ELF the final frontier: exploration of gamers and couples’ discourse

This paper examines how English as a lingua franca is exploited as communicative resource in two contexts: the macro-network of interactions in gaming settings of MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Role-playing games) such as World of Warcraft; and micro-network of English as Lingua Franca (ELF) couple discourse. For this purpose, the paper draws on the data gained in two PhD studies (Klötzl 2015, Kramer 2014, Klötzl and Swoboda 2020). One investigates ingame linguistic practices and draws upon quantitative and qualitative data. Another examines couple talk and is a qualitative study. By bringing together the two data sets, the paper goes through the similarities and differences between the two domains and looks at how the alignment of various discourse factors - such as message, channel, code, context and participants - affects the gamers and couples' ELF. Such exploration shifts the focus from the factor of message as an exemplification of 'lingua' or code to message as 'franca' or discursive process of achieving meaning. The findings show that both gamers and couples are engaged in the same adaptive creative use of the potential of ELF and of all the available virtual languages in all the various ways to meet the needs of ever-changing conditions. This process, however, is not so much about variation or nonconformity to particular norms but rather about how ELF functions to pragmatic effect. Despite the obvious differences between the resources and the networks, the exploration raises the same questions as for to how people interact with each other by making use of language in general and English as a lingua franca in particular. References:

Klötzl, Svitlana. 2015. A Love Affair with ELF: Linguistic Hybridity in ELF Couple Discourse. PhD Thesis, Vienna: Vienna University. Kramer, Birgit. 2014. L2P n00b - The Pragmatics of Positioning in MMORPGs. Phd Thesis, Vienna: University of Vienna. Klötzl, Svitlana and Birgit Swoboda. 2020. Interpersonal positioning in ELF interactions. NY and London: Routledge.