The Problems Encountered in the Selection of Lexical Items Used on Facebook - Literature review Example

Topic Name Lecturer Date Introduction Groups with common special interest have in the recent past started forming websites that correspond to their needs. Facebook is such a special interest group website, where people who share a workplace, a lecture or even just friendship can meet and exchange ideas online. This is a social utility that was developed by students in Harvard University to enhance their communication within the campus, but later expanded to accommodate students from other universities. The membership has grown to accommodate any person who is of age 13 or above. Despite the varying personalities who have subscribed to this website, the common interest is to connect with other people. These users have a specific common language usage, thus Facebook subscribers can be considered as a speech community (Chapelle, 2003). A speech community can be generally defined as a group of individuals with common and typical language standards and expectations with regard to language sue. However, linguistics scholars have more refined definitions of what a speech community is. John Gumpers views a speech community as a mass of humanity, identified by frequent and steady interaction which employs common oral and body features, and differentiated by important variation in the use of language (Morgan, 2014). Facebook users have sets of social and linguistic forms that oversee these forms. The users also vary linguistically, to bring variations of use between Facebook and other platforms, taking into account multilingualism. Morgan (2014) further proposes that Noam Chomsky considers linguistics as being interested basically with an ideal listener and speaker who has mastered a language in the speech community, and is free from effects of making grammatical errors in speech, with accuracy in performance. He emphasizes on competence leading to performance. In Morgan’s (2014) view, the third scholar, William Labov, tends to draw his definition by combining Gumpers and Chomsky’s ideas. He argues that a speech community is characteristic of common norms and homogeneity of linguistic forms respectively. In his view, the varied dialects of a language are linguistic codes with governing structures. The words chosen for this study are; Friend Request, Block, Emoticon, FOD (Facebook Overdose), Update Info, Wall, Poker, Facebook, Page, Update. These words have been chosen for analysis due to their common use in the Facebook website, but significantly due to their structural features, which imply different word formation processes as herein discussed. Methods The first word is ‘friend request’ that displays compounding. Compounding is a process of word formation in which the root morphemes are combined to form a word. The resultant word is thus referred to as either a compound or compound word. In cases of forming native compound words, the process employs native morphemes, which are English free morphemes. Free morphemes are those morphemes that can express meaning on their own as words that are independent. On Facebook, such words are extensively used. Compound word words combined Friend request friend + request Most subscribers show competence of usage of compound words, illustrated with how they write these words. Compound words are written with as one word, as two words with a hyphen between the words or as two words with a space between them. The meaning of the compound word is not assumed as the meaning of combined words. ‘A diehard fan’ means an enduring fan, not a fan that dies hard. However, friend request closely borrows from both roots, to mean a request sent to initiate friendship. Users of this website understand that the headword is usually the last word. The first free morpheme serves a descriptive function. The word ‘racing car’ is a noun since the headword ‘car’ is a noun. Facebook as a website has rich usage of words formed through derivation, such as ‘block’. According to Katamba & Stonham (2006), derivation is a process of modifying a root, resulting in alteration of the word class of the resultant word. The subscribers commonly use affixation to come up with words to use in their communication. This process entails addition of a single or more affixes to the basic root. However, the English language is limited to prefixes that are attached root initially, suffixes that are attached root finally or circumfixes attached both root initially and finally. Prefix Root derived word un block unblock This terminology is used to refer to the temporary stop that is put to a friendship, thus if someone is blocked, communication is hindered for a given period. Some words can exhibit a lot of blending in their formation structures. Blending involves combination of parts of words to derive new complete words (Ackema & Neeleman 2004). Most users in Facebook depend on the sound structure of words to form new words through blending. Blends are resultant words from the process of blending. The blends, unlike compounds, derive their meaning from the whole words from which it is made. Emoticon is a word that is understood by the Facebook subscribers, formed through blending of the words emotion and icon, to mean a pictorial representation of a feeling or emotion. The next strategy of word formation is through acronyms. Acronyms are so common in the usage of language in Facebook. Acronyms are words formed from initial letters of words of a phrase. Chapelle (2003) argues that although the earliest English acronyms are in use, such as scuba, meaning ‘self-contained underwater breathing apparatus’, more recent acronyms are popular in Facebook, with a number of them stirring discussions for inclusion as English words, but slang. For instance, FOD stands for Facebook Overdose, used in reference to subscribers who fill their friends’ newsfeed with notifications on their recent activities on the website. ‘Update Info’ is a common and defining word of Facebook, formed through abbreviation. According to Ackema & Neeleman, (2004), abbreviation is closely related to acronyms, but clipping entails cutting off a part of a word, so that the remaining part forms a word expressing complete meaning, tough similar to the previous complete word meaning. In Facebook, ‘Update Info’ is a word commonly used as a link and handle bar for users to navigate through in case they wish to make changes to their information. ‘Info’ is used after syllables have been clipped from the word ‘Information’. Facebook has been identified by the choice of words used, including borrowed words. Borrowing refers to the wprd formation process where speakers of a language adopt a word from another language and incorporate it into their vocabulary (Katamba & Stonham, 2006 and Chapelle, 2003). This process is made possible by contact and interaction with other speech communities through conversation. Facebook has employed the use of the word ‘Wall’, a subscriber’s area that other people can post messages on. The word wall, however, should be noted as a borrowed word from Latin, which is believed to have been borrowed from Greek earlier on, was initially written as ‘weall’. The Facebook website has words formed through back formation process. In back formation, a word in a given word class is reduced and the resultant word falls in a different word class from the original word. For instance, the word television which is a noun, has been reduced to form televise, which falls in the verbs word class. The word ‘poker’ among the subscribers means the a friend who sends a signal with the message of having thought of you. ‘Poker’ is formed from the word ‘Poke’, through back formation. The development of technology has seen the English language adopting new words and incorporating them to its vocabulary. In view of Chapelle (2003), means of communication have highly changed, and social media has gained popularity in terms of the media of communication. Facebook is such a word that never existed before, till the invention of the website was made. This has been further interpreted as a speech community, since its users have a given code of communication, and Facebook being a website, but in real sense representing a group of people sharing given interests. The word ‘Page’ has undergone semantic shifts in the past. Semantic shift refers to the changes in word meaning, where a word shifts its meaning such that the most recent interpretation lacks connection to the present meaning (Chapelle, 2003). Some meanings however are accepted as English words. Page, which initially refered to a single side of a book, has undergone changes in meaning as seen in its usage on Facebook, and the subscribers of Facebook understand the term ‘page’ as an account within Facebook on which people with a common interest can like, to mean identify with. Update is one of the terminologies used in the control panel of the Facebook website. The word undergoes conversion, to realize two different meanings, though its orthographic representation does not change (Katamba & Stonham, 2006). Stress upon the first syllable changes the word into a noun, referring to the information supplied most recently, whilst stress on the second syllable realizes the word as a verb, referring to the act of giving somebody the latest information. Results The biggest problem encountered in the selection of lexical items used in Facebook is the use given words in more than one platform. Such words as update might not specifically identify the Facebook website, as the lexical item is common in broadcasting media. Use of slang also hinders the quality of the English language. There are many word formation processes. The process by through which a word is formed is determined by the features of the word in question. A speech community can easily be identified by the words provided, as the words are highly specific to given speech communities that share common interests. Facebook has indeed proved a speech community as it has lexical items that, as discussed, identify it as one, and these lexical items stand the test of word formation processes. conclusion Due to increased advancement of technology, there have been great advancements in the English language. Facebook, for instance, has been identified by the given forms of linguistic structures that are used in communication on this platform. It is possible for a speech community to be identified by given lexical items that the users of a form of language are knowledgeable in. References Ackema, P., & Neeleman, A. (2004). Beyond morphology: Interface conditions on word formation. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Chapelle, C. (2003). English language learning and technology: Lectures on applied linguistics in the age of information and communication technology. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Pub. Katamba, F., & Stonham, J. T. (2006). Morphology. Houndsmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. Morgan, M. H. (2014). Speech communities. Read More