English - Free topic E: Language and Discourse on the Internet

English is undergoing rapid development in online contexts with new varieties and new practices of communication emerging and even seeping into offline language use. Because of this fact, the study of English in online contexts is crucial to the contemporary English student’s understanding of the English language. This module focuses on the English language and how it is used in online contexts and consists of two modules which address the interpersonal and cognitive aspects of the use of English online respectively.

Sociolinguistics and Social Media (Johanne Kirkeby)

In this part of the course, we explore sociolinguistics and social media. This means that we view language and the internet in relation to social and societal factors. We ask questions such as: How do people use language to show that they belong to a communicative community on the internet? How do they perform e.g. age, class, ethnicity and geographical belonging online? We focus on empirical data and will try our hand at digital ethnography and other methods.

Cognitive Linguistics Online (Kim Ebensgaard Jensen)

In this course element, we explore the use of the English language on the Internet through the lens of cognitive linguistics. Thus, we will address a range of genres of language use on the Internet and discuss topics such as worldview, discourse, metaphor, grammatical constructions, meaning construction (including cultural conceptualizations) and register as well as norms and conventions in online use(s) of the English language. In addition to concepts and methodologies from Internet linguistics, students will be introduced to relevant ideas from cognitive-linguistic theory.