The Socio-Pragmatics of Digital Slang in Post-Pandemic Online Communities
DOI :
https://doi.org/10.69760/aghel.0250050003Mots-clés :
digital slang, socio-pragmatics, affective communication, cultural identity, post-pandemic discourse, online communitiesRésumé
The COVID-19 epidemic significantly altered the lines separating work, education, and personal life by increasing people's dependence on digital communication and changing how people use language in online contexts. Digital slang is analyzed in this theoretical article as a socio-pragmatic phenomena that illustrates how intimacy, identity, and ideology interact in post-pandemic communication. The research conceptualizes how slang serves interpersonal, expressive, identity, and ideological purposes in digital discourse by drawing on Speech Act Theory, Politeness Theory, and Relevance Theory. According to the investigation, slang serves as a tool for subtle power negotiation, in-group connection, and emotional attunement, especially in Zoom culture and online communities like TikTok and Discord. This study frames digital slang as a language strategy of adaptation, an dynamic reflection of how people reconstruct social meaning, emotion, and belonging in mediated interaction, by combining viewpoints from digital ethnography and affective pragmatics. In the end, comprehending digital slang is equivalent to comprehending the sociocultural processes by which language continuously adjusts to the complex post-pandemic environment.
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