<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<p>The current study presents an analysis of a linguistic device supporting interactional coherence in computer-mediated communication (CMC). The analysis focused on the use of the German causative conjunction <italic>weil</italic> and, more specifically, on the syntactic variation of verb-final versus verb-second word order in the <italic>weil</italic>-clause. Verb-final word order in German indicates a dependent clause, whereas verb-second word order indicates an independent clause. While only the former is accepted in written Standard German, the latter is well documented in oral communication. Relying on freely available Facebook, WhatsApp, and Wikipedia corpus data, the analysis shows that both grammatical constructions are used in written CMC. In a specific usage across discrete messages, the syntactic variation of the <italic>weil</italic>-clause can serve to unambiguously identify its reference clause. While verb-final <italic>weil</italic>-clauses can be used to refer to previous messages by both an interlocutor and oneself, verb-second <italic>weil</italic>-clauses are predominantly used to relate to an own previous message. Thus, the syntactic variation in <italic>weil</italic>-clauses can be used for disambiguating references in written interactions.</p>
</abstract>

The current study presents an analysis of a linguistic device supporting interactional coherence in computer-mediated communication (CMC). The analysis focused on the use of the German causative conjunction weil and, more specifically, on the syntactic variation of verb-final versus verb-second word order in the weil-clause. Verb-final word order in German indicates a dependent clause, whereas verb-second word order indicates an independent clause. While only the former is accepted in written Standard German, the latter is well documented in oral communication. Relying on freely available Facebook, WhatsApp, and Wikipedia corpus data, the analysis shows that both grammatical constructions are used in written CMC. In a specific usage across discrete messages, the syntactic variation of the weil-clause can serve to unambiguously identify its reference clause. While verb-final weil-clauses can be used to refer to previous messages by both an interlocutor and oneself, verb-second weil-clauses are predominantly used to relate to an own previous message. Thus, the syntactic variation in weil-clauses can be used for disambiguating references in written interactions.

Syntactic variation and interactional coherence in online communication: The German conjunction “weil” in written interactions

Psychology of Language and Communication

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The current study presents an analysis of a linguistic device supporting interactional coherence in computer-mediated communication (CMC). The analysis focused...

Syntactic variation and interactional coherence in online communication: The German conjunction “weil” in written interactions

Published Online: Oct 21, 2022

Page range: 330 - 352

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/plc-2022-16

Keywords
interactional coherence, conjunctions, social network sites, German CMC

© 2022 Aivars Glaznieks, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Syntactic variation and interactional coherence in online communication: The German conjunction “weil” in written interactions

Published Online: Oct 21, 2022

Page range: 330 - 352

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/plc-2022-16

Keywordsinteractional coherence, conjunctions, social network sites, German CMC

© 2022 Aivars Glaznieks, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Keywords
interactional coherence, conjunctions, social network sites, German CMC