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In:Dialogue in Multilingual and Multimodal Communities
Edited by Dale Koike and Carl S. Blyth
[Dialogue Studies 27] 2015
► pp. 167–192

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Multilingual Eurovision meets plurilingual YouTube

Linguascaping discursive ontologies

 | Portland State University and University of Groningen
 | York University
Published online: 10 July 2015
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/ds.27.06tho
This research examines ‘virtual linguistic landscapes’ (Ivković and Lotherington 2009) visible in user-generated YouTube.com comment fields associated with video clips of the Eurovision Song Contest. We begin by discussing contemporary sociolinguistic approaches and terminology (e.g. multi-, pluri-, polylingualism) attuned to complex phenomena in social media language contact zones. Following an application of these approaches to data, we argue that the emergence of a user-generated virtual linguistic landscape is usefully understood as a process of ‘linguascaping’ (Jaworski et al. 2003; Ivković 2012); i.e. linguistic engagements that propagate opinions, beliefs and ideological positions. As applied to YouTube comment fields, linguascaping suggests an agentive process of constructing and contesting possible ethno-linguistic identifications and power relations through semiotic resources.
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