November 24, 2018
The 4th Conference of the American Pragmatics Association (AMPRA) took place November 1-3, 2018 at the University at Albany, State University of New York. The weather in Albany was rainy, but the leaves on the trees were colorful. Although it has the word ‘American’ in its name, the AMPRA conference brings together researchers, mostly linguists, from around the world to share their latest research and network. As was also the case when AMPRA was hosted at Indiana University two years ago, many of the presenters this year focused on the pragmatics of CMC. The Center for Computer-Mediated Communication’s Fellows and Affiliates were among this number.
CCMC Director Susan Herring and CCMC Student Fellow Ashley Dainas presented a paper titled, “Interpreting emoji pragmatics” that reported findings from a survey they conducted earlier this year of how people understand emoji in their discourse context. CCMC Fellow Kathleen Bardovi-Harlig delivered a paper on “newsworthy disinvitations” in online newspapers, institutional websites, and blogs, as reported in the media. CCMC Affiliate Anette Grønning (University of Southern Denmark) presented a recent study on “Discursive patterns among members of The Danish Parliament on Snapchat.” Also in attendance, although presenting research on other topics, were CCMC Student Fellow Will Allendorfer and CCMC Affiliate Dieter Stein (Düsseldorf University, Germany).
The talks of many researchers not affiliated with the CCMC also focused on CMC. For example, Maite Taboada (Simon Fraser University, Canada) presented a talk titled, “Are online comments like conversations? A multi-dimensional exploration of online news comments.” Michael Haugh (The University of Queensland, Australia) & Hsi-Yao Su (National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan) presented “Taking it too far or not being able to take a joke? A metapragmatic analysis of online discussion about the limits of teasing and taking offence on a Taiwanese variety show.” Alejandro Parini (Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina) & Luisa Granato (Universidad Nacional de La Plata, Argentina) presented on the topic of “Recruiting identities in the construction of YouTube technology product reviews.” And Jiang Yaqian (University of South Florida, USA) presented a paper titled “Exploring the interface of global-local meanings: A case study of a popular Chinese internet meme.”
The location of AMPRA 2020 has not yet been announced.