What is there to Yelp about?

This paper examines the use of language in user generated online product reviews on the website Yelp.ca. Using both Relevance Theory and the Co-operative Principle this study identifies nine linguistic devices to analyze within restaurant reviews on this website. Yelp.ca administrators identify some reviewers as “Elite Reviewers.” This study contrasted twenty-five Elite reviews with twenty-five Non-Elite reviews in order to determine which linguistic devices were more prevalent within Elite reviews. The findings illustrate that there are concrete differences between these two types of reviews. Assuming that Elite Reviews are in fact more persuasive, these findings suggest that there may be concrete attributes of a review that make it more persuasive in an online, user generated context.