230199 Exploring Expressive Speech Acts in Digital Discourse (S) (SoSe 2026)

The Internet has become an integral part of everyday life and has changed the way we communicate with other people. It has generated novel genres and has given rise to a variety of social media platforms (e.g. Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, etc.) on which people interact with one another “on the go” via smartphones and other (mobile) devices.

Building on the linguistic foundations from both lectures, this seminar explores the pragmatics of such social media discourses, i.e. how people use speech acts in diverse online contexts to achieve interpersonal goals. In more detail, we will first explore basic aspects of speech act theory and then focus on how online users employ expressive speech acts to convey, make sense of and react to a variety of psychological states or certain attitudes, such as greeting, thanking, apologising, congratulating, complimenting or regretting.

We will engage in hands-on speech act research into social media contexts and the communication found within digital spaces. As part of a group research project, students will learn to describe, analyse and interpret authentic examples of expressive speech act use and perception in social media.
Further details will be made available in the first session.

Requirements for participation, required level

Having completed the other elements of the Basis3 module (i.e. "Introduction to English Linguistics" (Basis3.1) and "Introduction to Sociolinguistics" (Basis3.2)) before attending this seminar is highly recommended.