Language of Pick-Up Artists : Online Discourses of the Seduction Industry

This book adopts a corpus-based discourse analysis approach to the study of the communicative practices of pick-up artists, offering a systematic exploration of distinct language use in an online community that uses speed-seduction practices for short-term dating and sex. Drawing on a multi-million-word corpus comprising data from online forums, social media, informational websites, and YouTube videos, the volume explores the verbal practices and narrative framing techniques that pick-up artists (PUAs) draw upon in their interactions with women and the terminology-heavy language used in teaching pick-up to foster perceptions of scientific validity. The book also unpacks videos and reports of live interactions to study naturally occurring PUA discourse from different perspectives but also to more closely examine conceptual metaphors of competition and violence and critically reflect on the ethical considerations of working with such communities. This book will appeal to students and scholars in such disciplines as discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, computer-mediated communication, and language and media, as well as those interested in the study of language use online.

Daria Dayter is Assistant Professor for English Language and Linguistics at Tampere University, Finland. Her research interests include digital language, discursive identity, simultaneous interpreting, and pragmatics and discourse analysis more generally. She has published widely on these topics, including the monograph Discursive Self in Microblogging (2016).

Sofia Rüdiger is a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Bayreuth with a research focus on digital communication, World Englishes, language and food, and pragmatics. She is editor of Corpus Approaches to Social Media (with Daria Dayter, 2020) and Talking about Food (with Susanne Mühleisen, 2020).