Approaches to Internet Pragmatics: Theory and practice(318 Pragmatics & Beyond New Series)

Internet-mediated communication is pervasive nowadays, in an age in which many people shy away from physical settings and often rely, instead, on social media and messaging apps for their everyday communicative needs. Since pragmatics deals with communication in context and how more gets communicated than is said (or typed), applications of this linguistic perspective to internet communication, under the umbrella label of internet pragmatics, are not only welcome, but necessary. The volume covers straightforward applications of pragmatic phenomena to internet interactions, as happens with speech acts and contextualization, and internet-specific kinds of communication such as the one taking place on WhatsApp, WeChat and Twitter. This collection also addresses the role of emoticons and emoji in typed-text dialogues and the importance of “physical place” in internet interactions (exhibiting an interplay of online-offline environments), as is the case in the role of place in locative media and in broader place-related communication, as in migration.

Review :
This book provides a valuable and insightful examination of internet pragmatics, specifically the functional perspective on text-based online communication. It is important to recognize that text-based communication remains a prevalent and significant aspect of internet interaction, making it an important area of study. [...] The book provides a solid foundation for exploring the role of other forms of online communication. The book evidences how meticulous pragmatic research can bring new findings even to what might seem as well-established topics, namely emojis and emoticons in computer-mediated discourse (Dainas and Herring, Kavanagh), speech acts in Austin-based pragmatics (Labinaz and Sbisà) and the ideologies of personal deixis found in naming and online nicks (Perelmutter). Second, the volume shows how complex cyber-communication has become, e.g. in the area of communicating various (non-)propositional effects such as humour (Maíz-Arevalo), or in the strategic handling and staging of authenticity (Xie and Tong). Finally, the book demonstrates how genres can be adjusted, be it in the form of communication strategies of politicians (Gruber) or ideologically-motivated reformulations and semantic shifts in news translation (Sidiropoulou). Many of the topics that the papers address will certainly be taken up in further research; one such direction that is likely to be particularly fruitful is cross-cultural pragmatic research, which underlies several of the papers in this volume. This publication is well-structured and breaks ground in the field of internet pragmatics by exploring new pragmatic phenomena and communicative needs, as well as the major similarities and differences between the online and offline worlds and their impact on people’s language use and interactions. [...] The book constitutes a solid set of resources for researchers, linguists, specialists in political discourse, language learners, and all those interested in delving into the historical evolution and/or on-going revolution in digital human interaction. Approaches to Internet Pragmatics is a stimulating contribution with adventurous explorations of unknown territories. This seminal book offers a starting point for researchers in the domain of internet pragmatics to clarify new research agendas and challenges that can drive the fields forward. It is undoubtedly an important work of reference for researchers, teachers and graduate students who want to explore the issues that arise during or as a result of internet communication. The volume is well-written and edited in a clear, systematic and accessible manner. The chapters in three parts are balanced with a clearly-related and logical theme, and the text is supported with ample examples, diagrams, pictures and photos to facilitate understanding. Given its innovative and rich content, the volume has undoubtedly opened up new perspectives for pragmatics and will serve as an excellent reference and a practical guide for students, teachers, and researchers in pragmatics and discourse studies who seek to keep themselves current on the latest developments in the field. It deserves my most enthusiastic recommendation.