Event Title
The use of Web 2.0 technologies to gather both production and perceptual data for the study of regional linguistic variation
Start Date
28-2-2015 3:50 PM
Description
The use of both production and perceptual data has the potential to provide a more complete picture of linguistic phenomena than would otherwise be the case, including when exploring regional linguistic variation. Web 2.0 technologies are increasingly providing language data suitable for studying regional variation in language. Web 2.0 refers to the transition from the display of content on static webpages to the display of content on dynamic webpages that change according to input from the users, and includes social media platforms. Utilizing the social networking platform Twitter and an online survey, this paper reports on a descriptive analysis of the geographic distribution of a less-commonly used syntactic form of the Spanish verb gustar 'to like, to please', referred to as experiential gustar (e.g., cuando gustes 'when you'd like'). The production data were extracted from Twitter using the computer programming language R. A search was performed to find this verb in tweets sent from within a 100- kilometer radius of the capital cities in Spanish-speaking Latin America and in Spain. Subsequently, the perceptual data were gathered from an online survey that used a dynamically-generated webpage in order to randomize the presentation of two versions of the verb to the participants. The purpose of the survey was to determine where in the Spanish-speaking world the less common form of the verb is most preferred as well as where it is perceived to be used most frequently. The results from the analysis of 6,686 tweets and the responses of 81 native Spanish-speaking participants in the online survey suggest that experiential gustar is produced and is perceived to be produced most often in Mexican Spanish, despite not being exclusive to that country. The paper contributes to the literature depicting the benefit of using both production and perceptual data in the study of dialectal variation, as well as to the literature documenting language variation in Spanish. Finally, the paper demonstrates the usefulness of utilizing Web 2.0 technologies, including social media platforms, to study language use and regional linguistic variation.
Recommended Citation
Brown, Earl K. (2015). "The use of Web 2.0 technologies to gather both production and perceptual data for the study of regional linguistic variation," Digital Humanities Symposium.
The use of Web 2.0 technologies to gather both production and perceptual data for the study of regional linguistic variation
The use of both production and perceptual data has the potential to provide a more complete picture of linguistic phenomena than would otherwise be the case, including when exploring regional linguistic variation. Web 2.0 technologies are increasingly providing language data suitable for studying regional variation in language. Web 2.0 refers to the transition from the display of content on static webpages to the display of content on dynamic webpages that change according to input from the users, and includes social media platforms. Utilizing the social networking platform Twitter and an online survey, this paper reports on a descriptive analysis of the geographic distribution of a less-commonly used syntactic form of the Spanish verb gustar 'to like, to please', referred to as experiential gustar (e.g., cuando gustes 'when you'd like'). The production data were extracted from Twitter using the computer programming language R. A search was performed to find this verb in tweets sent from within a 100- kilometer radius of the capital cities in Spanish-speaking Latin America and in Spain. Subsequently, the perceptual data were gathered from an online survey that used a dynamically-generated webpage in order to randomize the presentation of two versions of the verb to the participants. The purpose of the survey was to determine where in the Spanish-speaking world the less common form of the verb is most preferred as well as where it is perceived to be used most frequently. The results from the analysis of 6,686 tweets and the responses of 81 native Spanish-speaking participants in the online survey suggest that experiential gustar is produced and is perceived to be produced most often in Mexican Spanish, despite not being exclusive to that country. The paper contributes to the literature depicting the benefit of using both production and perceptual data in the study of dialectal variation, as well as to the literature documenting language variation in Spanish. Finally, the paper demonstrates the usefulness of utilizing Web 2.0 technologies, including social media platforms, to study language use and regional linguistic variation.
