The Semiotics of Consensus

This book draws from graph theory and a semiotic comparison between language and distributed ledger technologies (also known as Blockchains) to motivate three experiments on language and network structure. The work explores the importance of this concept in different areas of linguistic research and establishes elements of a tentative linguistics of networks. Its empirical investigation is based on data from threads posted to the imageboard Hispachan, which often displays radicalized language and hate speech. The experiments (based on topic modeling and sentiment analysis) reveal an impact of the network structure of interaction on the interaction itself as well as the use of ingroup signalling and emotionally charged vocabulary to expand the network of interaction. .