The discursive role of hyperlinks on social media

The present paper investigates the different roles of hyperlinks on the social media platform X. While hyperlinks were recently defined as markers of information source or simple tools for information sharing, we present a corpus-based empirical study in French and English, which provides a more nuanced view on the functions of hyperlinks on X. We propose a new classification of hyperlink functions which includes source, illustration, referent anchor, jussive justification, humorous implicature, and prospeech gesture. Building on this new typology, we propose an empirical study on the optionality (whether it is main or a side discourse contribution) of the hyperlink, and we formalize our findings in gradual common ground theory framework. We argue that the optionality of a hyperlink does not depend on the type of content conveyed, nor on its type of relationships with the associated written speech, but rather on the type of epistemic profile of the future addressee reading the tweet.