| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立中山大學 === 外國語文學系研究所 === 107 === The thriving of live video-game streaming has led to the speedy development of streaming platforms. During the process of video-game streaming, the broadcast of game footage enables streamers (i.e., people who broadcast video-games on live streaming platform) to share their gaming experiences. The online chatroom embedded in the streaming facilitates the interactions between streamers and viewers and among viewers themselves. These interactions often surround the discussion of streamers’ gaming experiences and in-game performances. When similar experiences or performances are broadcast frequently, a fixed and unique way of interaction (e.g. the adoption of specific words, slang expressions, emoticons in specific contexts) between streamers and viewers will gradually be developed.
The present study adopts Pragmatic Act Theory proposed by Mey (2001) to analyze and discuss the unique linguistic behaviors generated by online viewers under specific contexts of video-game broadcasting. Apart from Pragmatic Act Theory, the present study also applies the notion of Community of Practice (Lave and Wenger, 1998) to the examination of the roles of pragmatic acts performed by online viewers in Twitch virtual communities of practice. The establishment of a community of practice relies on three basic components: mutual engagement, joint repertoire, and joint enterprise. To justify the applicability of Community of Practice (CoP) in the case of Twitch platform and to develop the notion in relation to the virtual environment, this study discusses the presence of each constitutive component on the platform through examining Twitch users’ linguistic interactions in Twitch streaming channels.
The present study collected data from four Twitch streaming channels, Ya Chou T’ung Shen (亞洲統神, known as asiagodtonegg3be0), GarenaTW, LiquidMana, and OgamingInter. This study has revealed Twitch online viewers’ unique ways of performing the pragmatic acts of evaluation, prompting interactions via a semiotic form of verbal conflict, and ridicule. The analysis shows that these concrete linguistic examples embody online viewers’ frequent interactions in streaming channels and reflect their shared values of video-game broadcasting. Hence, these examples further indicate Twitch platform’s potential for the establishment of virtual communities of practice. Additionally, in the analysis of pragmatic acts, the present study has found that the pragmatic acts, which are performed by viewers’ adoption of specific words, slang expressions, and emoticons, can function to (1) present viewers’ distinct membership of specific Twitch streaming communities; (2) preserve their joint values of game performances; and (3) maintain their fixed and unique ways of interaction. Through the social model of Community of Practice, Twitch viewers’ unique performances of pragmatic acts can be perceived as linguistic practices which consolidate the working of Twitch streaming communities. The application of both pragmatic act theory and community of practice have provided a solid theoretical basis for clarifying the correlation between Twitch users’ unique performances of pragmatic acts and the working of virtual streaming communities. This study highlights that the combined framework of pragmatic act theory and CoP social model is conducive to the interpretive analysis regarding the functions of shared linguistic practices in specific social groups.
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