Proceedings of The 5th World Conference on Teaching and Education
Year: 2022
DOI:
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Linguistic re-configuration through the WhatsApp social media platform: The African renaissance
Dr. Joseph Mutangadura, Prof. Dr. KB Khan
ABSTRACT:
A great place to get original and re-configured language shared across group and individual chats expressions is the WhatsApp messaging platform. WhatsApping offers a distinctive perspective on language use and is a thought-provoking model for considering linguistic re-configuration in the technology world of social media use. The many purposes of its variety, and how it is utilised to convey diverse meanings has changed the usual linguistic usage of everyday language. This study aimed to investigate linguistic re-configuration through the WhatsApp social media platform in terms of intent, content, and context. It has been determined that although they often appear to be misusing the English language, frequent WhatsApp users make use of all the features provided by the application to spice their communication for quicker and simple communication. The study provided a chance to view the transformation to human communication brought about by the WhatsApp social media platform which makes human communication more interesting, but at the same time re-configuring forms of expression and usage of new forms of linguistic characters. There was also confirmation of the adaptation of new register, genre, and text in relation to context and users.
keywords: emojis, GIFs, linguistic configuration, social media, semiotic