Jelou pipol: Computer-mediated communication among Spanish-speaking gamers on Twitch
What is it about?
This study explores the characteristics of the language used in Twitch, one of the most popular streaming platforms worldwide, as an example of computer-mediated communication (CMC). Some of the most salient traits used to describe CMC are found in Twitch chat messages, as the paper will show, confirming that the communicative interaction that takes place among users of this platform matches the features of CMC described in the academic literature. Additionally, the synchronous and multimodal nature of this platform, as well as the pragmatic implications of the use of subscriber-exclusive emotes are peculiarities that must be considered for a comprehensive description of the language that takes place on Twitch. Lastly, in the case of the videogame chats in Spanish studied, the paper introduces as a key factor in the description of this language the characteristics of the lexicon: its foreign origin, its neological nature and its high level of terminological specialisation.
Why is it important?
Linguistic studies on the language of Internet, on relatively recent but enormously successful platforms such as Twitch, represent a scarcely explored field that nonetheless offers huge potential to researchers, and this study may serve to showcase the potential of these platforms as a source of linguistic data and a diversity of perspectives from which to study language.