Multimodality As a Sociolinguistic Resource
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Multimodality as a Sociolinguistic Resource by Lauren Brittany Collister Bachelor of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2006 Master of Arts, University of Pittsburgh, 2008 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of The Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh i 2013 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH DIETRICH SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was presented by Lauren Brittany Collister It was defended on March 8th, 2013 and approved by Shelome Gooden, Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics Laura Brown, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology Alan Juffs, Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics Dissertation Advisor: Scott F. Kiesling, Associate Professor, Department of Linguistics ii MULTIMODALITY AS A SOCIOLINGUISTIC RESOURCE Lauren Brittany Collister, Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh, 2013 Copyright © by Lauren Brittany Collister 2013 iii MULTIMODALITY AS A SOCIOLINGUISTIC RESOURCE Lauren B. Collister, Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh, 2013 This work explores the use of multimodal communication in a community of expert World of Warcraft® players and its impact on politeness, identity, and relationships. Players in the community regularly communicated using three linguistic modes quasi-simultaneously: text chat, voice chat, and face-to-face interaction. Using the ethnographic methods of observation, interviews, discourse analysis, and autoethnographic writing, modes are presented with a dual- function: as resources to use within interactions, as well as heuristics which shape the form of interactions. Within interactions, the modal affordances constrain the use of modes, leading to the phenomenon of mode-switching within individual interactions to take advantage of these differences. Not all players make the same choices, however; player identity is a factor influencing mode choice in broader interactional contexts. The assumed heterosexual masculinity of the World of Warcraft culture results in non-native English speakers, young players, non-heterosexual players, and women reporting avoidance of voice chat in situations with uncertain social expectations because they may face harassment about their identities. However, habitual avoidance of voice chat is also practiced by isolated individuals who engage in identity deception, resulting in voice chat avoidance being a marked practice that raises suspicions about player identity. Because multimodal communication is an essential component of interaction in the community, players who do not identify as heterosexual adult males find iv themselves in a double-bind of potential harassment or if they do use voice chat and suspicion if they do not, both of which may result in exclusion from communities and activities. This work demonstrates that multimodal discourse analysis, though often overlooked, is an essential component of research on virtual communities. Modes of communication are embedded in the linguistic fabric of a community, and choice of mode is a salient resource for navigating the social landscape. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE .................................................................................................................................... XI 1.0 A NOOB’S TALE ......................................................................................................... 1 1.1 THE COMPLEX GAME .................................................................................... 5 1.2 THE NOOB GROWN UP ................................................................................. 10 1.3 SUMMARY AND PREVIEW .......................................................................... 13 2.0 METHODS FOR RESEARCHING THE GAME AND ITS PLAYERS ............. 15 2.1 METHOD: ETHNOGRAPHY ......................................................................... 15 2.1.1 Methods and Instruments ............................................................................. 23 2.2 THE GAME AND THE COMMUNITY ......................................................... 26 2.2.1 The Game ....................................................................................................... 26 2.2.1.1 Welcome to Azeroth ............................................................................ 27 2.2.2 The Community ............................................................................................. 33 3.0 MULTIMODALITY IN INTERACTION: LITERATURE REVIEW ................ 42 3.1 MODE AND MULTIMODALITY: SOME DEFINITIONS ......................... 43 3.2 MODE AND CMC ............................................................................................. 48 3.3 MULTIMODALITY IN CMC ......................................................................... 52 4.0 THE MODES OF WORLD OF WARCRAFT ....................................................... 60 vi 4.1 TEXT CHAT ...................................................................................................... 61 4.2 VOICE CHAT .................................................................................................... 70 4.2.1 Interlude: Ventrilo as “getting personal”. ................................................... 75 4.2.2 Private binds .................................................................................................. 79 4.2.3 Ghosting .......................................................................................................... 82 4.3 FACE-TO-FACE TALK ................................................................................... 84 4.4 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................. 88 5.0 MODE-SWITCHING ................................................................................................ 91 5.1 MODE-SWITCHING AS VARIETY-CHANGING ...................................... 94 5.2 MOTIVATIONS FOR MODE-SWITCHING ................................................ 97 5.2.1 Modal Affordance .......................................................................................... 97 5.2.2 Politeness and Privacy ................................................................................. 102 5.2.3 Autoethnographic interlude: You can’t blow up the back plate ............. 118 5.2.4 Discussion ..................................................................................................... 123 6.0 MULTIMODALITY AND IDENTITY ................................................................. 125 6.1 IDENTITY ONLINE ....................................................................................... 126 6.2 THE ASSUMED MASCULINITY OF WORLD OF WARCRAFT ............. 133 6.2.1 Autoethnographic interlude: Colle and Szocske ....................................... 137 6.3 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 140 7.0 VENTRILO AND THE TANGLE OF IDENTITIES .......................................... 142 7.1 VENTRILO AND “HATE SPEECH” ........................................................... 143 7.2 FEARS ABOUT TALKING ON VENTRILO .............................................. 151 7.3 VENTRILO AND AGE ................................................................................... 160 vii 7.3.1 Autoethnographic interlude: The adoption of Chromus. ........................ 161 7.3.2 Learning life skills through interaction. .................................................... 164 7.4 VOICE AND LANGUAGE VARIETY ......................................................... 173 7.4.1 Non-native English ...................................................................................... 173 7.4.2 Gay-sounding speech ................................................................................... 176 7.5 VOICE AND IDENTITY ................................................................................ 181 8.0 DECEPTION AND MULTIMODALITY ............................................................. 183 8.1 SMALL-SCALE DECEPTION IN TEXT .................................................... 186 8.2 DECEPTION BY AVOIDANCE ................................................................... 191 8.2.1 Autoethnographic interlude: The Mailbox Dancer .................................. 192 8.3 LARGE-SCALE DECEPTION IN GAME-EXTENAL MODES .............. 199 8.4 UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES .............................................................. 205 8.5 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................ 208 9.0 CONCLUSION: MULTIMODALITY AS A SOCIAL RESOURCE ................. 211 APPENDIX A ............................................................................................................................ 216 APPENDIX B ............................................................................................................................ 218 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................... 236 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Guild members use text chat to annoy other participants in the channel. ...................... 68 Table 2: Modes, channels, and characteristics. ............................................................................. 90 Table 3: Matt mode-switches for verification of an unspoken social contract, gradually increasing his audience as he moves between the modes. .......................................................... 110 Table 4: Mode-switching in a raid