Netspeak Features in Facebook Communication of Malaysian University Students

Abstract

Social media communication uses a written platform but fosters spoken-like communication which challenges what is known about formal and informal language features of communication as most of the informal language features are part of spoken communication. The research examined netspeak features in Facebook communication of Malaysian university students. Data for analysis of discourse features of Netspeak were taken from naturally occurring conversations of 24 users in Facebook’s status posts where respondents were asked to submit copied texts of authentic conversations within their social circle. Preliminary analysis revealed the use of creative word formations which include dropping of vowels, homophones, word compression, and the usual use of “x” for negation. Also, punctuations were adapted to accentuate intended meanings. Another feature of netspeak is code switching using borrowed words from other languages which the university students did not usually use in their daily conversations. The findings of the study on discourse features of social media communication shed light on areas where differences between spoken and written language features are getting fuzzy.