one woman’s ‘lol’ is another’s ‘haha’ › images › workshops › ws1 › ... ·...

ONE WOMAN’S ‘LOL’ IS ANOTHER’S ‘HAHA’: DOING GENDER WITH FEATURES OF THE DIGITAL SUPERVERNACULARL A U R E N S Q U I R E ST H E O H I O S T A T E U N I V E R S I T Y

s q u i r e s . 4 1 @ o s u . e d u

@ p r o f _ s q u i r e s

“ W H A T ’ S U P S W I T Z E R L A N D ” W O R K S H O P

U N I V E R S I T Y O F Z U R I C H

1 1 J U N E 2 0 1 6

BACKGROUND FRAMINGq Style and social identity in digital communication

qWhich features in digital language convey social meanings (indexicalities)?

qWhere do these social meanings come from?qHow are they related to metalinguistic discourse, language ideologies,

spoken language, etc.?

qHow are single features used as part of feature composites to form sociolinguistic styles?

qWhat are the relevant contributions of traditional demographic categories (like gender, race, age) and other social personae dimensions (like “hippie”, “prep”, “burnout”)?

BACKGROUND FRAMINGq A digital ‘supervernacular’?

qSome features seem to recur across global digital contexts, though they may not be unique to those contexts (see Shortis 2007, Squires 2010)

q‘Supervernaculars’: “semiotic forms that circulate in networks driven, largely, by new technologies such as the Internet and mobile communication devices. Attention to these new forms can highlight, because of their extreme clarity, some fundamental aspects of sociolinguistic processes, notably those aspects we capture under terms such as ‘standardization’” (Blommaert 2011)

qWhat about sociolinguistic processes related to style/stance/etc.?qHow do these features come to carry social meanings at both global

and local levels?

SUPERVERNACULAR FEATURES AND GENDER

q How are ’supervernacular’ features used to perform different aspects of social identity?

qSupervernacular features index global-and-local meanings (Blommaert2011; Heyd, fc) through the sociolinguistic ordering of semiotic resourcesqincluding indexical ordering (Spitzmüller)

qHow does the ordering of these resources pertain to gender?

SUPERVERNACULAR FEATURES AND GENDER

q Gender and language use on Twitter (Bamman et al. 2014)

qFeatures more frequent among female Twitter usersqemoticons qemotion termsqellipses qexpressive lengtheningqserial punctuation / exclamation and question marksqbackchannel markersq”CMC words” (abbreviations like ‘lol’ and ‘omg’)

qGendered features and social identity qClusters of authors grouped by lexical similarity are heavily gender-

skewedqbut some gender-skewed clusters defy the average in their usages

q Homophily effect: individuals with stronger same-gender networks use more gender-marked features

CASE STUDY: STYLISTIC UNIFORMITY AND VARIATION IN A COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE

q Project: Tweets of the Real Housewives

qTakes a distinctive group of known speakers, explores how CMC practice reflects (or doesn’t) practice in other realms—offline, and in other media

qGoal: Identify features meaningfully associated with different sociolinguistic styles on Twitter for this group of speakers

qSpecifically, features doing work related to gender and social class (status)

THE REAL HOUSEWIVES• The Real Housewives of…• Reality TV franchise on Bravo network (in the US)• Each show follows group of women: shown shopping, vacationing,

partying, working at home or at work, being with family, going to charity events• Aged late 20s to early 50s• Many are divorced, some never-married; many businesswomen or

public figures

• RH is overtly about elite (Jaworski & Thurlow, 2009), moneyed lifestyles lived by women presenting a mainstream femininity• Main topics of conversation include family, friendships, material

possessions, beauty, lifestyle, sex, conflict

REAL HOUSEWIVES AROUND THE USA

New Jersey

Orange County, California

Atlanta, Georgia

New York City

Beverly Hills, California


Miami

Washington, DC

Potomac, Maryland

Dallas

REAL HOUSEWIVES AROUND THE WORLD

THE ‘HOUSEWIFE’ PERSONA

• A ‘good’ ‘Housewife’ is…• Feminine• Heterosexual• Middle-aged• Fun• Values traditional female roles• Values female empowerment • Wealthy and elite (or at least trying to be)• “Classy” - conforms to set of normatively acceptable behaviors; regulates

others’ behavior (Squires 2014)


New Jersey

Orange County, California

Atlanta, Georgia

New York City

Beverly Hills, California


Miami

Washington, DC

Potomac, Maryland

Dallas

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HOUSEWIVES CASTS• Regional differences• Each cast takes place in a regionally distinctive area, highlighted through

landscapes, reference points, self-characterizations, and language

• Social differences: racial/ethnic, linguistic, cultural, stylistic

• Orange County: some outwardly Christian; mostly blonde; lots of plastic surgery

• Atlanta: most African American; most Southern; most speak African American English

• New Jersey: Italian-American; several blood relatives; use Northeast dialect features

CAST AS SALIENT SOCIAL DIFFERENCE OPENING TAGLINES

“In Atlanta, money and class do give you power.”

–Kim Zolciak

“In Beverly Hills, it's who you know, and I know everyone.”

–Lisa Vanderpump

“People make fun of Jersey girls, but I think they're just jealous.”

–Teresa Giudice

‘HOUSEWIFE’ AS CLASS AND GENDER PERFORMANCE

q How do the Housewives perform their social personae in CMC?

qThey use social media a lot – blogs, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat

qText-based Twitter posts are void of the kind of physical symbols integral to the women’s class/gender performances on TV

qHow is the ‘Housewife’ persona presented, or reinforced, via textual features?

qHow does each Housewife present an identity that is at onceqglobally recognizable as feminine, andqregionally-inflected and socially-differentiated

Housewives Twitter Corpus§ Tweets collected from Sept 2012 to July 2013§ Tweets from 6 casts airing at the time, from current cast members at the time

TWEETS OF THE (MOSTLY) RICH & (SEMI-)FAMOUS

Total speakers Total words

Atlanta 7 178,748Beverly Hills 8 264,686

Miami 8 188,845New Jersey 5 155,246

New York City 6 239,935Orange County 6 127,063

TOTAL 40 1,154,523

Beverly Hills

New Jersey

Orange County

Atlanta

Miami

NYC

Real Housewives casts included in analysis

FEATURES ANALYZED

• Substitutions (u, r, b, 4)• Initialisms (wtf, omg)• Abbreviations (abt, ppl, hav, thru, nite)• lol+• haha+• hehe+• Emoticons• xx+• xo+• Prosodic lengthening (lll, ooo, aaa, sss)• Serial punctuation (?!, !?, !!, ??)• Ellipses

• Tabulate number of occurrences• Normalize frequency per 10,000 words

• Which features are used differentially across the women / across the casts?

FEATURE USAGE ACROSS SPEAKERS/CASTS• Casts’ stylistic differences are different ways of doing ‘Housewife’ – e.g. gender + class• Principal Components Analysis determines multivariate dimensions that explain the

structure of the data – shows similarities and differences based on frequency of use of multiple features

-4 -2 0 2 4 6

-6-4

-20

24

Individuals factor map (PCA)

Dim 1 (25.17%)

Dim

2 (1

7.02

%)

Cynthia

Kandi

Kenya

KimZ

NeNe

Phaedra

Porsha

Adrienne

BrandiCamille

KimR

Kyle

LisaV

TaylorYolanda

Aviva

Carole

HeatherT

LuannRamona

Sonja

Alexis

Gretchen

HeatherD

LydiaTamra

Vicki

Caroline

Jacqueline KathyMelissa

TeresaAdriana

AlexiaAna JoannaKarent

Lea

LisaHMarysol

Atlanta

BeverlyHills

MiamiNewJersey

NewYorkCityOrangeCounty

AtlantaBeverlyHillsMiamiNewJerseyNewYorkCityOrangeCounty

-8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6

-6-4

-20

24


Dim 2 (17.02%)

Dim

3 (1

3.08

%)

CynthiaKandi

Kenya

KimZ

NeNe

Phaedra

Porsha

Adrienne

Brandi

Camille

KimR

Kyle

LisaV

TaylorYolanda

AvivaCarole

HeatherT

Luann

Ramona Sonja

Alexis

Gretchen HeatherD

LydiaTamra

Vicki

CarolineJacquelineKathy Melissa

Teresa

Adriana

Alexia

AnaJoannaKarent

Lea

LisaH

MarysolAtlanta

BeverlyHillsMiami

NewJersey



Principal Components 1 and 2 Principal Components 2 and 3

FEATURES UNDERLYING COMPONENT 1

-4 -2 0 2 4 6

-6-4

-20

24


Dim 1 (25.17%)D

im 2

(17.

02%

)

Cynthia

Kandi

Kenya

KimZ

NeNe

Phaedra

Porsha

Adrienne

BrandiCamille

KimR

Kyle

LisaV

TaylorYolanda

Aviva

Carole

HeatherT

LuannRamona

Sonja

Alexis

Gretchen

HeatherD

LydiaTamra

Vicki

Caroline

Jacqueline KathyMelissa

TeresaAdriana

AlexiaAna JoannaKarent

Lea

LisaHMarysol

Atlanta

BeverlyHills

MiamiNewJersey



4 2 0 -2 -4 -6 -8

-6-4

-20

24

6

Comp.1

Comp.2

Cynthia

KandiKenya

KimZ

NeNe

Phaedra

Porsha

Adrienne

BrandiCamille

KimR

Kyle

LisaV

TaylorYolanda

Aviva

Carole

HeatherT

LuannRamona

Sonja

Alexis

Gretchen

HeatherD

Lydia

TamraVicki

CarolineJacqueline

Kathy

MelissaTeresa

AdrianaAlexiaAna Joanna

Karent

Lea

LisaHMarysol

0.4 0.2 0.0 -0.2 -0.4 -0.6 -0.8

-0.6

-0.4

-0.2

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

substitution

initialism

lol

haha

hehe

abbreviation

lengthening

serialpunc

ellipsesemoticon

xx

xo

Component 1 = “light” v. “heavy” users of ‘supervernacular’ features (no cast association)

FEATURES UNDERLYING COMPONENTS 2 & 3

-6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6

-6-4

-20

24

6

Comp.2

Comp.3

CynthiaKandi

Kenya

KimZ

NeNe

Phaedra

Porsha

Adrienne

Brandi

Camille

KimR

Kyle

LisaV

TaylorYolanda

AvivaCarole

HeatherT

Luann

RamonaSonja

Alexis

GretchenHeatherDLydiaTamra

Vicki

CarolineJacquelineKathyMelissaTeresa

AdrianaAlexia

AnaJoannaKarent

Lea

LisaH

Marysol

-0.5 0.0 0.5

-0.5

0.0

0.5

substitutioninitialism

lol

haha

heheabbreviation

lengthening

serialpuncellipses

emoticon

xx

xo

-8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6

-6-4

-20

24


Dim 2 (17.02%)D

im 3

(13.

08%

)

CynthiaKandi

Kenya

KimZ

NeNe

Phaedra

Porsha

Adrienne

Brandi

Camille

KimR

Kyle

LisaV

TaylorYolanda

AvivaCarole

HeatherT

Luann

Ramona Sonja

Alexis

Gretchen HeatherD

LydiaTamra

Vicki

CarolineJacquelineKathy Melissa

Teresa

Adriana

Alexia

AnaJoannaKarent

Lea

LisaH

MarysolAtlanta

BeverlyHillsMiami

NewJersey



Component 2 = +ellipses, +haha, +xx, +emoticons, -lol, -xo, -abbreviations = +Beverly Hills

Component 3 = +xo, +emoticons, +haha, -initialism, -substitution, -lengthening = -Atlanta

FEATURES UNDERLYING COMPONENTS

Component 1 Component 2 Component 3

+serial punctuation +haha +xo

+hehe +ellipses +haha

+initialism +xx +emoticon

+emoticon +emoticon -substitution

+lengthening -xo -initialism

+lol -abbreviation -lengthening

+abbreviation -lol

-Atlanta+Beverly Hills

• HAHA/LOL as alternatives*• XO/XX as alternatives

(*Tagliamonte & Denis 2008)

LOL – PROPORTION RELATIVE TO HAHA/HEHE

Cynthia

Kandi

Kenya

KimZ

Nene

Phaedra

Porsha

Adrienne

Brandi

Camille

KimR

Kyle

LisaV

Taylor

Yolanda

Aviva

Carole

HeatherT

Luann

Ramona

Sonja

Alexis

Gretchen

HeatherD

Lydia

Tamra

Vicki

Caroline

Jacqueline

Kathy

Melissa

Teresa

Adriana

Alexia

Ana

Joanna

Karent

Lea

LisaH

Marysol

Proportion LOL v. HAHA/HEHE

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

Atlanta BeverlyHills

New York City

OrangeCounty

New Jersey

Miami

XO – PROPORTION RELATIVE TO XX

Cynthia

Kandi

Kenya

KimZ

Nene

Phaedra

Porsha

Adrienne

Brandi

Camille

KimR

Kyle

LisaV

Taylor

Yolanda

Aviva

Carole

HeatherT

Luann

Ramona

Sonja

Alexis

Gretchen

HeatherD

Lydia

Tamra

Vicki

Caroline

Jacqueline

Kathy

Melissa

Teresa

Adriana

Alexia

Ana

Joanna

Karent

Lea

LisaH

Marysol

Proportion XO v. XX

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

Atlanta BeverlyHills

New York City

OrangeCounty

New Jersey

Miami

FUNCTIONAL DISTRIBUTION OF FEATURES

• To establish that these feature pairs are really alternative ways of indexing gender, can we establish that they serve as functional equivalents?

• Do LOL and HAHA perform equivalent functions?

• Do XO and XX perform equivalent functions?

All the women are doing feminine, but using different resources:• Prefer either LOL or HAHA • Prefer either XO or XX

• To some extent, the preferences align with cast membership

FUNCTIONS: LOL / HAHA

position LOL HAHA

Tweet-comprehensive @leReelmccoy lol! @1traceyoneill haha!

Tweet-initial @jsplendor lol yes the music started. @darlenemcki haha. Seems like forever ago!

Tweet-final @jaymandel drowsy appearance. Lol @TaraKrn14 spent 15 min on that for keek. Haha

Tweet-medial @songdivaDAJ I'll consider that! lol thanks Hun

@DrEstella are you crazy? 1000 a month??? Haha!! Then she needs to pay rent ;-)

• Both occur primarily in tweets that are responses to other tweets• Most tweets begin with @username

• Both occur in multiple positions within a tweet• Function as backchannels• Function as discourse markers

FUNCTIONS: XO / XX

position XO XX

Tweet-comprehensive @Slditchkus xoxo @KellyGloster Xx

Tweet-initial @dillonisaBOSS xoxo too funny! @JosueSejour1 xx! For sure!!

Tweet-final @JeneLuciani @GoRecessionista She was!! xo @kouskous SO fun! Loved it! XX

Tweet-medial

• Both occur primarily in tweets that are responses to other tweets• Begin with @username

• Both occur primarily tweet-comprehensively or tweet-finally; tweet-initial and tweet–medial are rare• Function as backchannels – phatic acknowledgments• Function as “sign-off”

DISCUSSION

Features most clearly associated with individual and group styles:

qLOL/HAHA/XO/XX have all been shown elsewhere to have higher frequency among female Twitter users than male users

qAll function as backchannels or “acknowledgers” – a function itself indexing a feminine-gendered identity?qLOL/HAHA acknowledge content in addition to presenceqXO/XX acknowledge presence only

q LOL/HAHA have wider functionality as discourse markers with multiple uses, but still seem to work primarily as alternativesqChoice of one versus another must pertain to social meaning—what

the features signify within the relevant sociolinguistic economies

DISCUSSION

q ‘Supervernacular’ forms indexing gendered identitiesqCarry globally recognizable meaning of technological

savviness/literacy—formed by association with digital culturesqCarry locally recognizable meanings of femininity (shared) and style

(different)qMake sense that features serving these particular functions would

be ones showing stylistic stratification: discourse-marking, phatic communication

q Even amongst people who operate largely in the same social milieu, and who want to signal similar personae, there are nuanced differencesqUse of features is meaningful within a composite of sociolinguistic

resources and in contrast to other possible compositesqOne identity category is not all of identity – but also not only about

individual style (styles within styles)

THANK YOU!

[email protected]

http://u.osu.edu/squires.41

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