Linguistic analysis of the usage of emotes in Twitch Chat

Seminar paper from the year 2022 in the subject Communications - Multimedia, Internet, New Technologies, grade: 1.7, University of Bonn (IAAK), language: English, abstract: This paper aims to provide clarity and a sense of understanding of the usage of emotes in chats on the platform Twitch.tv. It can be assumed that emotes are used to either build on the meaning of the message, in terms of providing what facial expressions provide in face-to-face conversations, to indicate irony or in other ways to add meaning to the message, or as a mitigating function as illocutionary force indicators.

The paper will accomplish this by first giving an oversight of previously done research related to the topic. Then it will explain how the data was collected and how it is going to be used for this paper. A summary of the results gained from processing the data will be presented before those results will be discussed. Lastly, the paper will conclude with an evaluation of the accuracy of the hypothesis.

During the pandemic, the need for entertainment that was easy to come by and accessible from home was at an all-time high. Many platforms offering video on demand (VOD) services profited greatly from this newfound demand. But not only did the demand for platforms offering VOD services grow, but also the need for live entertainment. For many, the solution was the live streaming platform Twitch.