Open Access

We propose to use abusive emojis, such as the “middle finger” or “face vomiting”, as a proxy for learning a lexicon of abusive words. Since it represents extralinguistic information, a single emoji can co-occur with different forms of explicitly abusive utterances. We show that our approach generates a lexicon that offers the same performance in cross-domain classification of abusive microposts as the most advanced lexicon induction method. Such an approach, in contrast, is dependent on manually annotated seed words and expensive lexical resources for bootstrapping (e.g. WordNet). We demonstrate that the same emojis can also be effectively used in languages other than English. Finally, we also show that emojis can be exploited for classifying mentions of ambiguous words, such as “fuck” and “bitch”, into generally abusive and just profane usages.

Der Beitrag widmet sich der Ausgestaltung von Instruktionen und Aufforderungen zum rückwärts Einparken im theoretischen und praktischen Fahrschulunterricht in Abhängigkeit von den Eigenschaften der jeweiligen Unterrichtssituation. Verglichen werden dazu Instruktionssequenzen aus drei Vermittlungstypen: 1. die Instruktion anhand einer software-gestützten Einparksimulation im Theorie-Unterricht, 2. die Instruktion anhand einer Modellautodemonstration im Fahrschulauto, und 3. der direkt angeschlossene erste praktische Übungsvorgang. Eine Untersuchung der grammatischen Ausgestaltung der Instruktionen und der verkörperten Handlungen zeigt eine besondere Funktion der Modellautodemonstration: Dieser Vermittlungstyp vereint Aspekte sowohl der Unterrichtssituation im Fahrschulraum als auch im fahrenden Auto. Die Orientierungspunkte am Modell werden mit denen des 'realen' Autos und seiner Umgebung verbunden. Dabei offenbart sich in den Instruktionen und Aufforderungen ein Kontinuum von Theorie und Praxis, dessen Ausprägungen maßgeblich von der (Ent-)Kopplung bezüglich der Anwendungssituation und der (Nicht-)Mobilität des Autos abhängen. Die Untersuchung zeigt, wie grammatische und multimodale Formen an ihren lokalen und situativen Kontext angepasst und interpretiert werden.

Our paper examines how bodily behavior contributes to the local meaning of OKAY. We explore the interplay between OKAY as response to informings and narratives and accompanying multimodal resources in German multi-party interaction. Based on informal and institutional conversations, we describe three different uses of OKAY with falling intonation and the recurrent multimodal patterns that are associated with them and that can be characterized as ‘multimodal gestalts’. We show that: 1. OKAY as a claim to sufficient understanding is typically accompanied by upward nodding; 2. OKAY after change-of-state tokens exhibits a recurrent pattern of up- and downward nodding with distinctive timing; and 3. OKAY closing larger activities is associated with gaze-aversion from the prior speaker.

In this chapter, we overview the specificity of comparisons made within the perspective of Conversation Analysis (CA), and we position them in relation to other fields. We introduce the analytical mentality, methodology, and procedures of CA, and we show how we used it for the analysis of OKAY in this volume.

The European language world is characterized by an ideology of monolingualism and national languages. This language-related world view interacts with social debates and definitions about linguistic autonomy, diversity, and variation. For the description of border minorities and their sociolinguistic situation, however, this view reaches its limits. In this article, the conceptual difficulties with a language area that crosses national borders are examined. It deals with the minority in East Lorraine (France) in particular. On the language-historical level, this minority is closely related to the language of its (big) neighbor Germany. At the same time, it looks back on a conflictive history with this country, has never filled a (subordinated) political–administrative unit, and has experienced very little public support. We want to address the questions of how speakers themselves reflect on their linguistic situation and what concepts and argumentative figures they bring up in relation to what (Germanic) variety. To this end, we look at statements from guideline-based interviews. In the paper, we present first observations gained through qualitative content analysis.