sms4science: Korpusdaten, Literaturüberblick und Forschungsfragen

This paper discusses some methodological issues related to current research on SMS communication in Switzerland, an ambitious research project situated in the context of the international project sms4science. Thus far, the analyses of the Swiss data focus on numerous inner-linguistic features, variational aspects and language contact phenomena; each of which is of the utmost interest for multilingual Switzerland (cf. the five articles contained in this issue). In the following pages we first provide some background information about the project and the constitution of the Swiss SMS-corpus. We then present some methodological demands and problems, which are discussed on the basis of a dialogic sub-corpus. In the final paragraphs of this introductory article, we outline the state of affairs in the field of the linguistic study of SMS communication and highlight some research questions that would be of significant interest for the further analysis of the Swiss corpus.