SOCIAL MEDIA USERS’ REASONS FOR USING NON-STANDARD WORDS IN TWITTER

Nur Nashatul Nasuha, Nazman and Ting, Su Hie and Chuah, Kee Man (2021) SOCIAL MEDIA USERS’ REASONS FOR USING NON-STANDARD WORDS IN TWITTER. In: The 3rd International Conference on Language Studies (iCLS 2021). “Language Sustainability: Reality, Challenges and Directions in the Digital Technology Era”, 8 - 9 September 2021, Online (Virtual).

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Abstract

The emergence of non-standard spelling of words reflects the development of languages in meeting the demands of technological change in communication. A question which arises is whether social media users are passive followers or active initiators of some word formation processes. The study examined social media users’ reasons for using non-standard words in Twitter. Structured interviews were conducted with 30 active users of Twitter to find out if they thought about which word should be shortened, and if they used different spellings for the same word. The results showed that the Twitter users attributed the shortening of words to the Twitter restriction on character length. According to the Twitter users, the use of non-standard spelling of words is normative in the social media environment, and shortening words saves time and eases typing and reading of Tweets. Interestingly, they considered the length and complexity of words, as well as the number of vowels to decide how to shorten words. A few Twitter users coined new spellings out of fun because Twitter users are accepting of idiosyncratic changes. The study suggests that non-linguistically informed Twitter users have an inkling of word formation processes underlying emergence of non-standard words in social media.

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