Deconstructing the linguistic features of hybrid text-based online social network communication among Algerian Facebook users: A case study

Abstract

This paper aims at dissecting the foremost innovative linguistic features that characterize the hybrid text-based online social network communication of some Algerian Facebook users. It also seeks to emphasize the role of computer-mediated communication, mainly social networking sites (SNSs), in the modernization of stigmatized informal language varieties as in the case of Algerian Dialectal Arabic (ADA). To achieve this, a qualitative research approach, in which both the researcher’s long-term participant observation and a descriptive content analysis of a corpus of 30 hybrid text-based Facebook posts, is adopted for investigation. Moreover, the relevant data was collected from a virtual Facebook group community that was chiefly created by some younger Algerian EFL students at Ibn Khaldoun University of Tiaret in Algeria in order to share information related to their studies. Interestingly, the findings of our case study revealed that the ADA is linguistically accommodated to some nonstandard and unconventional spellings of hybrid informal writing such as transliteration in its two forms, the use of distinctive signs such as numbers for some letters, the partial and/or full removal of vowel sounds for shortenings, the occurrence of written code switching/mixing and loanwords, and deficiency in using punctuation marks. Ultimately, the research ends with some recommendations for future research in the domain of text-based online communication with reference to the sociolinguistic situation in Algeria.