Article published in:
World Englishes: New theoretical and methodological considerations
Edited by Elena Seoane and Cristina Suárez-Gómez
[Varieties of English Around the World G57] 2016
► pp. 253–282

World Englishes on YouTube

Treasure trove or nightmare?

This article surveys and investigates the usefulness of video clips uploaded to the internet platform YouTube for the purposes of linguistic analysis, especially with respect to their representation of World Englishes. After characterizing YouTube itself and constraints which its nature imposes, I propose a typology of clips representing World Englishes. I distinguish “metalinguistic” and “natural” ones as well as various subtypes of each category, and discuss their respective properties. Subtypes are illustrated by describing select clips, and an overall assessment of the value of YouTube for linguistic purposes, and of constraints imposed, is offered.

Keywords: linguistic analysis, World Englishes, YouTube
Published online: 25 May 2016
https://doi.org/10.1075/veaw.g57.11sch
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