the expense of other languages, and are, in this sense, a homogenizing factor. At the same time, media are seen as having considerable potential for a new kind of linguistic diversity which transcends other national  

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languages in that innovation is attached to the use of media, not to the individual user, making media a differentiation factor. Linguistic repetition, and the continuous presence of the written word, are said to strengthen the knowledge of the norm, or to bring the principles of the standard / of the reference norm back to memory (cf. Strubell i Trueta 1982, 17s.). TV viewers and readers, for example, are said to tend to imitate those considered experts or who are idealized or seen as role models for whatever reason, and are therefore often seen as multipliers of language uses (cf. Sinner 2004b and the literature quoted there). Furthermore, the impact of TV, for example, is said to not only concern individual features of varieties, but also to influence the knowledge, use and status of certain varieties themselves. The knowledge of Standard (High) German by Swiss Germanspeaking children and their familiarization with the standard even before they enroll at school were attributed to media influence, especially television (cf. Lüdi/Py 1984, 26).6 While mass media are supposed to confirm linguistic models and disseminate standard language features, the same should then hold true for the way norm deviations are established, stabilized, and spread (and eventually turned “normal”) (cf. Sinner 2004a; 2004b). Hjarvard (2004, 81ss., 85ss., 92ss.) relates media usage both with the standardization of Danish and with the presence of Anglicisms in the Danish language (it is interesting to state that most authors seem to immediately consider the use of Anglicisms as the antithesis of a normative, correct language; cf. the debates on Anglicisms in Spanish, Portuguese and French, e.g., in Schmitt 2010 or Helfrich 1993). Apart from disseminating certain features that are consistent with the prescriptive norm in the population, mass media consumption allegedly also confirms nonnormative features and makes linguistic models recognizable and authoritative (or not questioned anymore) due to the fact they are being used by authors, journalists or presenters, etc. The prestige of the individuals lends prestige to their language choices. This alleged power of the media is lamented both by professionals and laymen. Boberg (2000) studies the adoption of features of US English in Canadian English (something that is, as seen above, questioned by some authors). He believes that the determining factor for the adoption and diffusion of the US variants via the mass media is the overt prestige of variants seen as correct (cf. Carvalho 2004, 144). Prestige, as a matter of fact, seems to play a very important role in dissemination, something very important in language status planning which includes improvement of prestige of a variety chosen as standard as an important measure for its establishment (cf. chapter 3; cf. Strubell i Trueta 1982, 18 on Catalan). Taking into account the numerous criteria used by different authors to determine the impact of mass media and media communication and the diverging practice  

6 The debate whether the standard language actually can or should be seen as a linguistic variety on its own is heavily disputed (cf. Sinner 2014).

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regarding the consideration of extralinguistic variables, it does not come as a surprise that the same media are seen as clearly exercising linguistic influence in one study and as not being involved at all in language change in the next. Saladino (1990) analyzes the diffusion of the Standard Italian norm in rural Southern Italy and its impact on the rural dialect and the factors that lead to the “Italianization” of dialects. While some authors clearly identify television as an important factor in language change, especially the diffusion of normative features, Saladino states television does not exert a big influence. Camps i Giralt/Casals i Martorell (2009), who study the presence of a plural standard – a standard that allows for geographic variation – in Catalan media believe that the production of radio texts following the idea of a plural standard does actually contribute to geolectal leveling. While Milroy/Milroy (1999, 25) believe that mass media can facilitate awareness about a certain linguistic innovation but can not induce its adoption, Carvalho, in her study on the impact of Brazilian television on the Portuguese spoken in neighboring Uruguay, reveals that “awareness is a precondition for adoption, and without exposure to Brazilian television, both would be unlikely” (Carvalho 2004, 144). The author claims: “[…] a substantial point to be made about the influence of television on people’s speech is that, besides exposure to television, individual motivation to assimilate to a given model is crucial” (Carvalho 2004, 145). One of the important testimonials often referred to is Naro (1981) who stated that the cultural orientation variable and/or the degree of penetration of subjects into higher socio-economic levels around them is the determining factor that allows the viewers of telenovelas to produce variants considered to be part of the standard variety. Naro/Pereira Scherre (1996) later extend the media variable, also taking into account the nature of contact and attitude towards the medium, and show there is a correlation between the use of standard forms and higher integration with the media. The authors’ interpretation of their findings is that the source of the alleged change to the standard is an outside community that the viewers mainly get to “know” via exposure to television. Carvalho (2004, 148) sees this result as countering the belief among sociolinguists that media are not actually able to cause linguistic variation. Not always do authors highlight the fact that the media-induced language changes they are reporting on actually refer to the use of the language through or on these media, in new genres or text types related and conditioned by these media. Hjarvard (2004) reports on studies such as Hutchby’s (2001), for instance, who, according to him, demonstrates and analyzes “how a range of media, from the telephone to chatrooms on the net, intrude on and structure the user’s use of language: the taking of turns, linguistic markers of time, space and actors, sentence structure, and so forth” (Hjarvard 2004, 93).

Such characteristics could be seen as changes of the language classified under (c), that is, changes of discourse and text traditions, text type conventions etc., that are clearly conditioned and influenced by the medium; yet, they can involve changes of

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the system or the norms of a language, such as new lexicon, semantic changes of existing expressions, etc. The influence that text type-specific norms can exert on the norms of another text type, and which is due to the characteristics of different media, is a well-known possibility, and considered one among many factors of language change (cf. Coulmas 1981, 125). A whole branch of translation studies is dedicated to the description of the impact of translated texts on genres and conventions in the target language and on its whole polysystem. While investigation has concentrated on the shifts in cultural patterns of living and socialization due to the introduction of telephones, e.g., less attention has been paid to the way people actually behaved on the phone, to the structures of telephone interaction and how they differ from primary patterns of co-present interaction (primary because they precede the phenomenon of phone conversation in temporal terms and outweigh it in terms of global distribution; Hutchby 2001, 6). As Hutchby states, “[p]atterns of talk-in-interaction change as people adapt to developments in the circumstances and possibilities for talk” (2001, 6s.). The same obviously holds true for other new media and their possibilities and restrictions (of space in short messages, for example). The “changes” of patterns actually often seem to be innovations whose characteristics stem from the media conditions they are used in: creations of new patterns for new media, for new text types, etc. Only lately have investigators started to compile larger amounts of text messages (SMS, WhatsApp, etc.) to form corpora in order to be able to describe the language use in these messages, determine characteristic spelling in communication through mobile phones, etc. (cf. Marterer 2006; Stähli/Dürscheid/Béguelin 2011, 6). The scope of most studies of communication via the new media is still the description of the language in these specific domains, as a precondition to then investigate at a later period the possible spread of linguistic characteristics to other spheres of language use. Only then is it feasible to see if and how traces of these uses, typical for these media and their genres or text types, can enter other spheres of language use. Marterer (2006, 265s.), who compares communication via traditional letters, emails and chat, already states that the linguistic use in e-mails depends much less on the technical conditions of computer-mediated communication than on other factors such as proximity between interlocutors, institutional reference (private, professional, institutional, public), etc. A look at older communication technology and its modernization also provides insight into what might happen with the effects of the new digital media. The way we talk on the phone traditionally had to do with the formulas implemented at the beginning of the telephone era and that were sometimes even recommended or required by the telephone companies. Therefore, in different languages people develop(ed) and use(d) different habits, e.g., when picking up the phone: saying hello and waiting for the callers to say their names, or saying just their number, etc. Some of these habits – traditions – live on in the mobile phone era. German speakers started  

 

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using the expression Auf Wiederhören [‘(I hope to) hear you again’] as a greeting formula at the end of a telephone conversation when the telephone was new, as a mere consequence of the fact they could not see their interlocutors, and coined on the existing formula Auf Wiedersehen [‘(I hope to) see you again’]. And Brazilians, even now, answer the phone or mobile phone with the Gallicism alô, while the normal informal greeting is olá. These differences should not necessarily be seen as language change (in comparison to other greeting forms established earlier), but as innovations in certain domains of language use. “Telephone behavior” is even seen as a part of the culture of phone communication in different nations. Both forms, Auf Wiederhören and Alô, can also be used off the phone but would immediately be understood as marked language use, e.g., as joking, or, in the case of Auf Wiederhören, in a semioffensive context meaning as much as “enough” or “end of discussion”, etc. Auf Wiederhören is also being used on the phone even when new devices actually allow the interlocutors to see each other. The spread of uses from one sphere to another is a secondary shift not caused by the media themselves, but rather due to the will of the speakers and writers to use these linguistic creations and innovations seen as more creative, funnier, younger, more economic, or simply because they spend so much time abbreviating things in text messages they have just got used to the spelling. The use of abbreviations, apparently at first demanded by the need to keep things short in text messages with limited space (cf. above), is not due to such limitations when used “outside” text messaging, but is still recognizable by users as “text message writing”. Often, laypeople, in heated debates going on in the newspapers, argue for the existence of language change due to text messaging, not seeing that abbreviating is a form of spelling introduced with new techniques and communication possibilities, that it is marked as such and not just a distortion and decay of an existing text type. The use of abbreviations (which is seen as normal in text messaging) in other text types is, therefore, nothing but a mere consequence of the users’ lack of consciousness of text type conventions, of traditions of writing, or their will to not follow these traditions, etc. As with the spread of other habits of language usage, it can also be related to the (lack of) familiarity with certain text types – such as “you do not use certain abbreviations in formal letters”, “you do not use abbreviations in school essays” (or the explicit will to break with such conditions), and the adaptation from characteristics of informal text messaging to written communication in general, etc. What we see is mainly not a change in language in the sense of the modification of existing patterns in existing text traditions, but the creation of new ways of communication accompanied by new ways of using language in written and spoken form. At the moment, research on communication in the new media basically concentrates on  

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the way in which identity is constructed online and how different social media and the practices around them may lead to the presentation of different selves (cf. Lee 2014);

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determining and describing the different types of community that exist on social media; how and why people interact in “non-traditional” ways, that is, in ways which were previously not possible, e.g., on the microblogging site Twitter (cf. Zappavigna 2014); the way people shape content and style as a projection of the way they see the communities they are engaging with, e.g., in Tagg/Seargeant (2014), who look closely at the ways in which multilingual Europeans from different countries work to construct communities through their language choices in the course of unfolding interactions on Facebook in order to “negotiate collapsed context” (2014, 168) of their audience; the communicative patterns of certain media, taking into account the fact that in many new media such as Twitter, or Facebook, for example, “communities” can cross geographical, political, and social boundaries, and while hashtag communities tend to orient around a shared topic of interest, in other communities, such as Facebook, the users are intertwined with other users around a mutual “friend” in the network who functions as a particular node, resulting in distinct communicative patterns (cf. Seargeant/Tagg 2014a, 16).  

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Much rarer are studies on the impact of new media, the accessibility of new communication media, and studies concentrated on the use of smaller languages focus, mainly, on tendencies of language politics and regulations, translation rules, etc. Using a case study of Irish-language translators, Lenihan (2014) analyzes how and to what extent Facebook gives a certain speech community a voice, and how the issue of language regulation relates to the participatory culture of social media. The author shows that the language policy for the translation of the site to Irish is a result of both top-down (i.e., the company’s regulations) and bottom-up (users’ input) processes. According to the author, this has important consequences for the extent to which social media are driven by a “prosumer” (for producer & consumer) culture and for the users’ capacity to act in the context creation. Language regulations are often not taken into consideration when talking about language use on the new media, forgetting that even online games such as “Forge of Empires”, which allows users to decide which community they want to belong to according to the language chosen as system language, restrict language use by explicitly prohibiting the use of other languages on the respective German, French, Spanish, etc. versions of the online game. Seiler (2013) also analyzes the motivations behind participating in volunteer translation projects for free software, the treatment of normative questions, the efforts to guarantee the internal consistency of the Spanish translations, and social aspects. Like many studies on such issues (e.g., on volunteer translators of Wikipedia content), the study emphasizes the social and ideological function of translated free software, as far as it promotes the diversity, the accessibility and the democratization of knowledge.  

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A related issue is the impact of state intervention in the media and in language use in the media, e.g., regarding the use of minority languages in the media (cf. Riggins 1992 who identifies five different models of state intervention in minority media), or regulating the language itself, a famous example for the latter being a French “law regarding the use of the French language” from 1994 known as loi Toubon, on the proscription or regulation of the use of foreign languages in certain contexts, such as in advertising (cf. Schmitt 2010 on such laws in Brazil). While research concentrates on communication patterns and studies of textual types and genres on the net and in the new media, very little can be found on mere linguistic aspects. Time and again we find assertions that media change or can change language, but those claims are constantly not backed up with necessary supporting proof. As an example, we could mention, once again, the volume by Seargeant/Tagg (2014b): while the authors in their introduction explicitly talk about “the language of social media”, the book actually focuses on language use, that is, on the social dimension of language use in social media. None of the articles in the volume actually analyze grammatical or morphological aspects, but concentrate entirely “on the way that social media are offering enhanced means for people to communicate with each other today” (2014a, 17). Especially in multilingual contexts, studies on new media focus more on language choices than on linguistic structures. This is understandable if we take into consideration findings like those of Siebenhaar (2006), who finds that the “traditional” diglossic medial situation, with Standard German as the written variety and Swiss German as the spoken variety, is not valid in German chat communication in Switzerland anymore, or the conclusion of the Swiss sms4science project whose authors state that 75% of German messages in their corpus were written in Swiss German dialects (cf. Stähli/Dürscheid/Béguelin 2011, 6). After a long series of selective studies on the characteristics of the language of (or on) the new media, there are now (more or less easily accessible) corpora of growing size that allow for detailed searches. Corpora such as the sms4science corpus (cf. Stähli/Dürscheid/Béguelin 2011, 6), for example, now allow users to find out if earlier findings regarding the characteristics of language in the new media are actually accurate by making it possible to determine the frequency of certain sequences: words, abbreviations, etc. For instance, they can allow users to check if certain spelling forms in text message communication are actually as characteristic as generally stated, or if aspects described as characteristics of certain new media can actually count as universals or are only to be seen as valid for certain languages, etc. Certain features, such as a tendency to use abbreviations, icons, emoticons, etc. were found in SMS communication in the most diverse languages, while many others seem to depend on the language, the given corpus material and setting. Dialect and diglossia play an important role in Swiss SMS communication, and a typical feature of German text messages are inflective constructions, formed with inflectives like hust (‘cough’), seufz (‘sigh’), freu (‘being happy’), as in mich ganz doll freu (‘being very  

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happy’), but neither of them play a role in English or Italian text messaging, for example (cf. the outcome of studies such as Braun 2006; Tagg 2009 or Moretti/Stähli 2011; cf. in this sense Stähli/Dürscheid/Béguelin 2011, 12). The use of hitherto unknown inflectives in Iberoromance language such as Spanish cuelg (‘hang up’) for German aufleg, Spanish lava lava lava (‘wash’) for German wasch wasch wasch or Catalan mam (‘blow’) for German blas can already be found in Spanish and Catalan translations of comics published by the German author Ralf König (cf. König 1997, 23; 1991, 31 and 2008, 36). An example of aspects repeatedly mentioned as characteristic for short messages is the use of special characters like, e.g., emoticons, spelling relying on rebus techniques such as cu (‘see you’) in English, 9 (both ‘nine’ and ‘new’) in Catalan, or ac (hace, ‘makes’), toma2 (tomados, ‘taken’) in Spanish etc., abbreviations, doubling or repetition of punctuation marks, new or norm-deviating grapheme–phoneme relations such as instead of in Spanish mxo (mucho, ‘a lot’), probably also used in order to stress the (feigned) orality of the message by trying to represent the depalatalization found in some spoken regional or social varieties). On the stylistic level, among the aspects often presented as characteristic, we could mention the use of colloquial or diatopically-marked forms, ellipses and other means of expression seen as typical for conceptional orality (cf. Koch/Oesterreicher 22011). Still, many of these aspects can also be found in private Internet communication such as chat, which clearly shows their use is not necessarily related to text messaging on mobile phones with limited characters and the (minimum) size of mobile phone keys (cf. Stähli/Dürscheid/Béguelin 2011, 14). Furthermore, Frehner (2008), who compared German, Swiss German and English emails and short messages, showed that the use of abbreviations and other space or time-saving means are also to be found when the writer definitely does not have limitations of space (e.g., when combining several text messages to larger text units). It still has to be analyzed if, besides the aim to economize, there are other factors favoring these characteristic SMS features, such as a certain in-group behavior or the wish to belong to a certain group, the wish to act in conformity with what is believed to be a more prestigious way of communication, as means of creation of a certain identity, etc. (cf. Stähli/Dürscheid/Béguelin 2011, 13s.). For instance, comparisons of SMS from Swiss adolescents with other private daily communication in their corpus inspire Dürscheid/Wagner/Brommer (2010) to believe that spelling deviances such as instead of or replacing they found in messages in German were not due to an intent to represent the spoken dialect, but used intentionally to show off knowledge about the rap scene where these alternative spellings are habitual. Other studies investigate the characteristics of language in the new media from a pragmalinguistic point of view, e.g., analyzing the typical greeting formula in SMS (as in Spagnolli/Gamberini 2007 who analyze short messages in Italian, or Frehner 2008 who dedicates part of her study to greeting formula in German, Swiss German and English used in SMS, MMS, e-mails and, representing “old” means of communication where shortness played a role, telegraphs). Clearly, the majority of studies dedicated  

 

 

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to language in the new media analyze aspects described as characteristic for the respective medium beforehand, or try to determine which traces could be seen as characteristic. Apart from such linguistic and pragmalinguistic aspects, studies on new media also look at factors that can be classified more or less precisely as crosscultural or interactional, such as the analysis of men’s and women’s preferences regarding the use of abbreviations (cf. Bieswanger 2010), or the analysis of SMS exchanges (cf. Stähli/Dürscheid/Béguelin 2011, 13), or can be classified as metalinguistic or ideological, asking, for example, about the impact of SMS communication on standard language or on conventional literacy (cf. Thurlow/Poff 2013, 171; Stähli/ Dürscheid/Béguelin 2011, 13). The sensationalist media and puristic authors in particular spread the belief that text messaging influences spelling habits in other spheres of written language, something often demonized as a contribution to language decay. But while only a few scholars believe that the language of the new media, such as text messaging language, actually has a negative impact on language, e.g., a negative influence on the standard language in writing, spelling, and grammar (cf. Siraj/Ullah 2007), most empirical studies that focus on this matter explicitly come to the conclusion that texting does not pose a threat to the standard language itself or to teaching and learning the standard language, and that frequent texting does not have implications for the use of the standard language (cf., e.g., Plester/Wood/Joshi 2009; Dürscheid/Wagner/Brommer 2010; Shafie/Norizul Azida/Nazira 2010; and the overview in Thurlow/Poff 2013 and Stähli/Dürscheid/Béguelin 2011). Examples given in the literature about the “disastrous” effects of texting for standard language use generally are cases of “texting spelling” – basically, the use of the means of abbreviation mentioned before – or single expressions, often loan words (in most languages Anglicisms or loans from a dominant language, such as Spanish loans in Catalan and Galician, for example). While, as Stähli/Dürscheid/Béguelin (2011, 15) point out, morphological and morpho-syntactic aspects of SMS communication have not yet been studied or have only been looked into marginally, the results of the first detailed studies of such features are remarkable. One of the first such analyses of 400 SMS in Swiss French carried out by Stark (2011) verified that the graphical marking of the subject-verb agreement is closer to standard spelling when co-occurring with lexical subjects (which, however, are infrequent in text messages). Stark interprets this as a hint at their variationist character as a text of communicative immediacy, close to what could be expected in oral discourse (cf. Koch/Oesterreicher 22011). The fact that the marking is intact in more than 90 percent of the cases where it is expected according to the standard leads her to the conclusion that the core syntax is completely unaltered in those otherwise apparently non-standard texts. On these grounds, Stähli/Dürscheid/Béguelin (2011, 15) formulate the hypothesis that there are grammatical structures that are maintained in all cases (such as the marking of subject-verb agreement), while other structures show different and differently-motivated grammatical variations (like the omission of articles and prepositions, negation marking, etc. in French). If their hypotheses are correct, the grammatical structures to  

 

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be found in SMS texts are a reflection of the language’s own structures that are present even when in other regards the text does not comply with what the standard norms require: linguistic principles not depending on pragmatics. Among the purposes of SMS corpora mentioned in the literature, time and again we find the opinion that analyzing text messaging will allow analysis of language change. Stähli/Dürscheid/Béguelin, for example, believe their corpus of Swiss SMS will allow researchers “to analyze language contact, linguistic attitudes and language change in the so-called ‘smaller’ languages (Romansh and Italian in Switzerland)” (2011, 14).7 The problem of this view is that the comparison with other text types and genres has only limited value for detecting change, because, as we have already mentioned, new media develop their own conventions, probably based on other traditions of writing or speaking, but the establishment of new text types can only be seen as language change in the sense of (c), “creation of new genres and text types that develop their own traditions”. Corpora of SMS messages will allow linguists to detect changes in a language the same way any other text corpus can do, but will only detect language changes in the system (and norms) (in the sense of (a) given before) in the language of SMS when compared to older or newer texts of the same type or genre. As texting is a rather young writing domain, only longitudinal studies of SMS texts will allow for the determination of changes within the same text type. As the sms4science corpus mentioned by Stähli/Dürscheid/Béguelin (2011) is not yet suitable for such studies, language studied on the grounds of this corpus can only be compared to other sources of written or oral language, thus only enabling researchers to determine the appearance of new conventions in a new medium. Only exceptionally do authors mention the possible lack of comparison of their data with other sources; Cougnon (2010) is one of the few authors to admit to the need of further studies to really use the results of their studies. Analyzing neologisms found in a Belgian French SMS corpus (an outcome of the Faites don de vos SMS à la science campaign), Cougnon explains that her results show that the authors of the analyzed SMS make use of neologisms already attested to in more formal discourse and that they also tend to lexical creation, but concludes, rather unassumingly, questioning what might be the meaning of the use of certain new words by a very small portion of the population in a given moment (their corpus) if it is not compared with other data and results. She proposes to compare her data collected in 2008 with earlier SMS, something that would at least allow for a comparison and determination of actual changes. Cougnon (like many other scholars) does not actually examine SMS in order to prove language change through SMS, but gives examples for already known results of language change she could find in an SMS corpus.

7 Original quote: ‘Auch wird unser Korpus die Untersuchung von Sprachkontakt, Sprachbewusstsein und Sprachwandel in sog. ‘kleinen’ Sprachen (in der Schweiz also im Rätoromanischen und Italienischen) erlauben’ (translation above by the author).

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As seen above, much of new media technology comes from English-speaking countries or is developed and marketed first in English, leading to the impression among laypeople and self-declared protectors of the language that the new media especially boost the spread of English loans, something often seen as evidence for ongoing language change or even equated with it. In other contexts, we can state a clear dominance of certain languages that for ideological, political or economic motives possess a dominant position (e.g., the status as official language) over other, smaller, less powerful and therefore minoritized languages. This dominance can also influence the way meta-languages specific for a new medium are formed or develop. A good example is the linguistic situation in Spain, where the regional, co-official languages entered the “cyber world” considerably later than the state language, Spanish. The linguistic minorities literally had to fight for a minimal availability of text and word processors, autocorrect programs, text recognition and predictive text functions, etc. in their languages or suitable for them (cf. Sinner/Wieland 2008; on the presence of Romanian, Picard and Galician in the media ↗14 The Role of Small Languages in the Media I: Presence of Romanian in Medial Communication, ↗15 The Role of Small Languages in the Media II: Presence of Picard in Medial Communication and ↗19 Minority Languages in Media Communication). Since the beginning of the mobile communication era, with the appearance of mobile phones that offered the possibility to send short messages in the 1990s, the meta-language of texting in Spain was Spanish (with obvious English influences due to the origin of the technology), as companies at first only offered the users Spanish-language operating menus. As a result, Spanish (together with its portion of technicisms taken from English) influenced the nascent texting meta-languages in the other languages spoken in Spain (Aranese, Catalan, Galician, etc.) or even hindered the development and spread of a texting meta-language of its own in these languages. The English missed call, for instance, appeared in Spanish as the loan translation llamada perdida; Catalans translated it into their language talking of trucada perduda long before their mobile phones offered the possibility to change the operating language to Catalan, and they even copied the colloquial Spanish reduction of llamada perdida, perdida, as in hacer una perdida (‘make a missed [call]’): fer una perduda. Only thanks to political pressure on the developers and the legislators, menus in the minority languages were added in the first decade of the new millennium, allowing for the use of these languages on mobile phones, and word recognition functions (such as the T9 predictive text input method) were added in these other languages. These word recognition functions, that (can) make the writing process much quicker, clearly contributed to the use of Catalan in text messaging. Still, unlike in many other languages, Catalans, or at least some Catalans, felt the need for advice on how to write text messages in Catalan. Institutional instances, such as the terminology center TERMCAT, whose mission is to potentialize the diffusion and communication of terminological activities, contributed to the proposal and diffusion of Catalan text messaging terminology, and private commercial enterprises, such as editorial houses,  

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took to publishing guides on text messaging in Catalan (such as Canyelles/Cunill 2004) in order to contribute to a catalanization of text messaging, explaining, for example, Catalan solutions for abbreviations seen as characteristic “tools” used to create text messages. While guides on how to write text messages also appeared in other languages, such as French and German, where they basically exposed the manifold possibilities of creative text messaging in a ludic and entertaining way, the Catalan variants showed a remarkable interest in proposing Catalan solutions for Anglicisms, Hispanisms, for abbreviations based on other languages, particularly Spanish, etc. Maybe for that reason, some Catalan speakers rejected these guides published to contribute to the normalization of their language, regarding them as intrusive and violating their private space, as language planning measures meant to influence personal linguistic behavior in private spheres were seen by them as abusive and politically questionable (cf. Sinner/Wieland 2008). The strong concern for the Catalan language even in these spheres has its roots in the many and powerful movements that exist in Catalan society to normalize their language. Yet, the attempts to normalize the language of text messaging show how the proposal of terminology and the pressure on the industry can contribute to a change in linguistically-adapted technologies that allow for the use of a language in domains where it was not used until then, proving the general capability of influencing the language used in the media “from within”.

3 Mass media, language planning, and standardization As shown above, despite all contrary positions regarding their impact on language, mass media are seen as having an important role to play in the implementation and elaboration of standard norms. Any linguistic activity is usually a communicative activity, and the use of one language or another (or of one linguistic variety or another) can be employed or interpreted as a marker of ethnolinguistic or social distance, and this is one of the main reasons why the matter of the media has been of such concern for all those working for the normalization of languages (cf. Strubell i Trueta 1982). It does not come as a surprise then that mass media are therefore used as an explicit tool in language planning processes all over the world. Processes such as the creation of a writing system with spelling rules, or the unification and standardization of spelling and linguistic forms leading to the evolution of a written language, are steps that lead to the elaboration (or, in Kloss’ terminology, Ausbau) of a variety (in order to become an Ausbau language); in modern times, these steps usually take place in coordinated processes of language planning. As Schlieben-Lange (1983, 83) stated, when previously unwritten languages are given their own spelling and writing rules

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and start being written, they actually do change, compared to their mere oral use before the introduction of a writing system; the power of the written language to influence the spoken language has been proven empirically often enough (cf. Kabatek 1996, 26). Table 1: Haugen’s model of language planning (Haugen 1983, 275) Form (policy planning)

Function (language cultivation)

Society (status planning)

1. Selection (decision procedures) a. identification of problem b. allocation of norm

3. Implementation (educational spread) a. correction procedures b. evaluation

Language (corpus planning)

2. Codification (standardization procedures) a. graphization b. grammatication c. lexication

4. Elaboration (functional development) a. terminological modernization b. stylistic development c. internationalization

According to the model by Haugen (1966; revised 1983; 2003, cf. tab. 1), language planning consists of two parts: status planning, referring to society, and corpus planning, referring to the language. The model differentiates four phases of language planning: the society or someone authorized by the society selects the variety meant to be the standard or the norm (selection of variety and/or variants to be considered the norm). Then, the language is codified, going through different standardization procedures (codification, in some models also called normativization) in order to be implemented by means of language policies (implementation, in some models: normalization) and accepted by the speakers’ community. The implemented normativized language is then constantly adapted to the needs of the users, modernized and elaborated (elaboration). Haugen’s model was extended by Cooper (1989), who added a third branch, acquisition planning, in order to include language acquisition, particularly acquisition through means implemented by the educational system. Language planning is particularly important for varieties that are still being elaborated, and still on their way to becoming fully-fledged Ausbau languages. Such is the case of minority languages that in the past could not develop autonomously due to the pressure of a majority language impeding their use and evolution, leading to the loss of their functions in society, domain after domain, due to the pressure of another, dominant language, and obstructing the occupation of new domains rising with the development of society. Catalan, Basque and Galician – seen, together with Celtic languages, as symptomatic for Western European Minority languages (cf. Cormack 1998, 35) – are languages that have been going through language planning processes sustained by official institutions since the re-democratization of the Spanish state after a long  

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period of persecution during the decades of the Spanish dictatorship that only ended in 1975 with the death of Francisco Franco. In these three cases, the selection and codification processes were very distinct due to the historical differences between the three languages, as both Galician and Basque did not have a tradition as a written language to build on. As a result of the long periods of persecution and strong influence by the Spanish language, modern Catalan was very different from the Catalan spoken in the first decades of the 20th century, and therefore, it was not possible to simply revert to the old standard language. Furthermore, many speakers of Catalan had lost (or not achieved) the conviction that its different geographical varieties actually constitute one language, and, as a result, the language was split, by anti-Catalan movements, and despite the opposition of linguists, into two different varieties with their own standard norms (Catalan and Valencian). Catalan, Basque and Galician had lost almost all domains but those of private life to Spanish and had to be (re-)introduced into practically all spheres of public life. All three languages underwent a process of language planning, of normalization, as the process of taking a language where it would have been had no other language interrupted its evolution and fate is called, following Catalan sociolinguists. An important part in the normalization process of all three languages is mass media and media communication. There are important differences between the three languages regarding the way and the success with which mass media in the minority language were established, and the very different outcomes of the normalization campaigns in the three linguistic regions are sometimes seen as strongly related to the way the mass media were normalized or used for normalization. Yet, as media usage is only one of many factors, and initiatives to use mass media for normalization are only part of a large list of measures to implement a standard language and improve the status of a language, it is difficult to calculate its exact impact on language and its function within a society, and its share in the normalization as a whole. As we have shown, there are heated debates on whether media consumption can actually make people use certain elements of their language in a certain way and thus change a language, but even supposing so, as could be shown, it is difficult to prove a certain form or structure of a language is being used only because of its usage in the media or (also) because of other factors, such as its presence in language teaching at schools and universities, etc. Yet, the very different success of the normalization campaigns of the three languages are often seen as clearly related to the different attitudes of the speakers towards their respective minority language, and the presence or absence of the language in mass media is said to have an important impact on the formation and evolution of positive or negative views on the language and regarding its prestige. While the introduction of Galician into mass media is widely seen as a failure (whose responsibility is often attributed to the government, the Xunta de Galicia), with almost no private media in Galician and with very few state-run media in this language surviving the financial crisis of the 2010s, the situation in Catalonia (as the Catalanspeaking area with the strongest and most successful normalization process) is seen  

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as particularly successful. It became commonplace in Catalan sociolinguistics to state that the presence of Catalan in the media changed the way Catalans looked at their own language, and allowed Catalans to overcome the diglossic situation, as the communication media occupy a space among the “high functions” of linguistic activities (Strubell i Trueta 1982, 16). Basically, what is meant is that the recovery of lost domains in the media and the occupation of new media contributed massively to the improvement of the linguistic attitudes of Catalan speakers, and the continuous presence of the standard Catalan both in written and spoken language in media is said to have accustomed Catalans to live with their language as a language seen as good enough for any domain of language use. For that reason, special attention was paid to catalanize all spheres of language use in the media, and also promote its use in media formats suitable for different parts of society and taking into consideration the interests of all social groups. That is why, in addition to the use of minority languages in functionally important domains such as specialized literature, nonfiction, functional literature, and in highly-esteemed poetry and fiction, the normalization campaigns also included the promotion of comics, light fiction, etc. Yet, for the reasons already indicated, it is difficult, if not impossible, to determine whether the Catalan media actively make Catalans use their language differently, that is, if they are actually changing their language, or simply help familiarize them with the norm, which allows them to get used to it, but does not teach them to use it actively. The financial support for minority language media projects, such as the financing of translations of literature to minority languages, the production of minority language broadcasting, the subsidizing of dubbing and subtitling, etc., all considered crucial aspects in the normalization process, has also attracted harsh criticism. Some authors even regard such cultural policies meant to improve the media presence of minority language as antidemocratic, e.g., accusing the measures in favor of minority languages paid with taxpayers’ money as favoring parts of society on the grounds of the language they use for the production of media content, claiming, e.g., that an author who decides to write a novel in Spanish has far less possibilities to get published than someone who writes a novel in Galician or Catalan, notwithstanding the quality of the piece of literature produced (cf. Sinner 2013). Obviously, if authors actually get published, they sell much more if they do it in an international language such as Spanish; this might be the reason why some authors who had written their first literary success in their (minority) mother tongue started publishing in Spanish in order to reach a bigger audience (and probably earn much more). The digital media in particular represent a great possibility for minority languages, as they allow them to increase their presence in public communication and conquer new domains. Unlike print media, they don’t require large investments of money and furthermore allow for the participation of anyone interested in producing media content in the language. Therefore, new media have repeatedly been seen as a chance for minority languages to increase their presence in domains previously not  

 

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accessible to them, and expand the existing texts in their language, thus contributing tremendously to the cultivation of the language. Nonetheless, Cormack concludes that existing research on minority language media still has to address “how development and use of the media by minority language communities actually helps language maintenance” (2013, 256). Despite some studies of specific situations over the last decades, many of the issues regarding minority languages media have not been fully addressed yet; most of the results stated by Cormack (1998) regarding the necessity for analysis and debate of the role of minority language media still hold true. Research has not yet given an answer to the question regarding the impact of media on language. According to Browne/Uribe-Jongbloed (2013, 26), “we still lack sufficient understanding of how minority languages – or languages in general for that matter – affect and are affected by the media through which they find expression”.

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Gudrun Held

18 Broadcast Advertising – Issues of Linguistic Research (with Special Regard to Italy and France) Abstract: Referring to the media situation in Italy and France this article gives an overview of the most important findings of linguistic research into advertising. Starting initially from traditional print ads as multimodal texts it is shown how advertising language goes from being a general, but simple repertoire of rhetorically charged words and phrases to turning out to be a particular mode which, in deliberate intersection with the visual code, opens new ways for arousing semantic and pragmatic properties that immediately capture the potential consumers’ attention and interest. Accordingly, common and different characteristics of advertising in the AV media – in terms of their growing influence, namely in radio, cinema and television – are set out. The various issues are further looked up in the partly emerging linguistic literature and its relevance with regard to the Italian and French areas, their specific sociohistorical development and current media culture. The article thus gives insight into both, the main characteristics of advertising language as a mediating system of “hidden persuasion”, and the technological evolution of 20th century media society and its effects on language and text as promotional means in mass communication.  

Keywords: advertising language, body copy, brand, broadcast media, cinema, cliffhanger, frame blending, headline, modality, multimodality, orality, paratext, radio, rhetorical means, slogan, social semiotics, systemic functional linguistics, television, trailer, visuality  

1 Introduction With the growing presence in the mass media and their differentiated role in the globalizing postmodern consumer and event society, advertising has provided a popular subject of linguistic research. Regardless of further semiotic resources – above all, the picture – which have always constituted and characterized advertising texts as a semiotic whole, the focus of interest has been on the language of advertising. Language is currently considered as the main mediator of the “unique selling proposition”, it is responsible for the competitive value of the brand and seems to ultimately influence the persuasive impact on consumer behavior and sales success. In its restriction to the so-called “tertiary media”, a notion which, in the history of communication, refers generally to the broadcast media – cinema, radio and television – (cf. Prakke 1968), the apparently rich research field of advertising DOI 10.1515/9783110314755-019

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language, mainly consisting of lists of typical language features and rhetorical devices, reveals striking deficits. In contrast to the easily accessible and thus largely documented ads in the printed media, language and textuality of advertising in radio and TV have up to the present been given marginal attention. As far as we know, there is no systematic research either concerning the fast technological development of the AV media, nor their mutual influence and change. An overview of the research situation further shows that, in recent years, the interest has quickly turned to the digital, so-called “New Media” (cf., for example, Stöckl as early as 1998; Siever/Schlobinski/Runkehl 2005), so that there is an immediate shift to be seen from the static-traditional advertising forms to the dynamic-interactive screen forms leaving mostly apart the important period in between, e.g., the era of rising, cooperating and falling of the audiovisual stations as a constantly growing mass media consumption. This observation is just as valid for linguistic research on advertising as a whole as it is for Romance languages in particular, whereby not only the respective scientific traditions, but also the different media cultures are responsible in specific ways. The main reasons for the even more obvious neglect of the broadcast media most probably lie in the methodological difficulty of capturing fleeting data not only technically, but also in making the data scientifically accessible with the help of a neatly-acquired transcription competence. Thus, the printed advertisement remains even today the main reference for the discussion of issues in advertising language. Representing the sources of any further advertising form, print ads – according to the paradigmatic framework – raise a range of theoretical interpretations which extend from normative-evaluative, through functional-stylistic and variationalist to textpragmatic approaches (cf. the papers in Janich 2012). Although long ago propagated by Barthes and Eco in the 1960s, advertising studies are only recently opening up towards other sign systems – inspired by the iconic turn in cultural science and the movement towards Visual Grammar and thus to Social Semiotics (cf. Kress/Van Leeuwen 1996/2006 and 2001; Van Leeuwen 2005) text-semiotic approaches are developing, which perceive the advertising text as a multimodal issue. Accordingly, advertising language – inasmuch as it can further be determined at all as a definable variety – can be newly identified no longer as a single entity, but in systematic interaction with other semiotic resources (cf. Ebert 2000). If advertising language was previously rather considered as a deviation from the standard norm, or, furthermore, as the embodiment of deliberately constructed rhetoric idiosyncrasies, then it must have gained all the more by being broadcast, where it is, above all, a matter of listening and seeing; hence, on the one hand, it becomes a more and more creativelydevised link between verbal and nonverbal codes, and, on the other hand, resulting from the underestimated fact that, according to McLuhan’s (1964) conception whereby the medium is the message, it is thus decisively responsible for the function, implementation and interplay of these codes. Advertisement is therefore no longer a forum for certain language strategies and their performative tricks, but rather the  

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catalyst of an intentionally-planned multimodal texture. This texture changes continuously with the development, modification and variation of the media situation as a whole, but retains at its core a special nature which remains authoritative in ascribing its structures and functions as well as in defining its theoretical frame. A study of advertising language in the AV media must therefore take into account a transition phase, which is constantly shaping and reshaping its symbolism according to the rapid change from the simple print medium to the digital multimedium. Linguistically speaking, advertising language is moving in the wide spectrum between literacy and orality, profiting from the respective research areas to identify its partly overlapping characteristics. Italian linguistics has resolved this transient character by postulating a bridging concept, the so-called italiano trasmesso (Sabatini 1982 and 1997; Losi 2007) and thus introduces a media-related view of the recent alterations in the Italian language. Nevertheless, the big variety of language forms in the audiovisual media – including above all the advertising language mainly mediated in the frequent advertising spots – have found comparatively little linguistic interest. This is in complete contradiction to media reality, where the lion’s share of all advertising communication in postmodern western societies is on radio and TV which are increasingly present in every home and are thus continuously reached by a maximum of widely spread recipients in space and time.1 This contradiction becomes even clearer, inasmuch as this overview – with some short sidelong glances at France –, will primarily concentrate on Italy where an omnipresent audiovisual media empire that is financed quasi-exclusively by advertising has been established and, together with the developments in the field of personal media technology, is driving a quite specific culture of communication which is mainly characterized by populism. Hence, in order not to simply point to the research deficits in this context, (which, by the way, have been explicitly questioned in many papers dealing with advertising language; see below), the following remarks are not going to be limited to the narrow research sector of broadcasting media, but will rather draw their special character from a more extensive view. The article comprises the following sections: 1) a short but closer survey of the most important tendencies of linguistic research into advertising a) in their evolution from traditional language and style-related points of view via text-pragmatics to new multimodal approaches, and b) with special regard to Romance, i.e., Italian, and – if worthy of note – French areas of study;  

1 Concrete data for the percentage share of advertising, the differing distribution of advertising spots plus their rapid increase in the media – the press, radio, TV and cinema – can be found for Italy in Brigida/Franci/Di Vesme (1993). Admittedly, they relate to the period of 1981 to 1992, but they do offer relevant statistical support for the argumentation in this contribution, inasmuch as they show the increasingly fast development preceding the new media era.

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an outline of the existing research concerning a) the Italian context of AV media, the advertising situation and its special communication forms, and subsequently b) the prevalent approaches, data and findings related to the individual areas of language and textuality in cinema, radio and TV in general, as well as their validity for advertising in particular.2

Recent manuals are the only working means where somehow diachronically-oriented overviews on the Italian (and French) language and textuality of the media appear (cf. inter al. Gerstenberg 2006; Helfrich 2006). However, in the Romance language countries, a homogeneous subdiscipline called “Media Linguistics” established programmatically in German speaking areas3, is still in its early stages, although there has been increasing interest in “Language and the Media” since the 1960s (cf. Cortelazzo 1988; Allaire 1990; Helfrich 2006; Osthus 2006). Italy is at the head, where, on the base of the useful terminological differentiation between lingua and linguaggio (dei media), first the language of the press (Dardano 1973), then the language of advertising (cf. Baldini 1987) and finally the language of the Nuovi Media are being given close attention (cf. Antonelli 2011 and earlier contributions in Serianni/Trifone 1994). The reasons for this interest not only lie in the socio economic development towards the famous Berlusconian mediocracy (mediocrazia); on the one hand, they are also anchored in the normative tradition of the questione della lingua and the special consciousness of Italian linguistics for differing developments in both, the varieties and the ideological implications of nowadays Italian (as in analisi del discorso, Antelmi 2006; 2012); on the other hand, I consider them as a result of the close collaboration Italian linguists have with German Romance scholars in receiving specific paradigmatic developments.4

2 Regarding these issues, it must be noted, however, that I am a German speaking researcher in Romance linguistics so that the quoted literature and my main arguments in this area are mainly related to Italian (and French) media language and media texts; an overview of English studies would perhaps give a very different picture of both, the epistemological situation and the media practices. 3 German-language media linguistics is establishing itself in German departments of linguistics or communication theory under various aspects (cf. Burger 1990 [1984]; Perrin 2006; the numerous works of Bucher, e.g., 2007; and Schmitz, e.g., 1997; 2004; 2007) and focuses then theoretically in the work of Stöckl on the multimodal approach (inter al. Stöckl 2004a and 2006; cf. also the programmatic founding in Stöckl 2012a). 4 Many volumes and contributions to the Società di Linguistica Italiana (SLI), the Dictionary of Romance Linguistics (LRL, esp. vol. IV) or of the HSK 23 “History of the Romance Languages” etc. bear witness to this.  

 

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2 Revisiting linguistic research into advertising with special regard to Italian linguistics 2.1 Research approaches to advertising The linguistic discourse on advertising communication focused for a long time on language as the only medium, and, since the 1960s, has constituted its own constant and relatively homogeneous sector, which has remained faithful to the press as the determinant medium. Neglecting the changes on the media market and in media technology, it is devoting itself continuously to the printed or written word. Looked at from a logo centric perspective, a clear literacy norm is thus being retained, although its main lines seem to be constantly corrupted through advertising, especially as this is more and more going to be massively disseminated by audiovisual media. That is probably why, in the early years of the growing information era, a culturally pessimistic attitude was prevailing (inter al. Postman 1985) where advertising – as the “hidden persuaders” (Packard 1961) – was considered pernicious for the masses of people. Thus, advertising language was consequently admonished as an “adulterated” language form, negatively influencing standard language. Consistent with the rapidly increasing consumption of radio and TV, such critical attitudes primarily supported national language ideologies. France reacted with special legislation (for instance, in the relevant paragraphs of the Loi Toubon, cf. Schmitt 1990, dealing with communication in the media); in Italy, criticism gave rise to the nuova questione della lingua (e.g., Pasolini, Calvino; cf. Parlangèli 1971), which considers the manipulative methods of advertising language to be a devaluation of the finally supra regionally developing common lingua italiana (cf. De Mauro 1963). We find a clear reflection of this call to the norm,5 above all supported by the Accademia della Crusca, in the subsequent publications on Italian advertising language, especially those of the 1970s and 1980s (cf. Perugini 1994; Iannucci 1999 and 2006). There, systematic attention is given for the first time to the advertising language phenomena, but there is abundant use of depreciating labels like linguaggio subalterno, linguaggio venduto, lingua in margine alla lingua or uso non normale;6 vocabulary and syntax are said to display the features of a typical fastfood verbale, or they are simply a forgettable linguistic folklore. In short, advertising produces nothing more than fantaparole, as Baldini fittingly summarizes in 1987, referring likewise metaphorically with this word formation to the ephemeral form and meaning processes of a lingua in vendita, a sold out language with no future (Chiantera 1989). However, at the moment when Testa (2000) publishes  

5 Central figures in Italian linguistics are Francesco Sabatini and Maurizio Dardano. 6 Authorship, text sources and critical reception of these labels cf. in the anthological section of Baldini (1987).

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her study of advertising language, the deliberately ambiguous title of parola immaginata seems to mark a certain turning point: from the 1990s on, advertising language is less a matter of empty phrases or norm-disrupting forms of reduction, but rather a matter of the upcoming awareness that, in connection with the visual, language conveys emotions and, according to the growing need of infotainment, must be exciting and entertaining at any price: through the analysis of advertising linguists are going to reveal how every language system displays its potential for innovation and creativity; how language can be loaded rhetorically, and in which way it becomes iconic on its own (“immaginifica”) and thus can be marked by striking self-referentiality (cf. Kloepfer 1975; Held 2007). At this point, we have to leave the chronological overview limiting the following outlines to some focal topics which are going to lead to a respective inventory of features at all language levels; above all, it is mainly the lexical level which provides the most striking features. But, linguistic inquiry has meanwhile become more finegrained: how different the approaches to advertising language can be and, in addition, what different findings come out as a result of further interdisciplinary accesses, this is shown systematically and with enlightening success for German-language research in Janich’s collected papers from 2012. Unfortunately, the publications in Romance linguistics deal with wider spread arguments so that I briefly try to list them in a more traditional way. Advertising language is thus investigated a) under diachronic vs. synchronic viewpoints, whereby diachronic considerations may commonly introduce synchronic analysis, or are oriented to the history of art and culture (Codeluppi 2000 and 2006; Gerstenberg 2006; Arcangeli 2008; or, for instance, the illustrated compendium by Bargiel 2004); b) media specifically, whereby the printed forms, above all the classical product ads, and furthermore bills and posters, are the most important objects of analysis; c) regarding text structure, whereby typical genre-constitutive components are identified: according to their evolution these are mainly the slogan and, with growing importance, the logo and brand names, as well as the increasingly prominent headlines and – more marginally or even lacking – the running text or so-called body copy; d) regarding text functions where the focus is put above all on persuasion and (hidden) manipulation, so that both, the stylistic choice of register and varieties (cf. Hoffmann 2012), and language creativity and violations of conventional relations between signifiant and signifié are of special interest stimulating the recourse to classical rhetorics; e) concerning text pragmatics with a special view to argumentative strategies and the organization of speech acts and communicative events (cf. Adam/Bonhomme 1997); a text pragmatic approach is also concerned with deictic anchoring (cf. Held 2009a and b) to given situations; or it attempts to filter out the different markers of relational work between agents and special target groups or is immediately represented by persons appearing in the text (testimonials, personalization);

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f)

with a focus on genre specificity through identification and description of various subtypes of advertising and particular advertising formats (cf. Pezzini 2006); g) with a (text-)semiotic approach, whereby the still hesitant view of advertising as a text whole (“image-texte” as Adam/Bonhomme 1997, 11ss. call it) consisting of verbal and nonverbal signs has slowly opened the way to the analytical framework of multimodality (cf. Semprini 1990 and 2003) which considers advertising language mainly in complementary interaction with the visual elements; h) using so-called “multimedia” or transversal approaches (cf. Reimann 2008), which take into account both the creation of intra- and intermedial campaigns and the constraints of intercultural validity and adaptation to global advertising; i) within (critical) discourse analysis conceding insights into the ideological content of global marketing as well as into group-specific interests by the use of stereotypes and clichés (e.g., gender, age, status symbolicity, identity markers) or by the communication of ethos likewise in certain judgments and camouflages (e.g., polyphony, (in)direct speech, epistemological markers, mitigation forms and political (in)correctness) (cf. Bendel 2008 and Bendel Larcher 2012; Antelmi 2012).7  

 

Research into advertising in the audiovisual media is of little importance in this general frame. This leaves completely open the increasingly important area of “multimediality” as shown by a diagram taken from Reimann (2008) (cf. Figure 1). Summing up, this overview of the linguistic research on advertising shows that little has been found on the domains of radio and TV and thus neither music and sound, nor the moving picture8 have been considered in their important role of the production of meaning. Still, no detailed investigations into crossmedia advertising campaigns have been carried out, which – as suggested by Reimann (2008) – by way of a comparison would give insight into communities and differences of the respective media and the potentials of their semiotic resources. Advertising on radio and TV is mentioned in most research as a specific commercial genre with specific properties and, as we mentioned above, is thus just seen in completion of the print medium (cf. like Sowinski 1979).9 Cinema, in the history of the

7 Antelmi’s publications in 2006 and esp. 2012 are based on the theory and method of the “analyse du discours” of the French school of D. Maingueneau (cf. the summarizing publication Maingueneau 2007, in which advertising texts together with other “textes de communication” play an important heuristic role in the exemplary explication of medial ‘énonciation’). 8 Wyss (1998) may be an exception from the viewpoint of literature mimicry (see below); in addition, pioneering considerations on the TV spot can be found as early as 1991 in Kloepfer/Landbeck. 9 In Janich (1999/2013, 24) there is a table taken from the advertising handbook (Behrens 1996), where the individual media advertising carriers (the daily newspaper, magazines, TV, films, posters) are compared to direct advertising according to performance profile and functional potential. Radio is not included. The vaguely defined category “Darstellungsmöglichkeit” relates very superficially to the

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Figure 1: Reimann (2008), front page

media certainly the most pertinent precursor of audiovision, is in research so far a nearly completely neglected field. When, in the following, we try to look at the most important findings of linguistic research into advertising with a focus on language, they are drawn from advertising as a text genre in general and as such apply also for the AV media. Only in a second step I will point out in more detail the specific features of advertising language. They will be first inferred from general investigations into AV media language and then secondly be related to the findings of the few existent special research studies.

2.2 The language of advertising as a subject of linguistic research Common to all advertising texts is their brevity due to the reduction of space and time (cf. Held 2011). Advertising forms in the mass media normally do not stand alone; they rather have a parasitical, or secondary, character (testo ospite, Volli 2003, 13) being attached as an add-on or supplement, or appearing as “insertions” to (main) texts. This nature does not only effect on the text format and its components, but also on its strategic staging with the primordial purpose of making a fast and possibly teasing contact to the dispersive, permanently information-fed recipients: i.e., brief advertising texts not only try for a maximized catchy mediation of the message usually bound to product differentiation (known in the advertising world as USP = unique selling

respective codifications, but is likely to provide a certain basis which can be used for appropriate linguistic analysis.

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proposition), but must counter the increasing information overload with a clever range of suspense mechanisms and surprise effects by breaking with habitual expectations (cf. possibly the salienza percettiva in Volli 2003, 54; or Polesana 2003 on straniamento and trasgressione). Language reductionism and language manipulation develop accordingly into advertising-constitutive verbal techniques, whose meaning can only be dissolved in the respective interplay with the visual embedding,10 viz. catch visual, key visual, typography and text design (cf. inter al. Stöckl 2004a/b; Held 2007 and 2012). The recent research into brevitas (cf. Hausendorf 2009; Held/Schwarze 2011) focuses on different ways of text compression. It is a basic characteristic of advertising, which comprises both, its coding and its composition: On the one hand, advertising texts are – in correlation with the growing technological possibilities – so-called “iconic texts”, consisting of interconnected verbal and visual parts, whereby the visual basically attracts the main share of attention supposing language to play a minor role. On the other hand, they consist of genre-constitutive structural components, which are exclusively language determined: there is first of all the slogan – in literal sense the “battle cry” to proclaim the product in public – as the most characteristic part of the ad text; just as important is the name of the product, which, in the course of modern marketing, is turning into the brand label; today it is a stable part of the “logo” which as a complex semiotic construct commonly represents the product image; of increasing importance (and to be clearly distinguished from the slogan!) we furthermore have the headline as the verbal eye-catcher; it mostly links the different parts semantically in its function as a trigger and thus is leading the understanding of the USP; finally, there is (if not lacking like in current aesthetically-oriented print ads) the so-called copy text (in the AV context the voice from the off) which either is pointing out special qualities of the product or is playfully enhancing the emotional frames created in order to raise connotations and thus facilitate decoding. There is no doubt that language must be seen as central in all of these components; any verbal form, however, is not working independently, but reinforces, in close interconnection with the other modes, a though densely produced but quickly recognizable promotional message. The consequence of these strategically calculated constraints on advertising language can be seen in particular lexico-grammatical phenomena, which are mainly explained and specifically categorized within the issues of rhetoric (cf. Schüler 2012). Seminal studies of advertising language are mostly concerned with the slogan (cf. Baumgart 1992). Later on, according to the growing interest in multimodality, headlines become important research objects (cf. Volli 2003; Schmitz 2007; specifically in tourist advertising Held 2009a and b).

10 Blumenthal (1983) sees “semantic density” (book title) as given through the use of “visual” language and accordingly adduces different formal processes.

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However, with the rise of pragmatic theories, the interest in typical advertising speech acts and their formulation comes into the focus of research (cf. Wüest 2001). On the one hand, attention is paid to the appellative and directive functions of language, and how they can be explained in current models of argumentation (cf. Adam/Bonhomme 1997) and persuasion (cf. the survey in Stöckl 1997). Advertising research is further about the negotiation of imperatives (request to buy) and commissives (promise of profit), the use of indirectness, and the modification of illocutionary force in general. On the other hand, there is an emerging interest in relational features in terms of allocution, address forms, mediating personalization and personal deixis (cf. Held 2009a and b), as well as in dialogue sequences, narration scenarios and the use of frames and frame blending (cf. Ziem 2012) to establish both, affective proximity to the consumer and a concrete contextual anchoring. Only in this surrounding of various linguistic approaches, which should be complemented through connected disciplines (like psychology, sociology, marketing research etc.), the functional and genre-determined impact of advertising language(s) comes to light. On this background we are going to list out some main characteristics with a special eye to Italian linguistics, for which – as the sources quoted so far have shown – advertising language has been a favorite topic since the 1950s. As may be expected, the main focus lies on lexicon, which includes word formation and thus productive morphological developments; in the area of syntax typical reoccurring structures and types of phrases are noted (cf. Giacomelli 2004); furthermore, there is a debate on retorica della pubblicità emerging, which, while considering rhetorical devices and tropes, makes out exactly the same lexico-grammatical phenomena just under another viewpoint (cf. Spang 1987; Grunig 1990; Magistretti 1998; Iannucci 1999 and 2006). Hence in more detail, what are the most important “stilemi” (to quote Codeluppi) of advertising language that can then be assigned to the broadcast media?

2.3 Listing up the most important linguistic cues of advertising language Most publications between the beginnings in the 1960s and the nowadays electronic era agree that advertising language is not an independent variety, but rather a sort of functionally “mixed language”, which endows or even enriches the common standard corpus with certain continually recurring features. These formal characteristics, which are briefly listed in the light of the language system, draw, on the one hand, on the persuasive processing of both the product-specific facts and the lifestyle-oriented framing (like fitness, hedonism, ecology, adventure, escapism, “forever young”, ecc.), and, on the other hand, on the pragmatics of everyday informality and social populism. Perugini perfectly summarizes this complexity of advertising language – not without critical reference to Italian language ideology:

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“La componente verbale del messaggio pubblicitario si può quindi definire come la ripresa e la riformulazione di idee e messaggi elaborati in altri ambiti di discorso, che la persuasione pubblicitaria adatta e piega ai propri scopi specifici. La lingua pubblicitaria è una specie di lingua in margine alla lingua, che si pone fuori della norma nel tentativo di rinnovare la propria suggestione e il proprio mordente sul pubblico dei consumatori. Di qui la sua preferenza per la funzione conativa, persuasiva, rispetto alla funzione referenziale, informativa; essa costruisce ‘esche’ linguistiche allettanti ricorrendo alla terminologia prestigiosa di sottocodici tecnici e scientifici e sfruttando o i moduli della lingua colloquiale, con le sue ricordanze, le sue approssimazioni lessicali, la sua sintassi zoppicante, o il registro letterario e aulico con il prestigio tradizionale. I messaggi pubblicitari sono un esempio di ‘lingua venduta’, merce che si spaccia per discorso informativo sulla merce” (Perugini 1994, 605).11

In order to identify the typical features of promotional language as functional entities, knowledge of the sociological background is certainly needed. While linguistics targets particularly the outcomes on different language levels, the praxis of advertising, wherever guidance for language use is given (e.g., Gaede 1981; Lombardi 1998), focuses rather on the rhetorical force of certain items and their potential of attentiongetting. In relation to the audiovisual media – more than in the printed matter – language thus has to be treated in the role of a “lingua subalterna” [‘subaltern language’] (as Migliorini describes advertising language as early as 1967, cf. Baldini 1987), as imminent importance is attached to the nonverbal modes, e.g., music, sound, picture, movies, ecc. That is why Perugini points out that any methodology has to take in account the  

 

“parzialità di un approccio esclusivamente linguistico a proposito della comunicazione pubblicitaria, nella quale sono fondamentali, oltre al codice verbale in senso stretto, quello iconico e, nella pubblicità trasmessa dai mezzi audiovisivi, quello fonico. La subalternità della lingua rispetto all’immagine […] è ancora più marcata oggi per il massiccio ricorso al canale televisivo e agli effetti di manipolazione che permette” (Perugini 1994, 606).12

11 ‘The verbal component of the advertising message can thus be defined as the reuptake and reformulation of ideas and messages elaborated in other discursive contexts, which persuasion in advertising adapts and bends to its own specific goals. Advertising language is a species of language at the margin of language, which deviates from the norm in the attempt to renew its own effect and impact on the consumers. This explains its preference for the conative and persuasive function relating to the referential, informative function; it creates tempting linguistic ‘baits’ referring to the prestigious terminology of technical and scientific subcodes and exploiting either the modules of colloquial language with its remembrances, its lexical approximations, its bumpy syntax, or the literary, upscale register with its traditional prestige. Advertising messages are an example of ‘sold language’, goods pretending to be informative discourse about the goods’ (translation by the editors). 12 ‘the partiality of an exclusively linguistic approach to advertising communication, in which the fundamental codes are, beyond the verbal code in a strict sense, the iconic code, and, in advertising in audiovisual media, the phonic code. The subalternity of language with respect to image […] is even more marked today by the massive use of television and the effects of manipulations that it allows’ (translation by the editors).

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As far as I know, no linguistic research has followed up this assumption systematically; and it comes in a new light only with the multimodality research.13 So the favorite field for the linguistic debate on advertising language is lexis again (initially regarding the slogan). The relevant approaches are of a semantic, functional-stylistic, sociolinguistic and varietal nature, whereby the concept of deviation from a (however defined) standard norm indicates a certain analytical direction (cf. Dittgen 1989). Attention is paid not only to the lexical item per se, but to the part of speech, the field of idiomatics and phraseologisms, and, of course, to word formation. According to Römer, thirteen lexicological categories for the words used in advertising messages can be derived. In Römer’s terminology, they are “(non-)understandability; polysemy/vagueness; common use vs. neologism; register marking/ varieties of style; specialist language; international marking; (un-)motivatedness; center vs. periphery in vocabulary; word-relatedness; judgmental/emotive marking; regional marking; social imprinting” (Römer 2012, 36).14

Some favorite topics in the analysis of product advertising are, above all, the use of language for special purposes (Fachsprache); clichés and keywords; emotionally catching words between denotation and connotation; the role of foreign items and internationalisms with ideological coloring; the overuse of adjectives in the comparative and superlative mode; the exploitation of various registers for social style marking; recently the creation of knowledge frames and frame-switching using isotopies, recurrences and cohesion, accompanied by the activation of cognitive and cultural background (cf. Nielsen 2012; Ziem 2012); the exploitation of phrasemes to create iconicity through resemanticization of obscure meanings (cf. Stöckl 2004a) as well as through the staging of intertextual relations and their bridging and crossing effects (Giacomelli 2004, 235 talks of “trasvalorizzazione semantica”, Desideri 1996 and Desideri/Sannazaro 2012 deal with the same topic as “riuso”). From this enumeration (to a large extent as in Janich 1999/2013), it is possible to see that persuasive product description and product appraisal cannot be left apart when interpreting forms and meaning, so that the same lexical phenomena have also been treated under the viewpoint of rhetoric and stylistics. In the field of morphology, it is a matter of innovative and creative word formation processes, which are set in motion for both denomination and evaluation of products (often also for brand names). One topic is the overutilized repertoire of

13 Current research into multimodal text now sees the role of language by no means as subordinate, but on the contrary as the main instrument for code-linking or for triggering configuration (cf. Stöckl 2004b and 2011). 14 ‘(Un-)Verständlichkeit; Mehrdeutigkeit/Vagheit; Usualität vs. Neuartigkeit; Stilschichtenmarkierungen/Stilfärbungen; Fachsprachlichkeit; Internationale Markierung; (Un-)Motiviertheit; Zentrum vs. Peripherie im Wortschatz; Beziehungen zwischen Wörtern; Wertende/emotive Markierung; regionale Markierung; soziale Geprägtheit’ (translation above by the editors).

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prefixes indicating high value (super-, hyper-, mega- etc.), another topic is the mostly improvised word reductions and the so-called parole macedonia (or mixed acronyms); Giacomelli (2004, 235) also identifies so-called parole attaccapanni, “coniati di norma sulla base di strutture, morfemi o lessemi già noti nell’uso” [‘coined usually on the basis of structures, morphemes or lexemes already known in usage’]. Asynthetic composition types, nevertheless formed according to well-tuned patterns, are equally of high interest. All in all, word formation research finds an exemplary field in advertising as it helps to explain systems of productivity and lexicalization patterns with reference to context and cultural knowledge. In the case of syntactics, the most obvious question is whether a “particular, variety-typical‚ advertising syntax”15 (Thim-Mabrey 2012, 108) is identifiable and, above all, in which text parts of advertising syntactic issues are the subject of debate. Research merely focuses on the economical short sentence forms such as nominal phrases without predicate, elliptic structures, intentionally simplified sentence complexity (parataxis etc.), repetitive, disconnected forms (e.g., adverbial adjectives, Perugini 1994, 608), explaining or evaluating them – as in many cases is done for media syntax per se – functionally as communicative approximations to the characteristics of spontaneously spoken language (anacoluthon, connectives etc.), or as instant patchwork-like disjunctive grammar (Stöckl 1997, 145s.). The linking of syntactic studies to text-pragmatic aspects is favoring an insight into text phorics (anaphor vs. cataphor; the latter is frequent in advertising because of its advancing potential for suspense), the managing of the deictic axes in relation to the personal, temporal and local level; Perugini (1994) mentions, for instance, the employment of the article, of allocutive and inclusive pronouns, the functions of possessives, and the power of a socalled qui “immedesimante”. Furthermore, attention is drawn to the frequent transversality of sentence types and verb tenses (like the indirect imperative, the commissive future), but there is also literature which incorporates prosodic and rhythmic issues in order to make out their influence on the functional sentence perspective and forms of topicalization. From text linguistics comes the debate on narrative and argumentative formulation patterns (esp. Adam/Bonhomme 1997) and on the broad use of different forms of intertextuality (cf. Lugrin 2006; in Desideri 1996 “riuso”). All the above-mentioned characteristics take on specific functional contours in the light of rhetoric. Research into the rhetorical devices of advertising language is abundant, whereby the line of what is understood as rhetoric reaches from the classic elocutio through the art of enthymematic argument to poetic-ludic plays on words (cf. Janich 1999/2013). We thus have to distinguish the occurrence of classical rhetorical items like figures of speech and tropes – e.g., the creation of a product image through the “rediscovery of the similitude principle”16 (Schüler 2012, 206) – from the advertis 

 

15 ‘spezielle, varietäten-typische ‘Werbe-Syntax’’ (translation above by the editors). 16 ‘die Wiederentdeckung des similitudo-Prinzips’ (translation by the editors).

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ing technique of rhetorization, which is an intended effect of alienation and surprise through signs by breaking the conventional relationship between signifiant and signifié. Anyway, from the rhetoric point of view, further phenomena are deliberate subjects of analysis: with regard to the different levels of language, in lexis it is a matter of the use of metaphor and metonymy, the playing with polysemy and polyvalence, the exploiting of figurative phraseology and its potential of resemantization. Furthermore, the use of poetic devices such as the favored synaesthesia, etc. (cf. Iannucci 1999 and 2006; Desideri/Sannazaro 2012); syntax targets style deviations breaking down structure and prosody, i.e., climax constructions, repetition, forms of antithesis, modalization and changes of perspective etc. What is central too, is the study of the different impact of puns, which can be staged on the phonetic, semantic and (inter)textual level either in absentia (stimulating the cultural knowledge) or in praesentia (stimulating the conventional text structure) (cf. Kloepfer 1975; Grunig 1990; Desideri 1996; Del Basso 2006). No matter how the approach to the advertising text with regard to language ensues, it must be identified as a mixed form, as a versatile hybrid at the intersection of text genres and text patterns as well as different registers and styles. Advertising language is regarded as a codice sincretico, i.e., there is no longer – as in earlier times – a search for its features as an exclusive variety, but it is “il risultato della sovrapposizione e della concomitanza di più codici linguistici, del sincretismo fra questi” [‘the result of the superposition and the concomitance of several linguistic codes, of the syncretism between them’] (Giacomelli 2004, 230). All the enumerated linguistic and rhetorical features of advertising language are relativized with the opening to semiotics (in Italy under the label of the – socially critical – discorso pubblicitario introduced by Eco in 1972) as well as to communication theory where text finally is seen as a complex construction of sense, which comprises  

“non solo brani di linguaggio verbale scritti od orali, […] ma anche immagini come disegni e fotografie, filmati ed altri materiali audiovisivi, musiche, animazioni, oggetti elettronici e ipertestuali. Testi, insomma, sono per noi tutti i tipi di messaggi e di segni costituiti sui diversi mezzi di comunicazione, nella loro dimensione oggettiva, riproducibile, ben delimitata. Un testo ha un inizio e una fine, magari stabiliti per caso o per arbitrio del lettore, ma per lo più predisposto dal suo autore. […] Il modo in cui è strutturato, la sua dimensione espressiva, permette di veicolare certi contenuti: è cioè inteso come il frutto di un atto di comunicazione” (Volli 2003, 4).17

17 ‘not only parts of verbal, written or oral, language, […] but also images such as drawings and photos, films and other audiovisual material, music, animations, electronic and hypertextual objects. Texts, in short, are for us all types of messages and signs constituted on the diverse means of communication, in their objective dimension, reproducible, neatly delimitated. A text has a beginning and an end, perhaps determined by chance or by discretion of the lector, but generally disposed by its author. […] Its structuring mode, its expressive dimension, allows to convey certain contents: it is therefore intended to be the fruit of a communicative act’ (translation by the editors).

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Texts are accordingly a network of sense coded through the linking of several sign systems and “decoded” by the recipients’ mostly visually coined literacy experience (Schmitz’s conception of Sehlesen, 2007). On this basis, the advertising text must be recognized as a semiotic whole comprising visual and verbal sign systems with all their possibilities of configuration and interconnection. In Italian linguistics, this view has remained language-(norm-) centered for a long time, as advertising language is described with the collective term linguaggio, “un linguaggio che fa ricorso a più codici paralleli; visivo, verbale, oggettuale e, dove possibile (in radio e televisione) tonale e gestuale. La componente strettamente linguistica ha il compito di ancorare il messaggio, di fissare e formalizzare il significato da attribuire all’icona, di per sé ambigua e polisemica, non di rado falsamente ‘naturale’ e rispetto a cui, in un empito didascalico e gnomico, la lingua ha il compito di far ordine” (Giacomelli 2004, 230s.).18

This syncretic conception is still determinant in the research on advertising language (cf. Volli 2003; Testa 2004; Arcangeli 2008; Capozzi 2008), but there is a turn to revisit the various strategie pubblicitarie in deliberate interaction of all codes, on the one hand, with explicit regard to the context and the recipient knowledge, on the other, referring explicitly to the different bearing of the various technical media. Thus, at least the appropriate theoretical context has been prepared for taking a closer look at advertising in the broadcast media. Arcangeli, for example, already attempts, in contrast to the former research, to build his analyses of the linguaggio pubblicitario on a comparison “tra affissi murali (manifesti vs. poster), annunci cartacei e spot televisivi” [‘between mural bills and posters, print advertisements and TV spots’] (2008, 7). He obviously broadens his data (“qualcosa come centomila réclame” [‘about 100,000 advertisements’]) to different media, limits the quotations, however, to some selected examples without referring to their origin. Other impulses to turn the attention to the “tertiary” media are coming from the emerging media linguistic current in German linguistics applied to the Romance languages: the basis is the analytic framework of the multimodal text – taken from Halliday’s systemic functional linguistics and subsequently developed by Kress and Van Leeuwen – in which all codes possess either equal and complementary or additional functions in order to produce a complex (semiotic) unit of communication. Its particular message can not only be described on the basis of the respective code potentials, but must also be substantiated in their specific interplay (cf. Stöckl 2006 and 2011; Roth/Spitzmüller 2007). Taking into account all appearing sign resources in their linguistic relevance

18 ‘a language that relates to several parallel codes; visual, verbal, objectual, and, if possible (in radio and television), auditive and gestural. The strictly linguistic component has the task to anchor the message, to fix and formalize the meaning to be attributed to the icon, per se ambiguous and polysemic, often falsely ‘natural’ and in relation to which, in a didascalic and gnomic impact, language has the task to put in order’ (translation by the editors).

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(i.e., the phonetic, semantic, syntactic and textual values), a new understanding of text is evolving which seems to be realized exemplarily in the advertising text (Stöckl 2012b; Runkehl 2012). The following images list the various codes or modes of a text and their semiotic capacity as put together systematically by Stöckl (2006, cf. Fig. 2), and point to the different possibilities of codification in correlation with different media, i.e., print, TV, radio and Internet (Tab. 1).

Figure 2: Modalities of print and audio texts with the respective submodalities (Stöckl 2006, 29)

Even if the multimodal text analysis is still focused on printed ads and their basic configuration, new analytical frameworks are applied in order to face the interplay of language and picture as powerful modes, e.g., all above the theories of “text design” or a “new” visual linguistics (cf. Bucher 2007; Roth/Spitzmüller 2007; Schmitz 1997 and 2007; Große 2011; Diekmannshenke/Klemm/Stöckl 2011). According to Barthes’ differentiation between ancrage and relais (1964, 44), Nöth (2000), on the one hand, and Stöckl (1997; 2004a and b), on the other, develop models of analysis which examine respectively the different forms of mode connection and assert convergence (in terms of addition or complementarity) and divergence (in terms of contrast and violation). Both types approve the agents’ art to build on the cognitive capacity of the recipients to engage in what Stöckl (2004a, 230) calls “explorative Semiose” [‘explorative semiosis’] by putting together the text chunks like resolving a puzzle.  

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Table 1: Possibilities of codification for advertising in different media genres (Runkehl 2012, 278)19 Medium →

Print

TV

Radio

Internet

geschrieben

+

+

–

+

gesprochen

–

+

+

+

+

+

+

+

Nicht-Standard

+

+

+

+

mündlich

+

+

+

+

schriftlich

+

+

+

+

statisch

+

+

–

+

animiert

–

+

–

+

Bausteine

+

+

+

+

Textvernetzung

+

+

+

+

Typographie

+

+

–

+

Farbe

+

+

–

+

statisch

+

+

–

+

animiert

–

+

–

+

–

+

–

+

Ton/Geräusch

–

+

+

+

Musik

–

+

+

+

einseitig (einfach)

+

+

+

+

reziprok (komplex)

–

–

–

+

↓ Kodierung der Werbung durch

Sprache (medial)

Sprache (konzeptionell) Standard

Text (medial)

Text (funktional)

Bild

Film Akustik

Interaktivität

19 Translation of left part of the table (by the editors): Coding of advertisement through – language (medial) – spoken / written – language (conceptional) – standard / non-standard / oral / written – text (medial) – static / animated – text (functional) – modules / text integration – typography – color – image – static / animated – film – acoustics – sound / music – interactivity – unilateral (simple) – reciprocal (complex)

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3 Towards linguistic research of advertising in the audiovisual media Whatever the initiatives are, linguistics and communication science have still taken too little notice of how much the development and spread of audiovisual media have influenced the advertising sector from technological, socioeconomic and psychological viewpoints. Coming from institutionally different places of production, advertising is plainly changing in the orientation to a mass dissemination; everything becomes new, the communication formats, the genres and their codification, the frequency, the reception habits and the effects. Thus, promotional language (linguaggio and lingua!) takes on different functions and “design” possibilities in its turn from the monosensorial to the multisensorial distribution, including crossmedial and intermedial diffusion. The advertising spot arises as an innovative, but henceforth basic “funkische Grundform” [‘broadcast form’] (Sowinski 1979, 143), being a “breve messaggio pubblicitario che viene solitamente inserito in trasmissioni radiofoniche o televisive, interrompendone la continuità” [‘short advertising message that is usually inserted in radio or TV broadcasts, interrupting their continuity’] (Treccani n.d.). We notice even in the English term spot an epitomizing metaphor for the rapid flashy nature of being inserted into the programmatic time schedule of the broadcasts. A spot thus is nothing else but a flashlight on the senses “talora costituito da poche brevi battute” [‘occasionally constituted of few short utterances’], working as a short impression which “altre volte assume la forma di una scenetta comica o di un rapido raccontino” [‘at other times assumes the form of a short funny scene or a quick narration’]. This quotation from the Vocabolario della lingua italiana () indicates not only the quintessence of the new form of broadcast advertising, but refers also to the importance of the (spoken) language as well as to Italian-specific features. Both will require our close attention after a short overview of the social context of AV media. Before, it has to be briefly mentioned that the rapid development of AV media in Western cultures has brought about a general media competitiveness and media interdependence, which decisively influence the composition of media textuality in general. Not only is the moving picture becoming the leading medium, there is also the impact of the screen – more and more present in living rooms and now on nearly every desk and table – which is going to shape completely new discursive and textual practices. As a consequence, with the beginning of the digital era, in the early 1990s, there is also a significant changing of the press market. To compete with the increasing screen media, the classical black-and-white print papers, meanwhile in crisis, moved into multimodally-designed spectacular scenarios where pictures prevailed and language began to exploit its iconic and indexical character turning quasi into a pictogrammatic system. It seems as if the advertising texture,

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with all its capturing strategies of structure and style, is significantly involved in this general metamorphosis from which it is itself permanently touched and enriched. Thus, advertising adapts obviously to the media change, nevertheless holding its fundamental nucleus, which incorporates the classical elements of promotion. So even the spot, too, – whether on radio or TV – adheres to this structural basic scheme known from the traditional print ads, but codified and staged in a new multimodal way (cf., inter al., Lo Feudo 2012). In the following, I am going to discuss – with special regard to the Italian situation – only those criteria which are, in general, peculiar to the audiovisually mediated advertising spot and its language. In the course of this discussion, the complex media situation between the cinema, radio and TV will first be briefly examined chronologically. From a linguistic point of view then, we limit our observations to radio and television, as cinema advertising, specifically, has unfortunately not yet had any closer attention by linguistic research. But the forms of advertising in the cinema, even if particularly scheduled for the wide screen as the “multivision”, are basically very similar to the TV spots.

3.1 Media situation and social context The socioeconomic evolution of advertising in Western cultures is running more or less parallel from the early printed media over the short period of the (silent) movies to the radio, and then, significantly to the lasting TV era. And yet, the Romance cultures are going their separate ways within that development, especially Italy. Given a cursory glance, the chronological line runs through the 20th century, namely through the early era of artistic forms in the public sphere (comprising the orally “loudly announced” réclame (ital. annuncio) as well as the literal “pubblicità: manifesti, sviluppati in verticale, poster, orizzontali e di grande format” [‘advertising: bills, hung vertically, posters, horizontally and in big format’]; Arcangeli 2008, 7), to the simple advertisements in the (gradually illustrating) printed matter and on the cinema screen (initially stationary, then moving pictures), via the beginnings in radio as the first broadcast medium to the dominating omnipresence on TV (and today in the digital screen media). In the case of Italy, we should note as key data of media history the introduction of radiophony in 1924 through the national institution URI (Unione Radiofonica Italiana), which four years later became the EIAR (Ente Italiano Audizioni Radiofoniche) and finally from 1944 changed to the State Radio Station RAI (Radio Audizioni Italiane) that still exists today. As early as 1926, with the foundation of SIPRA (Società Italiana Pubblicitaria Radiofonica Anonima), forms of advertising on the radio were officially permitted and supported. The short moment when radio was the only broadcast medium was mainly fulfilled by propaganda aims for fascism and war, nevertheless, the first, very simple forms of advertising spots went over the airwaves (Arcangeli 2008, 18s.) using a written language style:  

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“Le annunciatrici20 leggevano i communicati durante le pause dei concerti […] senza orari prestabiliti né prezzi fissi. I materiali linguistici […] attingevano palesemente alla nostra tradizione retorico-letteraria più aulica e ricercata …” (Sergio 2004, 31).21

With the arrival of TV in European living rooms from the 1950s, there was a basic change not only in the media situation, but also in advertising. In line with the literature on communication, we can state “la televisione saccheggia tutto” [‘television loots everything’] (Codeluppi 2000, 28), i.e., the rapidly increasing dominance of the “Wahrnehmungsmagnet” television [‘magnet of perception’] (Ludwig 2005, title) has driven the other media – print and radio – into complementary functions with constant adjustment to the technical and socioeconomic innovations of the “piccolo schermo” [‘small screen’] (cf. Alfieri/Bonomi 2008). Radio quickly sunk to the level of a background medium which accompanied daily tasks. To withstand the competition, the print media have noticeably “become illustrated” and turned into “secondary” media in order to comment on and deepen the much faster TV news or to focus on specific target groups and their special interests. Fast forward to the millennium, where the decisive steps in the development of the mainstream medium TV and its spread to the masses – which is still uninterrupted today – are the following: the national institutionalization with (ultimately) three programs (RAI 1, RAI 2 1961, RAI 3 1979); the change from (purely informative) black-and-white TV to (emotionalizing) color TV and the internationalization through the setting-up of satellite TV; further the introduction of regional and – from the 1980s on – private TV stations together with the increasing commercialization (the national stations of RAI had to compete seriously with Berlusconi’s Fininvest and the new channels Canale 5, Italia 1, Rete 4, as well as with his new private advertising giant Publitalia); plus finally cable TV, digitalization and personalization (cf. Menduni 2002; Nacci 2008). According to the statement that “Il mondo della pubblicità fu davvero rivoluzionato dall’arrivo della televisione” [‘the world of advertising was truly revolved by the arrival of television’] (Codeluppi 2002, 20), the media change has effectively had an immense influence on the development and the institutionalization of the advertising business as a whole; in the course of the last 50 years an enormous increase in the spread and frequency of advertising has taken place; means and forms of advertising textuality have been constantly differentiated and optimized. In fact, from the early sponsoring of certain programs22 borrowed from the USA, there was a rapid change to the perfecting of spots – already known from radio and the cinema – which as flashy insertions into the regular program (ital. palinsesto) thus became the main advertising genre of the TV era.

20 People preferred female voices for acoustic reasons! 21 ‘The female announcers read the messages during the concert pauses […] without pre-established schedules or prices. The linguistic means […] resorted for obvious reasons to our most exalted and sophisticated rhetorical-literary tradition…’ (translation by the editors). 22 We owe the expression soap opera to the sponsorship of the washing powder companies.

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Italy, however, developed its very own transmission concept: the so-called “Carosello”, which monopolized TV advertising from 1957 to 1974 as a specific and highly watched program item. Anchored still today in the collective cultural memory, it has coined in its form and ideological content its own Italian “linguaggio della pubblicità”, which has essentially determined the spread of Italian as the common language over the whole country. By “Carosello” we understand a fixed advertising block, which runs at set times quasi as a preview before main programs (e.g., the telegiornale). It comprises a certain number of exactly timed single spots played down repeatedly as a “merry-go-round”. Every spot is separated visually by the siparietto and is thus regulated in structure and content consisting of  

“una scenetta o storiella di apertura […] dalla durata variabile (tra i 65 e i 115 secondi) nella quale non poteva essere nominato il prodotto reclamizzato; e un codino di chiusura, di 35 secondi al massimo, in cui il prodotto faceva finalmente la sua comparsa verbale e/o fattuale” (Arcangeli 2008, 24).23

Apart from the fact that almost all members of Italy’s cultural community actively participate either in the creation, script writing or production of many spots or appear as stars to give testimonials (cf. Codeluppi 2000; Manetti 2006; Arcangeli 2008; Wikipedia), “Carosello” turned into a most popular daily meeting point; hence, the masses assisted with the development of a repertoire of hybrid text genres which drew on the actual cultural pool, giving it new life in staged mini-scenarios, sketches and punch lines; simple everyday episodes – which in the banal logic of advertising was simply about finding defects and helping to mend them – entered in clever narrative scenes or pseudo-dialogues with entertaining battute, and were skillfully represented through fictive figures or paid actors. Whilst the first part of the spot is all about the creative movie scenarios with the use of pictures, sound and language which are the closest to reality, the codino as the repetitive part is consolidating the typical phenomena of advertising, above all there are the catchy acoustic language of the slogan, the symbolic construction of the brand name in connection with the usual devices like jingles, specific sound effects, settings, iconic and indexical signs, logos etc., which are bound to be recognized and memorized – in short, there is a cluster of those language forms which are characteristic of “thrilling” advertising. Their value is less relevant to business than to supporting a specific popular culture, which had an incomparable effect on the development of the lingua italiana as a colloquial language in general. Spina (2006) even goes so far as to see in “Carosello” the most efficient “scuola di lingua” [‘language school’], which, in the 1970s, not only enabled the spread of a general Italian standard speech, but also functioned as a unique, socio-

23 ‘a short opening scene or story […] of variable length (between 65 and 115 seconds) in which the advertised product could not be named; and a short closure of maximum 35 seconds, in which the product finally made its verbal and/or factual appearance’ (translation by the editors).

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cultural “specchio delle varietà dell’italiano” [‘mirror of the varieties of Italian’] (Spina 2006, 155ss.). The regional differentiation of television and subsequently the privatization of the TV broadcasting stations ended the era of “Carosello”-driven advertising entertainment. There follows the turn to the total commercialization of television, whereby advertising constantly and with increasing frequency pervades the whole program of broadcasts as the most important source of income and is officially accepted as the very financial power instance (data on Publitalia in Brigida/Francia/Di Vesme 1993, 185ss.). The fixed structure of the “Carosello” form of advertising had thus long been broken down in time and space. The necessary shortening of the spot to even more rapid flashlights is accompanied by an increasing compression of action and codes, achieved by even cleverer semiotic linking and staging: the messages are to be passed on as quickly as possible, as often as possible, as lifestyle-embracing and as “spectacularly” as possible (cf. Held 2012) to the zapping, always transient consumers. To increase the economic effect, certain groups are targeted according to the time of day and program content; further product areas are finely tuned; even services (like tourism, transport, banking, technology, energy, politics, etc.) and social institutions (cf. Arcangeli 2012a and b) become worthy of advertising; media complementarity, remediation, exact planning of multi-media distribution, specific campaign design and growing internationalization – all these issues meanwhile increasingly characterize the global field of postmodern TV advertising culture, which is further developing the open diversity of complex “syncretic” broadcasting forms and constantly optimizing them according to the public taste and demands of the market. In this broad spectrum of changing advertising practices, language maintains its proven role as the indispensable element we have showed sufficiently above. But nevertheless, as different media match different forms of output, some new issues in linguistic research are emerging. In the following, I try to give a short overview on what has been done on advertising language under the viewpoint of the three media, viz. radio, film and TV. Because of their inseparable interaction in the 20th century – the rise and decline, but also the reciprocal complementarity, overlap and remediation – they can be treated together.  

3.2 Media-specific remarks on the linguaggio of the audiovisual forms of advertising As we have already said, the scarce linguistic attention to audiovisual advertising is in complete contradiction to its omnipresence and globality. Nevertheless, there are some publications in the linguistic field of the individual philologies (of different standards) which examine the language of the respective media in general. There have been some appropriate studies in Italian linguistics since the late 1970s (cf. the overview in Gerstenberg 2006; Helfrich 2006), whereby mostly it becomes clear from

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the title, through the distinction between lingua di X vs. linguaggio di X, whether we can expect an orientation which tends more to the language system or more to the semiotic whole. Hence, for both radio and TV we find Menduni (2002); Maraschio (1997) treats the language on the radio, but also do Atzori (2002 and 2008) and the contributors in the 1997 volume edited by Accademia della Crusca; especially for TV there are Diadori (1994), Sorice (2002), Nacci (2003), Grignaffini (2004), Alfieri (2005), Alfieri/Bonomi (2008; 2012), Mauroni/Piotti (2010) and D’Achille (2012); for the cinema we find just two publications by Raffaelli (1992 and 1994). Further reports on the language in AV media are to be found in connection with the storia della lingua italiana (cf. De Mauro 1963). These again credit the media with the important role in Italianization, especially in the development of a neo-standard and the uso medio, but also in the discussion with respect to a general media variety (cf. Dardano 42002). Another important area lies in dealing with the above-mentioned italiano trasmesso and its position between written and oral language (cf. Coveri/Benucci/Diadori 1998; Losi 2007). In general, all these publications end in a description of the most important lexico-grammatical features, which are explained sociolinguistically or with reference to varieties. In the context of text linguistics and text pragmatics, work is also recently being done on the identification of specific genres and formats (generi radiofonici/ generi televisivi), but also of their hybrids and the different mediating forms of the text actions and text functions. Nevertheless, despite all concerns with language, the fact of code diversity will not be forgotten. The AV media commonly use a linguaggio sincretico, which should be taken into account at any price. It must be noted that in all these studies there is no relation to advertising; if wanted, its characteristic features have to be extracted from them keeping in mind the findings printed advertisement has filtered out as the leading medium. Nevertheless, in the context of the media-specific debate on language and text, there are initial and somehow pioneering studies to be found, which can not be left out in this overview. They come out, surprisingly, in the field of radio and are completely in agreement that they are going to “open up” virgin territory. In 1999, there appeared a book entitled “La parola via etere” [‘Words through the ether’] by Cacciari/Micciancio, which went into the characteristics of pubblicità radiofonica from the viewpoint of communication theory. Though many media-specific features of the radio format are for the first time systematically described, it was not the purpose of this study to introduce a corpus for linguistic analysis. The first empirically-based study of radio advertising comes from French linguistics.24 Under the title “La publicité radiophonique” [‘Radiophonic advertising’], Geneviève Bender-Berland (2000) 24 In French linguistics, research not only on media textuality, but also on advertising, is still scarcer than in the Italian studies. “Media linguistics” (in the sense of German linguistics, cf. above) – despite many preparatory ideas from cultural philosophy and the semiology initiated by Roland Barthes – generally is a very marginal, hardly recognized field of research.

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offers a comparative analysis of French and German advertising spots, extracting many different lexical and morphosyntactic features, and not in any way forgetting distinguishing paraverbal features such as pitch, intonation, accent and rhythm. In 2004, a comparable study, published by Giuseppe Sergio, appeared under the title “Il linguaggio della pubblicità radiofonica” [‘The language of radiophonic advertising’]. In the tradition of Italian linguistics, it unfortunately remains confined to the identification of verbal phenomena, but defines these within the conflictual area between oral and written language as typical features of an oralità trasmessa. Sergio’s volume contains – the only one to do so – a 200-page-long, written transcription of a data corpus, which indeed more than sufficiently documents his findings, but is again not suitable for further use. Bender-Berland substantiates her data with selected transcribed examples in an appendix (2000, 243ss.). For TV advertising, systematic investigations of this kind are surprisingly still completely lacking in Romance language research. Accordingly, linguistic insights into advertising discourse in AV media must rely on the interdisciplinary research in this area. The language results of the three publications will therefore be summarized in the following wider context of media studies.

3.2.1 Radio The oldest broadcasting medium is the radio. But despite its almost century-old history, it is at the same time the least researched. Apart from the scarce studies quoted above, the linguistic debate on radio advertising is generally seen as a “blind spot” in media research (Stöckl 2007 and 2011). This is the more astonishing as radio is commonly said to be a unique medium of “acoustic art” [‘akustische Kunst’] (Häusermann 2005, 159), in which the spoken word takes on new “audible” dimensions, which open promising perspectives for linguistic research, above all for the pragmatics of spoken language. In fact, the spoken broadcast (at the beginning there was just music programming) was the basic transmission, but it quickly produced different formats for certain types of speaking, which Sowinski (1979, 141) identifies as officially read speech (e.g., in news programs), documentary speech (e.g., in feature reports) and fictive speech (e.g., in radio plays). The different shades between reality-related and somehow artificial forms of speech have today long become hybrid and mingled. Thus, the radio formats, and especially the advertising spot, must be of more interest to linguists because of the interplay of various acoustic potentialities. Despite the monosensory canal, radio in fact mediates not only verbal, but increasingly well-designed multimodal texts (cf. Stöckl 2007). Language plays a complex role there: it develops, on the one hand, as a “diamesic variety” with specific lexico-grammatical properties and their rhetorical exploitation in order to color and recreate a certain situational context;  

 

 

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on the other hand, it also transports paraverbal modalities like pitch, rhythm, speaking pace, intonation, accentuation etc., matching “personalization” and performativity. Speech and voice are thus completed by music and sound effects in all their facets. It is the complex, nuance-rich sound design which gives radio, with its lack of visualization, nevertheless a high “visual power”. Quite rightly, Stöckl (2007) labels radio advertising as “Kino für das Ohr” [‘cinema for the ear’]. Radio is de facto emotionally attractive; it accompanies daily life by the by, but permanently, creating in this way an almost indispensable relationship of intimacy and community feeling with the addressees. Although it may be transient and time-bound, “radio links spaces, it fills spaces with its own means, it creates new spaces”25 (Häusermann 2005, 161s.), remaining all the while independent and autonomous. Following Cacciari/Micciancio (1999), we may define the broadcast talk accordingly as the perfect output of a “linguaggio” “che stimola l’immaginazione e la creatività umana attraverso una girandola di suoni, rumori, silenzi, parole dette e cantate, dove l’analogia e l’anamorfosi evocano un’iconicità e un rimando ad immagini mentali, che attirano l’attenzione, divertono, illustrano e seducono l’ascoltatore. Forse è per questo che la radio esercita un fascino che permane inossidato ancora oggi, l’epoca della multimedialità e delle tecnologie avventuristiche, in quanto conserva funzioni di intrattenimento, informazione e compagnia, scandisce i nostri ritmi quotidiani, ci accompagna in casa, in auto, al bar o al lavoro, si insinua sottilmente nelle nostre attività senza che noi spesso ce ne possiamo rendere conto” (Presentazione del volume).26

Hence, radio speech opens many fields for linguistic investigation: e.g., discourse genres, speech events and speech registers according to the target, program design, the role of language and style in complement to sound and music. Some aspects are dealt with in Menduni (2002) in connection with media history and its rapid change. The remaining sporadic research in Italian studies is dedicated to the language of radio as “trasmesso tra scritto e parlato” [‘transmitted between written and spoken’] (Atzori 2008, 33), seeing in it, as already mentioned, an appropriate field to observe some typical processes of modern Italian. Starting from Sabatini’s plea in 1997 for the acceptance of the spoken language as a supraregionally developing uso medio and the identification of italiano trasmesso as oralità secondaria (cf. Ong 1987), a linguistic discourse is emerging which studies the parlato radiofonico from two points of view:  

25 ‘[…] verbindet das Radio Räume, es gestaltet Räume mit eigenen Mitteln aus, es schafft neue Räume’ (translation above by the editors). 26 ‘language which stimulates human imagination and creativity through a wind wheel of sounds, noises, silences, spoken and sung words, where the analogy and anamorphosis evoke an iconicity and a cross reference to mental images which attract attention, entertain, illustrate and seduce the hearer. Maybe this is why radio exerts a persistent unoxidized fascination until today, the era of multimediality and of adventurous technologies, in that it conserves functions of entertainment, information and company, unitizes our daily rhythms, accompanies us at home, in the car, at the bar or at work, slipping subtly into our activities often without us noticing it’ (translation by the editors).

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considering both monological and dialogical formats, a mixture of tendencies is realized, on the one hand to literary language, on the other to everyday spoken language. To underscore the distinctions, reference is made to the paradigm of conceptionality (cf. Koch/Oesterreicher 1990) by defining broadcast talk in relation to parameters of intimacy vs. distance as “linguaggio multiforme che ha diversi stili a seconda dei programmi; un linguaggio dal doppio statuto che può essere un parlato-scritto che condivide i tratti della scrittura dei media o un parlato-parlato vicino all’interazione faccia a faccia” (Atzori 2008, 38).27

In the light of the conceptional framework, Nencioni’s model (1976), and the terms he created to relate to the different degrees of parlato, is reinforced. Altogether, the discourse reflects the historically-determined efforts Italian linguistics made to spread and nurture the status and prestige of Italian towards an everyday standard language, and is less preoccupied with the functional characteristics of the broadcast medium. Because of the lack of context, mimicry and gesture broadcast talk is commonly criticized as artificiosità; hardly any importance has been accorded to the dramaturgically so significant compensation modes like prosody, pitch or music and the background noise: “La percezione della radio è lineare e la comunicazione volatile; l’ascoltatore non può tornare indietro e riprendere ciò che non ha sentito o capito; poiché si utilizza solo il canale uditivo, i tempi di attenzione sono limitati e l’ascolto può essere distratto, in quanto contemporaneo ad altre attività. Per questi motivi […] il linguaggio radiofonico deve tendere soprattutto alla comprensibilità, attraverso la conseguenza logica e la semplicità espressiva. I testi devono rispettare i tempi radiofonici, perseguendo la brevità e la selezione delle informazioni” (Atzori 2008, 36).28

With this obvious orientation towards supraregional standardization, Italian linguistics takes up a contrary position to the above-mentioned merits of radio as an everyday companion which stimulates imagination and creativity merely because of its just acoustic character. Both points of view will be brought into the existing linguistic debate on radio advertising in the well-established form of the radio spot. Sergio’s study (2004) remains committed to the concept of oralità radiofonica (Ch. 4) and identifies distinc-

27 ‘multiform language which has diverse styles according to the programs; a language with double status that can be a spoken-written sharing the features of mediatic writing or a spoken-spoken close to face-to-face interaction’ (translation by the editors). 28 ‘The perception of radio is linear and the communication volatile; the hearer cannot go back and listen again to what he did not hear or understand; since only the auditive channel is used, the periods of attention are limited and the listening, insofar contemporaneous with other activities, can be distracted. For these reasons […] the radiophonic language must tend mainly to intelligibility, through logical consequence and simplicity in expression. The texts must respect the radiophonic tempo, being after shortness and selection of information’ (translation by the editors).

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tive features of the lexicon and syntax as well as rhetorical devices in a well-transcribed corpus of approximately 200 comunicati radiofonici from Radio RAI 1 and Radio DeeJay. As indicated above, most lexical and rhetorical devices (figure di parola, di pensiero e tropi) almost prototypically represent the well-known advertisement issues; the syntactic items (like frasi monoproposizionali, sintassi segmentata, incisi, discorso diretto riportato, che polivalente) point to the prevalence of spoken language and its characteristic Italian outcomes. However, by comparing data from the public broadcasting company with a private one, Sergio commonly tends to determine radio language according to the “grado di dipendenza dallo scritto” [‘degree of dependence of the written’] (2004, 336). The empirically complicated investigations contribute nothing basically new, neither for the determination of the spot as a commercial genre, nor for specific multimodal strategies, nor do they shed further light on the specifically Italian debate of orality vs. literacy. The final remarks, according to which an “agile informalità e semplicità delle parti mimetiche e di converso una maggiore progettazione di chiara matrice scritta, per quelle diegetiche” (Sergio 2004, 340).29

is shown, confirm this impression. The meticulous study neglects both the acoustic appeal that radio generally offers the transient listener, and its particular qualities, which especially in advertising are frequently exploited, in permanent repetition and by a broad range of dramaturgical tonality. Though a semiotica della pubblicità (Volli 2003) is presently becoming established in Italian, semiotic or multimodal approaches are not considered within this traditional language approach. Opening the framework from purely verbal to paraverbal aspects, the somewhat earlier30 research by Bender-Berland (2000) contributes much more to the specific nature of publicité radiophonique, here comparatively on French and German radio stations: “En effet, tel que nous l’entendons, le message publicitaire radiophonique ne se limite pas seulement à un message verbal. Il s’agit bien d’un texte tout court, d’une centaine de mots au maximum, mais il est entouré, ponctué, souligné par des inserts musicaux, des chansonnettes, des bruitages divers. Ces éléments paratextuels ont, bien entendu, leur importance et une influence sur le texte lui-même […] en tant qu’entité cohérente” (Bender-Berland 2000, 3).31

29 ‘agile informality and simplicity of the mimetic parts and conversely a major projection of clearly written matrix, for the diegetic ones’ (translation by the editors). 30 “Bien qu’ils soient un des supports essentiels de la publicité, les messages publicitaires radiophoniques ont jusqu’à présent peu intéressé le linguiste”, book cover. 31 ‘Indeed, the radiophonic advertising message as we understand it is not limited to a verbal message. It is a very short text of maximum 100 words, but it is framed, accompanied, underlined by musical inserts, songs, and diverse noises. These paratextual elements have, of course, their importance and an influence on the text itself […] as a coherent entity’ (translation by the editors).

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Under the chapter heading “L’entourage du texte”, Bender-Berland outlines the textstructural, semantic and text-functional performance of the voice(s) in the spots and studies the music (especially the function of the jingles as catchy tunes with a high recognition factor) and the background noise (bruitage). She then builds her linguistic research on the structures prosodiques (intonation, pauses, accent), the structures textuelles (above all forms of morphosyntactic cohesion and deixis), further on the coherence-creating stratégies lexicales (above all nomination and reprise nominale), as well as on the structures lexico-sémantiques. The instruments of advertising language are thus interpreted from a text pragmatics framework, which leads to a better understanding of the media specificities. Even though attention is paid merely to the information and argumentation character, the comparative analysis nevertheless leads to findings of both, the different capacities of the two language systems (like for French the presentative passe-partout function of ça, of various determinatives and other anaphoric or cataphoric instruments) and of semantic cohesion means, as well as the ways of creating a rhetorical impact with the aim to attract the attention of the broad mass of incidentally listening recipients. Linguistic research cannot really do justice to the priority of these functions, which the producers of radio advertising spots, not only in the structural “design” but also in the exploitation of the acoustic codes, were able to make more and more perfect in competition with TV. It is only with the use of the multimodal paradigm, where all modalities have to be examined for their respective potential and then described in specific interaction, that the spot on radio and TV can be suitably recognized as a semiotic whole, thus effectively counteracting the “visual deficit” of this highly complex area of research. Stöckl (2007; 2011; 2012b) makes some initial suggestions in this regard, but they have not yet found any reaction in Romance linguistics. By developing a storyboard-like audio transcript, thus being minutely divided up in a notation of seconds into the respective sign modalities (language – voice – music – sound effect), Stöckl succeeds for the first time in transferring the multimodality approach from the printed “picture-text” to the auditive plot. By describing the media-specific capacities of the modalities he traces their intermodal links step by step so that the relation to the meaning of the actual message (USP) unfolds more or less of its own accord.32

3.2.2 Television and cinema The TV spot is even more complex, rich in functions and meaning-making by way of the additional picture code and its growing range of technical possibilities. This

32 Such analytical breakdowns into macro and micro elements can also be used for TV spots. For first attempts cf. Demarmels (2008) and in Reimann (2008).

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appears to frighten off researchers; as far as I know, not one single linguistic monograph, at least in Romance research, is devoted to the subject. It is, however, worth noting the German study by Wyss (1998) on advertising spots from Swiss TV. Being rather a cultural approach to the TV spot, nevertheless, there are some stimulating ideas for linguistics. Wyss works out a good definition of the spot as a commercial television text (25ss.). For her, the media specificity of the spot lies in its existence as an “intertext” to the television genres in general, i.e., we are talking about forms of imitation (“mimicry”), adaptation, integration and the popular restaging of reality, as television basically creates it in its “complexity through the simultaneity of the written (still or moving) and oral (spoken, sung) verbal texts, the verbal and nonverbal codes, the moving/animated and the still pictures”33 (Wyss 1998, 20).

Television – and within it the advertising spot – must accordingly be seen as a discursive “text montage” [‘Montage von Texten’] (1998, 23), which literally represents, or simulates, a “universe of symbolic action” [‘Universum symbolischen Handelns’] (ibid.), or a permanent “imaginative world” [‘Vorstellungswelt’] (ibid.). This complex production of sense is marked, on the one hand, by brevity, fragmentedness and surrogates, on the other, it is due to a technically-complicated codification with a wide multimodal range. The great demands made on the producers and recipients of screen textuality seem to have an effect on language research, too, which is only sporadically confronting TV communication at all, and in consequence, TV advertising is not a systematically-analyzed subject. The result is that future researchers are obliged to gather linguistic questions on TV commercials from advertising handbooks and culture-critical essays, like that of Manetti (2006), from the general literature on print ads and, as in the case of the radio, from the – still not very abundant – discussion of a lingua della televisone (Caprettini 1996; Alfieri/Bonomi 2008 and 2012; Gili 2012) or rather: a linguaggio televisivo (Menduni 2002; Volli 2003). Furthermore, in the absence of specific publications, we should also realize that the audiovisual spot appears not only on the TV set, but also on the cinema screen; both have many properties in common. Though being the first audiovisual medium that precedes television chronologically and technically, the movies are today largely subordinate to it in expansion and function. In the digital era, they seem to be completely losing their importance. And yet, cinema advertising is the father of the commercial spot in its highly effective, multisensorily mediated mimetic character. As early as the 1920s, cinemas had gone over to filling the period before and between longer films with promotion (cf. Sowinski

33 ‘[…] Komplexität durch die Gleichzeitigkeit von schriftlichem (stillem oder sich bewegendem) und mündlichem (gesprochenem, gesungenem) verbalen Text, von non-verbalem, von bewegtem/animiertem und stillem Bild’ (translation above by the editors).

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1979, 146ss.). The initially poster-like slides were quickly accompanied by music and offscreen voices. Since the 1950s, short commercial films with a spoken text and sentimental background music have replaced the simple static insertions. Their success stands and falls with the great appeal of the cinema culture in the American style; with the possibility of its regional and target-specific tailoring (mainly to a young generation), with the audience’s willingness to concentrate their attention and, above all, with the emotional attunement to a fictive world; all these are factors which only the full size and the full sound of the wide screen were able to communicate. The advertising film was thus effectively used for a fascinating demonstration of products and contributed in many business branches to a nearly global recognition of product images (cf. Janich 1999/2013). As central as the value of the cinema from the viewpoint of artistic production and mass reception in Italy was, above all between the 1960s and 1990s, so slight was the attention paid to it by linguistics. Film language was again only interesting with a view to Italianization and the identification of a specific lingua filmata (Raffaelli 1992) as a special form of italiano trasmesso, i.e., in order to make out a particular variety special characteristics of a parlato cinematografico (e televisivo) (Raffaelli 1994) had to be found. A certain interest is taken in the phenomenon of doppiaggio (synchronization) (cf. Maraschio 1982) which in its form as didascalie scritte is discussed in relation to the original version. For the multiform communication of advertising, as it hits its technological and highly appealing peak in the era of television, there is little to be learned from these studies. Further Italian publications on “lingua e stili comunicativi nei generi televisivi” [‘language and communicative styles in television genres’] (cf. the subtitle of Alfieri/Bonomi 2008) also only mention the advertising spot superficially. In the chapter “l’italiano ibiridato dell’intrattenimento” [‘the hybridized Italian of entertainment’] in Alfieri/Bonomi (2012, 95ss.), there is a mention of pubblicità as a paragenere which shows that first genre-specific arguments find their way into the repeated view on typical developments of modern Italian. Advertising is seen as a special form of television entertainment, where la scenetta impersonata34 and various modalità narrative predominate: they follow certain structures consisting of lead and codino with a slogan, and are especially rich in adjectives (“prevale l’aggettivazione sollecitante”, Alfieri/Bonomi 2012, 98) and foreign words (internationalisms). The linguaggio della pubblicità is therefore described as a “linguaggio trasversale […] afferrabile in base alle fasce orarie della messa in onda in base al target prefigurato” [‘transversal language […] comprehensible on the basis of the broadcast schedule based on the prefigured target audience’] (ibid.). With this remark the authors point to the essential, extralinguistic features of TV advertising: its time limits, its place within the chain of spots and, absolutely decisive, its position in the palinsesto (cf. also Diodato 2006), i.e., in the TV program with regard to the time of day and, consequently, with regard

34 It appears that the authors are referring to the “Carosello” advertising type.

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to the supposed target group (e.g., evening prime times are more costly and guarantee a large number of spectators). So, quite unexpectedly in the face of the negative balance regarding the linguistics of AV media, we find the first typological suggestions of specific advertising genres and, in consequence, the first remarks on special language features (the most prominent is the so-called italiano “oralizzato”):  

“Si molteplicano anche le tipologie di messaggio pubblicitario [sic!]: allo spot e al promo si affiancava la televendita (proposta di acquisto per via telefonica), il billboard (invito o ringraziamento per l’ascolto in testa o in coda a un programma), e il diario (comunicato di 5 secondi che apre il break nel quale si succedono i vari spot)” (Alfieri/Bonomi 2012, 96).35

And, accurately in the wider context of Italian text linguistics, which is tendentially judged as being receptive, we find an innovative collection of papers entitled “Trailer, spot, clip, siti, banner. Le forme brevi della comunicazione audio-visiva” [‘Trailer, spot, clip, site, banner. The short forms of audiovisual communication’] (Pezzini 2006). In this volume, other commercial text types beside the spot are for the first time identified, defined and exemplarily described. In addition to the items mentioned in the title, the video clip and the so-called cliffhanger are also dealt with. What all these promotional forms have in common can be seen in the common English names which underline the flash-like brevity appropriate to the little time available for catching the attention of the recipients; therefore, they are all “icone dense, sature di energia, di ritmo e di forza espressiva” [‘dense icons, saturated with energy, rhythm and expressive force’] (cover text) which as striking features influence the text structure, the text design and its multimodal codification. Though there is unfortunately very little real data evidence, it is absolutely pioneering to make account of so far little-noticed advertising formats. Having indeed reached autonomous dimensions in nowadays television programs, they have a common appellative-evaluative core, thus forming a specific, intermedially-operating network of texts. Even the commercial spot, which I have tried to define from different viewpoints as a basic notion, gets a new shape when – as Peverini does – it is put in relation to the (video) clip, with which it shares common features through its “capacità di tradurre in una forma accattivante il ritmo di un brano musicale, selezionando e rielaborando soluzioni narrative o stilistiche preesistenti. Ibrida per eccellenza, combina un’estrema flessibilità del linguaggio con una straordinaria capacità di adattamento a contesti di fruizione differenti, scavalcando la dimensione del palinsesto televisivo e invadendo i territori dell’agire quotidiano” (Peverini 2004, cover text; cf. also Peverini 2006; Cattaneo/Forgione 2006).36

35 ‘The typologies of advertising messages are also multiplying: to the spot and the promo has been added the televendita (offer to buy via telephone), the billboard (invitation to or thanking for the listening at the beginning or the end of a program), and the diario (short spot of 5 seconds which opens the break in which several spots will follow)’ (translation by the editors). 36 ‘capacity to translate in a captivating way the rhythm of a musical piece, selecting and reworking pre-existent narrative or stylistic solutions. Hybrid par excellence, it combines an extreme flexibility of

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Let us briefly look to the other commercial AV genres which today are certainly of high use in the Internet (e.g., YouTube, etc.). The trailer, or ital. promo, fr. bande annonce, is, by way of contrast, “un breve filmato promozionale di un film di prossima uscita” [‘a short promotional film piece for a movie soon to be released in theaters’] (Dusi 2006, 32), i.e., originally an advertising form for cinema films, now used for making advance publicity for TV films or even as the run-in to the film itself. With the concept of a banner (“flag” or “pennant”) we understand a – mostly animated – ribbon-like web advertising, which flashes briefly and quickly onto the screen (comparable to pop-ups) or crosses the screen unexpectedly. The cliffhanger is, as the metaphorical labelling suggests, a film device much used in serials: it is usually the intentional breaking off before a punch line or the outcome of a plot line at the end of a puntata. This creates tension and keeps the audience on standby, ready to watch the next episode, but it is also used in advertising. Characteristic of all these screen-made genres is brevity, the speed of consumption, the fragmentary nature of content and the use of code-mixing and code-blending (cf. Held 2011); for those very reasons, they have to be semantically teasing, but are thus well-designed patterns. Their character and appearance is basically visual by moving pictures; language is bound on writtengraphic elements. Altogether, this text-based approach reveals not only diversity, dynamism and mutual exchange in the range of commercial genres within AV media, but gives also insight into virgin research areas, where linguists still have much to do in order to study the role language plays in connection with the audiovisual resources and their conditions. A further still completely open field for research in linguistics is “multimediality” (as understood by Reimann 2008) and with it the crossmedially spanned “multi-issue” advertising campaigns of global extension. They turn out to be media-specific serial forms, using texture and codes to be varied programmatically in certain periods. This is where advertising as subject of intercultural communication and research has to be concerned with questions of cultural adaptation, translation and translatability. In all these and still many more contexts, we can see that, despite the nowadays completely dominant role of the Internet, broadcast media are still playing a major role in mass dissemination and thus have an unbroken importance for spreading and divulging the seducing world of commercial marketing. To conclude the presentation of research into AV advertising, it is not surprising to realize that there are few or hardly any data corpora that are accessible and utilizable for linguistic research. In Spina (2000 and 2006) and De Mancini-Himmrich (2006), we learn about the Corpus di Italiano Televisivo (CIT), a data bank of approxi 

the language with an extraordinary capacity of adaptation to different contexts of use, surmounting the dimension of television palimpsest and invading the territories of daily acting’ (translation by the editors).

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mately 500,000 occurrences in five format categories. Advertising, i.e., spots and the like, accounts for the smallest number (approximately 40,000 / 260 spots). It is true that there are links to CIT on the homepages of the Accademia della Crusca and on those of the Società di Linguistica Italiana, but direct access to the database does not seem to be possible, and so the usefulness of the transcribed and annotated data is for me not verifiable. Public advertising archives, like, for example, the Regensburger Archive for Research into Advertising (RAW), which is historically and intermedially oriented (cf. Reimann 2012), were not at my disposal, neither for France or Italy. There are numerous retrievable spot collections on YouTube, which can be found with the help of the search engines under specific companies or products (e.g., ). There is also no lack of more or less well-filled websites or blogs regarding slogans (for instance, ) or certain advertising campaigns. But, among the online links, there is no useful approach recognizable, which could be exploited for any kind of systematic research work. Advertising is creative matter, protected by copyright, and it is not put at public disposal by the companies for general use. Hence, in both language cultures, Italian and French, there is a lot of pioneering work to be done for both documentation and analysis of radio as well as of TV commercials. To sum up, the bottom line for linguistic research into AV media in general and into advertising communication in particular is as follows: descriptive language and text analyses are dominant; useful empirical data is completely lacking; many methodological approaches, such as the discourse-analytical or the corpus linguistic ones, are still little applied. And yet, recent linguistic studies give clear signs of a paradigmatic shift from advertising language to advertising textuality and thus from simple verbal to complex textual means. The initially critical debate, in which language is a matter of the sociolinguistic classification and the evaluation of the diasystematic varieties, is swinging round into the functionally-oriented description of the stylistic and rhetorical potentialities of the language system. From this point, the way is leading to the awareness of media texts as multimodally staged communicative units, whereby technical channel, technological tools and time-space limitation evoke a structural design(ing) and a semantic density, in which language now as ever plays a fundamental role. Media linguistics as a still emerging discipline is thus going to be continuously confronted with a wide range of future perspectives.  

4 References Accademia della Crusca (ed.) (1997), Gli italiani trasmessi. La radio, Firenze, Accademia della Crusca. Adam, Jean M./Bonhomme, Marc (1997), L’argumentation publicitaire. Rhétorique de l’éloge et de la persuasion, Paris, Nathan. Alfieri, Gabriella (2005), L’italiano “alla” televisione: prodromi per un’analisi stilistica per generi, Lingua italiana d’oggi 2, 353–400.

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Media Texts and Multilingualism

Fernando Ramallo

19 Minority Languages in Media Communication Abstract: The media represent an area of priority in sociolinguistics. Given their relevance within modern societies, the presence, use and symbolization of multilingualism in the media has been subjected to numerous analyses from different perspectives. In this chapter, the role of the media in contexts of language minorization is addressed as well as their relevance in protecting and promoting minority languages. The case study is that of Galicia, where there are two language communities whose languages have a highly unequal presence in the media. This chapter summarizes the presence of the Galician language in both traditional and new media, highlighting strengths and weaknesses by following three criteria: the general sociolinguistic context, media ownership and public policies.  

Keywords: Galician, language policy, minority language media, multilingualism, sociolinguistics  

1 Media and Sociolinguistics The media are a relevant research domain in sociolinguistics. The interest of sociolinguists in media communication can be explained by multiple reasons, such as (i) the relevance of the media in the processes of social change and development; (ii) the variety of discursive genres; and (iii) their role as agents in language policy and linguistic normalization. On the one hand, it should be remembered that the media mediate. They intervene upon reality providing interpretive schemata in a double process of mediation, both structural and cognitive (Martín Serrano 32004). The media select the events they portray and design communicative strategies to change or uphold power structures. On the other hand, diversity of the media favors a notable multiplicity of traditional and innovative (cyber)discursive genres, with social networks as the most obvious example of continuous innovation in mobile communication. Finally, the media play a crucial role in the management of multilingualism, especially in contexts of language minorization, where they are a relevant agent in the production and/or reproduction of the statu quo, attitudes and ideologies (cf. KellyHolmes 2012; Kelly-Holmes/Milani 2013). This chapter is framed within this third perspective. Among the many objects of study provided by media analysis, multilingualism has attracted the attention of a large number of researchers in the last few decades. These studies have been conceptualized both from a static perspective, which sees  

 

DOI 10.1515/9783110314755-020

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multilingualism as a sum of monolingualisms, as well as from a dynamic perspective, prioritizing practices over languages, and focusing the analysis on the hybridity of everyday speech (cf. Martin-Jones/Blackledge/Creese 2012). The static perspective on multilingualism, based on the existence of languages and codes as autonomous, immanent and discrete entities, dominated the field of linguistics in the 20th century. This conception entered a period of crisis in the 1980s, and a number of new (and old) notions that insist on a dynamic perspective acquired a central place in describing language practices. This is the case of heteroglossia, a term proposed by Bakhtin in the 1930s as well as of more current terms such as translanguaging, crossing, polylanguaging, hybridization or metrolingualism (cf., e.g., Pennycook/Otsuji 2015; García/Lin 32017). This conceptual change visualizes a new paradigm, which draws from the view of language socialization as an integrated practice within a network of other practices and social relations (cf. Blommaert/Rampton 2011). In fact, the current approaches to multilingualism are related not only to linguistic diversity in a vacuum but also to social, cultural, political and labor dynamics which distinguish the current phase of economic development with an unprecedented mobile and globalized communication. Linguistics approaches multilingualism from multiple perspectives. Here we choose a sociolinguistic one, focused on linguistic minorities, insofar as they are predominantly multilingual social groups. Traditionally, language minorization has been a process derived from the expansion of majority groups into new territories; currently, it is also related to the great transnational mobility of the last half-century. In fact, most populations live in super-diverse cities, configured as increasingly complex linguistic clusters (cf. Vertovec 2007; Duarte/Gogolin 2013). This chapter takes Galician as an example. This language has been official in Galicia since 1981, the moment when the media became an axis in language policy, with some satisfactory achievements within the public media. At the same time, the media have shown clear limitations in helping the process of social normalization of the Galician language (cf. Lorenzo Suárez/Ramallo/Casares Berg 2008).  

2 Media and linguistic minorities The relationship between linguistic minorities and the media is complex. If we look at majority language media, the usual practice is to treat linguistic minorities like any other minority: rendering them invisible and marginal. In cases where they get some visibility, the image portrayed is often stereotypical (cf. Alia/Bull 2005). However, there have been exceptions to this. In his historical review, Browne (1996) shows some illustrative examples. In the 1930s and 1940s the BBC, for example, took the initiative to make Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales more visible. At the same time, the Kurds also had a presence on Iraqi television and France created a radio station for minority languages such as Provençal, Basque and Breton.

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Studies of minority language media have been consolidated in recent years, particularly with respect to European minorities (cf. Cormack/Hourigan 2007; for a historical review cf. Browne/Uribe-Jongbloed 2013; Androutsopoulos 2014 [section VI]), Latin American indigenous communities (cf. Uribe-Jongbloed 2011 and 2014), African indigenous communities (cf. Salawu/Chibita 2016) or immigrant minority languages (cf. Amezaga/Arana 2012). According to these studies, the media have undoubtedly influenced linguistic minorities. This influence is conceived from two opposing views. On the one hand, it is seen as a positive phenomenon, since it can present an opportunity for multilingualism in general and for minority languages in particular; on the other hand, it is considered as negative because it can be a threat to minority languages (cf. Cormack 2007). Therefore, it is evident that many minority language communities have been able to create their own communicative space using their own languages as an opportunity to promote language maintenance, linguistic diversity and multilingualism (cf. KellyHolmes/Moriarty/Pietikäinen 2009 for a comparative review of Basque, Irish and Sami). This self-owned communicative space can be conceived by public means, privately or via the community as a whole. In the case of the community, this way of designing and putting in place a media outlet, known as the third sector of communications, could be considered “a democratic response to the limitation of capitalism” (Curran 2003, 247). Unlike public and private minority language media sources, the existence of media produced and consumed by language minorities from the community approach means that there is a responsible initiative that empowers the local community. This is accomplished through non-profit practices that demonstrate a full awareness of the right of a community to be informed in its own language, beginning with its cultural constructs. In this way, the media contribute to promoting the critical plurality and diversity necessary to move toward a mature democracy that works toward ending social inequality (cf. Curran 2011; AMARC 2014; Lema Blanco/Meda González 2016). Minority media have helped to alter the sociolinguistic order in several ways, encouraging the social prestige of minority languages through the creation of a market directly conceived from the interests of these linguistic minorities and linked to them. Media also stimulates the formal and functional visibility of minority languages. Moreover, the steady presence of a minority language in the media, particularly with audiovisual production, can contribute to the social cohesion of a given community. Finally, the high differential value of media in a minority language should not be overlooked. It can become an incentive for gaining space within a very ethnolinguistically-identified population (cf. Ramallo/Rei-Doval 1997; Vincze/Moring 2013). However, it would be disingenuous to forget that the media are without a doubt institutions at the service of the social majority groups, including speakers of official languages. This is why the domination of the media within the processes of subjectification, the construction of social imaginaries and the movement by the elite toward “naturalizing” the dominant ideological structure presents a serious challenge to

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democracy (not to be understood as participatory democracy, which, undoubtedly, this way of understanding the media helps to strengthen, but rather, direct democracy). We must bear in mind that information and opinion are produced in order to satisfy a market which has been created, targeted and ruled by the interests these same social majority groups mobilize, marginalizing minorities due to their lack of cost-effectiveness. According to Cormack (2007, 56): “the more limited audiences of many minority language communities are likely to be seen as uneconomic”, and this is also happening in the public media. The dominance of the economic value of the media as a requirement for its existence is an affront to democracy. As a result of their marginalization in the media, many minority languages constitute one of the sectors that are most affected by this democratic deficiency (cf. Salawu/Chibita 2016 for a detailed approach to the African case). The importance of minority language media is instrumental in the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML) of the Council of Europe. This international convention, ratified by 25 European states to date (2017), devotes Article 11 to the media. Although this article is only relevant for Part III languages, it is applicable to approximately 140 minority languages (cf. Dunbar/Moring 2012, for a clear review of the Committee of Experts’ reports and Committee of Ministers’ recommendations on media). The fact that the ECRML includes the media as a special protection domain is an argument on behalf of minority language media based on human rights (cf. Cormack 2005). In accordance with its Explanatory Report: “The time and space which regional or minority languages can secure in the media is vital for their safeguard. Today no language can keep its influence unless it has access to the new forms of mass communications. The development of these throughout the world and the progress of technology are leading to the weakening of the cultural influence of less widely-spoken languages” (Council of Europe 1993, 31).

This being said, it must be noted that follow-through on the acquired commitments on the part of the states after ratifying the Charter has been varied. Although the Charter is an instrument for international rights with a wide margin for flexibility (in other words, after taking into account the situation of each language within the territory it is used, different options are offered in Article 11), the reports from the Committee of Experts identify significant advances and good practices, along with clear incompliance. In the case of incompliance, the reports are conclusive with respect to the indications regarding the steps that each State should take with the goal of fulfilling the acquired commitments. It is important to bear in mind that the media are very sensitive to technological change and since the Charter’s approval in 1992, these changes have been tremendous, meaning that it is urgent that the instrument in this area is updated to correspond with said changes. As such, many minority languages are witnessing a radical transformation in the technological strategies employed by minority language media, particularly in written media (cf. 2.2). As Moring points out,

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the ECRML “will be less functional for minority languages, and the communities that seek to maintain them, if reasonable measures are not taken to match support for increasingly dominant digital platforms with that allocated to more traditional legacy media” (Moring 2013, 49). Furthermore, language quality is a key aspect in the production of media communication in minority languages. Given the relevance the media have in creating models (including language models), media professionals need to be proficient in speaking and writing in the minority languages. This is essential for every communications professional, but it should be even more important with minority languages in order to contribute to strengthening the prestige of the language and to avoid trivialization and discredit. Zabaleta et al. (2008) compared journalists’ insights on their knowledge and their linguistic use in ten European minority languages. They found out that 90.7% of the interviewees consider their language proficiency to be adequate. Nevertheless, when the journalists had to evaluate their colleagues’ proficiency the percentage decreased to 59.1%. This results from the fact that, more often than not, those journalists working in minority languages are not typically speakers of these languages.

2.1 Can media help minority languages? In many situations of language shift, language minority communities have been able to produce media in their own languages, helping to alter the sociolinguistic order in several ways, as we have already noted. In general terms, the fact that a language minority has media is an indicator of its vitality, although that is not necessarily a guarantee for long-term vitality. Therefore, analyzing the role that the media play in language revitalization is a relevant objective both in research and in language policy on minority languages. Cormack (2013, 256) shows some assumptions about how the media can help minority languages: the media give status, they can link and unify different segments of the language community, they can provide a context for economic development, etc. But the main question: “can minority languages survive without media?” remains unanswered. We need to carry out more systematic and comparative research to know if the media in the digital age actually contribute to minority language maintenance or not. In the language reversal model proposed by Fishman (1991), of the factors affecting the future of minority language groups, the presence of minority languages in the media is seen as a secondary objective, and is of less importance than the revival of the language in the family and community. In his revision of the model ten years later, Fishman even noted that “the media can interfere with intergenerational Xish mothertongue transmission more easily and more frequently than they can reinforce it, if only because there are ever so much more Yish media than Xish media” (Fishman 2001, 473).

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Even if the media are not as important of an indicator as intergenerational transmission or community use, it is undeniable that the field of mediated communication is nowadays a key element for the production and reproduction of minority languages. In this sense, Cormack (2004, 2) counteracts some of Fishman’s arguments and identifies four elements that highlight the importance of minority language media. These are: 1. The electronic media can have an important symbolic role for language communities. 2. The media can provide a real economic boost, including attractive career prospects for young people who want to work in the minority language. 3. The media are important in developing a public sphere within a language community. 4. The media are also important in relation to how the community is represented both within itself and to outsiders. Of these four elements, electronic media is of most significance. As the media are highly affected by technological change, every diagnosis on the future of minority language should envisage the potentiality of new media in setting new markets and spaces for communication, since these are particularly relevant in many contexts of linguistic minorization (cf. Gruffydd Jones/Uribe-Jongbloed 2013; Moring 2013). The traditional media are in crisis, and new forms of mediation have appeared. As a matter of fact, we are witnessing a transition toward digital media and it’s becoming clear that it is no going back, as is confirmed by the research from various international sources. As a result, a sharp 17-point decline in the distribution of printed media is expected on the global scale from 2008 to 2019 (cf. Campos Freire 2016). Thus, alongside institutional media, new forms of social media predominate. As a result, for the first time in history an individual becomes at the same time a mediator between what is happening and the social system with which he or she interacts. We all become media (companies, universities, NGOs, sport clubs, town halls, etc.). This represents an important opportunity for local communication and, in this sense the change is also extremely relevant for linguistic minorities. Without denying the domain of the majority languages in digital media, multilingualism is now more visible. In fact, they are essential to the consolidation of minorities because they represent an important opportunity for local communication and linguistic minorities (cf. Lackaff/Moner 2016). Despite the digital divide existing in several communities, the contribution of social media is essential to the consolidation of European minorities (cf. Cunliffe/ Herring 2005; Gruffydd Jones/Uribe-Jongbloed 2013). Social media provide much more affordable technologies than those related to traditional media. Now, the challenge is not technological because the necessary infrastructure is available to most communities, and it is relatively easy for minority languages to create their own communicative space, with their own Internet domain included.

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New technologies have many possibilities and open new scenarios and opportunities for minority languages (cf. Barton/Lee 2013; Tagg 2015; Lee 2017). This is very important because, as noted, we are witnessing the decline of traditional media and the consolidation of new media, with some new types of participants, structures and markets which are increasingly fragmented and volatile. As pointed out above, we have gone all the way from a closed paradigm, which limited the participation of the audience, to an open paradigm which is inclusive of audience participation (cf. Eisenlohr 2004; Moring 2006). Even starting up a radio program or Internet TV is not a big challenge and can provide many benefits. It is not about competing with the majority language and culture, but instead it is a way of finding the necessary space to make the minority community more visible. Revitalization efforts can benefit by linking the world of technology and computing to minority languages. For the first time, linguistic minorities have a place in their local markets, transmit their own news and in doing so, strengthen their social identity and community cohesion (cf. Sheyholislami 2011; Uribe-Jongbloed 2015). In fact, in many contexts, social networks allow for the creation of new spaces for the use of minority languages even in areas without any significant history of the language in traditional media (cf. Jones/Cunliffe/Honeycutt 2013; Reershemius 2016; Tobar 2016). From the point of view of public policies, digital media should become a backbone for rebuilding the language revitalization of many minority languages. This challenge is particularly necessary among young people, since they are a social group who spends a substantial amount of time on social media and in virtual communities. The network is a space for interaction, leisure, business, etc., inherent to young people’s identity. Therefore, no initiative related to fostering minority languages should be oblivious to this reality. If those resources dedicated to its promotion are put to good use, the benefits for languages, speakers and communities are evident.

3 Case study: Galician language in media For the remainder of this chapter, we will have a look at the specifics of the Galician context. Firstly, we will present a brief historical contextualization. Secondly, we will explain the current situation of the media in the Galician language. This part concludes with an outline of the strengths and weaknesses of Galician media. Galician is Galicia’s own language. Despite the numerous vicissitudes it has gone through since the end of the Middle Ages, it has been and still is the most widely spoken language in Galicia, with approximately 1.2 million people using it on a daily basis (cf. Instituto Galego de Estatística 2013). Even so, the vitality of the language has undergone a gradual decline and it has reached the beginning of the 21st century in a delicate situation. The language shift process, strengthened since the second half of  

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the 20th century, is still in progress. Indeed, according language use, the population of Galicia is divided into three linguistic groups with the following distribution: 31% monolingual Galician speakers, 26% monolingual Spanish speakers and 42% bilingual speakers. Furthermore, 1% speak other languages, this being a residual percentage due to the low incidence of immigration in Galicia. In comparison, it should be taken into account that in 2003 the percentage for Galician monolingual speakers was 43% and for Spanish monolingual speakers 20% (cf. Instituto Galego de Estatística 2013). This marked decline in only 10 years highlights a very worrying reality for the future of the language. The most positive piece of data is that nearly the entire population understands Galician and the majority are able to speak and read it. This is relevant when it comes to creating an autochthonous communicative space. Compare this to other territories where the minority languages remain distant from the dominant language, in which case the comprehension of the minority language is inferior, as is the case the Basque Country, Navarra, Wales or Scotland, to name a few examples (cf. Salces-Alcalde/ Amezaga 2016). Regarding its use in the media, since the late 19th century Galician has had a presence, albeit very unevenly (cf. Lorenzo Suárez/Ramallo/Casares Berg 2008). During this time, there have been several milestones that should be highlighted. In 1876, O Tio Marcos da Portela, the first newspaper drafted in Galician, appeared. Previously, the presence of Galician in the press was residual and it was limited to some literary collaborations. Due to the success of this publication, other journalism projects emerged in different Galician cities in the years that followed. In 1916 a fundamental change took place when A Nosa Terra, a key publication for the defense and visibility of the Galician in the press, came out. Its pages often included political, socioeconomic and linguistic contributions as well as literary and cultural themes in Galician language. Indeed, linguistic topics were a constant in A Nosa Terra. During the Second Spanish Republic (1931–1936) the radio began broadcasting in Galicia but the presence of Galician was very limited. In any case, any glimmer of progress was severed during the Franco dictatorship (1939–1975). This period was a huge setback for the presence of Galician in the media. All the progressive and cultural press was silenced and the monolingual press in Galician language disappeared completely. Therefore, since the beginning of the Civil War (1936–1939) the only presence that Galician had in the media was in the clandestine press or in those media made and disseminated by people in exile, mainly in Latin America. It was not until the 1960s, in the grip of the dictatorship, when the Galician language started to retrieve part of its vitality in the communications media. In 1963, Grial appeared. This publication was at first bilingual but it progressively opted for Galician monolingualism. In 1964, Terra e Tempo was founded. It was initially edited in Mexico and was considered the first post-war publication completely in Galician. During the last years of the dictatorship, the first broadcasts in Galician started and in 1974 the language was used for the first time on a TV program (TVE).  

 

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Since 1975 the social demand for media in Galician has increased. By the end of the decade some publications that had been frustrated by the war and the dictatorship were resumed. Thus, in 1976 Teima came out in Santiago de Compostela and in 1977 the edition of A Nosa Terra was resumed on a weekly basis. Even so, it was not until 1994 that O Correo Galego, the first newspaper completely in Galician language, appeared. Concerning audiovisual media, a significantly relevant milestone took place in 1985, when Compañía de Radio/Televisión de Galicia (CRTVG) was founded. This meant a public radio-television in Galician language 24 hours a day (except for part of the commercial advertising). From that moment on, until today, CRTVG’s programming has played a significant role in configuring its own communicative space, with a planned market for fostering the Galician audiovisual sector which stems from a strategy focused on the value of local communication, without ignoring general information (cf. Hermida Gulías 2012; López García/Soengas Pérez/Rodríguez Vázquez 2016). Despite the achievements reached since the beginning of the democratic period (1978), the current situation of Galician in the media is delicate, particularly within the private media. The analysis is complex due to the variety of media, formats and technologies, which compete for an increasingly selective and broadly-diversified audience. The diagnosis is therefore clear: the supply of Spanish media increases whereas the presence of Galician in the media decreases. However, studies indicate that there is a potential market for media using Galician written language (cf. Barreiro/Pérez Pena 2013). It is not an easy task to explain why this situation is happening, as the results of the many factors that come into play. Whatever the case, it can be partially explained by the operation of a market which is both continuously innovating and very volatile. Conversely, the business structure related to the media in Galicia is weak and does not have any solvent business plans (cf. Barreiro/Pérez Pena 2013, 241). However, it is also a consequence of the public policies aimed to protect and foster Galician. While it is true that a large part of the cultural and social prestige of Galician came from its mandatory presence in administration, education and the public media, it is also true that the linguistic policy in Galicia has not been very favorable for the promotion of Galician in the private media. Obviously, media supporting Galician are in a difficult position to compete in a market strongly dominated by Spanish-language media. In this context, a top-bottom impulse is needed; an impulse to promote those media committed to quality information, which make a formal, careful and rigorous use of language and reach both majority and minority segments of the population. And every impulse designed within public policies should be planned regardless of the editorial line to guarantee plurality, rigor and maximum disclosure of those media opting for Galician. Paradoxically, language policies related to the use of the Galician language in the media have been widely criticized over the last few years. We start from the point that every language policy regarding media is undesirable if the objective is not to promote a minority language, but rather to create a positive image for those responsible for

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that language policy. Only from a naïve point of view can we consider a government’s support of the media as working towards the common good. The reality is just the opposite. The Political Economy of Communication strengthens media that, by means of conventional and consistent discourse forms, create representations of the world in favor of power structures and social control, “criminalizing unhindered communication and prosecuting the messenger” (Castells 2009, 264). Due to obvious reasons, this implies a huge democratic deficit. To exemplify this in Galicia it has to be taken into account that not only the budget for the autonomous government for the promotion of the Galician language in the media was drastically reduced in recent years, but also that the biggest allocation is devoted to media that hardly use Galician but have a majority dissemination and that intervene daily in the political agenda. A brief overview of media in Galician reveals some important gaps that we summarize hereafter. There is not any mainstream daily printed media in Galician. Some years ago the picture was different, with different newspapers occupying this communicative space. Conversely, there are some online media written exclusively in Galician, such as: Praza pública, Galicia Confidencial and Sermos Galiza, which also publishes a weekly paper entirely in Galician (cf. Vaqueiro/Xamardo 2017). Moreover, there is a wide range of weekly and regular publications aimed at broadly diverse audiences: cultural, youth, satirical or financial publications. Furthermore, daily collaborations in Galician can be frequently found in the main newspapers in which Spanish is the dominant language, such as La Voz de Galicia or Faro de Vigo. In these media, Galician language usually appears in opinion articles within the local or cultural section. In contrast, it is rather infrequent to find this language in the economic or international sections. What’s more, given the possibilities that current technology offers, frequently those media that only have their printed version in Spanish offer an automatic translation into Galician in their electronic versions. In the radio, the main media outlet is Radio Galega (RG), a public entity with coverage all over Galicia. There are also interesting local options such as a municipal radio network called Emisoras Municipais Galegas (EMUGA), with sixteen radio stations which opt for communicating only in Galician under a shared initiative called Radiofusión. Nevertheless, there is still a large gap between these and radio broadcasts in Spanish, which means that public policies have failed to create a space in radio for content in minority languages (cf. Pousa 2016). Something similar happens with the audiovisual media. In addition to Televisión de Galicia (TVG), a public entity, some local TV channels choose to broadcast mainly in Galician. It should be stressed that the structure of the Galician communicative system is relatively small compared to other linguistic minorities. According to Zabaleta et al. (2014), Galicia has 45 monolingual communication companies and three relevant media. In Catalonia there are 796 companies of monolingual media and in the Basque Country there are 108. Furthermore, the Galician communicative system relies heavily upon the public sector, with a market share of 64.4%. Comparing the Galician scenario to that of other European minority languages highlights that only the

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Scottish-Gaelic (with 100%) has a higher percentage of media under the public domain. It should be taken into account that Catalan is the common language in six newspapers, five weekly publications, six radio channels and six television channels. The low presence of Galician in the media is viewed negatively by the Galician population, even among those who speak only Spanish. Every time public opinion is consulted on the fields in which the presence of the language is more positively valued, the media are at the top of the list. In this regard, the majority of the population is in favor of an increase in the use of Galician in the media. The demand is higher than 50% in TV, radio, newspapers or the Internet. This demand is more consistent among the young population (particularly among new speakers of Galician), with a higher level of education and living in the city, which, paradoxically, is also the average Spanish speaker’s profile (cf. Lorenzo Suárez/Ramallo/Casares Berg 2008; Monteagudo/Lorenzo/Vázquez 2017). Consumption of Galician language media varies widely and is directly linked to the supply thereof. Television is by far the most public media outlet, followed by the radio. One particular area of extensive academic debate in Galicia has to do with the quality of spoken Galician in the media, particularly in the CRTVG. Research over the last few years has shown problems at all the linguistic levels (cf. Hermida Gulías 2008; Regueira 2013). The most common are: – Lack of tonic vocalism, given that Galician has seven vowels compared to the five vowels in Spanish. – Loss of the distinction between consonants (use of the alveolar fricative [s] instead of the palatal fricative [ʃ] typical of the Galician language, or use of the alveolar nasal [n] instead of the velar nasal [ŋ] traditionally used in Galician). – Pitch patterns intermingled with those of Spanish. – Wrong placement of atonic pronouns. – Alien lexicon and phraseology. Over the last few years, problems with grammar and lexicon are less visible, partly because there is a team of professional linguists correcting them prior to transmissions. Conversely, phonetic, phonologic and prosodic features are in clear need of improvement. This is because improving oral expression relies to a great extent upon the efforts of journalists themselves, and it should be taken into account that a large proportion of the professionals do not normally speak Galician. Consequently, it is frequent among linguists to define the oral models of the communication media as inauthentic, since they are very much based on models in Spanish that, as we have just mentioned, is the language of the majority of media professionals, including dubbing actors (cf. Dobao 2008). The relevance CRTVG has had in the social promotion of Galician, in spreading the standard variation and in disseminating prestigious linguistic models is unquestionable. For this reason, including oral models from outside has had a dramatic consequence for some of the oldest traditional speakers. Among this population, it is frequent to identify the

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variety used in TVG as a reference, well-spoken Galician, degrading their own use of the language (cf. O’Rourke/Ramallo 2013, 294s.). In fact, the lack of authenticity of the language in TVG is a widespread perception among the population. Therefore, 48% of the Galician population consider the language in the autonomic public television to be artificial, leading to a demand for increasing the visibility of more natural Galician (cf. Observatorio da Cultura Galega 2012). For these reasons, there is and has been for years an urgent need to create a standard oral model to be used on a regular basis in the media (cf. Dobao 2008; Regueira 2012; 2013). This could be based on the Dicionario de pronuncia da lingua galega (cf. Regueira 2010). Far from being anecdotal, it is necessary to highlight that TVG is the media with the largest audience in Galicia. Thus, 61% of the population claim to use TVG as a communications media on a daily basis (cf. Lorenzo Suárez/Ramallo/Casares Berg 2008, 206). For some years now, the news on the public channel is the most viewed of all the TV channels operating in Galicia. Its ratings are much higher than those of the state private channels (Telecinco, Antena 3, La Sexta). In the written media (printed and electronic), the quality of the Galician language has also been the subject of many studies. The main problems are accent marks, punctuation and mostly syntactic issues: placement of atonic pronouns, use of prepositions, incorrect use of verb tenses, and lack of consistency. There are also many examples of lexical interference from Spanish, along with hipergaleguismos1 (cf. Hermida Gulías 2008). Despite being a minority language, Galician has an acceptable presence in information and communications technologies (cf. García Mateo/Arza Rodríguez 2012). This is partly due to its large demography, since it is ranked second among European minority languages in terms of number of speakers, only surpassed by Catalan. Some highlights include: as of January 2017, Galipedia (the Galician Wikipedia) includes over 136,000 articles; since 2013, the language has its own domain name (.gal) with more than 3,500 registered domain names; the main social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Google+) have interfaces in Galician; and there are also Galician social networks like Cabozo, Latri.ca or Galegram, in addition to dozens of blogs on culture, economics, politics, etc. (cf. blogaliza.org). According to Negreira Rey and López García (2017, 124), 48% of the exclusive online media (web natives) are monolingual in Galician and 25% are bilingual. The use of Galician by young people on social networks is reduced, even among Galician speakers. However, this same population group is the one demanding an increase in the use of Galician on the Internet, in order to contribute to the social standardization of the language (cf. Domínguez/Ramallo 2012). This represents an opportunity for linguistic policy.

1 Hipergaleguismos are words created in Galician that result from an inadequate application of the norms by analogy with Spanish, e.g., “primaveira” instead of “primavera”.  

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The difficulties faced by Galician in private media can be explained by the lack of institutional support that the language receives. Even though from a more liberal perspective one could argue that these are private companies that must act according to the laws of the market, it’s surprising that most public grants aimed at promoting Galician in the media clearly benefit the major media outlets that publish and broadcast primarily in Spanish. For example, the two most widely-read newspapers in Galicia (La Voz de Galicia and Faro de Vigo), whose use of Galician is minimal, received approximately 1,000,000 euros (from a total of 1,135,000) in 2016 for the promotion of Galician, which is an unacceptable insult to smaller but all-Galician newspapers.

3.1 Strong and weak points Based on the above, the relationship between language and the media in Galicia has strengths and weaknesses. Table 1 gathers some points that can shed light on the possibilities for a more thoroughgoing Galician communicative system. The diagnosis is based on four dimensions: general questions, public sector, private sector and language policy.2 Table 1: Strong and weak points related to media and Galician Strong points

General – The majority of the population can read questions Galician. – Presence of own communicative market (producers, dubbing, subtitling, etc.). – Positive attitudes in the population towards the presence of Galician in the media. – Existence of related university degrees in communication studies in which the Galician language has a significant presence. – There is potential and market receptivity to new media in Galician.

Weak points

– Lack of consensus around the language among political parties. Linguistic diversity as a problem in political discourse. – Highly uneven offer of the languages in competition. – Little interest in high levels of language training on the part of communication professionals. – Little social pressure to increase the presence of Galician in the media. – The quality of language used in media (oral and written) is not always high.

2 Part of the diagnosis included in Table 1 is inspired by the Plan xeral de normalización da lingua galega [‘General Plan for Normalization of the Galician Language’] adopted unanimously in the Parliament of Galicia in 2004. This document provides multiple measures aimed to foster the use of Galician in different domains. Among them, there is a section devoted to communication media and cultural industries. The Plan was conceived as its adoption as a key instrument of Galicia’s language policy. In practice, however, its implementation has been very uneven in the different autonomous governments.

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Table 1 : (continued)  

Strong points

Weak points

Public sector

– Public radio and TV 24 hours in Galician (in the last 30 years) – Some local television channels – Several local radio stations in Galician – Presence of Galician in State radios’ disconnections

– Gaps in public radio and television programming. Not enough attention is paid to the cultural and aesthetic quality. This produces a strong disconnect with young people – Little or no Galician on the national state channel

Private sector

– Several monolingual Galician online newspapers – Certain presence of Galician in traditional newspapers printed in Galicia – Facebook, Twitter and other social networks in Galician

– No print newspapers in Galician – Tendency to distort sociolinguistic reality by publishing events in Spanish that were originally in Galician – Insufficient presence of Galician in most widely-read press – Galician is included in sections related to culture, sport events or institutional advertising. Its use is anecdotal in international news, for example – No private TV or radio exclusively in Galician – Galician has no visibility in private television – Little use of Galician in advertising – Limited use of dubbing for cinema

Language policy

– Favorable legislation – Institutional support

– Subsidies for the use of Galician as a means of financing private media. Complete failure, in light of the results – No monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of this policy

4 Conclusion Media are a basic tool of democratic life and minority language media can contribute very significantly to strengthen it, even by encouraging the participation of minorities in the public sphere (cf. Le 2015). First, the development of any modern society is closely linked to the communication mediated as a basic strategy for social cohesion. Therefore, it is desirable that any linguistic community has its own communicative space dedicated to public and business development projects that take into account the idiosyncrasies of that particular society, including of course their language. The goal of the promotion of minority language media is also related to their ability to preserve the identity of the society in which they operate and, at the same time, be

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able to articulate social action to provide accurate and representative information. Otherwise it will be harmful to society itself. Second, we must recognize the importance of the local community in the information society. Proximity communication (in minority languages) is increasingly necessary to guarantee decentralization, pluralism and democratic values themselves (access, identity, diversity, debate). The local and global spaces are complementary and not contradictory. Finally, digital media provide an excellent opportunity to promote and protect minority languages, even though it is not difficult to imagine that the existing linguistic tradition has been strengthened with current technology.

5 References Alia, Valerie/Bull, Simon (2005), Media and Ethnic Minorities, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press. AMARC (2014), Promoting minority languages through community media. Recommendations from AMARC to the European Parliament and the Commission, in: Davyth Hicks (coord.), Radio Broadcasting in Regional or Minority Languages. Conference report, Brussels, ELEN, EUROLANG and European Free Alliance in the European Parliament, (10.03.2017). Amezaga, Josu/Arana, Edorta (2012), Minority language television in Europe: commonalities and differences between Regional Minority Languages and Immigrant Minority Languages, Zer 17:3, 89–106. Androutsopoulos, Jannis (ed.) (2014), Mediatization and sociolinguistic change, Berlin/Boston, de Gruyter. Bakhtin, Mikhail (1981), The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays, ed. by Michael Holquist, Austin, University of Texas Press. Barreiro, Manuel M./Pérez Pena, Marcos (2013), Hai sociedade para os medios en galego?, in: Xosé López García/Manuel Rivas Barrós/Rosa Aneiros Díaz (edd.), A comunicación en Galicia 2013, Santiago de Compostela, Consello da Cultura Galega, 235–244. Barton, Davis/Lee, Carmen (2013), Language online. Investigating digital texts and practices, New York, Routledge. Blommaert, Jan/Rampton, Ben (2011), Language and superdiversity, Diversities 13:2, 1–21. Browne, Donald R. (1996), Electronic media and indigenous people: A voice of our own, Ames, University of Iowa Press. Browne, Donald R./Uribe-Jongbloed, Enrique (2013), Ethnic/linguistic minority media – What their history reveals, how scholars have studied them and what we might ask next, in: Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones/Enrique Uribe-Jongbloed (edd.), Social Media and Minority Languages. Convergence and the Creative Industries, Bristol/Buffalo/Toronto, Multilingual Matters, 1–28. Campos Freire, Francisco (2016), A terceira década dixital, in: Xosé López García/Rosa Aneiros Díaz, A comunicación en Galicia 2015, Santiago de Compostela, Consello da Cultura Galega, 11–44. Castells, Manuel (2009), Communication power, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Cormack, Mike (2004), Developing minority language media studies, (10.03.2017). Cormack, Mike (2005), The cultural politics of minority language media, International Journal of Media and Cultural Politics 1:1, 107–122.

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Cormack, Mike (2007), The media and language maintenance, in: Mike Cormack/Niamh Hourigan (edd.), Minority language media. Concepts, critiques and case studies, Clevedon, Multilingual Matters, 52–68. Cormack, Mike (2013), Concluding remarks: towards an understanding of media impact on minority language use, in: Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones/Enrique Uribe-Jongbloed (edd.), Social Media and Minority Languages. Convergence and the Creative Industries, Bristol/Buffalo/Toronto, Multilingual Matters, 255–265. Cormack, Mike/Hourigan, Niamh (edd.) (2007), Minority language media. Concepts, critiques and case studies, Clevedon, Multilingual Matters. Council of Europe (1993), European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages and Explanatory Report, Strasbourg, Council of Europe Publishing. Cunliffe, Daniel/Herring, Susan C. (2005), Introduction to minority languages, multimedia and the web, New Review of Hypermedia and Multimedia 11:2, 131–137. Curran, James (2003), Media and power, New York, Taylor & Francis. Curran, James (2011), Media and democracy, New York, Routledge. Dobao, Antón (2008), Os modelos orais nos medios de comunicación, in: Elisa Fernández Rei/Xosé Luis Regueira (edd.), Perspectivas sobre a oralidade, Santiago de Compostela, Consello da Cultura Galega/Instituto da Lingua Galega, 219–234. Domínguez, Ángel/Ramallo, Fernando (2012), Mocidade, lingua e redes sociais, Santiago de Compostela, Xunta de Galicia, (14.10.2016). Duarte, Joana/Gogolin, Ingrid (2013), Introduction: Linguistic superdiversity in educational institutions, in: Joana Duarte/Ingrid Gogolin (edd.), Linguistic superdiversity in urban areas. Research approaches, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, Benjamins, 1–24. Dunbar, Robert/Moring, Tom (2012), Media, in: Alba Nogueira López/Eduardo J. Ruiz Vieytez/Iñigo Urrutia Libarona (edd.), Shaping language rights. Commentary on the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in light of the Committee of Experts’ evaluation, Strasbourg, Council of Europe, 373–424. Eisenlohr, Patrick (2004), Language revitalization and new technologies: Cultures of electronic mediation and the refiguring of communities, Annual Review of Anthropology 33, 21–45. Fishman, Joshua A. (1991), Reversing language shift, Clevedon, Multilingual Matters. Fishman, Joshua A. (2001), From Theory to Practice (and Vice Versa): Review, Reconsideration and Reiteration, in: Joshua A. Fishman (ed.), Can Threatened Languages be Saved?: Reversing Language Shift, Revisited : A 21st Century Perspective, Clevedon et al., Multilingual Matters, 451–483. García, Ofelia/Lin, Angel L. M. (32017), Translanguaging in bilingual education, in: Ofelia García/ Angel L. M. Lin/Stephen May (edd.), Bilingual and multilingual education, Cham, Springer, 117–130. García Mateo, Carmen/Arza Rodríguez, Montserrat (2012), The Galician Language in the Digital Age, Berlin, Springer. Gruffydd Jones, Elin Haf/Uribe-Jongbloed, Enrique (edd.) (2013), Social Media and Minority Languages. Convergence and the Creative Industries, Bristol/Buffalo/Toronto, Multilingual Matters. Hermida Gulías, Carme (2008), A calidade do galego nos medios de comunicación audiovisuais, in: Miguel Túñez (coord.), Emitindo en dixital: deseños de futuro en radio e television, Santiago de Compostela, Consello Asesor de RTVE en Galicia, 165–176. Hermida Gulías, Carme (2012), A contribución da radio e da televisión públicas de Galicia á normalización e normativización da lingua galega, in: Margarita Ledo Andión/Xosé López/María Salgueiro (edd.), Anuário Internacional de Comunicação Lusófona 2012, Santiago de Compostela, LUSOCOM/AGACOM, 43–51.

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Instituto Galego de Estatística (2013). Enquisa de condicións de vida das familias. Módulo de Lingua galega, Santiago de Compostela, Instituto Galego de Estatística. Jones, Rhys James/Cunliffe, Daniel/Honeycutt, Zoe R. (2013), Twitter and the Welsh language, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development 34:7, 653–671. Kelly-Holmes, Helen (2012), Multilingualism and the media, in: Marilyn Martin-Jones/Adrian Blackledge/Angela Creese (edd.), The Routledge Handbook of Multilingualism, London, Routledge, 333–346. Kelly-Holmes, Helen/Milani, Tommaso M. (edd.) (2013), Thematising Multilingualism in the Media, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, Benjamins. Kelly-Holmes, Helen/Moriarty, Máiréad/Pietikäinen, Sari (2009), Convergence and divergence in Basque, Irish and Sámi media language policing, Language Policy 8, 227–242. Lackaff, Derek/Moner, William J. (2016), Local languages, global networks: Mobile design for minority language users, Proceedings of the 34th ACM International Conference on the design of communication, art. n° 14, New York, ACM. Le, Elisabeth (2015), Media in minority contexts: Toward a research framework, Journal of Applied Journalism & Media Studies 4:1, 3–24. Lee, Carmen (2017), Multilingualism online, Oxford, Routledge. Lema Blanco, Isabel/Meda González, Miriam (2016), Linguistic diversity and communication rights: the role of community media in the promotion of regional or minority languages in Europe, Radio, Sound & Society Journal 1:1, 26–41. López García, Xosé/Soengas Pérez, Xosé/Rodríguez Vázquez, Ana Isabel (2016), La televisión de proximidad como eje de la oferta visual cercana. El papel de TVG de Galicia, adComunica 11, 61–73. Lorenzo Suárez, Anxo M./Ramallo, Fernando/Casares Berg, Håkan (2008), Lingua, sociedade e medios de comunicación en Galicia, Santiago de Compostela, Consello da Cultura Galega. Martín Serrano, Manuel (32004), La producción social de comunicación, Madrid, Alianza. Martin-Jones, Marilyn/Blackledge, Adrian/Creese, Angela (2012), Introduction: A Sociolinguistics of Multilingualism for Our Times, in: Marilyn Martin-Jones/Adrian Blackledge/Angela Creese, The Routledge Handbook of Multilingualism, London, Routledge, 1–26. McMonagle, Sarah (2012), The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages: Still relevant in the information age, Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe 11:2, 1–24. Monteagudo, Henrique/Loredo, Xoaquín/Vázquez, Martín (2017), Lingua e sociedade en Galicia. A evolución sociolingüística 1992–2013, A Coruña, Real Academia Galega. Moring, Tom (2006), Access of national minorities to the media: new challenges, Strasbourg, Council of Europe. Moring, Tom (2013), Media Markets and Minority Languages in the Digital Age, Journal on Ethnopolitics and Minority Issues in Europe 12:4, 34–53. Negreira Rey, María Cruz/López García, Xosé (2017), Web-native media in Galicia. Trends and characteristics of a booming model, in: Francisco Campos Freire et al. (edd.), Media and metamedia management, Cham, Springer, 121–126. O’Rourke, Bernadette/Ramallo, Fernando (2013), Competing ideologies of linguistic authority amongst new speakers in contemporary Galicia, Language in Society 42, 287–305. Observatorio da Cultura Galega (2012), A(s) lingua(s) a debate, Santiago de Compostela, Consello da Cultura Galega. Pauwels, Anne (2016), Language Maintenance and Shift, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Pennycook, Alastair/Otsuji, Emi (2015), Metrolingualism: Language in the City, Abingdon/New York, Routledge. Pousa, Xosé Ramón (2016), A radio en Galicia 2012–2014: máis emisoras, menos negocio, in: Xosé López García/Rosa Aneiros Díaz, A comunicación en Galicia 2015, Santiago de Compostela, Consello da Cultura Galega, 55–75.

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20 Audiovisual Translation Abstract: This chapter provides an overview of audiovisual translation (AVT), understood as the discipline studying the translation of audiovisual texts. It sets out to define different AVT modes, distinguishing between revoicing (dubbing, voiceover, audio description, interpreting, etc.) and subtitling (interlingual and intralingual subtitling, fansubbing, surtitling, etc.). Although more attention is paid to subtitling, dubbing and voiceover since these are the most widespread AVT modes, the chapter also discusses briefly more recent modes related to media accessibility (such as audio description for the blind and subtitling for the deaf and the hard of hearing), as well as those which reflect the use of new technologies and new approaches to translation (e.g., fansubbing). To this end, the chapter refers to the most influential publications and research trends in AVT, focusing on Spanish, and concludes by highlighting new research avenues.  

 

Keywords: accessibility, audiovisual translation, AVT, dubbing, guidelines, Spain, subtitling, synchronization, voiceover  

1 The translation of audiovisual material: denominations, definitions and modes Audiovisual Translation (AVT) is a term widely used nowadays to refer to the translation of audiovisual texts. Although this term seems to be more common among academics, its popularity is also increasing within the audiovisual industry. According to Chaume (2012, 2), the wide use of this term in most European languages (traducción audiovisual, traduction audiovisuelle, traduzione audiovisiva or audiovisuelles Übersetzen) reflects its acceptance after years of tentative provisional terms. Some of the denominations used in the past have focused on specific audiovisual media (such as cinematographic translation, film translation or translation for TV), thus making them insufficient, especially if we consider the wide range of media available nowadays as a result of technological developments (i.e., many viewers consume different types of audiovisual material through the Internet). The term “constrained translation”, coined by Titford (1982) and further developed by Mayoral/ Kelly/Gallardo (1988), highlights the complexity of this type of translation and considers that the translator’s task is constrained by the interaction of a wide range of communication elements (images, music, dialogue, etc.). The term screen translation gained ground especially during the 1990s, with organizations such as the European Association for Studies in Screen Translation DOI 10.1515/9783110314755-021

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(ESIST) still referring to it. Mayoral (2001, 20) argues that this denomination is broader, since it allows for the inclusion and study of a wider range of multimedia products (shown on screen) and modes such as videogame translation and even software and website localization. Probably following a similar line of argumentation, terms such as multimodal, multimedia and media translation – which would include the translation of comics or advertising, for instance – have also been suggested in the past (cf. Gambier/Gottlieb 2001). Following Chaume (2012, 3), we consider AVT as a generic term at the same level as that of written or oral translation, which can cover a wide range of topics and can be divided into different specialized translation fields (e.g., scientific translation, medical translation, technical translation, legal translation, etc.). The specificity of AVT lies precisely in the specificity of the texts being translated, audiovisual texts, which are characterized by the way information is conveyed and transmitted. As their name suggests, information in audiovisual products is transmitted simultaneously through an acoustic and a visual channel, and conveyed through a wide range of signifying codes, which are articulated following rules and conventions specific to the audiovisual media. Chaume (2012, 100) defines the audiovisual text as “a semiotic construct woven by a series of signifying codes that operate simultaneously to produce meaning”. This semiotic construct has evolved with time, and such developments have resulted in the need to provide translation services for audiovisual texts, as will be shown below.  

1.1 AVT: brief historical overview1 The role of the translator becomes essential with the introduction of intertitles2 in silent films and, especially, with the advent of talkies. When discussing the history of film translation, Chaves (2000, 20s.) refers to the narrator or commentator, who provided a rather free interpretation of intertitles in silent films, thus enabling access for illiterate or foreign audiences. Narrators were soon substituted by translations of intertitles, either by replacing the actual intertitles on screen (new titles in the target language were created and inserted) or aurally, during the projection of the film, when the original text appeared on screen (ibid., 21). As far as the advent of talkies is concerned, a wide range of solutions were implemented in an attempt to overcome linguistic barriers in the 1920s and 1930s. Subtitling was one of the first solutions adopted, but it was not very popular due to

1 For a more detailed historical overview of AVT in Spain, please refer to Izard (1992; 2001), Ávila (1997), Chaves (2000), Díaz-Cintas (2001) or Chaume (2004). 2 Díaz-Cintas/Remael (2007, 248) define intertitles as “a piece of filmed, printed text edited into the midst of (i.e. -inter) the photographed action, generally to convey character dialogue, or descriptive narrative material related to the material photographed” in silent motion pictures.

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both the high level of illiteracy across Europe and technical constraints, with subtitles projected on adjacent screens and not on the same screen as the film (cf. Chaume 2004, 46s.). The first attempts at dubbing were not very popular either, also due to technical constraints which made the synchronization of sound and actors’ movements and gestures extremely difficult. With its supremacy endangered, Hollywood promoted multilingual or multiple versions, whereby different language versions of the same movie were shot (cf. Chaves 2000, 29). This meant recruiting not only translators/scriptwriters but also native actors and directors, which resulted in extremely high costs. Eventually, thanks to technological developments such as postsynchronization in the case of dubbing (cf. Ávila 1997) or chemical processes in subtitling (cf. Ivarsson 2004), and to audiences’ habituation to these new AVT modes, dubbing and subtitling were consolidated as the main two AVT modes. As Ivarsson (2004) argues, subtitling became the preferred transfer mode in smaller language areas such as the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries due to its reduced cost, especially if compared to that of dubbing, but also because of the higher levels of literacy of their populations (cf. Chaume 2004, 47). According to Chaume (ibid.) dubbing was consolidated in countries that adopted a rather protective linguistic policy and that were also able to invest more money in the process, such as France, Italy, Spain and Germany. Although the audiovisual industry has experienced many changes lately, dubbing is still the preferred AVT mode used in Spain. This prevalence is often related to Franco’s regime and its authoritarian and nationalist policies (as is the case with other dubbing countries such as Italy or Germany), but it is worthy of note that dubbing was introduced much earlier in Spain, during the Second Spanish Republic. Indeed, as Chaume (ibid.) advocates, the consolidation of AVT modes is influenced by a plethora of factors, not only political, but also socio-cultural, historical and economic. Although dubbing and subtitling, together with voiceover, are still regarded as the main AVT modes (cf. Remael 2010, 13), nowadays the AVT landscape is far more complex, with a wide range of transfer modes available, as will be shown below.

1.2 Audiovisual Translation modes: revoicing and subtitling Díaz-Cintas/Orero (2010, 441) distinguish between two fundamental approaches as regards language transfer of audiovisual material: revoicing and subtitling. In the former, oral output is transferred aurally in the target language by inserting a new soundtrack, whereas in subtitling there is a change to written mode, and dialogue and other verbal elements are transferred as written text on screen. This distinction between revoicing and subtitling allows for a systematic classification of AVT modes considering technical aspects. However, many other approaches and categorizations have been suggested in this regard. As Hernández Bartolomé/Mendiluce (2005, 92) show, there does not seem to be a common agreement on the number of AVT modes

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available nowadays, a situation which is even more challenging considering that current technological developments result in the rapid creation of new ones. Since the aim of this chapter is to provide an introduction to audiovisual translation, the focus will be on the three main AVT modes (dubbing, subtitling and voiceover), as well as on relatively recent modes aimed at making audiovisual material accessible to sensory impaired viewers. However, a brief overview of different classifications will be provided below and the reader is thus welcome to further investigate the literature cited. Dubbing and voiceover are the two most widely-used interlingual3 revoicing modes, not only in Spain, but in other European countries such as Germany, Italy and France. In dubbing, the dialogue in the original language is completely replaced with a recording of the translated dialogue as interpreted by dubbing actors in the target language, whereas in voiceover the original and the translated tracks of dialogue are presented simultaneously to the target viewer, with the volume of the former lowered to avoid confusion due to the overlapping of audio tracks. Dubbing is often referred to as synchronization or lip synch, thus emphasizing the need to synchronize the translated dialogue with the movements of characters on screen. However, not all examples of dubbing require lip synchronization (e.g., if the narrator appears offscreen). For this reason, some authors distinguish between off-screen dubbing and lip synch dubbing. Chaume (2013, 107ss.) refers to other revoicing modes such as simultaneous interpreting, free commentary, fandubbing and audio description. Indeed, from a technical point of view, audio description (AD) for the blind and partially-sighted could be considered a revoicing mode since it involves “transforming visual images into words, which are then spoken during the silent intervals in audiovisual programmes or live performances” (Díaz-Cintas 2008a, 7). In this case, however, the source text is not the original dialogue, but images, which are translated into words. Díaz-Cintas and Remael define subtitling as a transfer mode which  

“consists of presenting a written text, generally on the lower part of the screen, that endeavours to recount the original dialogue of the speakers, as well as the discursive elements that appear in the image […], and the information that is contained on the soundtrack” (Díaz-Cintas/Remael 2007, 8).

Within this category, it is common to distinguish between interlingual and intralingual modes, the latter including widespread modes such as subtitling for the deaf and the hard of hearing (SDH) and intralingual subtitling for foreign language learning. Respeaking is also a type of intralingual subtitling usually performed during live broad-

3 Interlingual AVT modes involve transfer between different languages, whereas intralingual AVT modes refer to those which involve transfer within the same language, and sometimes between different sign systems (visual elements to aural elements or vice versa).

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cast, where voice recognition software is used to convert the original dialogue – which is respoken by an interpreter or respeaker – into subtitles. In addition to these, classifications of subtitling modes tend to include surtitling (by which subtitles for opera and theatre performances are projected above the stage) and fansubbing, which refers to the subtitling done by fans and normally distributed over the Internet. Although it is common to distinguish between dubbing and subtitling countries, there are many other options as regards the transfer of audiovisual material, as this section has illustrated. In addition, it should be noted that in some cases the choice will depend on the genre of the audiovisual product being translated or on the audiovisual medium. For instance, cartoons are dubbed all over the world, and in some countries (e.g., Mexico, Brazil) dubbing is used for TV whereas subtitling is used for cinema productions.  

2 Dubbing Chaume defines dubbing as an AVT mode which “consists of replacing the original track of a film’s (or any audiovisual text) source language dialogue with another track on which translated dialogue has been recorded in the target language” (Chaume 2012, 1).

Such replacement must be done bearing in mind the synchronization between the new track and the rest of the text components (e.g., images). Dubbing is also characterized by the numerous agents who work towards the common goal of “offering an audiovisual product in the target language that can be accepted by the audience as a credible illusion” (Matamala 2010, 102). Once the audiovisual text has been translated, it needs to be adapted and synchronized by the dialogue writer or adapter. This is why the work done by the translator is often referred to as a draft or “rough translation” (Whitman-Linsen 1992, 105), which will undergo many changes during the adaptation process. Dialogue writers adapt the rough translation to the articulatory movements of the onscreen characters, paying particular attention to ensure that the translation respects the open vowels and bilabial and labiodental consonants uttered on screen (cf. Chaume 2012, 73). This kind of synchrony is called “phonetic synchrony” and is only relevant in shots where the character’s face is clearly visible (ibid.). Adapters should also make sure that the duration of the translation is identical to that of on-screen characters’ utterances, a type of synchrony referred to as isochrony. Chaume (ibid., 70) also refers to “kinesic synchrony”, by which the translation should be synchronized with the actors’ body movements. Dialogue writing might also involve dividing the text into dubbing units (takes) and inserting dubbing symbols which will ease the interpretation of the adapted dialogue by voice talents. For example, by inserting the symbol OFF before an utterance where the character is off-screen, the dialogue writer is letting the actor  

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know that it is not necessary to pay attention to phonetic synchrony. Chaume (2004, 96ss.) provides a detailed description of the symbols used in Spain, both in Spanish and in Catalan, and in other European countries (cf. Chaume 2007), as well as of the conventions adopted to divide the text into takes. In Spain, the translation and dialogue writing into Spanish are often performed by different people. However, this trend might change in the near future since some scholars have contended that these should be performed by a single person (cf. Chaume 2012, 37), and given that dubbing courses in translation programs are gradually integrating dialogue writing skills in their curriculum (ibid.). Once the dialogue has been adapted, it will be interpreted by dubbing actors or voice talents, who are recruited and supervised by the dubbing director. Dubbing actors will interpret their dialogue in different takes, which will then be reassembled and edited by sound engineers. This shows that dubbed texts are complex audiovisual products resulting from the interaction of many professionals. Although synchrony is important in dubbing, the specificities of dubbed texts do not solely rely on synchronization. The interaction between image and word, as well as the recreation of dialogue that mirrors spontaneous conversation, are also specific to dubbed products (cf. Chaume 2012, 66). When considering which dubbing aspect has the greatest impact upon the audience and should thus take precedence over the others, Whitman-Linsen (1992, 54) highlights that “researchers and professional dubbers alike lend the greatest priority to a believable, convincing dialogue”. In this regard, the language of dubbing is often subjected to harsh criticism. Many authors have highlighted its artificiality and unnaturalness, and not only in Spanish (cf. Chaume 2004; Romero-Fresco 2009; Baños 2012; 2014), but also in French (cf. Goris 1993), German (cf. Herbst 1997) and Italian (cf. Pavesi 2008). According to Ávila (1997, 25s.), dubbing studios in Spain recommend using standard language to achieve clear and simple dialogue which meets the needs of viewers. Taking a similar stance, Chaume (2007, 215) considers that some features typifying spontaneous spoken conversation should be avoided by translators, who should bear in mind that “while the language of dubbing pretends to be spontaneous, it is very normative indeed”. It should nevertheless be noted that, whereas linguistic standardization seems to be intrinsic to dubbese or the register of dubbing, unnatural and artificial uses resulting from source text interference (e.g., Anglicisms, pragmatic interference) do not seem to be justified. Dubbing is generally considered a domesticating type of translation, especially if compared to other AVT modes such as subtitling or voiceover, where audiences are exposed to the original soundtrack – either completely or partially – and it is clear that the product they are consuming is foreign. Some authors claim dubbed productions are more prone to manipulation (cf. Martínez Sierra 2006) and have analyzed these in search of modifications. Whereas in some cases such shifts could be considered adaptations to suit the audience’s taste and target language conventions, or to respect dubbing synchronies, in others they seem unnecessary and gratuitous altera 

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tions. However, it should be noted that cases of both technical and ideological manipulation (cf. Díaz-Cintas 2012, 284) can be found in all AVT modes and are not exclusive to dubbing. As far as research on dubbing is concerned, in addition to the monographic volumes written by Chaume (2004 and 2012), who is one of the main pioneers in AVT research in general and dubbing research in particular, it is worth referring to the work by Whitman-Linsen (1992). This author provides an invaluable insight into the film dubbing industry in Germany, France and Spain, paying particular attention to linguistic and technical aspects. The works of Ávila (1997), Agost (1999) and Chaves (2000) provide detailed analyses of dubbing in Spain, each from a different perspective. Censorship in dubbing, especially during Francoism, has also attracted the attention of several scholars (cf. Ballester 2001), whereas the contribution of authors investigating dubbing into Catalan, Basque or Galician has been crucial to providing a precise picture of the dubbing landscape in Spain (cf. Montero Domínguez 2010). In terms of recent research avenues, scholars have identified the need to delve into specific aspects of dubbing such as technical constraints, audience reception, sociocultural issues, the language and register of dubbing, didactic proposals, and many more which cannot be further explored here due to space constraints.

3 Voiceover Within Translation Studies, voiceover could be defined as the revoicing of a translation in a target language, which can be heard simultaneously over the original audio track. This term is, however, used differently in other disciplines, such as Film Studies, where it often refers to extradiegetic dialogue, to voices which are not uttered by characters on screen, but are originated outside it. Thus, professionals from the film and television industry often refer to voiceover narration as “a narrative technique in which the voice of a faceless narrator is heard over different images” (Franco/Matamala/Orero 2010, 18). In terms of what makes voiceover translation specific, most authors seem to agree that authenticity, faithfulness, standardization and readability are some of the defining traits of this AVT mode. Although synchronization constraints are not as strict as in lip-synch dubbing, synchrony is also important in voiceover. Phonetic synchrony is not relevant, yet it is essential that the revoicing is synchronized with the image. In this regard, in addition to kinesic synchrony (cf. above), Orero (2006, 259) refers to “action synchrony”, that is, the need to synchronize the voice delivering the translation with the actions taking place on the screen. Thus, if a character is showing or pointing to a specific element on screen, the translated dialogue must refer to it at the same time it is shown. As far as respecting the duration of the original dialogue (isochrony) is concerned, in voiceover the translation typically starts a few seconds after the original dialogue (which can be heard by viewers), and finishes also a couple

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of seconds before the dialogue in the foreign language. As a result, the duration of the translation tends to be shorter than the original. Franco/Matamala/Orero (2010, 27) argue that these seconds left at the beginning and the end function as an illusory device which gives viewers the impression that “what is being told in the translation is what is being said in the original”. This is why authors such as Luyken et al. (1991, 41) suggest that translators should be more literal when translating the beginning and end of utterances, especially as regards specific words which are heard and could therefore be understood by the audience (e.g., proper nouns). Franco/Matamala/ Orero (2010, 80) term this phenomenon “literal synchrony”. If linguistic standardization is common in dubbing, it is even more marked in voiceover, where translators should aim to create a fluent translation that is “intelligible and easily readable by the voice talent” (ibid., 77) and which fits within the available space, thus removing oral features such as hesitations, false starts and syntactic dysfluencies. The focus should therefore be on content rather than on form, a principle that is closely related to the genre and function of the texts that tend to be translated for voiceover. Along with subtitling, voiceover is often the preferred mode for translating non-fictional programs “because its defining features contribute to the appeals of reality, truth and authenticity that factual programs count on in order to prove that their arguments are right or believable” (ibid., 25). Indeed, this is the case in Spain, where voiceover has been commonly used for the translation of non-fictional products such as documentaries or interviews. However, it should be noted that this transfer mode is used in Eastern European countries to translate fiction, and that trends seem to be changing as far as Spanish voiceover is concerned, with more genres being translated with this AVT mode. Nowadays, many television channels broadcasting reality shows and talk shows in Spain such as Divinity (e.g., “Tabatha’s Salon Takeover”), MTV España (e.g., “Geordie Shore” or “Ridiculousness”), La Sexta (e.g., “Top Gear”) or Antena3 (e.g., “Kitchen’s Nightmares”) have opted for voiceover. Yet, in these cases, voiceover translation does not seem to comply with “traditional” traits, resorting to sub-standard utterances and emphatic interpretations which are rather typical of dubbing. Franco/Matamala/Orero (2010, 19s.) maintain that voiceover has received less attention in academia if compared with dubbing and subtitling. These authors have led research in this field, both through individual publications and in their coauthored monograph (2010), where they clarify terminological confusion and define the characteristics and sub-types of this AVT mode, providing an insight into the industry and plenty of examples in Portuguese, Spanish and Catalan. Their individual contributions also reveal interesting trends about this AVT mode: Franco’s (2001) research suggests that, as far as the translation of culture-specific items is concerned, moderate exoticism or foreignization is a positive aspect in documentary translation, since it contributes to the target viewers’ understanding of the culture being portrayed in the documentary. Matamala (2009) has also focused on voiceover in documentaries and, drawing on her experience as a professional translator, provides a very useful  

 

 

 

 

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overview of its main translational challenges, which include terminological issues, coexistence of different registers and translation modes, and challenging working conditions. Orero (2004) has carried out research on the voiceover translation of unedited or unfinished material of TV interviews (“voiceover for production”) highlighting its specific challenges, and has also delved into the different types of synchronization relevant in this mode (2006), which have been briefly explained above.

4 Subtitling Díaz-Cintas explains that subtitles “can be seen as a supplement to the original programme” (2010a, 344) and that, as such, it is essential to consider their interaction with the original text, both visually and acoustically. This applies to any kind of subtitles and, as with the AVT modes already discussed, highlights the need for synchrony: subtitles should appear in synchrony with the original dialogue and image. This is crucial when timing or spotting the subtitles, a process carried out by either translators or technicians, also known as origination or cueing, which involves establishing the in and out times of subtitles (i.e., when they would appear and disappear from the screen). When doing so, both spatial and time constraints should be considered, as will be briefly explained below taking interlingual subtitling as a reference. Interlingual subtitling is generally limited to two lines, which are displayed horizontally at the bottom of the screen (cf. Díaz-Cintas/Remael 2007, 82). Space restrictions do not end there, since each line cannot exceed a specific number of characters, which is often determined by the media in which the audiovisual product will be broadcast. Although conventions also change depending on the company and the country, the maximum number of characters allowed in television is usually 37, whereas this number increases to 40 in cinema and DVD (ibid., 84). Regarding time constraints, when determining how long a subtitle can stay on screen, the average reading speed of viewers should be considered. Reading speeds depend again on the audiovisual media and the target audience, but scholars often refer to the “six-second rule” (cf. Ivarsson/Carroll 1998; Díaz-Cintas/Remael 2007), whereby “an average viewer can comfortably read in six seconds the text written on two full subtitle lines, when each line contains a maximum of some 37 characters, i.e., a total of 74 characters” (Díaz-Cintas/Remael 2007, 96). Following these guidelines, the average reading speed of viewers would be 12 characters per second (cps) and 140–150 words per minute (wpm). However, as suggested in Díaz-Cintas (2008b, 97), since audiences are nowadays more used to reading text on screen, some companies in the DVD industry are currently applying higher reading speeds (of up to 180 wpm). Professional subtitling software enables users to spot subtitles taking into consideration a specific reading speed and maximum number of characters, thus facilitating the whole process and making sure that conventions are adhered to. Nowadays,

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subtitling programs also include advanced features to perfect cueing and, for example, to make sure that subtitles are not maintained during shot changes, which should be avoided as this prompts viewers to re-read the subtitle (cf. de Linde/Kay 1999, 16). Features such as automatic sound wave detection make it possible to synchronize subtitles and dialogue accurately, which is critical for subtitling, not only because poor timing puts viewers off, but also because accurate timing reinforces the internal cohesion of the translated program and helps viewers identify who is speaking (cf. Díaz-Cintas/Remael 2007, 90). In addition to time and space limitations, scholars tend to point the change of medium (from speech to writing) as one of the challenges of subtitling. As a result, many of the typical features of spontaneous oral conversation will disappear in subtitles. Omissions tend to be more severe if compared to those happening in voiceover translation, due to the need to comply with writing conventions and to the difficulty of reflecting some features of spoken speech in writing. This does not mean that all these features are lost; as Díaz-Cintas/Remael (2007, 63) contend, “quite a few can be salvaged in writing, but rendering them all would lead to illegible and exceedingly long subtitles”. An interesting concept brought up when discussing traits which are specific to subtitling is that of “vulnerable translation”, suggested by Díaz-Cintas (2001). Such vulnerability resides in the fact that the viewer of a subtitled product is presented not only with the translation, but also with the full original text (unlike dubbing, where the original is completely deleted, or voiceover, where the volume of the original audio track is lowered). This means subtitles “must also stand up to the scrutiny of an audience that may have some knowledge of the original language” (Díaz-Cintas/ Remael 2007, 57), which tends to be the case when the original is in English or in a language with similar roots to the target language (e.g., Spanish and Catalan or Italian, for instance). This is one of the reasons why a high number of viewers have a rather negative opinion of subtitles (ibid., 55), which is further worsened by the fact that many of them are unaware of the true nature of subtitling and the challenges it entails. Criticisms often refer to subtitles being too standard or not fully reflecting what is being said in the original. However, this is not the purpose of subtitling which, in fact, can never and should not be a complete and detailed rendering of the original (ibid., 145). Given its specificities, translators often have to resort to reduction and condensation in subtitling, not only to comply with space and time constraints, but also to make sure viewers can pay attention to the many components that interact in an audiovisual product, in addition to subtitles. In order to promote readability, subtitles should be segmented carefully, following syntactic and semantic considerations, as explained by Karamitroglou (1998). This author outlines a detailed set of subtitling standards, arguing the need for a unifying code of subtitling practices in Europe which will determine how to deal not only with temporal and spatial constraints, but also with typographical issues. It is worth noting that the latter are often different to  

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those used in other types of translation and that they vary even among European countries4, as reflected in Díaz-Cintas/Remael (2007, 102ss.). With regard to research on subtitling, as can be gathered from the information included above, Díaz-Cintas has contributed greatly to research in this field, not only with generic monographs in Spanish (2001 and 2003), but also with specific publications exploring particular aspects of subtitling such as its didactics (2008a). In addition to the work by Díaz-Cintas/Remael (2007), as far as more generic publications on subtitling are concerned, it is also indispensable to mention scholars such as Gottlieb (1994), or Ivarsson/Carroll (1998). In the case of Spanish, it is worth noting the work of Mayoral (1993), who has been one of the main pioneers of AVT research and teaching in Spain. Lately, the investigation of more specific aspects such as technical issues (Martí Ferriol 2012), the application of this AVT mode to foreign language learning (Talaván 2013) or fansubbing (Ferrer 2005; Díaz-Cintas/Muñoz Sánchez 2006), among many others, have truly consolidated this field of research and revealed potential interdisciplinary approaches. Although the term fansubbing originally referred to the subtitling of Japanese animation by fans (cf. Díaz-Cintas/Muñoz Sánchez 2006), this practice is currently widespread in many languages and audiovisual products and, in Spain, it is common especially in the case of US television series. Fansubbing is often done by fans for fans and, as Ferrer (2005, 30) notes, its norms and conventions differ from those followed in professional subtitling. Mainly, fansubs are less conventional and more innovative, including notes or glosses to clarify some aspects or provide more information, as well as using different fonts and colors throughout the same program (ibid.). Space constraints are also looser in fansubbing, since the position of subtitles on screen is variable and some subtitles can contain up to four lines (ibid.). Differences are obvious and, as Díaz-Cintas/Remael (2007, 27) explain, some fans prefer to use the term subbing, to emphasize the peculiar nature of what they do and to distinguish it from traditional subtitling. Fansubbing communities often implement some kind of quality control, and their organization and processes, characterized by meticulous coordination and constant teamwork, could be said to mirror professional practices (cf. Díaz-Cintas/Muñoz Sánchez 2006, 40ss.). However, quality is often an issue, given that the translation is done by amateurs, often under severe time constraints and in a rather segmented manner (e.g., episodes of TV series are split between different translators). According to Ferrer (2005, 29), it is common to see spelling mistakes, calques and literal translations in anime subtitled by fans from Japanese into Spanish. Díaz-Cintas/Muñoz Sánchez (2006, 46) also provide examples of source text misunderstandings, especially when the text is translated from Japanese using English as a pivot language,  

4 For detailed information on typographical conventions used in Spanish subtitling, please refer to Díaz-Cintas (2003).

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thus identifying some quality-related issues. However, they also argue that “on occasions some fansubs do not have anything to envy to the quality of the licensed translations, commercially distributed on DVD or broadcast on television” (ibid., 46). In any case, fansubbing is guided by different quality standards, and fansubbers seem to prefer translations which retain as many cultural and linguistic aspects from the original culture as possible (cf. Ferrer 2005, 29).

5 Media accessibility If the purpose of the AVT modes discussed above is to make an audiovisual program available to viewers who do not understand the language in which this program was originally created, the modes which will be discussed here aim to make audiovisual material accessible to sensory impaired audiences. The focus will be on subtitling for the deaf and the hard of hearing (SDH) and on audio description for the blind and partially sighted (AD). Although the inclusion of these modes within AVT has been controversial because they do not imply a transfer between languages, they are considered here an integral part of AVT, a view currently held by many scholars.

5.1 Subtitling for the deaf and the hard of hearing SDH is a type of subtitling targeted at people who are deaf or with a hearing impairment. Although SDH could be interlingual (a movie originally in English could have SDH subtitles in German, for instance), it tends to be intralingual, especially in Spain. Pereira defines this mode as follows: “El subtitulado para sordos se podría definir como una modalidad de trasvase entre modos (de oral a escrito) y, en ocasiones, entre lenguas; consiste en presentar en pantalla un texto escrito que ofrece un recuento semántico de lo que se emite en el programa en cuestión, pero no sólo de lo que se dice, cómo se dice (énfasis, tono de voz, acentos e idiomas extranjeros, ruidos de la voz) y quién lo dice, sino también de lo que se oye (música y ruidos ambientales) y de los elementos discursivos que aparecen en la imagen (cartas, leyendas, carteles, etc.)” (Pereira 2005, 162).5

As this definition shows, the type of information included in subtitles is one of the differing aspects between SDH and subtitling for hearing audiences. The information

5 ‘Subtitles for the deaf and the hard of hearing could be defined as a modality of transfer between modes (from oral to written) and, occasionally, between languages; it consists in the onscreen presentation of written text which offers a semantic renarration of the broadcast program, yet not only of what is said, how it is said (emphasis, vocal tone, accents and foreign languages, vocal noises) and by whom it is said, but also of what is heard (music and ambient sounds) and of discursive elements that appear on the screen (letters, legends, signs, etc.)’ (translation by the author).

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on how something is said (if the character is shouting, whispering or stuttering) is normally included in brackets and/or upper case, although some guidelines also suggest the use of emoticons for this purpose (cf. Pereira/Lorenzo 2005, 24). As far as sound effects are concerned, Pereira/Lorenzo (ibid.) distinguish between those made by characters on screen with their voices (e.g., coughing, whistling, burping, etc.) and those from external sources (e.g., telephone, bell ringing, sound of water, etc.). These can be included in subtitles by inserting a description of the sound or an onomatopoeia, not necessarily at the bottom of the screen (cf. Díaz-Cintas 2010b, 168). Music can play an essential role in audiovisual productions and, as Díaz-Cintas (ibid., 170) suggests, its rendering in SDH is one of the main challenges for the subtitler. The current trend is to subtitle the lyrics of those songs which are somehow related to the action on screen or which help to describe and define characters, and to include a description of the type of music or song for those tracks which do not contribute to creating meaning in the audiovisual product. Various methods are used to make sure the audience can locate and identify a speaker in SDH: some subtitles do this by using different colors, whereas others include the name of the character speaking before the utterance. Another option is to change the position of subtitles placing them underneath the character who is uttering them (cf. de Linde/Kay 1999, 15). For the audience to identify who is talking at a given time, subtitles should also be synchronized with the image and with the original dialogue (cf. Díaz-Cintas 2010b, 161). Pereira/Lorenzo (2005, 22) claim that SDH spatial constraints are slightly less severe than in interlingual subtitling, with some conventions allowing subtitles of up to three lines in exceptional cases. As was the case with interlingual subtitling, conventions and norms such as the one discussed by Pereira/Lorenzo (2005) in the case of Spain (UNE 153010) are useful for the standardization of relatively recent practices but, as these and other authors argue (cf. Neves 2008), more descriptive studies are needed to find out how widespread its use is, and how prescriptivism fits with taking into consideration the needs of different viewers. In this regard, Neves (2008, 131) points out that one of the main challenges of SDH is that it “aims to cater for a wide range of viewers that are inadequately grouped together, since they have distinct profiles and needs”. Although more research is still needed in this area, as well as on other aspects of SDH, publications such as Díaz-Cintas/Orero/Remael (2007), Jiménez Hurtado (2007) or Orero (2007), among many others, are certainly bridging the gap and contributing greatly to knowledge development not only in SDH but in accessibility for the media in general.  

 

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5.2 Audio description for the blind and partially sighted Benecke (2004, 78) defines audio description as “the technique used for making theatre, movies and TV programs accessible to blind and visually impaired people”, consisting in adding a narration describing the action, body language, facial expressions, scenery and costumes in between the dialogue, making sure this does not interfere with important sound and music effects. In addition to live and filmed audiovisual material, AD services are also provided in some museums and art galleries. Although there is still a long way to go, the growing importance of AD is reflected by improvements in various national legal codes for the provision of AD services and by the publication of guidelines with the aim of standardizing this practice in some countries. However, Braun (2008, 17) argues that, so far, guidelines provide little insight into what makes an effective audio description. Disparity of opinions is also common, and there is often no full agreement as regards how, when and what should be described. Spanish guidelines contend that descriptions should be as objective as possible to enable audiences to interpret what is happening on screen by themselves (cf. Díaz-Cintas 2010b, 174). When doing so, audio describers should use a fluent and simple style, trying to maintain audience engagement (ibid.). With regard to the process in AD, Benecke (2004, 79) states that descriptions in Germany are written by three people, one of whom would be a blind person who will indicate when the description is needed, as well as how much and what kind of information should be included. This is done to make sure the needs of the audience are considered. Yet, as was the case with SDH, the audience of audio described products is bound to be heterogeneous, including partially-sighted and congenitallyblind people, as well as those who were once sighted (cf. Braun 2008, 17), which makes this practice even more challenging. Complementing research focused on existing guidelines, descriptive studies have been carried out lately to gain a better understanding of AD practices all over the world. In the case of Spain, in addition to the works already mentioned, it is worth noting the research carried out by Transmedia Catalonia6 and by members of the TRACCE7 project. As far as recent research is concerned, new modes have also awakened the interest of scholars. This is the case with audiosubtitling, a complex practice which aims to make foreign subtitled films accessible to visually impaired communities by revoicing the subtitles that appear on screen (cf. Braun/Orero 2010). However, this mode is not common in Spain, where visually-impaired viewers can only enjoy products created originally in Spanish or foreign productions dubbed into Spanish (cf. Díaz-Cintas 2010b, 175).

6 Cf. (15.11.2016). 7 Cf. (15.11.2016).

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6 Conclusions and prospects for future research As this chapter has shown, AVT research has experienced an exponential growth since the first scholarly publications in the 1980s. Technological developments have played a key role, allowing the emergence of new AVT modes, enabling their coexistence in a single format, as well as the mass distribution of audiovisual content. Among other aspects, this chapter has discussed how the specificities of audiovisual texts, as well as the heterogeneity of audiences, determine the challenging nature of audiovisual translation. Although there is undoubtedly some common ground, these challenges are realized differently depending on the AVT mode under study and the conventions of the culture where these are implemented. The research carried out to date has enabled us to obtain a detailed picture of each of these modes and cultural realities, to establish parallels, point out divergences and learn from examples of good practice. Now it is perhaps time to look back to ascertain how things have changed, for the better or for the worse, by carrying out systematic diachronic studies. Such studies could let us establish if, for instance, average subtitle reading speeds have increased over time. More reception studies are also needed in order to gauge audiences’ views and to assess cognitive aspects in different AVT modes. It would also be beneficial to gain greater insight into the translation process and professional aspects, especially in lesser-explored areas (e.g., fandubbing), and to make sure that findings inform curriculum design and development. An exciting area of research is that of AVT and foreign language learning, with European projects such as ClipFlair8 focusing on the potential of both subtitling and revoicing modes to learn a foreign language, and offering an online platform to actually put this into practice. Audiovisual translation is about making audiovisual content accessible to all. In this sense, media accessibility has become a key concept in this discipline, devoted to studying how linguistic and sensory barriers can be overcome to make audiovisual products accessible. Despite significant developments in this field, there is still work to be done, especially with regard to legislation and the amount of audiovisual material which is really offered to sensory impaired viewers, not only through television but in a variety of media. As the works quoted in this chapter show, Spain has hosted many scholars and research groups specializing in AVT and, as a result, we now have a better understanding of how the languages spoken in Spain are used in translated audiovisual products (especially Spanish and Catalan), as well as of which factors, conventions and norms govern their production. Yet we need more information on the AVT  

8 The ClipFlair Project (Foreign Language Learning through Interactive Revoicing and Captioning of Clips) has been funded with support from the European Commission. More information can be found at (15.11.2016).

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practices and conventions implemented in other Spanish-speaking countries such as Mexico or Argentina, where there is a strong AVT tradition and production, but only limited research has been carried out.

7 References Agost, Rosa (1999), Traducción y doblaje: palabras, voces e imágenes, Barcelona, Ariel. Ávila, Alejandro (1997), El doblaje, Madrid, Cátedra. Ballester, Ana (2001), Traducción y nacionalismo. La recepción del cine americano en España a través del doblaje (1928–1948), Granada, Comares. Baños, Rocío (2012), La oralidad prefabricada en la traducción para el doblaje y en producciones propias: el caso de “Friends” y “Siete Vidas”, in: Juan José Martínez Sierra (ed.), Fotografía de la investigación doctoral en traducción audiovisual, Madrid, Bohodón, 99–117. Baños, Rocío (2014), Orality markers in Spanish native and dubbed sitcoms: pretended spontaneity and prefabricated orality, Meta 59:2, 406–435. Benecke, Bernd (2004), Audio-description, Meta 49:1, 78–80. Braun, Sabine (2008), Audiodescription research: state of the art and beyond, Translation Studies in the New Millennium 6, 14–30. Braun, Sabine/Orero, Pilar (2010), Audio description with audio subtitling – an emergent modality of audiovisual localisation, Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 18:3, 173–188. Chaume, Frederic (2004), Cine y traducción, Madrid, Cátedra. Chaume, Frederic (2007), Dubbing practices in Europe: localisation beats globalisation, Linguistica Antverpiensia 6, 201–217. Chaume, Frederic (2012), Audiovisual Translation: Dubbing, Manchester, St. Jerome. Chaume, Frederic (2013), The turn of audiovisual translation. New audiences and new technologies, Translation Spaces 2, 105–123. Chaves, María José (2000), La traducción cinematográfica. El doblaje, Huelva, Publicaciones de la Universidad de Huelva. Díaz-Cintas, Jorge (2001), La traducción audiovisual: El subtitulado, Salamanca, Almar. Díaz-Cintas, Jorge (2003), Teoría y práctica de la subtitulación. Inglés–español, Barcelona, Ariel Cine. Díaz-Cintas, Jorge (2008a), Introduction: the didactics of audiovisual translation, in: Jorge DíazCintas (ed.), The Didactics of Audiovisual Translation, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, Benjamins, 1–18. Díaz-Cintas, Jorge (2008b), Teaching and learning to subtitle in an academic environment, in: Jorge Díaz-Cintas (ed.), The Didactics of Audiovisual Translation, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, Benjamins, 89–103. Díaz-Cintas, Jorge (2010a), Subtitling, in: Yves Gambier/Luc van Doorslaer (edd.), Handbook of Translation Studies, vol. 1, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, Benjamins, 344–349. Díaz-Cintas, Jorge (2010b), La accesibilidad a los medios de comunicación audiovisual a través del subtitulado y de la audiodescripción, in: Luis González/Pollux Hernúñez (edd.), El español, lengua de traducción para la cooperación y el diálogo, Madrid, Instituto Cervantes, 157–180. Díaz-Cintas, Jorge (2012), Clearing the smoke to see the screen: ideological manipulation in Audiovisual Translation, Meta 57:2, 279–293. Díaz-Cintas, Jorge/Muñoz Sánchez, Pablo (2006), Fansubs: Audiovisual Translation in an amateur environment, The Journal of Specialised Translation 6, 37–52. Díaz-Cintas, Jorge/Orero, Pilar (2010), Voiceover and dubbing, in: Yves Gambier/Luc van Doorslaer (edd.), Handbook of Translation Studies, vol. 1, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, Benjamins, 441–445.

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Díaz-Cintas, Jorge/Orero, Pilar/Remael, Aline (edd.) (2007), Media for all. Subtitling for the Deaf, Audio Description and Sign Language, Amsterdam, Rodopi. Díaz-Cintas, Jorge/Remael, Aline (2007), Audiovisual Translation: Subtitling, Manchester, St. Jerome. Ferrer, María (2005), Fansubs y scanlations: la influencia del aficionado en los criterios profesionales, Puentes 6, 27–44. Franco, Eliana (2001), Inevitable exoticism: the translation of culture-specific items in documentaries, in: Frederic Chaume/Rosa Agost (edd.), La traducción en los medios audiovisuales, Castellón de la Plana, Universitat Jaume I, 177–181. Franco, Eliana/Matamala, Anna/Orero, Pilar (2010), Voice-over Translation: An Overview, Bern et al., Lang. Gambier, Yves/Gottlieb, Henrik (2001), (Multi)Media Translation: Concepts, Practices and Research, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, Benjamins. Goris, Olivier (1993), The question of French dubbing: Towards a frame for systematic investigation, Target 5:2, 169–190. Gottlieb, Henrik (1994), Subtitling: diagonal translation, Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 21, 101–121. Herbst, Thomas (1997), Dubbing and the dubbed text. Style and cohesion: textual characteristics of a special form of translation, in: Anna Trosborg (ed.), Text Typology and Translation, Amsterdam/ Philadelphia, Benjamins, 291–308. Hernández Bartolomé, Ana Isabel/Mendiluce, Gustavo (2005), New trends in Audiovisual Translation: the latest challenging modes, Miscelánea 31, 89–103. Ivarsson, Jan (2004), A Short Technical History of Subtitles in Europe, (15.11.2016). Ivarsson, Jan/Carroll, Mary (1998), Subtitling, Simrishamn, TransEdit. Izard, Natàlia (1992), La traducció cinematogràfica, Barcelona, Publicacions de la Generalitat de Catalunya. Izard, Natàlia (2001), Doblaje y subtitulación: una aproximación histórica, in: Miguel Duro (ed.), La traducción para el doblaje y la subtitulación, Madrid, Cátedra, 189–208. Jiménez Hurtado, Catalina (ed.) (2007), Traducción y accesibilidad. Subtitulación para sordos y audiodescripción para ciegos: nuevas modalidades de Traducción Audiovisual, Frankfurt am Main et al., Lang. Karamitroglou, Fotios (1998), A proposed set of subtitling standards in Europe, Translation Journal 2, (15.11.2016). de Linde, Zoe/Kay, Neil (1999), The Semiotics of Subtitling, Manchester, St. Jerome. Luyken, Georg-Michael, et al. (1991), Overcoming Linguistic Barriers in Television. Dubbing and Subtitling for the European Audience, Manchester, EIM. Martí Ferriol, José Luis (2012), Nueva aproximación al cálculo de velocidades de lectura de subtítulos, Trans: Revista de Traductología 16, 39–48. Martínez Sierra, Juan José (2006), La manipulación del texto: sobre la dualidad extranjerización / familiarización en la traducción del humor en textos audiovisuales, Sendebar 17, 219– 231. Matamala, Anna (2009), Translating documentaries: from Neanderthals to the Supernanny, Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 17:2, 93–107. Matamala, Anna (2010), Translations for dubbing as dynamic texts. Strategies in film synchronization, Babel 56:2, 101–118. Mayoral, Roberto (1993), La traducción cinematográfica: el subtitulado, Sendebar 4, 45–68. Mayoral, Roberto (2001), Campos de estudio y trabajo en traducción audiovisual, in: Miguel Duro (ed.), La traducción para el doblaje y la subtitulación, Madrid, Cátedra, 19–45.

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Mayoral, Roberto/Kelly, Dorothy/Gallardo, Natividad (1988), Concept of Constrained Translation. Non-Linguistic Perspectives of Translation, Meta 33:3, 356–367. Montero Domínguez, Xoán (ed.) (2010), Tradución para a dobraxe en Galicia, País Vasco e Cataluña, Vigo, Servizo de Publicacións da Universidade de Vigo. Neves, Josélia (2008), 10 fallacies about Subtitling for the d/Deaf and the hard of hearing, The Journal of Specialised Translation 10, 128–143. Orero, Pilar (2004), The pretended easiness of voice-over translation of TV interviews, The Journal of Specialised Translation 2, 76–96. Orero, Pilar (2006), Synchronization in voice-over, in: José María Bravo (ed.), Aspects of Translation, Valladolid, Universidad de Valladolid, 255–264. Orero, Pilar (2007), La accesibilidad en los medios: una aproximación multidisciplinar, Trans: Revista de Traductología 11, 11–14. Pavesi, María (2008), Spoken language in film dubbing: target language norms, interference and translational routines, in: Delia Chiaro/Christine Heiss/Chiara Bucaria (edd.), Between text and image. Updating research in screen translation, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, Benjamins, 79–99. Pereira, Ana María (2005), El subtitulado para sordos: estado de la cuestión en España, Quaderns Revista de traducció 12, 161–172. Pereira, Ana María/Lorenzo, Lourdes (2005), Evaluamos la norma UNE 153010: Subtitulado para personas sordas y personas con discapacidad auditiva. Subtitulado a través de teletexto, Puentes 6, 21–26. Remael, Aline (2010), Audiovisual translation, in: Yves Gambier/Luc van Doorslaer (edd.), Handbook of Translation Studies, vol. 1, Amsterdam/Philadelphia, Benjamins, 12–17. Romero-Fresco, Pablo (2009), Naturalness in the Spanish dubbing language: a case of not-so-close Friends, Meta 54:1, 49–72. Talaván, Noa (2013), La subtitulación en el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras, Barcelona, Octaedro. Titford, Christopher (1982), Subtitling-constrained translation, Lebende Sprachen 27:3, 113–116. Whitman-Linsen, Candace (1992), Through the Dubbing Glass. The Synchronization of American Motion Pictures into German, French and Spanish, Frankfurt am Main et al., Lang.

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21 Crowdsourcing Translation Abstract: The article is concerned with the phenomenon of crowdsourcing as applied to translation processes. It first deals with conceptual and terminological questions and introduces different typologies used to describe the various applications of crowdsourcing translation. It then outlines five examples of successful crowdsourcing translation projects involving Romance languages. Furthermore, the paper examines advantages and challenges related to crowdsourcing practices as compared to traditional translation processes performed by professionals and deals with the question of what motivates the crowd to participate in the translation activity without remuneration. Another important issue is how quality can be ensured in crowdsourcing environments and how translation quality is to be assessed. The article also examines the role of professional translators and their relation to crowdsourcing translation as well as the role of crowdsourcing translation in translation studies.  

Keywords: collaborative translation, community translation, crowdsourcing, fansubbing, translation, translation studies  

1 Crowdsourcing The World Wide Web has evolved into an enormous platform for global human interaction. People come together on the web to combine resources, knowledge, creativity, or skills to contribute to a specific task or project. This phenomenon is commonly referred to as crowdsourcing (Geiger et al. 2011). The term was coined by Jeff Howe (2006 and 2008) in analogy to the pre-existing practice of outsourcing, highlighting the power of a crowd organically formed to perform a given task. The same term is used in the Romance languages. Crowdsourcing is not a single strategy, it is “an umbrella term for a highly varied group of approaches that share one obvious attribute in common: they all depend on some contribution from the crowd” (Howe 2008, 280). Crowdsourcing relies on volunteers, mostly amateurs, who are willing to devote their time and energy contributing to a given task with little remuneration or no remuneration at all. Wikipedia is one of the pioneering examples, proving that mass collaboration can be successful when people voluntarily participate in a purposeful activity. Crowdsourcing is also used by companies to obtain services, ideas, or content from a large group of volunteers, especially from an online community, rather than from traditional employees. But it is not only a business solution aimed at achieving business goals, it is also used in non-profit contexts, e.g., for humanitarian work or as a form of contribution to a fan community.  

DOI 10.1515/9783110314755-022

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2 Crowdsourcing and translation Crowdsourcing is also applied to translation processes. Although the term crowdsourcing was introduced as recently as 2006 (cf. Howe 2006), the idea of crowdsourced translation is not new. A striking example is the creation and localization of Free and Open-Source Software (FOSS), constructed over the last two decades by non-professional volunteers in a large number of the world’s languages (cf. Seiler ↗22 Software Localization into Romance Languages). Even before FOSS, fans of particular media products were engaged in the practice known as fansubbing in order to share content with fellow fans (cf. Ferrer Simó 2005; Díaz-Cintas/Muñoz Sánchez 2006; O’Hagan 2009). More recently, crowdsourcing has been used to translate social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. It is also used by humanitarian and non-profit organizations such as Kiva and the Rosetta Foundation in the field of citizen journalism (e.g., Global Voices) to spread and share information about groups neglected by mainstream media, or during crisis situations. For example, after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, crowdsourced volunteers helped to localize thousands of victims by translating their text messages written in Haitian Kreyol. Phenomena like these have been referred to as crowdsourcing translation (cf. Munro 2010; Anastasiou/Gupta 2011; Zaidan/Callison-Burch 2011; EU 2012; Sutherlin 2013), translation crowdsourcing (cf. Mesipuu 2010; 2012), community translation (cf. O’Hagan 2011; Kelly/Ray/DePalma 2011), user-generated translation (cf. O’Hagan 2009; Perrino 2009), collaborative translation (cf. Désilets 2011; Désilets/van der Meer 2011), and community-driven translation (cf. Ellis 2009) or CT3 (community, crowdsourced and collaborative translation, cf. DePalma/Kelly 2008; Kelly 2009). These terms are sometimes used synonymously, sometimes with slight differences in meaning, depending on the author. According to O’Hagan (2011, 11s.), the ambiguity of certain terms is an indication of the terminological instability typical of an emerging paradigm. The concept of community translation, for example, is not entirely transparent because of its closeness to the existing concept of community interpretation which has become well established in Translation Studies (cf. Pym 2011; O’Hagan 2011). Désilets/van der Meer (2011) use collaborative translation as an umbrella term for different uses of collaborative technologies, including agile translation teamware, collaborative terminology resources, translation memory sharing, online marketplaces for translators, translation crowdsourcing and the process of post-editing the crowd. The main characteristics shared by all of these terms are that the translation is done voluntarily by Internet users and is usually produced in some form of collaboration, often by a group of people forming an online community. The example of Facebook illustrates how the idea of crowdsourcing can be closely connected to the very idea of social networking. Facebook has developed an efficient strategy to have its site translated by its members. For Facebook users, their active participation in the translation process is an opportunity to share something with others, to improve the tool they love, to feel like  

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active developers instead of passive consumers, and to help other people to access the network in their native language (cf. EU 2012, 26). In such cases, the translation process can be seen as a social activity, an extension of the user’s activities on the networking site, rather than a work engagement. Translation itself becomes a form of entertainment (cf. O’Hagan 2012, 126). While there are many case studies which exemplify successful uses of crowdsourcing in translation, there are also negative examples such as the case with LinkedIn. In 2009, following the example of Facebook, LinkedIn sent a survey to the language professionals among its members asking whether they were willing to participate in the translation of the website and which incentives they would prefer, proposing five non-monetary choices. This provoked strong negative reactions from professional translators who felt exploited and refused to work for free for a profitmaking enterprise, and led to the formation of a new LinkedIn Group “Translators Against Crowdsourcing by Commercial Businesses” (cf. Kelly 2009; EU 2012, 24/45). Personal motivation is one of the key factors in crowdsourcing translation (cf. section 6). It seems that the applicability of crowdsourcing translation is limited to specific contexts, especially to situations where there is a community of people with a strong emotional bond to the content being translated (cf. Désilets/van der Meer 2011, 28).  

3 Types of crowdsourcing translation The areas where crowdsourcing translation is used are constantly increasing. Recent studies have proposed different typologies to describe possible applications of crowdsourcing translation. In a study of 104 community translation platforms, Ray/Kelly (2011) distinguish three types of crowdsourced translation, namely a cause-driven, a product-driven and an outsourcing-driven type. Cause-driven translations usually focus on a non-profit, often humanitarian project. People choose and translate content that interests them, e.g., in the case of fansubbing, where fans translate the subtitles of their favorite films or television program(s). Product-driven translations are usually projects in which for-profit companies recruit and manage a crowd, as in the cases of Adobe or Skype. The volunteers are often remunerated through free products, services, or promotional merchandise from the company. Outsourcing portals such as Crowdflower or Microtask offer crowdsourced translation for a charge, either as their main revenue driver or as one of their services (cf. also Kelly/Ray/DePalma 2011). From a global standpoint, managed crowdsourcing projects can be distinguished from self-organized crowdsourcing projects (cf. Jiménez-Crespo 2011, 135s.; EU 2012, 29). In the first case, the project is launched by a company or non-profit organization appealing to a crowd for their translation needs. All of the work is carried out by the crowd, but the project is managed by the respective company or organization. In the second case, a group of users organizes the translation itself without any external control, like in the communities of fansubbers or in localization projects of Free and  

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Open Source Software. The crowd is entirely in charge and usually has some kind of ideological motivation. Mesipuu (2010; 2012) refers to two different approaches to implementing crowdsourcing translation, namely an open community approach and a closed community approach. The former, employed for example by Facebook, means that anyone can participate in the crowdsourcing project, provided that he is a registered user. In the latter, used for example by Skype, the crowd is limited to a number of pre-selected users who can participate in the translation project. The community is more exclusive and is bound to certain obligations like confidentiality agreements and translation deadlines. Besides applications of crowdsourcing purely dedicated to translation, there are also forms where translation is not the main focus, but where it is, nonetheless, an important tool (cf. EU 2012, 46). Examples are the online dictionary WordReference, one of the most consulted websites of the world, offering a discussion forum for translations, or Duolingo, a free language-learning website integrating a crowdsourcing translation project (cf. section 4).  

4 Examples of crowdsourcing translation projects Crowdsourcing translation has been successfully used in several different contexts. Some examples of crowdsourcing projects involving Romance languages will be briefly presented in the following sections.

4.1 Facebook One of the most prominent examples of crowdsourcing in translation is the translation of Facebook’s interface in a very large number of languages. The aim is to extend the reach of Facebook to all Internet users, including speakers of commonly ignored languages. Facebook launched its translation application in 2008, allowing registered Facebook users to translate fragments of text used on the Facebook website. In the case of Spanish, for instance, the whole site’s interface was translated by Spanishspeaking users within one week. A draft of the French version was completed in 24 hours (cf. Ellis 2009). The site has also been translated in multiple varieties of Latin American Spanish using crowdsourcing (cf. Kelly/Ray/DePalma 2011, 88). The translation process basically consists of four steps (cf. Kelly/Ray/DePalma 2011, 86). In the first instance, Facebook users translate strings and sentences in the interface. In the second step, members of the community vote on the translation alternatives proposed by different users, marking them as appropriate or not appropriate. As a result of the voting, the most popular translations are selected. In the third step, the translators review and solve trickier translations on discussion boards. In a

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final step, all translations are reviewed by paid professional translators. Hence, contrary to other crowdsourcing projects, there is clear intervention by professionals. All in all, the translation process appears to be very well organized. Within the application, the users can also access a glossary with the most important terms, a style guide, and the leader board that shows the best and most active translators. Apart from the final control by professional translators, different control mechanisms have been built directly into the Translations app. There is, for example, an automatic check of capitalization and punctuation and an automatic indication of glossary entries with definitions and approved translations for technical terms (cf. Kelly/Ray/ DePalma 2011, 86). Initial errors, such as the occurrence of “aser” instead of “hacer” in the Spanish version, were quickly corrected (cf. García 2010), and the overall quality of the translations appears to be convincing. In August 2009, Facebook applied for a patent for its community translation platform at the US Patent & Trademark Office (cf. O’Hagan 2011, 12). In 2011, Facebook launched a new application combining machine translation and crowdsourcing. This application allows for the translation of posts and comments on public pages into the languages marked as native in the user’s profile. The text is machine-translated and can then be revised and improved by the user. If a translation suggested by a user gets enough positive votes from other users, it replaces the machine translation (cf. EU 2012, 25).

4.2 Mission 4636 Crowdsourcing has also been used in crisis situations, such as natural disasters or violent political upheaval. The most famous initiative of that kind was Mission 4636, a humanitarian crowdsourcing project established for disaster response following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti (cf. Munro 2010; 2012). Because the existing emergency response service was inoperable in the wake of the earthquake, but most cell-towers were intact, a text message-based emergency reporting system was created, allowing anyone within Haiti to send a text message for free to the phone number 4636. The majority of the messages were in Haitian Kreyòl which was not understood by most of the international relief workers arriving in the country. Hence, in an effort called Mission 4636, the messages were translated, categorized and mapped by Kreyòl and French-speaking volunteers worldwide via online crowdsourcing platforms. The data were then streamed back to the relief efforts in Haiti, with a median turnaround time of less than 5 minutes. About 80,000 text messages were translated in that way, helping to save hundreds of lives and to deliver first aid to thousands of Haitians. The core information sharing interface was a simple online chat room, allowing the discussion of difficult translations and the exchange of information between the translators. A great majority of the volunteer translators were from the Haitian diaspora who collaborated online from at least 49 countries. Their knowledge of

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Haitian Kreyòl as well as their geographic knowledge were essential to the success of the project (cf. Munro 2010; 2012). Crowdsourcing translation was also used in other crisis situations such as the Arab Spring in Egypt and Libya in 2011 or in Somalia in 2011/12 (cf. Sutherlin 2013).

4.3 Fansubs A typical case of self-organized crowdsourcing translation is the phenomenon of fansubbing, i.e., collaborative subtitling by fans for fans. Fansubs started as fanproduced, subtitled versions of anime, Japanese animation films, in the 1980s and mainly developed in the mid 1990s with the advent of cheap computer software and the availability of free subbing equipment on the Internet (cf. Díaz-Cintas/Muñoz Sánchez 2006). The philosophy behind this kind of subtitling is the free distribution of audiovisual programs with subtitles done by a fan community. It emerged as an attempt to make Japanese animes available to their European and American fans who were faced with two problems, the linguistic barrier and the scant distribution of these series in their countries. Despite the questionable legality of such activities, fans decided to subtitle the animes themselves and to distribute them on videotapes, then later on DVD and on the Internet (cf. Díaz-Cintas 2005, 16). Fansubs are a specific form of subtitles that differ from commercial subtitles, among other things, in that they tend to stay close to the original text and preserve some cultural idiosyncrasies. Certain cultural referents such as names of places or traditions are explained by showing the translator’s notes at the top of the screen. They appear and disappear together with the subtitles which make the reading challenging. The linguistic quality of the subtitles is not always ideal and translation errors are quite common (cf. Díaz-Cintas/Muñoz Sánchez 2006). English fansubs are often produced by Japanese native speakers. Fansubs in other languages, especially in Romance languages, are often translated from the English version and not from the Japanese original. Spanish fansubs have been described in more detail by Ferrer Simó (2005) and Díaz-Cintas/Muñoz Sánchez (2006). Nowadays, the practice of fansubbing is not limited to Japanese anime, but has also spread to films and television programs in various languages. It is especially used to make American TV series more available to non-English speaking countries. For example, popular TV series such as “Lost”, “Dexter”, “Heroes” or “How I Met Your Mother” can be found subtitled into Spanish, since there is a huge community of fansubbers in Latin America (cf. Fernández Costales 2011). In countries like Italy and Spain, where dubbing is the standard practice and subtitled versions are not commercially available, fansubbing is often the only option for fans to get an original version with the original voices. Even if a commercially translated version exists, fans often prefer the fansubs because they are usually more faithful to the original text and because they are available much more rapidly than commercial versions. Files with

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the subtitles of new episodes are often uploaded the day after being broadcasted in the United States (cf. EU 2012, 30). In some cases, the fan translations are so successful that they can influence decisions in professional translations. A striking example is the Italian version of the US television series “The Big Bang Theory”. The fan translators, who are usually real experts about everything concerning the series, criticized the official dubbing for simplifying and streamlining the dialogue and the cultural and textual references. Besides producing a fansubbed version, the fans reacted so strongly through their blogs, forums and fansites that the Italian copyright holder finally decided to choose a new dubbing team more faithful to the original text (cf. EU 2012, 31). Despite the success of fansubs, the legal and ethical issues of subtitling media products without holding the copyright remain, as well as legal issues regarding the interpretation of copyright laws.

4.4 Duolingo Duolingo is a free language-learning website that doubles as a crowdsourced text translation platform. Users can learn a language and simultaneously help to translate websites and other documents. On the surface, Duolingo looks like a typical language-learning system. The tasks users receive include translating sentences and rating the accuracy of translations made by others. The sentences are pulled from web pages written in the language the user is learning. The system allots the sentences according to the level of the learner, i.e., more complex sentences to more advanced learners. To assure the quality of the translations, each sentence is translated and revised by multiple learners before the translation is declared correct (cf. Giles 2012; EU 2012, 33). When launching Duolingo in November 2011, its creator Luis van Ahn claimed that he could translate the whole content of Wikipedia from English into Spanish in just 80 hours, without having to pay for it (cf. EU 2012, 33). The first languages available on Duolingo were Spanish and English. Now there are also other languages, including French, Italian and Portuguese. The idea is to provide commercial translations by combining language learning and translation. The concept has proven to be successful, although several concerns have been expressed. Apart from the question of whether or not it is acceptable to make a profit out of free labor, another issue is whether translating a text can be reduced to translating sentences. Additionally, it is questionable if translation by learners is reliable when more complex sentences, idiomatic expressions or nuanced meanings are at stake (cf. Giles 2012; EU 2012, 33s.).

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4.5 WordReference A very specific kind of crowdsourcing translation is the discussion of translations in language forums like the WordReference forums. WordReference provides free online dictionaries for several languages pairing with English, including English–Spanish, English–French, English–Italian, English–Portuguese and English–Romanian. The site was created by Michael Kellogg in 1999 and has been growing in size, popularity and quality ever since. It is consistently ranked in the top 500 most-visited websites in the world and is a top 100 website in Spain, France, Italy and all of Latin America (cf. WordReference 2013). In addition to the dictionaries, the site provides language forums for numerous languages including the major Romance languages as well as Catalan and Latin. The forums are publicly accessible and are considered a useful tool for translators, interpreters, and language students. Following the idea of crowdsourcing, users suggest and discuss translations of sentences, words or phrases in context. By asking the crowd, users can get proposals that traditional dictionaries or Internet resources do not provide (cf. EU 2012, 32s.). WordReference is the most popular, but not the only website offering language forums of that kind. A similar tool is provided by LEO (Link Everything Online) for language pairs with German, including German–French, German–Spanish, German–Italian, and, more recently, German–Portuguese. Social networking sites for translation like ProZ or Translators Café also provide tools in which users can ask questions and help each other with translations or explanations of terms and phrases (cf. Perrino 2009, 65s.).

5 Advantages and challenges Crowdsourcing translation provides a number of advantages compared to traditional translation processes performed by professionals. One is the fast turnaround time. Crowdsourced translations are often completed in days or weeks, as opposed to the months required by professionals. The number of people involved in the translation process and the fact that they are generally highly motivated help to considerably accelerate the process. A striking example is the crowdsourced translation of Facebook. The Spanish and the German versions were translated in one week; a draft of the French version was completed in 24 hours (cf. Ellis 2009). Similar speed advantages can be found in fan translation. For example, in 2007, when the final volume of Harry Potter was published in English, the Chinese version was available only two days after the release of the original, translated by 60 volunteers under the direction of a young student (cf. Perrino 2009, 73). However, as crowdsourcing projects often do not have fixed deadlines, there is always the risk that the crowd does not respond, if the project does not succeed in attracting the crowd’s attention. Yet, crowdsourcing can help to make information available to people who would be excluded from it without the intervention of a crowd. Crowdsourcing translation

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produces web content in languages other than English and contributes to making the web more multilingual (cf. EU 2012, 36). It can especially support minority languages by helping them become more present on the Internet. Moreover, as professional translation implies high costs and machine translation usually supports only some languages and language combinations, crowdsourcing translation is sometimes the only way of getting web content translated in less spoken and minority languages (cf. Capdevila Fernández 2012). Apart from the availability of information, the crowd’s active participation can also lead to a different perception of translation. Traditional translation activities are often invisible and unattractive to non-professionals. Crowdsourcing projects can help to raise awareness about the importance of translation and multilingualism (cf. EU 2012, 36). From the perspective of companies using crowdsourcing translation, possible benefits range from cost reduction and faster turnaround-time to increased market reach through additional languages, community involvement and increased brand loyalty (cf. Désilets 2011; Désilets/van der Meer 2011, 31; Mesipuu 2010, 14s.). It has been pointed out by companies that cost reduction is not the main reason why they are implementing crowdsourcing (cf. Mesipuu 2010, 13). In many cases, using volunteer translators still seems to be a promising business solution. On the other hand, from an ethical point of view, crowdsourcing solutions used for commercial purposes have been criticized for making profit from free labor (cf. Baer 2010; O’Hagan 2011, 15). For-profit companies such as Facebook or Twitter appeal to the user’s sense of community to get them engaged in their translation projects. This has been described as problematic by some scholars (cf. Van Dijck/ Nieborg 2009; McDonough Dolmaya 2011a) because the companies actually benefit from the translated user interface. The participants might not realize that they are exploited because they are unable to see through the underlying marketing mechanisms. Dodd (2011) even draws parallels between crowdsourcing and Marxism, describing crowdsourcing as a method of exploitation used by companies to aggregate mass quantities of unpaid labor while retaining profits and property rights for themselves. Professional translators usually contest crowdsourcing practices, since they see them as a threat to their work (cf. section 8). Crowdsourcing translation is contrary to codes of practice from professional translator associations, among other things, in that it does not respect rates for the translator’s work and presents translation as a task that can be easily accomplished by anybody who speaks more than one language (cf. McDonough Dolmaya 2011a; 2011b). Apart from concerns about the professional status of translators and their recognition as skilled and trained professionals, translation quality is one of the controversial issues often discussed in this context (cf. section 7). One of the problematic points is that texts are usually split up into smaller chunks which are translated by different members of the community. This means that translation is de-contextualized (cf. Désilets/van der Meer 2011, 34), which can affect coherence and consistency. In the case of Facebook, for example, the global coher 

 

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ence and consistency of the crowdsourced translations is controlled by professional translators. Facebook has indicated that crowdsourcing has been successful with small strings of text, but not with entire paragraphs or pages such as “Help” pages (cf. Jiménez-Crespo 2011, 138s.). Other challenges regarding crowdsourcing translation are the questions of intellectual property, authorship, anonymity, and privacy (cf. Anastasiou/Gupta 2011, 642). For example, fansubbing activities are technically illegal in that the fan communities do not hold the copyrights for the films and series they subtitle and distribute. Nevertheless, most copyright holders accept them as long as no commercial version is available since they often have a positive impact on promoting the respective series. However, several copyright holders have already threatened fansubbers with legal action (cf. Díaz-Cintas/Muñoz Sánchez 2006, 44s.).

6 Crowd and motivation One of the key factors in crowdsourcing translation is the participant’s motivation to contribute to the project. One of the most important motivators seems to be the desire to contribute to a meaningful activity. Howe (2008, 29) notes that, with the emergence of the Internet, people have begun to feel overeducated and underfulfilled, causing them to seek more meaningful work outside their workplace. Crowdsourcing projects can provide activities that are perceived as meaningful by the volunteers. In the case of self-organized projects, the translation activity is often driven by the ideological conviction of the participants. In other cases, the meaningful activity can be the act of helping other people by supporting humanitarian goals with their translations, like in the case of the Haiti earthquake, or by translating for organizations like Kiva or Translators without Borders. It can also be a meaningful activity to contribute to the localization of social media websites, helping to make the site available in the user’s native language and creating something that many other people can benefit from. From a less altruistic perspective, the motivating factor can simply be the desire to seize the opportunity to practice translation, as shown by Mesipuu (cf. 2012, 43ss.) in a case study on the motivation of Skype and Facebook translators. Practicing translation is seen as a challenge and a unique learning opportunity. It is a good way to improve one’s linguistic skills and can also be seen as a training environment for novice translators to gain work experience (cf. also O’Hagan 2009, 110; McDonough Dolmaya 2011a, 104). Other motivators within the idea of learning, as shown by Mesipuu (2012, 45) for the case of Skype translators, can be to learn how big companies work, to become aware of all the opportunities and features a program includes, or to be among the first ones to know what is coming up next and to be able to try it out exclusively. Moreover, it has been shown that volunteer translators are often motivated by their enthusiasm for their mother tongue. They are passionate about their own language development as translators as well as about the development of

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their language in general and are proud to contribute to the creation of web content in their language (cf. Mesipuu 2012, 46). In the case of organized translation projects, some companies and organizations provide different kinds of incentives for their volunteer translators. There are usually no monetary rewards, but translators are sometimes rewarded with material incentives such as token gifts (e.g., T-shirts), free products or product discounts. It can be assumed that such incentives are an added value, but not the primary motivator for participating in a crowdsourcing translation project. Some companies also organize events to allow crowdsourcing translation community members to meet in person and thus help to sustain the sense of being part of a group of like-minded individuals (cf. Mesipuu 2012, 48). There are also other kinds of recognition such as optional translator badges (e.g., Twitter), links to the translator’s website or profile page (e.g., Facebook, Kiva), blog entries to thank the translators publicly (e.g., Second Life, OpenOffice), titles or insignia that translators can add to their profile (e.g., Second Life), or a leader board ranking the best and most active contributors (e.g., Facebook, Second Life). Such forms of recognition provide visibility for active crowd members and contribute to their status within the community (cf. McDonough Dolmaya 2011a, 103; Mesipuu 2012, 48).  

 

 

 

 

 

7 Translation quality A challenging question about crowdsourcing is how quality can be ensured in crowdsourcing environments. There is an assumption, especially among professional translators, that crowdsourcing translation leads to lesser quality output. At least in some contexts, however, the overall quality of the translation output has been evaluated as comparable to professional translations (cf. Kageura et al. 2011, 66) or to non-translated texts of the same kind (cf. Jiménez-Crespo 2013 and 2017). Some assume that crowdsourcing may even lead to higher quality through what has been called the “wisdom of crowds” effect (cf. Surowiecki 2004). Managed crowdsourcing projects sometimes use quality assurance mechanisms such as revision by in-house professional translators, e.g., in the case of Facebook, or pre-selection of the participants through language and translation tests as with Kiva. In other cases, the crowd itself carries out quality evaluation through mechanisms like voting or mutual revision (cf. Désilets/van der Meer 2011, 32). The crucial question, however, is how translation quality can be assessed. A basic assumption in Translation Studies is that quality assessment is reliable only if it is based on an explicit theoretical model (e.g., House 2001; Williams 2003). JiménezCrespo (2011) draws parallels between the crowdsourced quality evaluation model implemented by Facebook and theoretical approaches to quality evaluation as discussed in Translation Studies. For example, he refers to the early reader-responseapproach (Nida 1964; Nida/Taber 1969) as the first approach to translation quality  

 

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that included reader responses. This approach has been criticized in several ways, mainly for the impracticality of its implementation. However, according to JiménezCrespo (2011), the Facebook model represents an actual implementation of components of the reader-response-approach. He claims that the potential shortcomings of the approach can be overcome in a crowdsourcing model like the one used by Facebook, where an active community of users with an extensive knowledge of the source texts is willing to devote time to the evaluation of translations proposed by members of the same community. Furthermore, Jiménez-Crespo (2011) argues that the Facebook model can also be associated with functionalist approaches to quality assessment (Nord 1997). Functionalist approaches see translation as a communicative act that must be purposeful with respect to the translator’s readership. Translation quality is thus defined through the translation’s capacity to fulfill this communicative purpose, i.e., its adequacy in the given context. What plays an important role within such an approach are conventions, since they differ within the same genre from one culture to the other. It has, for example, been shown that US websites localized into Spanish show conventions of the source culture such as the use of direct imperative forms of the verb in navigation menus, while Spanish websites rather use infinitives or other non-personal forms (cf. Jiménez-Crespo 2009). In a functionalist framework, the Facebook evaluation model could lead to translations that better match the expectations of the community of users and can therefore be associated with higher levels of quality (cf. Jiménez-Crespo 2011). Quality assessment becomes even more challenging when factors other than linguistic criteria are at stake. It has, for example, been shown that fan translations like fansubs often lack consistency, which might be seen as a rather serious problem from the perspective of professionals. However, fans usually do not expect professional quality. What is more important to them is a deep understanding of the series, including cultural references, so that its flavor and cultural specificities can be translated in the target culture. Another important criterion for fansubs is speed. In many cases, speed is preferred to quality, and the aim of fansubbers is to publish a new subtitled episode even when it contains grammar mistakes or when idiomatic expressions have been wrongly adapted into the target language (cf. Fernández Costales 2011).

8 The role of professional translators Professional translators consider crowdsourcing as a threat to their profession as it might undermine their professional status and contribute to the devaluation of the translation profession (cf. Baer 2010; García 2010). Protests by translators against crowdsourcing initiatives like the one against LinkedIn (cf. section 2) reflect the concerns of professional translators regarding their role as professionals and the exploitation of their work for commercial purposes. The supporters of crowdsourcing  

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have argued that these concerns are groundless and that crowdsourcing will never be a serious threat to highly qualified professional translators (cf. Kelly 2009). Others argue that crowdsourcing might also be a positive model for professionals, seeding collaboration between amateur and paid professional translators. This could expand the material that gets translated and provide opportunities for new translation graduates to gain work experience (cf. Baer 2010). It seems clear, however, that the practice of crowdsourcing, if it continues to grow, will have some kind of impact on the work of translation professionals, just as the use of machine translation has. One of the scenarios is that professional translators will have to become even more specialized and focus on areas where crowdsourcing cannot replace them, especially when specialization, confidentiality and accountability are required (cf. EU 2012, 46). In other cases, they will have to adapt to the new developments and expand their work to new types of jobs. Crowdsourcing (as well as machine translation) can actually create new professional profiles for translators, including pre-editors and post-editors of texts translated by the crowd (or by machines), in-house project managers, community managers, or quality assurance experts. One of the scenarios is that professional translation could be seen as a hub and the translator as a linguistic consultant and quality assurance expert, advising the client as to which task and at which point involving the crowd and/or machine translation may or may not be advantageous (cf. García 2010). Some translation agencies have already integrated these developments into their business models. They now offer different levels of translation quality, including machine translation, crowdsourced translation and professional translation. Other agencies also offer services that assist companies in implementing and managing crowdsourced translation projects (cf. Austermühl 2011, 18). Some scholars have also claimed that collaboration between professionals and the crowd might be possible, allowing professionals to delegate simple routine parts of the translation to the crowd, and focus on more challenging aspects such as terminology, style and fluidity (cf. Désilets/van der Meer 2011, 33). Another positive aspect might be seen in the fact that crowdsourcing translation, in contrast to machine translation, helps to emphasize the human involvement in translation. While machine translation aims at maximizing automation in translation activity and minimizing the intervention of the human agent, crowdsourcing initiatives lead to a reinvestment of translation technology by humans (cf. Anastasiou/Gupta 2011, 648; Cronin 2013, 102). Despite the concerns raised by translation professionals, it has to be mentioned that crowdsourcing projects are not restricted to amateurs, but sometimes also involve professionals. A web-based survey among professional translators found that 12% of the translators already contribute to collaborative processes and 40% of them would consider getting involved in one in the future (cf. Gough 2011). An example of a project primarily recruiting professionals is the Kiva translation project. Besides its success in crowdsourcing microfinance, Kiva has developed a translation project in order to spread the stories for which Kiva seeks support. Kiva imposes considerable constraints on volunteer translators, concerning both their qualifications and time re-

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quirements. Volunteer translators, for example, have to pass a test to prove their high level of proficiency in the source and the target language, be able to demonstrate translation experience or studies, and commit to a minimum of two hours per week for a minimum of six months. Despite these constraints, Kiva was able to recruit about 300 highly qualified translators to work for free on a project they consider to be meaningful (cf. EU 2012, 28).

9 Crowdsourcing translation and Translation Studies The practice of crowdsourcing has been widely ignored by Translation Studies so far. Among the few scholars dealing with theoretical aspects of crowdsourcing translation, the works of Michael Cronin (2010; 2013) have to be mentioned in particular. Cronin examines the effects of digital technology on translation and describes significant shifts in the way translation is carried out in the contemporary world. As a consequence of these shifts, he claims that the conventional understanding of what constitutes translation and the role of the translator need to be systematically reexamined. With regard to crowdsourcing translation, he describes a shift from a production-oriented model of externality to a consumer-oriented model of internality (cf. Cronin 2013, 100). The former is implicit in all models that have discussed the question of source- or target-language orientation in translation during the last decades (Skopos theory, Descriptive Translation Studies, dynamic and formal equivalence, foreignization vs. domestication, etc.). All of these models are based on the notion of an agent who produces a translation for consumption by an audience (production-oriented model). In crowdsourcing translation, however, the consumer becomes an active producer, a prosumer (consumer-oriented model). This challenges traditional distinctions in Translation Studies which generally presuppose active translation agents and passive translation recipients. Moreover, Cronin (2013, 100s.) describes a change in reading practices and literacy norms. Reading is no longer a steady, cumulative, linear process. It has, for example, been shown that most web pages are viewed for ten seconds or less, even if the page contains a lot of information (cf. Weinreich et al. 2008). Readers of webbased material have a different approach to their engagement with text, namely an instrumentalized, non-linear, and greatly accelerated approach. As literacy expectations change, translation practices will evolve as well. Possible consequences for crowdsourcing translation are, at least in certain contexts, the acceptance of lower quality translation output and the emergence of gist translation. A third trend described by Cronin (2013, 101s.) is a shift towards pluri-subjectivity. Contrary to machine-human interaction in translation, crowdsourcing initiatives can be seen as a tool of conviviality and an instrument of human political intervention. What is implicit in such a conception of translation is a move away from the monadic subject of a traditional translation agency to a pluri-subjectivity of interaction.

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Another study linking crowdsourcing to approaches discussed in Translation Studies is a study by Jiménez-Crespo (2011) examining the impact of crowdsourcing translation on translation quality assessment. Jiménez-Crespo argues that the method used by Facebook embodies aspects of previously proposed theoretical models, namely reader-based, functionalist and corpus-assisted approaches to quality assessment. These approaches have previously been considered difficult to implement, but have now become relevant and useful in crowdsourcing environments like the one used by Facebook (cf. section 7 for the reader-based and functionalist approaches). Some studies have investigated the use of social networking platforms as a tool for translator training. Desjardins (2011) claims that practices of collaboration and peer-reviewing used by social networking sites are increasingly important to prepare student translators for their future work and that using online social networking as a teaching strategy has a significant impact on translator training. According to Desjardins, social networking sites and crowdsourcing practices are therefore relevant to Translation Studies. However, most scholars have not considered crowdsourcing practices as a relevant topic of Translation Studies so far. Crowdsourcing translation is an emerging phenomenon which still needs to be explored in all its dimensions.  

10 References Anastasiou, Dimitra/Gupta, Rajat (2011), Comparison of crowdsourcing translation with Machine Translation, Journal of Information Science 37:6, 637–659. Austermühl, Frank (2011), On Clouds and Crowds: Current Developments in Translation Technology, in: T21N – Translation in Transition, Article 2011-09, (17.11.2016). Baer, Naomi (2010), Crowdsourcing: Outrage or opportunity?, Translorial – Journal of the Northern California Translators Association, (17.11.2016). Capdevila Fernández, Cristian (2012), Crowdsourcing i traducció/localització: una amenaça o una oportunitat?, Revista Tradumàtica 10, 237–243. Cronin, Michael (2010), The Translation Crowd, Revista Tradumàtica 8, (17.11.2016). Cronin, Michael (2013), Translation in the Digital Age, New York, Routledge. DePalma, Donald A./Kelly, Nataly (2008), Translation of, by, and for the People. How User-Translated Content Projects Work in Real Life, Lowell (Mass.), Common Sense Advisory. Désilets, Alain (2011), Wanted: Best Practices for Collaborative Translation, (17.11.2016). Désilets, Alain/van der Meer, Jaap (2011), Co-creating a repository of best-practices for collaborative translation, Linguistica Antverpiensia 10, 27–45. Desjardins, Renée (2011), Facebook me! Initial insights in favour of using social networking as a tool for translator training, Linguistica Antverpiensia 10, 175–193.

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Díaz-Cintas, Jorge (2005), Back to the Future in Subtitling, in: MuTra 2005 – Challenges of Multidimensional Translation, Conference Proceedings, (17.11.2016). Díaz-Cintas, Jorge/Muñoz Sánchez, Pablo (2006), Fansubs: Audiovisual Translation in an Amateur Environment, The Journal of Specialised Translation 6, 37–52. Dodd, Sean Michael (2011), Crowdsourcing: Social[ism] Media 2.0, Translorial – Journal of the Northern California Translators Association, (17.11.2016). Ellis, David (2009), A Case Study in Community-Driven Translation of a Fast-Changing Website, in: Nuray Aykin (ed.), Internationalization, Design and Global Development, Berlin/Heidelberg, Springer, 236–244. EU (2012) = European Union (ed.), Crowdsourcing Translation, Luxembourg, Publications Office of the European Union. Fernández Costales, Alberto (2011), 2.0: facing the challenges of the global era, in: Tralogy I, Session 4 – Tools for translators, (17.11.2016). Ferrer Simó, María Rosario (2005), Fansubs y scanlations: la influencia del aficionado en los criterios profesionales, Puentes 6, 27–44. García, Ignacio (2010), The proper place of professionals (and non-professionals and machines) in web translation, Revista Tradumàtica 8, (17.11.2016). Geiger, David, et al. (2011), Managing the Crowd: Towards a Taxonomy of Crowdsourcing Processes, in: Proceedings of the 17th Americas Conference on Information Systems, Detroit, Michigan, August 4–7 2011, Atlanta, AISeL, Paper 430. Giles, Jim (2012), Learn a language, translate the web, New Scientist 213:2847, 18–19. Gough, Joanna (2011), An empirical study of professional translators’ attitudes, use and awareness of Web 2.0 technologies, and implications for the adoption of emerging technologies and trends, Linguistica Antverpiensia 10, 195–225. House, Juliane (2001), Translation quality assessment: Linguistic description versus social evaluation, Meta 46:2, 243–257. Howe, Jeff (2006), The rise of crowdsourcing, Wired magazine 14:6, (17.11.2016). Howe, Jeff (2008), Crowdsourcing: Why the Power of The Crowd is Driving the Future of Business, London, Random House. Jiménez-Crespo, Miguel A. (2009), Conventions in localisation: a corpus study of original vs. translated web texts, The Journal of Specialized Translation 12, 79–102. Jiménez-Crespo, Miguel A. (2011), From many to one: Novel approaches to translation quality in a social network era, Linguistica Antverpiensia 10, 131–152. Jiménez-Crespo, Miguel A. (2013), Crowdsourcing, corpus use, and the search for translation naturalness, Translation and Interpreting Studies 8:1, 23–49. Jiménez-Crespo, Miguel A. (2017), Crowdsourcing and Online Collaborative Translations, Amsterdam/ Philadelphia, Benjamins. Kageura, Kyo, et al. (2011), Has translation gone online and collaborative? An experience from Minna no Hon’yaku, Linguistica Antverpiensia 10, 47–72. Kelly, Nataly (2009), Freelance translators clash with LinkedIn over crowdsourced translation, Common Sense Advisory, (17.11.2016). Kelly, Nataly/Ray, Rebecca/DePalma, Donald A. (2011), From crawling to sprinting: Community translation goes mainstream, Linguistica Antverpiensia 10, 75–94.  

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McDonough Dolmaya, Julie (2011a), The ethics of crowdsourcing, Linguistica Antverpiensia 10, 97– 110. McDonough Dolmaya, Julie (2011b), Moral ambiguity: Some shortcomings of professional codes of ethics for translators, The Journal of Specialised Translation 15, 28–49. Mesipuu, Marit (2010), Translation Crowdsourcing – an Insight into Hows and Whys (at the Example of Facebook and Skype), Master’s Thesis, Tallin University, (17.11.2016). Mesipuu, Marit (2012), Translation crowdsourcing and user-translator motivation at Facebook and Skype, Translation Spaces 1, 33–53. Munro, Robert (2010), Crowdsourced translation for emergency response in Haiti: the global collaboration of local knowledge, in: AMTA Workshop on Collaborative Crowdsourcing for Translation, Denver (Colorado), (17.11.2016). Munro, Robert (2012), Crowdsourcing and the crisis-affected community. Lessons learned and looking forward from Mission 4636, Information Retrieval 16:2, 210–266. Nida, Eugene A. (1964), Toward a Science of Translating. With Special Reference to the Principles and Procedures Involved in Bible Translating, Leiden, Brill. Nida, Eugene A./Taber, Charles R. (1969), The Theory and Practice of Translation, Leiden, Brill. Nord, Christiane (1997), Translating as a Purposeful Activity: Functionalist Approaches Explained, Manchester, St. Jerome. O’Hagan, Minako (2009), Evolution of user-generated translation: Fansubs, translation hacking and crowdsourcing, The Journal of Internationalization and Localization 1:1, 94–121. O’Hagan, Minako (2011), Community Translation: Translation as a social activity and its possible consequences in the advent of Web 2.0 and beyond, Linguistica Antverpiensia 10, 11–23. O’Hagan, Minako (2012), Translation as a new game in the digital era, Translation Spaces 1, 123–141. Perrino, Saverio (2009), User-generated Translation: The future of translation in a Web 2.0 environment, The Journal of Specialised Translation 12, 55–78. Pym, Anthony (2011), Translation research terms: a tentative glossary for moments of perplexity and dispute, in: Anthony Pym (ed.), Translation research projects 3, Tarragona, Intercultural Studies Group, 75–110, (17.11.2016). Ray, Rebecca/Kelly, Nataly (2011), Trends in Crowdsourced Translation. What Every LSP Needs to Know, Lowell (Mass.), Common Sense Advisory. Surowiecki, James (2004), The Wisdom of Crowds, New York, Doubleday. Sutherlin, Gwyneth (2013), A voice in the crowd: Broader implications for crowdsourcing translation during crisis, Journal of Information Science 39, 397–409. Van Dijck, José/Nieborg, David (2009), Wikinomics and its discontents: A critical analysis of Web 2.0 business manifestos, New Media & Society 11:5, 855–874. Weinreich, Harald, et al. (2008), Not quite the average: An empirical study of Web use, ACM Transactions on the Web 2:1, article 5, (23.07.2017). Williams, Malcolm (2003), Translation Quality Assessment: An Argumentation-Centred Approach, Ottawa, Ottawa University Press. WordReference (2013), About WordReference.com, (17.11.2016). Zaidan, Omar F./Callison-Burch, Chris (2011), Crowdsourcing Translation: Professional Quality from Non-Professionals, in: Association for Computional Linguistics (ed.), Proceedings of the 49th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics, Portland, Oregon, June 19–24, 2011, vol. 2, Red Hook (NY), Curran, 1220–1229.  

Falk Seiler

22 Software Localization into Romance Languages Abstract: This paper focuses on the localization of software from a linguistic viewpoint, highlighting a perspective that is different from those prevalent in translation research. Following some terminological clarification pertaining to software and localization, the linguistic relevance of software localization is dealt with on the levels of textuality/multimodality, sociolinguistics/language policy, and linguistic ideology. An overview of localization into Romance languages is followed by a description drawn from existing research literature of the activities in the field of localization in the Francophone, Hispanophone, and Italophone spheres. Here, the differences between the industrial localization of proprietary software and the community-based localization of free and open source software are described. Finally, this chapter calls for a linguistic treatment of software localization as the practice of societal multilingualism in the field of tension between professionalization, economization, and linguistic self-determination.  

Keywords: commodification of language, Graphical User Interface (GUI), language ideology, multimodality, sociolinguistics, software, software localization, text linguistics, translation  

1 Introduction Software is everywhere in contemporary modern societies, and the language design of the interfaces through which people interact with and use software is one important factor affecting the form that communication in a technological context assumes, and one of sociolinguistic significance. The dependence of online texts and online communication on software and man-machine interaction may be apparent, but it is more of a prerequisite in linguistic research than it is made a starting point for new investigation. Just as engagement with software plays only a subordinate role in studies on new media, so is it unusual to question the intrinsic linguistic and semiotic value of software or the configuration of multilingualism in this context. This makes it more difficult to define software and its localization as subjects of linguistics despite the fact that linguistics research on multimodality, as well as on hypertext and hypermedia (among other topics) already yields a well-developed framework with which to make such a definition. Here, multimodality is understood in a broad sense as the combination of two or more sensory modalities, codes, or sign modes (cf. HessLüttich/Schmauks 2004, 3489). According to Sager (2000, 589) hypertext and hyperDOI 10.1515/9783110314755-023

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media as a form of representation in multimedia communication (cf. Hess-Lüttich/ Schmauks 2004, 3497) can be understood as a coherent, nonlinear, multimedial, computer-realized, and therefore interactive, adaptable and manipulable complex of symbols across a network of preprogrammed connections that can be used by receivers at any time and in various ways. In order to describe the active and independent role of software in this semiotic phenomenon in its socially constructed linguistic character, it is indispensable to describe some definition aspects of software localization. Subsequently, findings will be generated using selected examples from the Romance-speaking world that show that the relationship of language and communication with software must be considered in linguistic work to a significantly greater degree than has been the case thus far.

2 Linguistic research on software localization 2.1 Software Software is not a traditional research subject in linguistics. Generally, linguists group it with the information sciences or see it as a tool for scientific work or as an infrastructural element of linguistic research (e.g., in corpus linguistics or the digital humanities). There is immense difficulty in defining what software is at all (cf. for example Mackenzie 2006 and Chun 2011). Typically, reference is made to the difference between hardware and software, but even the question of the relationship between the source code of a program, an executable file, and a program when it is running touches on complex questions about the semiotic status of software, about its materiality and historicity, that cannot be answered within a single discipline. Software’s code basis can be characterized as  

“a labile, shifting nexus of relations, forms and practices. It regards software formally as a set of permutable distributions of agency between people, machines and contemporary symbolic environments carried as Code” (Mackenzie 2006, 19).

Cramer (2008, 173) determines that “software as a whole is not only the ‘code’ but a symbolic form involving cultural practices of its employment and appropriation”. For this reason, a linguistic treatment of software as a symbolic form may not rest at a reference to the particular formal, semantic, and pragmatic characteristics of programming language code by means of which program functionally is algorithmically guaranteed. It is not until the premise of the assumed linguistic neutrality of software is abandoned and the question is posed of its fundamental inseparability from verbal language that it is possible to understand software in its complex linguistic, cultural, and social character. Here, a contextualization of linguistic programming constructs in the field of technology-related languages for special purposes (cf. Wichter 1998) is only one possible linguistic approach.

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One point of reference for the treatment of these aspects of software could be the recently developed discipline of software studies (cf. Manovich 2013; Fuller 2003a; Fuller 2008; Mackenzie 2006; and the journal Computational Culture. a journal of software studies at ). This consists of a set of theoretical and methodological approaches; however, the linguistic form of software has not frequently been dealt with in this field thus far (cf. for example Cramer 2008; Tedre/ Eglash 2008; Galloway 2006; Mackenzie 2008; Seiler 2013a and 2015).

2.2 Localization The discourse on localization and the corresponding terminology has its origin in industry (the language industry). Any scientific treatment of software localization will be confronted with this origin and faced with the question of whether and how it can be dealt with in translation studies and applied linguistics (a question that is not always clearly formulated). On the website of the Globalization and Localization Association (GALA) (), the understanding of localization (also known by the numeronym l10n, as 10 is the number of letters between the first and final letters in the word “localization”) in the language industry is formulated as “the process of adapting a product or content to a specific locale or market”. A locale as a basic unit for localization is understood as a country or region and its corresponding language, and in a broader sense, as the whole of its particular cultural characteristics (e.g., French France vs. French Canada; cf. 2.3 for a discussion of the ideological content of this perspective). In industrial discourse, localization is part of a comprehensive process of generation and international sale of software, its documentation, and its online help, in which the quest for maximum profitability goes hand in hand with the highest possible degree of automatization (cf. Esselink 2000, for example). Here, translators are relatively weak actors in a work process dictated by others (e.g., producers, developers, and project managers). The focus is not on the translation, but on the product to be commercialized. The concept of internationalization, related to the concept of localization (and often represented analogously with l10n as i10n), refers to a procedure in which a product is designed in such a way that it will work with different languages and cultural conventions without requiring that the base code be redesigned (for example, the size of program windows will not conflict with the language-dependent length of character strings). Internationalization also plays a role on the level of documentation development. Here, it is important to establish that localization is a part of marketing strategies shaped for products, and not primarily for texts as language constructs (cf. the work in Reineke/Schmitz 2005, for example). By contrast, in the discourse in translation studies, where software localization has become a firmly established subject, localization refers to all activities connected with the translation of software texts and the specific challenges with which translators are faced, which are closely tied to the particular features of the text type.  

 

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Translation studies continues to deal with the role of translator activity in localization projects (cf. Dunne 2006) and occasionally dedicates itself to the social context of localization, among other things (cf. Cronin 2003 and 2013, for example). In doing so, it focuses on the tension between the refined translation skills conveyed in the academic arena and the very limited opportunities to implement these skills in industrial localization processes. Therefore, it cannot help but raise questions about the limits of technology in carrying out translation. The question of whether the translation of software texts should be referred to as “translation” or “localization” has not yet been clearly answered. Mazur (2007) asks about the possibility of a new discipline called localization studies, the contribution of which is a testament to the dilemma resulting from an insufficient differentiation between scientific and industrial discourse on localization. Cf. Parra (2000), Pym (2004), and Dunne (2013) for further discussion and differentiation of terminology. One special case in software localization is the translation of web pages, sometimes referred to as “website localization” (cf. Sandrini 2008 and Jiménez-Crespo 2013). This is appropriate in light of the fact that webpages are now frequently generated by web applications. Websites are particularly complex because linguistic decisions are often written into the software of such web applications, and linguistic material generated both automatically by software and by real users is integrated on the textual level (screen) (cf. Eisenlauer 2013).

2.3 Software localization as a subject in linguistics Academic studies on localization dedicate themselves primarily to technical questions or to the complex of educational content in translation programs of study. Investigations of the relationship between language and culture rooted in culture studies that venture beyond questions of how to format dates, numbers, and units of measure remain marginal (on this, cf. Bouffard/Caignon 2006, 807). The preferred point of departure from a place of linguistic interest in software localization is the question of the design of multilingual communication in the digital sphere, as well as that of the role of software in a linguistic globalization dynamic in which English plays a major part on one hand, and in which other languages are nevertheless of great importance on the other hand; e.g., in marketing processes. Moreover, software localization also presents a challenge with respect to linguistic theory that centers on the way in which language functions and on the constitution of linguistic meaning in software in a socio-technical context, as well as on alternatives to the industrial model of the language industry, which shapes its use of language resources in the realm of software according to economic profitability criteria. In the following, several facets of software localization that are of linguistic relevance will be discussed. These have already been researched and provide additional points of departure. Here, three research categories can be determined: tex 

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tuality and multimodality, sociolinguistics and language policy, and linguistic ideology. Textuality and multimodality: Today, practically all media texts exhibit a software layer. Approaches in scripturality or written communication research exist that seek to consider the textual level of software, especially the level of the programming language (cf. Raible 1999 and Herbst 2004, for example). However, again and again, software finds itself at the center of non-linguistic debates that discuss the question of whether it represents a text or a technical artifact. This debate is tied to important legal decisions on whether software falls under copyright law or patent law (cf. Seiler 2013a, 378). Linguistics concentrates on two levels of textuality in software: that of the source code, and that of the user interface. The source code, created in accordance with the rules of programming languages, contains algorithms that determine the functionality of the program. Beyond the programming language commands, source codes are also given elements of verbal language that include single-language character strings meant to guarantee interaction with the user (for other elements in source code that are not of the relevant programming language, cf. Seiler 2013a, 382). A program that can be run is generated from source code (made to be machine readable or interpreted by special software) and the user can interact directly with this program. In many cases, this interaction runs via graphical user interfaces (GUI). These exhibit a different form of textuality than the base source code due to their multimodality. In them, verbal elements are occasionally combined with visual and acoustic elements. Here, the different semiotic resources are integrated in a process of meaning compression (cf. Baldry/Thibault 2006 and Cañuelo Sarrión/Seiler 2008, 50). These are texts with hypertextual and hypermedial characteristics, as they are constructed nonlinearly and enable different read and interaction pathways. Beyond studies about websites created by web applications, investigations of the textual composition of GUIs have hardly played a role in media linguistics thus far. But here, too, questions of hypertextuality and interactivity typically play a larger role than the character of software-generated interfaces. In the process of localization, single-language elements selected for translation are extracted from the source code and gathered in language files that are then used by translators. Thus, translators do not work with the texts themselves, but rather with such extracted chains of strings, using them to create new language files that can then be selected and integrated into the program. It is clear that this kind of decontextualization of linguistic material is problematic in the translation process. Sociolinguistics and language policy: Beyond the semiotic characteristic of the text, software exhibits a discursive side through which new forms of linguistic performativity have been developed throughout the history of media. Due to its linguistic specifications and communicative potential, software is a medium of the linguistic socialization of its users, and of social control (cf., e.g., O’Hagan 2011; Mackenzie 2006). Software is a complex conflict area in which, among others,  

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language, identity, and economic interests collide (cf. Kelly-Holmes 2013). Multilingualism in the digital sphere is at the center of a sociolinguistic interest in software localization in that this type of multilingualism is both partly constructed by software and filtered by it. Localization is an important way to preserve and promote multilingualism in the digital sphere. The question of which language to translate software into involves economic interests as well as those of the state and civil society. Further, this question is always of sociolinguistic relevance and a part of linguistic political strategies. Griffiths et al. (1994, 10s.) examine the field of language acquisition and determine which advantages localization has on the levels of society, education policy, and economics. Djité (2008) compares the societal significance of software localization for African languages with that of Christian missions. Language ideology: Due to the general lack of visibility and comprehensibility of internal software processes for the average user, many users have the tendency to see their current constellation as unchangeable and to use default settings even in the presence of flexible user preferences. Software specifications and recommendations have significant ideological potential in that our “interactions with software have disciplined us, created certain expectations about cause and effect, offered us pleasure and power that we believe should be transferable elsewhere. The notion of software has crept into our critical vocabulary in mostly uninterrogated ways” (Chun 2004, 47).

The relevance of software and software localization to ideology is visible on several levels. In terms of textuality, the ideological functions of interfaces should be noted here; via metaphoric processes, among others, these suggest ideas about how computers work (cf. the desktop metaphor, for example; on this, Fuller 2003b, among others). Furthermore, a silent identification of software with hardware promoted through trade chains when they offer computers with pre-installed operating systems without listing the price of hardware and software separately is also ideological. When problems arise, this can lead users to consider a piece of hardware broken even when the issue is with the software alone. Furthermore, we see a differentiation of operating system cultures, especially in the realms of Windows, Mac, Linux, and mobile devices, which are connected with social, political, and economic strategies and are, or can be, extremely ideologically influenced in that they each generate different forms of sociality, lifestyle, and both instrumental and affective interaction with technology (cf. Seiler 2013a, 387). The corresponding monolingual discourses on software are accessible to models of discourse analysis. The central concept of the locale is relevant to ideology (cf. 2.2), first because decisions must be made here about the often hotly debated denominations of languages and varieties, and also in those cases where the locale is understood as a simple correlation between language and country that reproduces a territorializing, national-philological perspective in the digital sphere. In a broader sense, Dunne (2013, 5924) defines the locale as “local market requirements”. Thus, the

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aim of culturally adapting software promoted in localization literature is shaped by a market discourse that evinces an extremely reduced understanding of language and communication, and consequently leads to the idea that it is impossible to differentiate between market and culture. Budin’s definition is similarly industrybased: “A ‘locale’ is a virtual rather than physical location, where a group of people share certain cultural and linguistic conventions in a consistent way so that the localization industry is able to identify the locale and distinguish it from other, maybe neighboring, locales” (Budin 22006, 290).

The business-motived essentialization of language-country links categorizes web users and can make it more difficult, for example, to display websites in languages other than French to a user in France, “and thus curtails and even eradicates ‘unwanted’ linguistic practices in the form of autochthonous and allochthonous alternatives, encouraging instead uniformization and conformity with the equation of national group with language” (Kelly-Holmes 2013, 138s.). What Kelly-Holmes establishes in the special case of website localization is also true for the linguistic design of software in general, which through localization becomes a “space of multiple languages, rather than a space of multilingualism” (ibid., 144). The development of more advanced high-level programming languages and especially their success in online technologies has led to a certain democratization of programming and, subsequently, of translation This development is most clearly expressed in the field of free and open source software (FOSS), the development of which is generally community-based and carried out by volunteers, frequently laypersons, and therefore takes other paths than those in industry. However, for quite some time now, hybrid forms of software production have also existed, in that FOSS has come to be used more and more in the corporate world, and in that large software companies, for example, also pay FOSS developers or use the unpaid labor of volunteers via crowdsourcing (McDonough Dolmaya 2011; cf. also ↗21 Crowdsourcing Translation). A central factor is the free insight into, modifiability of, and transferability of software that is assured by different (more or less industry-friendly) licenses, which is much more comprehensive that the mere fact that it is available free of charge (). The free availability of FOSS source code and the openness of file formats also imply free availability for translations. In this way, it is different from proprietary software, the source text of which is kept secret. Thus, the localization of FOSS represents another to purely market-oriented access to localization in that it allows, among other things, for the decision to localize in less common languages as well – languages that would not be profitable according to market considerations. For linguistics, the freedom and openness of software means free access to source code and to software development processes, including the negotiation of single-language decisions. FOSS now plays an increasingly important role in translator education. Among other sources, information on this is available from Díaz Fouces/García González

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(2009), in the edition 2011:9 (Programari lliure i traducció) of the Revista Tradumàtica, as well as in Sandrini (2011), which includes a description of the project initiated by Peter Sandrini, Tuxtrans. Linux for translators (