Our project aims to linguistically describe and analyze the processual nature of everyday smartphone communication in German-speaking Switzerland and Germany, based on screen recordings.
In doing so, it follows the tradition of linguistic research on interpersonal, mobile communication, which has become a central focus of linguistic inquiry into digital media over the past two decades. In contrast to earlier research approaches, which primarily focus on the analysis of chat logs, our project data is based on authentic screen recordings of smartphone communication, allowing us to capture its processual nature and polyactivity.
Research Objectives
The project pursues three main research objectives:
- The sociolinguistic analysis of the processual organization of stylistic variation and multilingualism in individuals' everyday smartphone communication.
- The interactional-linguistic analysis of the processual organization of everyday smartphone interaction as a social practice characterized by polyactivity.
- The development of an online database that documents individuals' smartphone communication in German-speaking Switzerland and Germany through screen recordings. This database will be contextualized with ethnographic information, made available for long-term use by the research community, and designed to be expandable in future projects.
