Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.2023, Page 153

cussed on social media. However, one of the limitations of the Dulin viðhorf
study is that it does not account for the users’ awareness of context, genre, and
target audience. We can argue that although housing requests are often posted on
Facebook, they do represent a more formal context to begin with. Also, they are
often posted in Facebook groups where the users probably do not know most of
the other group members. This also makes it a rather impersonal context. The
results of my analyses of actual Facebook practices lead to the conclusions that
we have to distinguish between initiative posts as an informal yet more imper-
sonal text genre and responsive posts as an informal and more personal genre.
Accordingly, initiative posts in Facebook groups can be classified as more formal
and more impersonal text genre where yet other rules and agreed upon ways
apply.
In sum, we can say that the linguistic practices participants employ and deem
appropriate in one space can be different from the practices they use and deem
appropriate in another space. Hence, digital practices are always intentional and
users plan their contributions according to the rules and expectations that apply
to the different contexts and audiences. With regard to the form, function and
status of Icelandic in CMC, my research can only give insight into the users’ dig-
ital practices at a certain point in time in the past. However, my results suggest
that Icelandic holds its ground in social media, at least for now. My research
could not detect a seriously endangered status of Icelandic in Facebook commu-
nication compared to English or any other linguistic code. On the contrary, in the
Facebook data analyzed, Icelandic turned out to be the key resource for commu-
nication with fellow Icelanders while it also functions as a vital identity marker
and an important means to signal group affiliation and social alignment. Thus,
although we observe forms that have not been documented in Icelandic writing
before, at least not to this extent, we may assume that the status and function of
Icelandic are still strong in social media.

Vanessa Monika Isenmann
Eskihlíð 33, 105 Reykjavík
vmi@hi.is

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