“You wanna flirt?” – “Let's flirt”: A corpus-based analysis of flirting

Flirting is thus far linguistically under-researched. What makes it an intriguing phenomenon to investigate is that it seems to have no fixed form but a clear function. This article hence aims to fill the existing research gap by investigating flirting in the US dating show Love is Blind . The TV format is marked by the contestants not having visual contact in the early stages of the dating process and its focus on promoting marriage as an outcome of the show. In contrast to previous research, this corpus-driven study utilises a top-down approach and manual data coding in order to get an, if possible, all-encompassing picture of this practise. We furthermore present a comprehensive definition of flirting, highlighting playful transgression as a key feature. In our analysis we found that contestants make use of six vehicles to signal sexual and/or romantic interest, among these, sexual innuendo, self-praise and imagined future. While there are differences in the amount of the vehicles used by women and men, there seems to be no normative restriction in usage, meaning that both men and women use all six vehicles. • Flirting has not yet been rigorously and systematically analysed in linguistics. • We employ a top-down, corpus-based approach. • Flirting is realised by means of six vehicles in Love is Blind (US). • Imagined future and sexual innuendo are the most frequent vehicles in flirting. • Men initiate flirting more often, while both men and women use all six vehicles.