Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.2023, Blaðsíða 149

extent than the most common Icelandic features. Also, regarding content words,
45 out of the 50 most common content words are Icelandic. In accordance with
that, the most common word in the data set, takk ‘thanks’, is also Icelandic. When
we take different representations of the verbalized laughter haha into account,
this feature is the second most common content word in the data set. And while
other independent features could not be detected in the feature analysis, the fre-
quency of haha* may point to the importance of independent features for the
users’ digital practices. In sum, my quantitative analysis shows that Icelandic is
the most important linguistic resource in the data set. At the same time, it verifies
that digital writing practices on Facebook do not comply with the Icelandic ideal
of linguistic “purity”, as they are characterized by a mix of features from different
resources.
However, from the statistical analysis alone, we cannot make any statements
as to how and why the users employ and combine different resources and fea-
tures. Therefore, I conducted a qualitative analysis that aims to explore exactly
that. The qualitative analysis was concerned with four research questions:
1. What communicative functions do status updates on Facebook serve, and
how do users’ linguistic choices relate to these functions?
2. How do the stylistic and formal characteristics of Icelandic digital writing
practices compare to formal or informal styles of expression?
3. How do linguistic choices relate to users’ identity performances and audi-
ence design?
4. What is the sociolinguistic role and function of Icelandic in individuals’
everyday Facebook practices?

I employed Discourse-centered online ethnography, an approach to digital dis-
course data developed by Jannis Androutsopoulos (2007b, 2008). My analysis
was based on ethnographic fieldwork during which I repeatedly observed the
participants Facebook timelines. Also, I conducted semi-structured interviews
with selected participants in which we discussed, among other things, their gen-
eral Facebook practices as well as specific posts.
Based on the fieldwork and these interviews, I selected four themes for the
qualitative analysis. These themes were the Eurovision song contest 2014, the
end of Icelandic EU-negotiations, a photo challenge on Facebook, and the relo-
cation of one user to Iceland. These themes were repeatedly discussed on several
participants’ timelines. I then assigned communicative functions to each post
addressing these themes, including, for instance, everyday life report, expressing
opinion or judgement, initiating a discussion, etc. After that, I coded the posts
regarding the features they entailed. The codes I used thereby referred to the
users’ code choices but also to specific features such as abbreviations, colloquial
writing, deviations in spelling, emojis, etc. Finally, I interpreted the users’ digital
practices by contextualizing them against the assigned communicative function,
Presentation of the thesis 149