UC Santa Barbara

A perception that LGBTQ+ terminology is undergoing constant and rapid shift is often mobilized ideologically to justify resistance to transgender and/or non-binary people's language activism; however, there is little empirical work that explores this purported language change. How much is language use in queer and trans communities really changing, and how do changes occur? Additionally, there is criticism from within queer and trans communities that mainstream trans and queer spaces uphold and reinforce other hegemonic norms relating to whiteness, ableism, and classism. When language use in online queer and trans communities shifts, how might those with most power in the community influence the way that change unfolds? In this thesis, I explore these dynamics by examining shifting language patterns in an online trans LiveJournal community (TransLiveCorpus – Zimman & Hayworth 2020). Using bigram snapshot language models, I analyze community homogeneity over time, as well as identifying how top users pattern with respect to the overall community. This computational analysis is paired with qualitative analysis of how interactions of creating and enforcing language norms play out. Based on this, I argue that when approaching language change, we must consider how community language use exists within broader socio-political landscapes.