Typing yourself accountable: Objectifying subjective experiences in an online health forum

In this paper, I outline linguistic and discursive practices online forum participants use to make sense of painful and disturbing bodily experiences which from the participants’ perspectives have not been explained, diagnosed and treated by medical professionals.By scrutinizing a thread from a Danish online health forum on the topic metabolism using conversation analytic perspectives, I show that participants use practices that objectify their experiences when seeking support and recognition in the forum. Four practices for objectifying experiences understood as undiagnosed symptoms of illness are outlined: (1) Presentation of problem by presenting a medical history of symptom discovery; (2) Presentation of symptoms in a list using medical terms, extreme case formulations (Pomerantz 1986), and elliptic constructions; (3) Presentation of a candidate medical cause supported by evidence and sources; and (4) Presentation of objective facts and other sources as the expected solution. It is argued that the responses, characterized by agreement and tellings of similar stories, contribute to the objectification of subjective experiences by delivering perspectives that can be used as information sources and for experience based generalization

Viewing, listening and reading along: Linguistic and multimodal constructions of viewer participation in the net series SKAM

This paper investigates how SKAM viewers are positioned as participants through semiotic resources in the net series, i.e. the filmic means for making meaning, including representations of the characters’ embodied and digitally mediated communication. For this purpose, we combine perspectives from linguistic-multimodality studies of modes for communication and studies building on Goff man’s (1981) work on participation frameworks, i.e. the various ways of participating in co-present and/or mediated communication. The article aims to complement existing media studies of immediacy in SKAM and viewers’ sense of co-presence with characters in the net series (Jerslev 2017, Sundet 2017). It does so by showing how participant frameworks are multimodally constructed at a fictional level and a communicational level. Within each of these frameworks, the viewer is positioned in distinct ways. We describe how the viewer is placed, i.e. physically positioned, in the interactional space of the depicted characters, and how the characters’ communicative means are interactionally organised, accomplished and made available for interpretation by the viewer. Furthermore, we show how characters monitor each other in the shared space of a schoolyard, how embodied and digitally mediated communicative features are foregrounded, and how the viewer is provided access to these resources in ways that reflect and create specific viewing positions in the communicative frames of the characters. We argue that these integrations of semiotic modes exploit affordances related to speech, writing and embodiment, that the positionings mainly work to create a sense of presence and identification for the viewer, and that representations of digitally mediated communication (writing) on the viewer’s screen specifically expose how the digitally mediated communication space of one of the characters is integrated with the digitally mediated viewing space

Introduction: Language use in and about the net drama series SKAM

On January 30 2018, the University of Southern Denmark in Odense, Denmark, hosted a symposium entitled “Sproget i og omkring SKAM” (“The language in and around SKAM”). After the symposium, we issued a call on behalf of the journal Scandinavian Studies in Language, and two articles were published as a result, namely Jennifer Duggan and Anne Dahl’s article Fan translations of SKAM: Challenging Anglo linguistic and popular cultural hegemony in a transnational fandomand Elisabeth Muth Andersen and Søren Vigild Poulsen’s contribution Viewing, listening and reading along: Linguistic and multimodal constructions of viewer participation in the net series SKAM

Language Works 3(2)

Welcome to this the fifth edition of the Danish student journal of linguistics known as Language Works – Sprogvidenskabeligt StudentertidsskriftVelkommen til denne den femte udgave af Language Works – Sprogvidenskabeligt Studentertidsskrif

Language Works 4(1)

Language and communication are central to many fields of research and study - and with current US President Trump's rhetoric, the point "language matters" becomes more obvious than ever. In Language Works, students are given the opportunity to convey their perspectives on why language matters, how, in what contexts, and give their bids on how it can be researched and documented

Language Works 7(2)

The year is drawing to a close and it is quiet at the university while students and staff are away on their Christmas break, hopefully relaxing after a busy semester at the departments of language sciences around the country. Before we can finally part with the year of 2022, however, it is time to welcome the newest issue of our student journal, Language Works! Happy reading and happy New Year from the editorial team.Året går på hæld, universiteternes studerende og ansatte er på juleferie, og der er stille på gangene efter et travlt og spændende semester på de sprogvidenskabelige afdelinger i landet. Men før vi kan sige endeligt farvel til 2022 vil vi dog først nå at sige endnu et ”velkommen”: Velkommen til det seneste nummer af studentertidsskriftet Language Works, som er nummer 13 i rækken af sprogvidenskabelige artikler forfattet af studerende fra universiteternes sprog – og lingvistikafdelinger. Vi ønsker hermed god læsning og et rigtigt godt nytår fra hele redaktionen

Language Works 6(1)

Velkommen til denne udgave af Language Works og glædelig sommer til alle fra redaktionen. Mens vi skriver dette, er solen kommet frem, EM ruller over tv-skærmene, og det begynder at føles som om der faktisk er et liv efter Corona-pandemien. Selvom det sidste år har handlet mest om forsamlingsrestriktioner, Zoom-undervisning og meget forsigtig genoplukning, og selvom det nogle gange har føltes som om at verden var sat helt på pause, så er vi stolte af at Language Works har holdt fanen højt og her kan præsentere artikler fra forfattere der i hvert fald ikke har stået på pause.Welcome to this issue of Language Works and a happy summer so all from the editors. While we write this, the sun is out, the European Football Championship is being played, and it is beginning to feel like there may actually be a life after the Corona pandemic. Even though the last year has been most concerned with social gathering limitations, Zoom education and very slow returns to normal, and even though it has at times felt like the entire world had been put on pause, we are proud to say that Language Works is still going strong. And here we can present articles from authors who certainly have not been put on pause

Language Works 5(2)

Welcome to this edition of Language Works and merry Christmas and happy New Year from the editorial team. This time in Santa’s linguistic gift sack, we have six articles that represent a wide selection of linguistic areas and that show that linguistic analysis can shed light on many very different issues. In this issue, we travel far and wide. For example, we dive into the Danish Health Authority’s corona communication, we enter into the mind itself in an article on mentalization, and in one article, we go all the way to South America. In short, there’s an article for everyone.Welcome to this edition of Language Works and merry Christmas and happy New Year from the editorial team. This time in Santa’s linguistic gift sack, we have six articles that represent a wide selection of linguistic areas and that show that linguistic analysis can shed light on many very different issues. In this issue, we travel far and wide. For example, we dive into the Danish Health Authority’s corona communication, we enter into the mind itself in an article on mentalization, and in one article, we go all the way to South America. In short, there’s an article for everyone

Language Works 5(2)

Welcome to this edition of Language Works and merry Christmas and happy New Year from the editorial team. This time in Santa’s linguistic gift sack, we have six articles that represent a wide selection of linguistic areas and that show that linguistic analysis can shed light on many very different issues. In this issue, we travel far and wide. For example, we dive into the Danish Health Authority’s corona communication, we enter into the mind itself in an article on mentalization, and in one article, we go all the way to South America. In short, there’s an article for everyone.Welcome to this edition of Language Works and merry Christmas and happy New Year from the editorial team. This time in Santa’s linguistic gift sack, we have six articles that represent a wide selection of linguistic areas and that show that linguistic analysis can shed light on many very different issues. In this issue, we travel far and wide. For example, we dive into the Danish Health Authority’s corona communication, we enter into the mind itself in an article on mentalization, and in one article, we go all the way to South America. In short, there’s an article for everyone

Language Works 4(2)

Language works and something is worked out through language. This is shown by the four authors of this issue in different ways and by using different methods. The authors address linguistic topics and demonstrate convincingly how linguistic phenomena affect our ability to gain common understanding and perceptions of the social world, and how meaning and action are accomplished through language. The analyses presented are rooted in and related to socially relevant issues, such as second language teaching, diagnosis of depression, gender, and threats as a criminal act.Sprog virker og udvirker noget. Dette viser dette nummers fire forfattere på forskellige måder og ved at anvende forskellige metoder. Forfatterne tager fat i sprogvidenskabelige emner og viser på overbevisende måder hvordan sproglige fænomener indvirker på vores muligheder for at opnå fælles forståelse og vores opfattelser af den sociale verden, og hvordan de udvirker betydning og handling. Analyserne der præsenteres, er forankret i og relateres til samfundsrelevante problemstillinger, såsom andetsprogsundervisning, identifikation af depression, kønnet sprog og trusler som kriminelle handlinger.    &nbsp