The last twenty years have witnessed more developments in communication technology than any other period in human history. Instant messaging, social networking and hypertextual linking of texts are just some of the many facets of computer-mediated communication or CMC. For the linguist, these new means of communication raise many questions. For example, how have CMC technologies affected the production and reception of text? Does effortless multimodality affect our need to describe and report our experiences in words? Is email simply a new form of letter writing? Do supranational online communities change the way we look at language contact? What new features of language use have emerged in CMC contexts and are any of them catching on outside CMC? In this course we will look at these question and others from the linguists’ perspective, focusing on exploring the impact of CMC on English and of English on CMC.

Course work will involve background reading, practical exercises, group work and a final essay.

In addition to enrolment in NettiOpsu you need to fill in a form to indicate an order of preference for your chosen options courses.