E-relevant web text sites (EWT sites) are a relatively new phenomenon featuring banal yet remarkable user-generated texts on dedicated websites. This thesis analyses the sociosemiotic dimension of EWT sites in enabling neo-phatic communication: communication based on the relatable nature of EWT content and user-friendly medium, affording communicative acts without the requirement for in-depth discussion. Rather than fostering serious exchange, neo-phatic communication aims to establish a form of contact less brief than a greeting but akin to its purport, developing from banal but shared experiences. Analysis of the signification process involved in EWT sites, through a sociosemiotic framework based on Peirce’s second trichotomy of signs (icon, index, symbol) and the frame analysis of Goffman, shows that the sites’ semiotic structure belongs to a neo-phatic kind of communication unique to computer-mediated communication. This study illustrates how content with minimal substance might be under-valued as a means of understanding modern communication behaviour.

E-relevant web text sites (EWT sites) are a relatively new phenomenon featuring banal yet remarkable user-generated texts on dedicated websites. This thesis analyses the sociosemiotic dimension of EWT sites in enabling neo-phatic communication: communication based on the relatable nature of EWT content and user-friendly medium, affording communicative acts without the requirement for in-depth discussion. Rather than fostering serious exchange, neo-phatic communication aims to establish a form of contact less brief than a greeting but akin to its purport, developing from banal but shared experiences. Analysis of the signification process involved in EWT sites, through a sociosemiotic framework based on Peirce’s second trichotomy of signs (icon, index, symbol) and the frame analysis of Goffman, shows that the sites’ semiotic structure belongs to a neo-phatic kind of communication unique to computer-mediated communication. This study illustrates how content with minimal substance might be under-valued as a means of understanding modern communication behaviour.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-10-31T13:49:06Z No. of bitstreams: 1 dinaamaramenesesfaria.pdf: 1134465 bytes, checksum: 4d44a2e9791a43eec23ce6569f6e6d52 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-12-15T13:13:03Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 dinaamaramenesesfaria.pdf: 1134465 bytes, checksum: 4d44a2e9791a43eec23ce6569f6e6d52 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-15T13:13:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dinaamaramenesesfaria.pdf: 1134465 bytes, checksum: 4d44a2e9791a43eec23ce6569f6e6d52 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2005-07-05 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / O presente estudo focaliza a análise das estratégias utilizadas pelos participantes para gerar e manter envolvimento em encontros de negócios. A pesquisa é um estudo de caso, de natureza interpretativista e qualitativa, embasada nos pressupostos teóricos da Sociolinguística Interacional. Foram utilizados como corpus dois encontros de negócios gravados em áudio e vídeo: uma compra de matéria prima e um acordo para terceirização de acabamento de material gráfico. Através da interface polidez/estilo enfático/rapport, procuramos apontar os sistemas e desejos de face escolhidos pelos participantes em nossos dados e os alinhamentos assumidos por eles na tentativa de gerar envolvimento com o self, com o outro e com a negociação. A análise evidenciou a distinção existente entre os desejos humanos de aceitação e aprovação, verificando que dentre os vários autores estudados, Lim & Bowers (1991) são aqueles que melhor explicam os desejos e trabalhos de face encontrados em nossa pesquisa. Evidenciando, assim, a consequente tensão no estabelecimento do limite entre a conversa institucional e comunicação fática. Foi constatado também que, dependendo dos alinhamentos e desejos de face dos falantes, o rapport pode ser utilizado apenas para ‘quebrar o gelo’ nas interações transacionais ou ser responsável por uma gama de funções sociais, dentre as quais destacamos a de atender aos desejos de face positiva e a de orientar os papéis sociais dos participantes na relação. Tal constatação contraria a visão de alguns autores que não reconhecem a comunicação fática como importante. / This study focuses on the analysis of the strategies used by participants to create and maintain involvement in business meetings. The research is an interpretive and qualitative case study in nature, based on a theoretical framework of Interactional Sociolinguistics. Two business meetings, recorded on audio and video, were used as a corpus: the purchase of raw materials and an agreement to outsource finishing graphic material. Through the politeness/emphatic style/rapport interface, we sought to point out face-want systems chosen by the participants in our data and the footings they assumed in an attempt to generate engagement with the self, with others and within the negotiation. The analysis demonstrated the distinction between the human desire for acceptance and approval, noting that, among the various authors studied, Lim & Bowers (1991) are those that best explain the face-want and face-work found in our research. Thus, there is consequent tension in establishing the boundary between institutional conversation and phatic communication. Also it was found that, depending on the footing and desires of the speaker to lose or save face, rapport can only be used to “break the ice” in transactional interactions or be responsible for a range of social functions, among which we strive to meet the positive face-want and to guide the social roles of participants in the relationship. This finding contradicts the view of some authors who do not recognize the importance of phatic communication.

This essay describes a case study of textual communication on the online social mediaplatform Tumblr. The aim of the research was to analyse the communicative functions and thestylistic, sociolinguistic, and pragmatic characteristics of textual discourse on Tumblr. Usingdata gathered on Tumblr, this essay analyses discursive aspects such as function, style, andpragmatics, relating the findings to literature on topics including relevance theory and theoriesof computer-mediated communication and cyberpragmatics. The research found thatdiscourse on Tumblr is largely phatic in nature, with an overwhelming focus on the discussionof shared interests. Such discussion on Tumblr appears to heavily depend on sharedbackground knowledge, which works as a barrier of in-group discursive solidarity andprovides and furthers feelings of connectedness. This study further found that alternative useof style and grammar on Tumblr appears to be largely uniform, suggesting that divergencesfrom standard norms are a way of displaying membership of a group and obtaining covertprestige, rather than a display of linguistic innovation.

How do young adult students communicate through their smartphones today? Which applications and features do they choose? What motivates their choices for the various possible situations? In this paper we investigate which communication channels young adult students in Sweden use for private message communication in their smartphones, in what way they use the channels and why they choose specific channels for different types of communication. In Sweden today, there are numerous of different ways of communicate through smartphones. We have interviewed ten Swedish young adult students regarding their use. The results speaks for that SMS has proven to still be used very frequently, even though it has existed for many years and that there are plenty of other ways to communicate through private messages today. Social media, primarily Facebook, also attracts users to communicate through private messages with their smartphones. SMS isn’t any longer the obvious method for sending a message. By presenting the result of our study, we hope to provide for future design resolutions and to give the next generation of smartphones communication tools that are as optimal as possible.

Social media effects may affect self-perception and the way media users live their offline lives. The purpose of this essay was to examine the phenomenon of social media saturation in order to understand the possible risks to the development of human identity during the adolescent period. Hence, these risks may be generated by being exposed to social comparison, cyberbullying, self-validation, and self-perception in a sensitive age when self-image is still fragile and being formed. The purpose of this essay is to examine the psychological tendencies of human beings while interacting with their peers on social media platforms. Hence, this will give us a clearer view of what would be achieved by conducting interviews. Moreover, a selection of theories will be applied to those interviews in order to associate those theories with what has been said by respondents. Hence, Meyrowitz’s theory will be used in relation to  understanding the identity adaptation to online connection and linked to Goffman’s discussions of “onstage” and “backstage” (Meyrowitz, 1985: 5). After this, the essay will investigate how users’ self-perception and social comparison are enacted while socializing on social media platforms. Furthermore, this essay sheds the light on how identity is constructed online in the sense of belonging to a community on a social media platform as well as of gratification coming from peer validation in a virtual community. To be able to explain this, the “Social Identity Theory” will, therefore, be discussed (Teo, Matti, et al, 2017: 23). This will be discussed by mentioning theories like “Mediatization” (Couldry & Hepp, 2013). And lastly, the sociological concept of Habitus, minted by Pierre Bourdieu will demonstrate the process of adaptation towards unspoken social codes existing in virtual communities (Markham, 2017: 55).  As found in the four qualitative semi-structured interviews with social media users, respondents are surrounding themselves with like-minded social groups which provide them with confidence about their own system of beliefs. Nevertheless, their perspectives are often marked by notable social pessimism and a lack of incentive to engage in conflictual interactions with others on social media. The results pointed out the perception among the interviewees that the impact of social media on identity formation is largely confined to adolescent users. Many users self-report significant daily screen time and are aware of the risks of social bubbles. Most of the respondents denied being subjected to cyberbullying, while they were surfing on social media, so the respondents’ physical lives were not affected by cyberbullying even for those who mentioned their exposure to cyberbullying. All the respondents expressed a sense of jealousy to some extent, even though some of them showed awareness of the thought that people post their lives from a perfect angle while hiding the flaws and not showing the imperfections of their lives on social media. Lastly, social comparison was an incentive feeling affected most of the respondents, and in their own experience, social media affected their character development and self-perception since they were exposed to social media at an adolescent age.