Language Varieties on Social Media. Different Word-Formation Processes and Their Definitions

Seminar paper from the year 2021 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 0, Klagenfurt University, language: English, abstract: The following paper aims to analyze the language that is used on social media. With word-formation processes as an umbrella term, the linguistic features which are part of digital communication will be listed. The first chapter will introduce the term social media and English as the lingua franca of digital communication. The next chapters will discuss the focus of the paper namely different word-formation processes and their definitions. With the help of secondary sources, each chapter will provide examples of daily written English on social networks. The paper concludes with a final summary and thoughts on the subject. This research paper discusses the different language varieties of social media with a deeper focus on word-formation processes. Living in the digital era, the way people comminate has changed during the last decades. Traditional communicating patterns developed in a way that allows people to stay in their homes and make use of their technical devices to connect with others. Writing letters and going out to meet partners is outdated nowadays. As English is the lingua franca of the Internet in general it is also used in social media by most of the users. Long-distance relationships with one partner being an English-speaking country and the other one in a non-anglophone country also add to the fact that they communicate in English. The main question is how social media has changed the way people communicate in anglophone countries. It is very important to observe this topic because English is known as a language that changes constantly. Especially in social media, there are varieties of English that are used to communicate in the chat room or the comment section.