Íslenskt mál og almenn málfræði - 01.01.2023, Page 177

including vernacular and informal contexts. In the interviews I conducted
with my informants, they repeatedly talk about the importance of so-called
vandað mál, that is the “careful” or the “good language”. All informants stat-
ed that they carefully consider the standard norm of orthography and gram-
matical rules when they post something on Facebook. So, the informants are
very aware of these rules and consider both correct orthography and gram-
mar to be important. On the other hand, many users do mix features from
different linguistic resources. In other words, vandað mál does not necessar-
ily mean the language has to be “pure”. While orthography and grammar are
considered important, using “good language” does not exclude the mixing
and matching of different linguistic resources.

Furthermore, I want to address the fact that Vanessa collected the data of her dis-
sertation some ten years ago when Facebook was the most popular social medi-
um among Icelanders. Today it probably looks different and based on this I ask:
If you should study digital language use in Iceland today, what would you
focus on and how would you do it?

Vanessa Isenmann:
First of all, Facebook is still very important in Iceland, perhaps more impor-
tant than any other SNS. So, I think it is still worth studying language use
on Facebook in Iceland, even today. However, I think we only find a certain
demographic on Facebook. If we are interested in the linguistic practices of
young people, for example generation Z, I would focus more on platforms
such as TikTok and perhaps study the ways picture and language are com-
bined to create meaning. But I do not know how to go about it. This would
require a better understanding of the platform and the development of new
methods to collect the necessary data as well as a methodology to analyze it,
which I have not thought of so far.

I also want to address the topic of future challenges of “Icelandic in the digital
world” (p. 179), which Vanessa brings up in the final part of her dissertation. She
writes (p. 189):
[…] this dissertation does not intend to downplay the challenges that the dig-
ital age poses for the Icelandic language as a whole. Instead, the study tried
to demonstrate the opportunities and possibilities CMC [computer-mediat-
ed communication] offers both for Icelandic users and for linguists.
Vanessa never elaborates further on these challenges and possibilities and there-
fore I ask her to reflect further on this based on the knowledge we have from her
dissertation:
Comments and discussion points from the second opponent 177