Analyzing Language and Humor in Online Communication (Advances in Linguistics and Communication Studies)

Misunderstandings in technology-mediated communication can be due to a lack of tone and facial expression on the part of the speaker, which provide additional context clues into the meaning of the message beyond textual representation. As technology becomes more of a ubiquitous element in our interactions with one another, further study into the ways in which language and humor are conveyed online and impact human communication is essential. Analyzing Language and Humor in Online Communication presents a compendium of research into virtual communities, online communication, social networks, and the ways that language, and humor in particular, are being conveyed and understood in these digital environments. Emphasizing examples from popular culture and contemporary media, this innovative publication fills the current void in the literature by focusing specifically on humor creation and perception in the digital age. Students, researchers, linguists, psychologists, media professionals, and sociologists will find this publication to be a unique reference source.

Rotimi Taiwo (Ph.D.) teaches English at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. He was a post-doctoral fellow at University of Freiburg, Germany (September, 2008 - August, 2009). His research focus has been on the application of (critical) discourse analytic and text-linguistic theories to a wide range of discourse, such as those of the media, religion, students' compositions, hospital interaction, politics, and popular culture and of recent, the Internet and telecommunications. Handbook of Research on Discourse Behavior and Digital Communication: Language Structures and Social Interaction Volumes I & II (IGI Global, New York, 2010); Perspectives on African Studies, Essays in Honour of Toyin Falola (LINCOM Europa, Munchen, Germany); Collocation in Non-native English: A Study of Nigeria ESL Writing (VDM Verlag, Saarbrucken, Germany, 2010); Computer Mediated Discourse in Africa (Nova, New York, 2012), Language and Mobile Telecommunication in Nigeria: SMS as a Digital Age Lingual-cultural Expression (OAU Press, 2012). His most recent edited book The Discourse of Digital Civic Engagement: Perspectives from the Developing World (co-edited with Tunde Opeibi) is published by Nova Science Publishers, New York, USA. He was at different times the editor of the journal Ife Studies in English Language and the coordinator of the Use of English program at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. He also serves as a consulting editor for Linguistik Online (Berne, Switzerland, Journal of Language Studies (Covenant University, Ota, Nigeria).

Akinola Odebunmi (PhD) is a specialist in pragmatics, teaches in the Department of English, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. His papers have appeared in Pragmatics, Linguistik Online, Intercultural Pragmatics, Review of Cognitive Linguistics, Pragmatics and Society, Pragmatics and Cognition , California Linguistic Notes, Marang and Multilingua . His contribution entitled, “?m?lúàbí” appeared in the 2015 edition of the Handbook of Pragmatics edited by Jef Verschueren and Jan Ola Ostman. He is co-editor (with Arua E. Arua and Sailal Arimi) of Language, Gender and Politics , published by the Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilisation. His reviews of Mira Ariel’s Defining Pragmatics (published by Cambridge University Press), and Ulrich Busse and Axel Hubler’s (eds) Investigations into the Meta-Communicative Lexicon of English (published by John Benjamins) have appeared in Discourse Studies . Between 2010 and 2011, he was an Alexander von Humboldt Georg Forster experienced fellow at the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Freiburg, Germany.

Akin Adetunji holds a PhD degree in English (Linguistics) from Texas A&M University-Commerce, USA. He has published in peer-reviewed journals, most notably, Pragmatics, Discourse and Society, World Englishes, MARANG , Ibadan Journal of English and Ife Studies in English Language . He has co-edited two international volumes, Perspectives on Media Discourse (2007) and Studies in Slang and Slogans (2010). His areas of research interest are pragmatics, sociolinguistics, stylistics and discourse analysis. He is at present a Chief Lecturer at the Department of General Studies Education, Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Oyo, Nigeria.