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The variable use of diacritics in synchronous computer-mediated French discourse: Replication research

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 July 2022

Geraldine Blattner  and
Lawrence Williams Open the ORCID record for Lawrence Williams [Opens in a new window]
Geraldine Blattner
Affiliation:
Florida Atlantic University, LLCL, Florida, United States
Lawrence Williams*
Affiliation:
University of North Texas, World Languages, Literatures & Cultures, Texas, United States
*
*Corresponding Author. Email: [email protected].
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Abstract

This study promotes replication research as a methodological approach that is needed in order to compare earlier and more recent analyses of digital discourse. When much of the existing research was conducted, the primary means of communication included the use of a computer keyboard, (presumably) less bandwidth, and fewer devices. However, with an increase of the range of device types, the study of diacritics deserves another look within the Digital Media landscape. The present study examines the variable use of diacritics in synchronous (i.e., real-time) French chat discourse. We have replicated a study with different data sets from the same chat corpus, which is composed of data from a European chat server. We have also compared the data from the 2008 half of the corpus to data from the same chat channels collected in 2016 (just over 60,000 words in each half of the corpus, which included a total of 7,569 tokens that were coded). Our analysis of the 2008 corpus showed that one main finding was not the same as ours (from a different part of the 2008 corpus). Moreover, a diachronic analysis (2008 vs. 2016) revealed reversed trends between the two age-based channels (i.e., 20s vs. 50s).

Type
Article
Information
Journal of French Language Studies , Volume 32 , Special Issue 2: Special Issue (French Variation in Digital Media) , July 2022 , pp. 216 - 242
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press

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