Impact and audience of an online dictionary of the emerging language in social media

Abstract

Introduction: Beyond the difficulty in producing a dictionary with novel and valuable content that attracts users, disseminating it online is a challenge in itself. This article shows the issues and achievements in the construction and online dissemination of ERES | Diccionario del Español Especializado en Redes Sociales. Methodology: Through a differential approach, including terms that are not contained in general dictionaries, ERES targets words in various disciplines, as well as words often labeled as colloquial, slang or vulgar. The dictionary has its own website, hosted in a dedicated server and domain, with desktop and mobile interfaces. Results: Currently, the dictionary has 821 entries, 1.082 senses, and 1.368 examples. The website gets users from all Spanish-speaking countries and other countries with numerous speakers of Spanish as an L1 or L2. Conclusions: Despite of its diverse, international audience – the US is the second country with the most users – positioning the dictionary is search engines remains a challenge that has to be constantly addressed.