Collister, Lauren Brittany
(2008)
Virtual Discourse Structure: An Analysis of Conversation in World of Warcraft.
Master's Thesis, University of Pittsburgh.
(Unpublished)
Abstract
Discourse in World of Warcraft poses interesting insights for the organization of conversation in text-only mediums. In my work, I show how online discourse can be analyzed using the traditional tools of Conversation Analysis (Sacks, Schegloff, & Jefferson, 1974; Hutchby & Wooffitt, 1996). By analyzing logs of chat from within the game world, I show how turns are constructed, paying particular attention to the construction of multiple-message turns. I draw on the insights of Turn Construction Unit Continuation theory (Schegloff, 1996; Couper-Kuhlen & Ono, 2007) to illuminate the construction of these complex turns, and I show how the tools of Cohesion (Halliday & Hasan, 1976) can be used to link parts of a turn together. Finally, I show how participants in World of Warcraft use different kinds of repair functions in the discourse, namely *-repair for typographical errors and an in-group feature "get out of my head!" for overlap. Online discourse has unique and particular forms of organization, but can be analyzed in the same manner as spoken language; far from being a random and corrupted form of written language, online language use is regular and organized.
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Details
| Item Type: |
University of Pittsburgh ETD
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| Status: |
Unpublished |
| Creators/Authors: |
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| ETD Committee: |
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| Date: |
26 September 2008 |
| Date Type: |
Completion |
| Defense Date: |
29 April 2008 |
| Approval Date: |
26 September 2008 |
| Submission Date: |
2 June 2008 |
| Access Restriction: |
No restriction; Release the ETD for access worldwide immediately. |
| Institution: |
University of Pittsburgh |
| Schools and Programs: |
Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences > Linguistics |
| Degree: |
MA - Master of Arts |
| Thesis Type: |
Master's Thesis |
| Refereed: |
Yes |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: |
; conversation analysis; discourse analysis; game studies; game theory; mmorpgs; world of warcraft |
| Other ID: |
http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-06022008-142543/, etd-06022008-142543 |
| Date Deposited: |
10 Nov 2011 19:46 |
| Last Modified: |
15 Nov 2016 13:44 |
| URI: |
http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/id/eprint/7992 |
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