Si O No, Que Penses?: Catalonian Independence and Linguistic Identity on Social Media

Ian Stewart; Yuval Pinter; Jacob Eisenstein

doi:10.18653/v1/N18-2022

Si O No, Que Penses? Catalonian Independence and Linguistic Identity on Social Media

Ian Stewart
, Yuval Pinter
, Jacob Eisenstein

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

Abstract

Political identity is often manifested in language variation, but the relationship between the two is still relatively unexplored from a quantitative perspective. This study examines the use of Catalan, a language local to the semi-autonomous region of Catalonia in Spain, on Twitter in discourse related to the 2017 independence referendum. We corroborate prior findings that pro-independence tweets are more likely to include the local language than anti-independence tweets. We also find that Catalan is used more often in referendum-related discourse than in other contexts, contrary to prior findings on language variation. This suggests a strong role for the Catalan language in the expression of Catalonian political identity.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Proceedings of the 2018 Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics
Subtitle of host publication	Human Language Technologies
Editors	Marilyn Walker, Heng Ji, Amanda Stent
Place of Publication	New Orleans, Louisiana
Publisher	Association for Computational Linguistics
Pages	136-141
Number of pages	6
Volume	2
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/N18-2022
State	Published - Jun 2018

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Stewart, I., Pinter, Y., & Eisenstein, J. (2018). Si O No, Que Penses? Catalonian Independence and Linguistic Identity on Social Media. In M. Walker, H. Ji, & A. Stent (Eds.), Proceedings of the 2018 Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies (Vol. 2, pp. 136-141). Association for Computational Linguistics. https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/N18-2022

Stewart, Ian ; Pinter, Yuval ; Eisenstein, Jacob. / Si O No, Que Penses? Catalonian Independence and Linguistic Identity on Social Media. Proceedings of the 2018 Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies. editor / Marilyn Walker ; Heng Ji ; Amanda Stent. Vol. 2 New Orleans, Louisiana : Association for Computational Linguistics, 2018. pp. 136-141

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title = "Si O No, Que Penses?: Catalonian Independence and Linguistic Identity on Social Media",

abstract = "Political identity is often manifested in language variation, but the relationship between the two is still relatively unexplored from a quantitative perspective. This study examines the use of Catalan, a language local to the semi-autonomous region of Catalonia in Spain, on Twitter in discourse related to the 2017 independence referendum. We corroborate prior findings that pro-independence tweets are more likely to include the local language than anti-independence tweets. We also find that Catalan is used more often in referendum-related discourse than in other contexts, contrary to prior findings on language variation. This suggests a strong role for the Catalan language in the expression of Catalonian political identity.",

author = "Ian Stewart and Yuval Pinter and Jacob Eisenstein",

year = "2018",

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doi = "10.18653/v1/N18-2022",

language = "English",

volume = "2",

pages = "136--141",

editor = "Marilyn Walker and Heng Ji and Amanda Stent",

booktitle = "Proceedings of the 2018 Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics",

publisher = "Association for Computational Linguistics",

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Stewart, I, Pinter, Y & Eisenstein, J 2018, Si O No, Que Penses? Catalonian Independence and Linguistic Identity on Social Media. in M Walker, H Ji & A Stent (eds), Proceedings of the 2018 Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies. vol. 2, Association for Computational Linguistics, New Orleans, Louisiana, pp. 136-141. https://doi.org/10.18653/v1/N18-2022

Si O No, Que Penses? Catalonian Independence and Linguistic Identity on Social Media. / Stewart, Ian; Pinter, Yuval; Eisenstein, Jacob.
Proceedings of the 2018 Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies. ed. / Marilyn Walker; Heng Ji; Amanda Stent. Vol. 2 New Orleans, Louisiana: Association for Computational Linguistics, 2018. p. 136-141.

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution

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T1 - Si O No, Que Penses?

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AU - Stewart, Ian

AU - Pinter, Yuval

AU - Eisenstein, Jacob

PY - 2018/6

Y1 - 2018/6

N2 - Political identity is often manifested in language variation, but the relationship between the two is still relatively unexplored from a quantitative perspective. This study examines the use of Catalan, a language local to the semi-autonomous region of Catalonia in Spain, on Twitter in discourse related to the 2017 independence referendum. We corroborate prior findings that pro-independence tweets are more likely to include the local language than anti-independence tweets. We also find that Catalan is used more often in referendum-related discourse than in other contexts, contrary to prior findings on language variation. This suggests a strong role for the Catalan language in the expression of Catalonian political identity.

AB - Political identity is often manifested in language variation, but the relationship between the two is still relatively unexplored from a quantitative perspective. This study examines the use of Catalan, a language local to the semi-autonomous region of Catalonia in Spain, on Twitter in discourse related to the 2017 independence referendum. We corroborate prior findings that pro-independence tweets are more likely to include the local language than anti-independence tweets. We also find that Catalan is used more often in referendum-related discourse than in other contexts, contrary to prior findings on language variation. This suggests a strong role for the Catalan language in the expression of Catalonian political identity.

UR - https://aclanthology.org/N18-2022

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DO - 10.18653/v1/N18-2022

M3 - Conference contribution

VL - 2

SP - 136

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BT - Proceedings of the 2018 Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics

A2 - Walker, Marilyn

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Stewart I, Pinter Y, Eisenstein J. Si O No, Que Penses? Catalonian Independence and Linguistic Identity on Social Media. In Walker M, Ji H, Stent A, editors, Proceedings of the 2018 Conference of the North American Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics: Human Language Technologies. Vol. 2. New Orleans, Louisiana: Association for Computational Linguistics. 2018. p. 136-141 doi: 10.18653/v1/N18-2022

Si O No, Que Penses? Catalonian Independence and Linguistic Identity on Social Media

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