In this thesis, the subculture of online live streaming is explored on the platform Twitch by using a register analysis and Hoffman’s adaptation of usage-based Construction Grammar analysis....Show moreIn this thesis, the subculture of online live streaming is explored on the platform Twitch by using a register analysis and Hoffman’s adaptation of usage-based Construction Grammar analysis. Research on language use has increasingly focused on communication via electronic means by conducting register, and genre analyses as more sophisticated registers emerge with rich contextual linguistic and non-linguistic features, such as the general register of email messages and Twitter tweets. This work expands on these general registers by examining one of the most prominent and fast-growing platforms in the online live streaming space, Twitch (Biber et al., 2019, p. 175; Sjöblom, 2019, p. 20). This fast growth can mainly be attributed to the immense growth in the online space. As of 2022, almost 5.3 billion people worldwide utilize the internet; this amounts to about 66.2% of the entire world population (“Internet World Stats,” n.d.). In particular, the thesis will utilize a combination of register analysis with Hoffman’s usage-based Construction Grammar analysis to depict how complex the register of Twitch is and explore how interaction occurs between parties on the platform within its register and is supported by a collision of audiovisual elements and computer-mediated communication (Biber et al., 2019, p. 174; Sjöblom, 2019, p. 20). It will present the results of 107 hours of observation watching Twitch chats between January 2022 and April 2022. Intending not only to shed light on the, as it will be referred to henceforth, Twitch register but also to show how the complex social and physical context factors shape the register through its users and, in turn, enhance the social cement present on the platform and within its communities.Show less
