THE DIGITAL LINGUISTICS: EVOLUTIONARY PATTERNS OF ENGLISH SLANG IN ONLINE COMMUNICATION

Abstract

This article examines the change in how digital communication affects the evolution of English slang using qualitative research techniques. Over recent years, as social media and online communication have rapidly expanded, slang has become an essential part of everyday language and reaches far beyond the local community to encompass a wide variety of digital platforms throughout the world. The study analysed a corpus of naturally occurring slang on sites such as TikTok, Twitter (X), WhatsApp, and various online discussion forums, providing a contextualised analysis of the types of slang present in digital communication. The results indicate that slang evolves in real-time through established linguistic processes, specifically: abbreviation, clipping, blending, and semantic shift. For example, the words 'slay', 'rizz', and 'no cap' demonstrate the way in which meanings develop and change with the social use of a particular slang word, but at the same time, other words, such as 'LOL' and 'AF', reflect the trend toward being short and efficient in a brief manner. The study further illustrates that multimodality (i.e., the use of emojis, memes, and other visual features) occurs in conjunction with text in order to create and convey meaning. Additionally, digital slang serves as an important indicator of identity and ritual group affiliation, with younger users actively participating in a process that both creates and disseminates new slang. Additionally, the study shows that the rate of rapid spread of new slang and the short usage time for slang are due to viral trends and the characteristics of the social media platforms on which they are used. The overall conclusion presented by the study is that English-language slang in contemporary online communication is an immediate, flexible, and culturally relevant phenomenon that mirrors the ongoing linguistic and cultural changes of the digital era.