[Conference Website Image]
SLIS professor Susan Herring recently gave a plenary lecture entitled, "The Pragmatics of Computer-Mediated Communication: Prospectus for an Emerging Research Agenda" on Wednesday, July 11 at the 10th International Pragmatics Conference in Gothenburg, Sweden. The conference, sponsored by the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA), was held from July 8-13, 2007. The theme of the conference was "Language data, corpora, and computational pragmatics."
Herring's lecture presented an overview of what a systematic research program for pragmatic analysis of CMC might look like. The abstract states:
The theme of this conference, "computational pragmatics," can be construed to embrace the pragmatic analysis of language data produced via computer networks and mobile technologies—what I term the pragmatics of computer-mediated communication (CMC). While a growing number of studies address pragmatic aspects of CMC, numerous gaps remain in what could and should be addressed under such a rubric, and its scope in relation to other linguistic approaches to CMC has yet to be clearly defined. In this talk, I consider the utility of distinguishing a research agenda that focuses on the pragmatics of CMC and what such an agenda might encompass. I then outline an agenda that attempts to synthesize and systematize the potential contributions of pragmatic theory, empirical language-focused CMC research, and innovative analytical methodologies, including computer-assisted techniques for visualizing patterns in online communication. The proposed approach is illustrated with recent studies of speech acts in multimodal virtual worlds, topic development in chat, and politeness in online discussion forums. I conclude by identifying research gaps in need of future attention.
Professor Herring was also the discussant for a panel entitled, "Corpora and Methods in Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis" at the conference.
According to the description on the panel wiki:
This panel will discuss methodological issues in computer-mediated discourse studies. Computer-mediated discourse (CMD) encompasses all kinds of interpersonal communication carried out on the Internet by e-mail, instant messaging systems, mailing lists, newsgroups, web discussion boards, and chat channels (cf. Herring 2001, 2004). In the last decade CMD has attracted a great deal of research attention from a pragmatic, discourse-analytic, and sociolinguistic point of view. However, methodological reflection is lagging behind when compared to other areas of discourse studies. This panel will discuss the need for critical reflection about the problems and challenges that arise when [existing] research traditions are applied to the new settings and environments of CMD.
Relevant publications:
Herring, S. C. (2001). Computer-mediated discourse. In: D. Schiffrin, D. Tannen, and H. Hamilton (Eds.), The Handbook of Discourse Analysis (pp. 612-634). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Herring, S. C. (2004). Computer-mediated discourse analysis: An approach to researching online behavior. In: S. A. Barab, R. Kling, and J. H. Gray (Eds.), Designing for Virtual Communities in the Service of Learning (pp. 338-376). New York: Cambridge University Press. (The preprint can be viewed here.)About the IPrA:
The (IPrA) "is an international scientific organization devoted to the study of language use. Established in 1986, it now has over 1,200 members in over 60 countries world-wide. It is listed in The World of Learning, and it is a recognized member of the Consortium of Affiliates for International Programs of the American Association for the Advancement of Science." [IPrA website]
Posted July 11, 2007