Welcome to What's up, Switzerland?, a university project financed by the SNSF. The project is non-commercial and not affiliated to WhatsApp and Facebook.
Some key figures about our project:
- Project sum: CHF 1'597'904 (SNSF, Sinergia: CRSII1_160714) plus ~180'000 CHF for the extension
- Project leader: Elisabeth Stark (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.)
- Involved Universities:
- Zurich: Elisabeth Stark, Christa Dürscheid
- Bern: Crispin Thurlow, Silvia Natale
- Neuchâtel: Federica Diémoz
- Leipzig: Beat Siebenhaar
- Project duration: 36 months (1/1/2016 – 31/12/2018) plus an extension until early 2020
- Overall Research Questions:
- What do Swiss WhatsApp messages look like? What has changed overall between Swiss SMS and Swiss WhatsApp messages, and why (as regards linguistic structures, use of images in a broad sense, spelling, register-specific style, individualization vs. accommodation).
- What is said / done by the individual users and the media in/on WhatsApp messages and chats, in relation to the findings for question 1?
- Subprojects: The project consists of four subprojects:
- Language(s) of WhatsApp: Verbal Periphrases and Argument Drop
- Language Design in WhatsApp: Icono/Graphy
- Individuals in WhatsApp
- The Cultural Discourses and Social Meanings of Mobile Communication
The whole project at a glance.
Quoting the project
If you want to quote the project or the corpus, please use the following quotation style:
When quoting the project:
- Overview article: Ueberwasser, Simone/Stark, Elisabeth (2017). What’s up, Switzerland? A corpus-based research project in a multilingual country. Linguistik online 84/5, 105-126. https://bop.unibe.ch/linguistik-online/article/view/3849/5834.
- Mainproject: Stark, Elisabeth (2016-2018). SNSF project "What’s up, Switzerland?" (Sinergia: CRSII1_160714). University of Zurich. www.whatsup-switzerland.ch.
- Subproject A: Stark, Elisabeth; Natale, Silvia (2016-2018). Subproject A "Language(s) of WhatsApp: Verbal Periphrases and Argument Drop" of the SNSF project "What’s up, Switzerland?" (Sinergia: CRSII1_160714). Universities of Zurich and Bern. www.whatsup-switzerland.ch.
- Subproject B: Dürscheid, Christa; Diémoz, Federica (2016-2018). Subproject B "Language Design in WhatsApp: Icono/Graphy" of the SNSF project "What’s up, Switzerland?" (Sinergia: CRSII1_160714). Universities of Zurich and Neuchâtel. www.whatsup-switzerland.ch.
- Subproject C: Siebenhaar, Beat (2016-2018). Subproject C "Individuals in WhatsApp" of the SNSF project "What’s up, Switzerland?" (Sinergia: CRSII1_160714). Universities of Zurich and Leipzig. www.whatsup-switzerland.ch.
- Subproject D: Thurlow, Crispin (2016-2018). Subproject D "The Cultural Discourses and Social Meanings of Mobile Communication" of the SNSF project "What’s up, Switzerland?" (Sinergia: CRSII1_160714). Universities of Zurich and Bern. www.whatsup-switzerland.ch.
When quoting the corpus:
- Stark, Elisabeth; Ueberwasser, Simone; Göhring, Anne (2014-). Corpus "What’s up, Switzerland?". University of Zurich. www.whatsup-switzerland.ch.